LATIKA M BOURKE: US vice presidential nominee Tim Walz is stale, pale, male — just what Kamala ordered

It was once the most maligned description for a modern politician vying for leadership — stale, pale, male.

And yet, this is the exact trifecta that Kamala Harris reached for in choosing Tim Walz as her would-be successor as Vice President of the United States.

Harris staked out their target voters at the pair’s first dual public appearance at a rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania hours after making her VP announcement online.

“Ours is a fight for the future of the middle class and it is a fight for freedom,” she said as she vowed to govern for all Americans, from the red states to the blue states and from the heartlands to the coast as well as for those in the suburbs.

So how will Walz help her win middle America?

At 60 years old, he is a proven winner. He first ran in 2006 and caused a massive upset when he took out an incumbent in a Republican-leading congressional district. He completed six terms in the House before running for Governor in 2016.

He won, and won again in 2022 meaning he has two years left on his term, should the Democrats hold onto the White House in the November presidential election.

While Minnesota is not one of the swing states that will determine the outcome of the November election, Walz’s electoral successes demonstrate that he connects, and has a proven record of winning over Republican voters. The type that might be hesitating about Trump but, rightly, felt Biden’s time was up.

Then there is his bio. He comes from a tiny town with a population of 3500 in Nebraska, joined the Army National Guard, became a teacher and coached the school football team.

At Tuesday’s rally, he boasted that he was known as “the best shot in Congress” and supported the Second Amendment — the right to bear arms — but backed “commonsense gun violence laws” so that children could enjoy the freedom of going to school and “not worry about being shot dead”.

They were arresting and heartfelt lines, delivered with authenticity, and crucially, credibility.

Walz passes what I like to call the BBQ test, in that he’s the sort of politician you invite to the neighbourhood BBQ but thankfully turns up with a case of beer and wearing a t-shirt and shorts, just like anyone else.

Balding, white-haired and with bushy eyebrows, there’s a suburban John Howard-esque touch about him and yes, that’s a compliment because it’s the exact complement Harris needs with Biden out of the frame.

But what Harris and Walz uniquely have is compatibility.

The pair could hardly stop beaming as they both praised each other for the positivity and joy they brought to their style of politics to adoring Democrat supporters.

They hope it will be a magnetic appeal when set against the negative, gloom-and-doom spell that Donald Trump casts over MAGA voters while promising them that he alone will make things great again.

Harris is hoping that by choosing Walz she satisfies the metropolitan elite — who have rushed to support her with donations, celebrity endorsements and a flood of memes that delight those with the time and sorts of jobs to dwell online — while he speaks to the everyday American.

As Brexit and Australia’s Voice to Parliament referendum have repeatedly shown, Western politics is less divided on the economic lines that defined us in the ‘90s and now much more according to your geography ie. whether you live in the inner-city or in the suburbs, the regions or out in the sticks.

“It’s a good choice, it should appeal to the base that Harris needs to turn out while also appealing to independents that win elections,” said Peter Dean, Director of Foreign Policy and Defence at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.

“He is white, male, midwestern and a gun owner and appeals to the Democratic base, while also covering areas that Harris is not.”

Finally in Walz’s favour is that he had a strong audition.

Relatively unknown until a few weeks ago, he stormed into the arena when he urged people not to over-intellectualise the MAGA movement and Trump’s rambling style.

“I see Donald Trump talking about the wonderful Hannibal Lecter or whatever weird thing he is on tonight,” he told CNN.

“That is weird behavior. I don’t think you call it anything else.”

He refined it on Tuesday, telling activists: “You know it, you feel it, these guys are creepy, and yes, just weird as hell, that’s what you see.”

All in all, he’s a “solid pick”, says John Howard’s former chief of staff, Liberal Senator and Australian Ambassador to the United States, Arthur Sinodinos.

“Like the movie, The Best Man where the two favourites fight it out and a guy comes through the middle and wins the nomination,” Sinodinos said.

“He had the least marks against him and coined the phrase ‘weirdo’ about his opponents and it stuck.”

So now we have a contest and the stage is set. Harris versus Trump. Walz versus Vance.

And unlike Trump against Biden, this is a genuine competition.

Nate Silver’s Silver Bulletin poll had Kamala Harris creeping ahead of Trump at 45.7 per cent compared to 43.6 per cent.

In the crucial state of Pennsylvania where they spoke and whose Governor Josh Shapiro Harris was overlooked, the margin is even tinier, Harris is at 45.5 per cent against Trump’s 44.6 per cent.

These differences are within the margin of error but the fact that Harris has overtaken Trump where it matters shows voters are taking a look and giving her a chance.

What is odd, is that Trump and Vance have struggled to land any decent blows against Harris and Walz to date.

While a searing campaign on Walz’s record of military service — Walz retired to run for Congress just before his battalion was deployed to Iraq — is to be expected, Trump and Vance have shown a surprising flat-footedness that should alarm Republicans (those who want Trump to win.)

Attacking Harris on her race, such as when Trump observed to the Convention for Black Journalists last week: “She was always of Indian heritage … I didn’t know she was black until a number of years of ago when she happened to turn black”, hasn’t worked.

JD Vance’s historical insults against miserable “childless cat ladies” just looked spiteful and nasty, as opposed to Trump-like.

But this can still go very badly wrong for the Democrats.

As has always been the risk in Biden refusing to stand aside until the last hour, the process for choosing Harris and vetting for her VP has been rushed and in Harris’ case, without the gruelling primary that tests your ability to withstand a presidential campaign, particularly the sort that will be waged by Trump.

This means Harris and Walz have very little room for mistakes and any that are made will come nerve-wrackingly close to election day. There are just 91 days to go.

Harris still hasn’t given a single media interview since becoming the Democrats’ presumptive nominee. That can’t hold much longer.

But for today, the optimism around the Harris candidacy continues for Democrats following her choice of Walz and his strong start in Philly.

Walz is making the stale, pale male politically desirable again.

“Put them together and it looks a strong ticket,” said Mr Dean.

“The key is: have they got enough time to sell their message and do they appeal to the votes who were rejecting Biden but also not drawn to Trump.”