VEEP: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz hit the campaign trail in Philadelphia last night only a few hours after Vice President Kamala Harris’s chose him to be her running mate.  Harris and Walz walked on stage to wild enthusiasm in a crowded arena.

  Following a rousing speech by Harris, Walz said to Harris, “Thank you for bringing back the joy.” Then he delivered a rousing speech of his own in which he repeated about their opponents, “These guys are creepy and yes, weird as hell.”  He led the crowd in a chant of “We are not going back !!!”

  Walz brings a certain regular guy and midwestern appeal to the Harris campaign. A NY Times headline says, “In Walz, Harris Sees a Battleground Strategy Dressed in Carhartt.”

  A former high school geography teacher and football coach, Walz has been little known in national politics until recent weeks after he labelled Donald Trump and his ticket mate JD Vance as “weird.” 

  The 60-year-old governor has been described as a plain-spoken progressive. He pushed for paid lunch for school children, establishing the right to abortion in his state, legalizing recreational marijuana, getting paid medical and family leave for employees, and expanding background checks for gun purchases.

  Once a supporter of the National Rifle association, he turned against the organization after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

  The Trump campaign immediately denounced Walz as “dangerously liberal,”

  Walz has been Minnesota’s 41st governor since 2019. He was a member of the House of Representatives from 2007 to 2019. He was not always a politician. Walz spent 24 years in the Army National Guard and reached the rank of Sergeant Major. As a football coach he took Mankato West High School to its first state championship in 1999.

  Republicans have tried to pin him with blame for rioting that followed the police murder of motorist George Floyd. Walz refused to send in the National Guard for three days, saying that would only exacerbate the violence. But he had condemned the killing, saying, “The lack of humanity in this disturbing video is sickening. We will get answers and seek justice.”

THE COCONUT TREE: Last night’s event showed that the Harris/Walz ticket can bring energy to the Democrats.

  The trend lines of national polling are crossing with Kamala Harris rising and Donald Trump coming down in head to head research. The national polling average has Trump and Harris tied at 47 percent of the vote.

  Wisconsin and Michigan are tied in the averages at 49 percent. Trump is up 49 to 47 percent in Pennsylvania.

  Several individual polls have Harris leading significantly. Morning Consult shows Harris up by 4 percent and Survey USA has her up by 3. 

GAZA: Yahya Sinwar, an architect of the October 7th massacre and the leader of Hamas in Gaza, has been elevated to the organization’s top political post. He has been Hamas’s leader in Gaza since 2017, but now replaces Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran.

  The assassination and Sinwar’s elevation appear to make it less likely for Hamas and Israel to reach a ceasefire and hostage release.

  Israel has some hardliners of its own. Right wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said “it may be just and moral” to starve two million residents of Gaza until the Israeli hostages are returned.  Smotrich said in a speech this week that, 

“It is impossible in today’s global reality to wage war – no one in the world would let us starve and thirst two million citizens, even though it may be just and moral until they return our hostages.” He said, “You cannot fight Hamas with one hand and give them aid with the other.”

THE WAR ROOM: Ukraine launched a ground assault with troops and armored vehicles over the border into Russia. It could the largest Ukrainian incursion onto Russian territory in more than two years of war. The assault, which began Tuesday into the Kursk region of western Russia, appeared to have resulted in heavy fighting. 

ECON 101: The Dow Jones finished up 300 points and other markets rose yesterday, recovering some of Monday’s steep losses. MarketWatch says, “Don’t panic.”

FIVE RINGS: Armand Duplantis the 24-yearold American pole vaulter competing for Sweden won the gold yesterday. But wait. After he had already won, Duplantis was still eligible to jump again, and when he did, he broke the world record for the ninth time, clearing 20 feet, six inches. The record in 1940 was 15 feet, 1 inch.

  On the pitch, the US women defeated Germany 1-0 to enter the gold medal match. Sophia Smith of the Portland Thorns scored the goal.

  In basketball, the Americans buried Brazil 122-87, to advance to a semifinal on Thursday against Serbia. It must make the NBA proud.

  Love that dirty water. Triathlete Adrien Briffod of Switzerland has come down with a stomach infection following the men’s swimming event in the polluted Seine River last week. Claire Michel, a Belgian in the women’s individual triathlon, is in the hospital with an E. Coli infection. 

THE SPIN RACK: Promoting his new book, Justice Neil Gorsuch told Fox News that the decision in Trump’s election subversion case was a natural extension of the 1982 Supreme Court precedent that gave former President Richard Nixon and his successors immunity from civil lawsuits for their official actions. Gorsuch told Fox, “All the court did in this case was simply apply that same precedent and idea to the criminal context.” As if there’s no difference. — Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri, a member of the progressive “squad” in Congress, lost her primary, most likely because of her criticism of the war n Gaza. 

BELOW THE FOLD: Fighting back against parents who object to the state’s new law requiring display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, Louisiana’s Republican Gov. Jeff Landry said, “just tell the child not to look.” 

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