This is a C-SPAN video of today’s event where Hillary Clinton introduced Tim Kaine, and Tim Kaine told the nation who he is, what he believes, where he comes from.
His wife Anne is the daughter of a former governor of Virginia. After the Brown decision, he state had a history of fighting desegregation and court orders. Anne’s father enrolled his children in the local integrated public school to be an example of complying with the law and the courts. Tim and Anne Kaine sent their own children to integrated public schools in Richmond.
Tim was educated in a Jesuit high school, and he takes his faith seriously. He wants to make a difference in helping others. When he left law school, he spent a year in Honduras as a missionary, where he became a fluent speaker of Spanish. After Honduras, he became a civil rights lawyer. He helped people who had been defrauded by landlords, bankers, real estate developers, and agents. He is one of only 20 people who have ever been elected mayor, governor, and senator. He knows politics from the ground up. He listens.
I was very impressed when I watched this event live. I thought, this is an honest man. This guy is real. He doesn’t boast or brag. He is humble. He is sincere about faith, family, and hard work. He connects with people because they see and feel that he has character.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yes Tim Kaine cares about everyone he serves. He is the real deal. Hillary has been a caring and resourceful leader too. She is the real deal too. Hillary and Tim can help Americans walk a new bridge to one people who care about each other, who share a love of freedom and diversity. We can be hopeful for our future with them.
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We have to vote for Hillary so we can get Tim. I agree he is the real deal. It is refreshing to have a politician who is for the people and not their next job.
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I was very impressed with Kaine’s delivery and self assurance. He’s also fluent in Spanish, can’t hurt. Does he outshine Hillary?
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I can’t vote for $illary, no matter who her running mate is.
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In my opinion you will be helping to elect Donald Trump and his band of bigots, among these David Duke who hopes to ride into a senatorial post on Trump’s coat-tails. I have reservations about Hillary. I think her running mate is an asset. There is no way that I will aid and abet the election of Trump.
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It is a crazy election. According to Politico, Kaine expanded the H1b program which is often abused to put older, American tech workers out of a job. The program is also used by the Gulen schools to bring in Turkish teachers, qualified or not. H1bs are a threat to the teaching profession as it brings in overseas teachers to address shortages, undermining teacher power in the workforce. Trump’s web site says he strongly opposes the current H1b program. If he keeps his word, of course.
The biggest problem for Democrats will be inspiring voter turnout in the swing states. Two very establishment Dem candidates will make that a challenge.
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Vale Math,
The tech companies love the H1b visas.
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Dr. Ravtich – one point of clarification – it’s Anne Holton, not Anne Kaine
I agree that Tim Kaine is the real deal. To Joe’s point – yes, I think he does outshine Hillary, and honestly, if this ticket were reversed, I think that the Democrats win in a landslide! His speech was clearly from the heart, and I would venture without a teleprompter. Here’s hoping that Hillary can learn from him on how to be more natural, less calculating.
Also, Repblicans have already tried to call him Crooked Kaine – pointing to gifts that he accepted as Gov of Virginia (including a lavish trip to a private island). But here’s the catch – 1) it was legal at the time in VA for the governor to accept the gift, as long as he reported those that were above $50 – Kaine reported ALL of them, 2) His successor, Robert McDonald, recently was tried and convicted (the conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court, but still, it got that far) for doing the same thing.
But here’s the main reason that I appreciate Tim Kaine – he is a moderate Democrat. He has progressive tendencies for sure, but he is willing to work with others. I so wish that in education we had more folks like him – those that were truly willing to listen to the nuances involved, and not just stand on extreme sides.
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I enjoyed the video, and was encouraged by it.
Then, a colleague cautioned me that Tim Kaine supported Right-to-Work laws in his state.
Please address this.
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Politico says he was quoted supporting Virginia’s RTW laws but generally pro-union. He also voted to expand the H1b program which puts more Americans out of work. I have a difficult time voting for that. It seems more Obama-like than Hillary.
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Can someone explain to me how one can be for RTW legislation and “generally pro union”? Can’t wrap my head around that one.
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GregB,
I point out that in his speech today, he proudly mentioned that his father’s welding shop in Kansas was a union shop.
Where do you think Trump stands vis-a-vis unions?
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I live in a right to work state. The teacher’s union in my district has always been very weak, and it was recently decertified due to a lack of membership. The union people always blamed the lack of teacher support for their lack of success in negotiating a better contract. We, the teachers who did not belong to the union, always argued that if they were more successful, we would be more inclined to join. An argument that went around and around for years.
I am glad that I do not pay dues to the NEA or AFT. Their national organizations are useless leeches making A LOT of money off the hard work of teachers.
Maybe if the unions weren’t guaranteed your dues, they would work harder to represent and support your education interests. As it is now the national teachers’ unions are political first and educational last. I totally understand why Tim Kaine supported Right-to-Work laws.
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Good question. Apparently, his legislative actions were mostly pro-union, but he supports RTW in Virginia. Sounds like more squishy politics.
RTW undermines unions because of the free rider issue. It is like the office coffee pool. No one wants to pay, but everyone wants to have their morning cup. Soon, since no one pays, the office is left with no coffee. And the person that complains the most never contributed, always drank the last cup, and never made a pot.
Non-union shops stink. You are let go on a whim no matter how hard you work or how good you are, no one wants to point out corruption or take a chance, and gray hairs and experience are a liability.
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Thank you, FL Teacher. I disagree with your views, but I haven’t walked in your shoes, therefore I respect your perspective, especially with respect to NEA and AFT national unions. Vale Math’s align more closely with my experience and those of my friends who are members of unions.
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Fl Teacher .
“I live in a right to work state. The teacher’s union in my district has always been very weak, and it was recently decertified due to a lack of membership. The union people
always blamed the lack of teacher support for their lack of success in negotiating a better contract. We, the teachers who did not belong to the union, always argued that if they were more successful, we would be more inclined to join.”
Please look at what you said and think about it for a while . This is precisely why the Republicans working for the oligarchs, whose interest they represent, are seeking a National Right to Work for less law. It is why the Friedrichs case was brought to the Supreme Court .
By the way Friedrichs was right ,Unions are inherently political, that is their prime function, their only purpose for existing. But while you are thinking about your statement you could look up Harold Lasswell on this point.
Jay Gould once boasted “I could pay half the working class to kill the other half” . I suspect he may have been correct
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Diane,
I can tell you where Trump stands on Unions. Trump on his major projects has built Union . But there is a very interesting caveat to that history.
Trump was planning to Build non union in New Orleans. Before this election cycle,he was told by the head of one of NY’s most powerful Trade Unions “You only built union because he had no choice in NY and AC”. . At his hotel casino in Las Vegas he has fought unionization and refuses to negotiate with the hotel workers who finally had their election certified by the NLRB. He loves Right to Work and will push for a National Right to Work law . The Republican Party platform calls for the repeal of Davis Bacon which predates the New Deal. They have framed it as a Civil Rights issue,(eighty five years ago it was). Trump would love to see unions disappear .
As I have stated I will show up at the polls. Vote for Hillary and then barf . That old saying applies here ; the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend. I think we see that no place clearer than the education wars . Where neo liberal Democrats have championed essentially Republican dogma.
Vale Math pointed out Kaine’s position on H1Bs . Add that to his positions on Fast Track Trade Authority, the TPP and Right to Work for less in Virginia . This is a total slap in the face to the progressive wing. The TPP is opposed by over 2000 progressive organizations, labor,environmental, consumer.
https://www.thenation.com/article/tim-kaine-has-a-troubling-record-on-labor-issues/
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Kaine seems like a decent fellow compared to most politicians. It is unfortunate he supports the TPP.
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I am concerned that he is for deregulating the banks, for fracking, for the TPP, for Right to Work and also for Hb1 Visas. It’s good to hear that he has some redeeming qualities in education. (I hope.)
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Put Tim Kaine up against Mike Pence, and Tim looks like a giant.
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Some old saying from 2008 about lipstick and pigs keeps coming to mind.
I have to say that the strongly non-progressive sentiment dominating the comments here thus far is. . . evident. We have a Trump supporter telling us about Kaine’s ‘virtues’ but who of course isn’t going to vote for Clinton/Kaine any more than I am. The difference is that I won’t vote for Trump, either.
I’m sure if I listed other warts on Tim Kaine’s record, I’d be told that we can’t let “perfect” be the enemy of “good,” except that I’m not seeing what’s good about a Southern, centrist Democrat in 2016 running with a neoliberal/neocon pretending to be a progressive Democrat (or she was until she wasn’t).
Meanwhile, no comment on the Wikileaks revelations, eh? No one cares that we’re getting incontrovertible proof of illegal collusion by the DNC and the media to rig the primaries for Clinton and torpedo Sanders? And he still made her have to fight until the end.
Next week should be entertaining in any number of potential ways. I think we’ll have all forgotten about Cleveland by Monday night. By Friday, we may be YEARNING for Cleveland.
To quote The Who, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” Boss Tweed and Richard Daley must be laughing in Hell.
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Michael, here’s a comment in three words: massive election fraud.
This, aside from the collusion. This is exactly why the Bernie supporters are so furious–this election was stolen, pure & simple.
As I type this, lawsuits are being filed. Of course, none of this has been reported in the mainstream media. For my part, I have been working on this in my neck of the woods.
&–w/the Wikileaks–I hope the DNC is turned on its head by the 1,900 Sanders Delegates attending the convention who are ready & willing to do so.
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retiredbutmissthekids
Good to see you back!
Are you saying you hope to see some DNC tipping? at the Democratic Convention?
Don’t let Debbie catch ya!
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I care about the Wikileaks revelations.
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DAM atheist Jews!
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Who cares about the leaks . Nobody cares about the leaks . Not even Bernie . Did this come as a shock to you . Was the massive collusion between the DNC the Clinton campaign and the Media not apparent from the start.
The Daily News interview was handed to Clinton surrogates and then handed back with comment before the editorial board wrote that damming piece according to Jaun Cole. There was a Clinton interview with Chris Mathews where he tripled over himself feeding soft ball questions to her than laughing while he answered them. Followed by a Town hall with Bernie that looked like a mixed martial arts match . Twenty one negative articles in the Washington Post in one day . The oligarchy is alive and well.
But the DNC did not stoke antisemitism the didn’t have to . The flame was already there. It is the unspoken darkness that was never confronted. It cost Sanders the nomination . I’ll leave this vague.
The last time I felt this despondent about the lessor of two evils choice was Carter vs Reagan . The morning after that election when Carter lost ,I said maybe it was for the best he was terrible . Thirty five years
of failed neo liberal policy later . Now perused by large portions of both political parties . I have lived to regret that thought .
Elections have consequences, I would prefer being in Washington on Jan 20th booing Clinton off of the stage then living in the America that Trump will bring, to America’s working people .The America that he will bring to the poor and people of color , to immigrants . The perfect example of Newspeak is “Right to Work” and he loves right to work ,loves H1b visas ,thinks Americans are paid too much . Like Reagan before him a real champion of the working class. My breakfast is starting to come up.
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I voted for Bernie and if he had won, the Trumpers would be screaming commie, commie, commie, commie, commie, commie, atheist, atheist, atheist 24/7. Politics is dirty and it has always been so, even amongst the founding fathers.
Be prepared for president Trump…..don’t blame me, I will never vote for Trump.
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Joe,
Can you imagine the nickname that Trump would have invented for Bernie? Commie Bernie? Red Bernie?
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The fact that Sanders is a socialist was hardly a secret during the primaries and Sanders was actually quite good at turning the red baiting around when it arose.
But I’ll guess we’ll never know, will we?
That’s all water over the bridge at this point. 🙂
And it seems to be getting deeper with every passing day.
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Kaine is for the TPP and according to Politico, he was praising it the day before Hill announce him. If anyone here is for labor and jobs, then there is no reason to care what it was Kaine’s father in law did or stood for because that man is not the running mate. Pure distraction.
Thanks to Michael and retired for calling out the new pile of dust lumped under rug.
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I enjoyed seeing Hillary and Tim holding hands as she stated, “Together we will have the most “progressive” Democratic platform ever.” Sure. It will take more than that to convince the Sanders’ supporters. I am just happy that perhaps some of the education “bleeding” may slow down, but I doubt it will stop. There’s is too much money to be made, and the hedge fund crowd is relentless. Unless we change some laws, there will be more attacks.
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New York Times reporter, Amy Chozick, wrote that Kaine is a “centrist” on education which, based on his speech, means that the reporter understands that the American majority wants the public school system, without the privatizing of the Walton/Gates/U.S. Dept. of Ed.
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Supreme Court:
Clinton – Ginsberg, Breyer
Bush – Roberts, Alito
Obama – Kagan, Sotomayor
Trump – Genghis Khan, Chris Christie, Scott Wilson, Roger Ailes, Steve King, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush (they kiss and make up), etc., ad nauseam.
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Thanks for posting this link. It was great to hear Tim Kaine speak, since I knew very little about him. I was heartened by his story of service and feel excited that he is on the ticket.
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District Parent – I too agree that I was impressed by his story of service. In fact, my wife and I were discussing how we should have all Americans of a particular age (say 18-25) have to serve for one year, either overseas or in the states, and commit to service. Other countries have mandatory military service, what if we had mandatory national service. Something like Americorps, but something that was required. No exceptions – rich or poor. People could have options of choosing to do a religious organization (Sen Kaine did the Jesuit Volunteer Corps), and they would have options on when they would do it. I can say that my eyes were wide opened doing a year of service my first year out of college – at a K-8 Catholic school in Washington, DC. My wife did a year in Ecuador. both of our passions for social justice and our perceptions of the world were shaped by those experiences, similar to Sen. Kaine. Such experiences would not mean that folks would walk a mile in another’s shoes, but it would offer them a glimpse of the real struggles around poverty.
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Some DAM up there, @ 8:33 AM–thank you! (I’d been having trouble w/signing in–e-mail strangeness, as well–working on Bernie’s campaign so…hmmm…wonder why?!) As I type, am watching MSNBC (!)–in background, large # of people yelling, “Bernie, Bernie!” w/signs. In this terrible heat, the support continues.
As to the comments about nicknames Trump would have given Bernie (well, he’s already called him “Crazy” Bernie & “Commie” Bernie)–does anyone think he would care about that? & we Bernie supporters don’t care about that, either–it’s playground politics!
My nickname “Reliable, Stick-to-the-Message” Bernie is, I believe (after having followed him throughout his entire political career), who he is, &, as he has valiantly done throughout his fantastic campaign, his answers to Trump would be to repeat his mantra–“enough is enough,” raising the minimum wage, breaking up the big banks, defeating the TPP, taxing the 1%, etc.
Because THAT is what matters to the American people. Commie? Leftist? No, actually, the right thing to do.
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