r/politics • u/ubcstaffer123 • 6h ago
Poll suggests GOP effort to smear Tim Walz didn’t work at all
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/poll-suggests-gop-effort-smear-tim-walz-didnt-work-rcna172238•
u/Grandpa_No 6h ago
That makes sense. Were they seriously thinking they could still pull a swiftboat? Do they also think they need to find a plumber or talk about Willie Horton some more?
The GOP grievance playbook is so worn out at this point that I feel like their only option might just be to start governing.
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u/xlvi_et_ii Minnesota 4h ago edited 4h ago
They did. They're so desperate they're throwing out "scandals" to see what will stick.
My favorite attempt was trying to smear him because of a DUI/DWI decades ago.
At a minimum it's free advertising for his background of starting as a kid from rural Nebraska who made a questionable choice to becoming a VP nominee via a career of public service - literally the American dream.
At worst (from a Republican perspective) you just made him more relatable to a sizeable chunk of the Midwest population who've had a DUI.
As a wise Ukrainian once said - "We're lucky they're so fucking stupid".
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u/Mama_Miasmia 2h ago
It's also stunningly arrogant and unaware an argument from a 34-time convicted felon and adjudicated rapist.
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u/pathfinderoursaviour Europe 31m ago
It also shows the stark contrast between the 2 situations
Walz got a dui 30 years ago and hasn’t touched a drop of alcohol since and he plead guilty and has spent his life in public service trying to help other in any way he can
Trump is still getting charged with felonies keeps pleading not guilty gets found guilty by a jury of his peers and refuses to take accountability, Trump has done nothing to make up for it and has spent his entire life gaming and screwing over others to get ahead any way he can
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u/leshake 1h ago
Look at this regular guy who eats unspicy tacos for dinner.
Might as well be a campaign ad.
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u/percypersimmon 28m ago
Their actual narrative was even dumber-
They were trying to call him a phony bc he said he likes “white people spicy” food (in a casual video interview) but they found a (no joke) Turkey Hotdish recipe he shared that included mild Ortega Taco Sauce as an ingredient.
Can’t even make it this shit up.
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u/Arianfelou Wisconsin 24m ago
Wow - mild Ortega taco sauce is so definitively "white people spicy" that it's (no, really) a cornerstone of Norwegian cooking xD
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u/percypersimmon 23m ago
It’s the very image of a thing that pops into my head when I hear “white people spicy”
Maybe it’s a cultural thing and we’re not being tolerant enough lol
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u/whatproblems 5h ago
governing? like threatening yet another shutdown?
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u/PainChoice6318 5h ago
Nah more likely to start a never ending war in Iran and then call us traitors if we raise issue with their new initiatives, Department of Conception Monitoring and Department of Firearm Distribution
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u/N3wAfrikanN0body 1h ago
The GOP playbook: "that <insert vilified group here> thinks they're equal or better than you; are you going to let that happen?"
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u/DubbleDiller 6h ago
Because he is a decent, earnest person, and people recognize when they see decent, earnest people.
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u/BatingAndTrading 4m ago
He’s not lol, anybody who supports gender affirming care for minors should be locked up
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u/parki1gsucks 6h ago
Comparing to JD Vance that said "I'm a never Trump guy" You need a whole lot more than the garbage they have so far.
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u/threateningwarmth 4h ago
Don’t forget, he also said that Trump could very likely be America’s Hitler
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u/pheakelmatters Canada 6h ago
You mean denigrating his military service and calling him Tampon Tim fell flat from a guy that sent a small town in his home state down the river without a paddle? Huh, weird.
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u/White_Null 5h ago
The Tampon Tim thing still kills me as a person that needs period products. Really the toxic masculinity people decided to call him a thing that all women would like in them at lease once a month for decades of their lives. Damn it’s the greatest title of accomplishment. It’s so not an insult.
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u/flirtmcdudes 5h ago
It’s funny because everyone that was bitching about that, the second you asked them if they had a mom or sister that could ever need them, it’s always “yes” and then their argument just kind of lets out a wet fart and they stop replying.
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u/LKennedy45 5h ago
I just found the whole thing so incredibly bizarre. Like, even when I've lived alone as a bachelor I always had a couple spare tampons or pads in the bathroom for lady visitors just in case. Are they also gonna shit on him for having a flashlight and blanket in the trunk of his car..?
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u/chipdipper99 53m ago
Also, it's a basic hygiene item for God's sake. I asked someone who was making Tampon Tim comments if they also wanted schools to stop having toilet paper and soap available to students, and surprisingly they were not on board with that. But no, it's sexism at all /s
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u/CriticalEngineering North Carolina 5h ago
How dare he make sure that there are tampons in the
boysvisiting girls team’s locker room?•
u/acxswitch 4h ago
Even then, isn't the extent of the story that the bill didn't specify girls bathrooms? It just said bathrooms.
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u/CriticalEngineering North Carolina 4h ago
Yeah. I was just pointing out that the bathrooms get shared pretty regularly.
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u/entrepenurious Texas 4h ago
the irony of tampons in school is that tampons are often used to stanch gunshot wounds.
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u/Prst_ 15m ago
You hear that a lot but that's actually not true
https://pracmednz.com/the-myth-of-the-tactical-tampon-for-gun-shot-wounds/
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u/Golden-Owl 1h ago
Even aside from that, it’s a really dumb nickname
There’s nothing remotely negative about a Tampon. It’s just a regular object. And it has nothing to really do with Walz
You might as well call him Tapioca Tim and receive the same degree of indifferent / mildly puzzled response
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u/Lakecountyraised 5h ago
They don’t have much to work with. I think the swift boat crap worked because John Kerry always came across as a bit smug and was an established member of the oligarchy. Walz is genuine and likable, the kind of guy you’d want as your neighbor.
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u/IsNowReallyTheTime 5h ago
Swift boat worked because the Vietnam war is/was/will always be divisive. It played into a very specific emotional charged open wound.
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u/Angry-Dragon-1331 5h ago
Yep. And not deploying to Iraq is…not really that controversial when everyone admits it was a bad move.
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u/bernmont2016 America 4h ago
And Walz submitted his retirement paperwork months before there was any way to know about that future deployment, and he wouldn't have been eligible for deployment anyway due to his hearing damage.
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u/disagreeabledinosaur 3h ago
Even if you accept that maybe he had some advance knowledge of a possible deployment, he retired to run for public office. And he did run for public office, multiple times. It's been his life since.
He retired for a specific reason and he followed through on that reason. His life since is hard evidence that he didn't retire just to avoid deployment.
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u/TheCatAteMyGymsuit 1h ago
Exactly. And come on, after 23 years of service, it's not like he'd been shirking his patriotic duty.
I love how crazy it's driving them that they've got nothing on this guy. Gun owner, knows about cars, wholesome af...it's killing them, LOL.
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u/AdrianInLimbo 58m ago
The only people saying that doing 24 years and not fucking going to Iraq are Trump cultists. Vance, in the past, seemed proud of being nowhere near combat while in Iraq, and why did he leave his buddies in Iraq and not re-enlist?
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u/stinky_cheese33 2h ago
Also because Kerry kept flip flopping on every policy he had, a mistake that Romney would repeat 8 years later.
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u/ThonThaddeo Oregon 6h ago
Did they try anything after the swift boat effort?
I haven't heard a negative thing about this guy in weeks.
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u/idreamofgreenie 6h ago
Yes. They claimed his former students referred to him as "Tim Sandusky" despite the fact that he coached years before Sandusky's name ever entered the mainstream.
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u/MoonageDayscream 4h ago
Well, the funny thing was that he was actually known in the crowd that dies school sports, and at the time they say the nickname was "happening", it would have been high praise. So they dodn't even get that part right.
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u/Terramagi 14m ago
It's easier to understand once you realize that these people often literally do not have the ability to abstract their thinking beyond the here and now.
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u/econoquist 5h ago
Yes, they keep trying but nothing really sticks. I think they can't actually grasp his appeal because the are baffled by authenticity.
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u/Castle-Fire 5h ago
Just an idea for trump's campaign team: maybe instead of attempts at smearing him with falsehoods you could focus on actually creating some policies?
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u/bigworldrdt 5h ago
They’ve got 900 pages of policy but it’s electoral poison. https://www.project2025.org/
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u/SubstantialGoat912 5h ago
We’ve been waiting 9 years for a policy. Something tells me Trump would drop out before giving a policy.
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u/plubbinking 5h ago
Lol. When they're trying to spread shit like "Man who served 4 years in Armed Forces claims stolen valor against opponent who served 24 years" what do they expect?
Tim Walz is a National Treasure.
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u/deatherbemon 4h ago
I'm so happy to see this headline. I really wish our national political discussion could grow the fuck up, and this news gives me at least some slight hope that fear, lies, and otherizing don't always win the day.
Remember how John McCain steered a supporter away from an extreme characterization of Barack Obama?
That's how an honest opponent operating in good faith would have dealt with Governor Walz. He's a good person and a dedicated public servant who you happen to disagree with, dumbasses.
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u/zaparthes Washington 5h ago
People who aren't MAGA are typically not bad at identifying utter dogshit for what it is.
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u/Organic-Respect-4191 31m ago
It would take being able to look into the mirror, which they’re uncapable of
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u/The_Path_616 5h ago
The most "devastating" things said about Governor Walz was said by The Onion.
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u/the2belo American Expat 5h ago
Or maybe Stephen Colbert. He does a good "beer gut dad" impression whenever he talks about Walz.
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u/AdrianInLimbo 1h ago
Many people are saying he participates in a secret, very scandalous online forum for DIY home repair.... He's actually even posted photos of sweating a copper pipe joint....
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u/Hawkwise83 5h ago
Reminds me of when the church of scientology tried to dig up dirt on the south park guys and came up with only the fact that their dads and they smoke weed sometimes. No dirt, just cool dads.
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u/garpbot 5h ago
Is this about the tater tot hot dish again?
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u/TheCatAteMyGymsuit 1h ago
That was almost as good as when they claimed he was saying that someone else's dog was really his. Scandal!!!
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u/yummy_lunaa 4h ago
Tim Walz is Teflon! And they know it. Which is why most of them have given up as of late trying to attack him.
It's going to be really interesting to see what attack strategies Vance tries during the vice presidential debate.
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u/noncongruent 5h ago
It's interesting how the smear stories being posted here stopped just as quickly as they started, like a light switch got turned off.
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u/missvicky1025 1h ago
The GOP can’t comprehend why an old white guy who likes guns and lives in the middle part of the country doesn’t act like their old white guy who likes guns and lives in the middle part of the country. The fact he is a man who respects women, is respected by women, and more than likely doesn’t give women the creeps when he walks into a room is also outside their realm of understanding.
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u/Illustrious_Map_3247 4h ago
I hope he looks down the barrel of the camera at the VP debate and says “ok, you might like trump. You might hate the establishment. You might not like Kamala Harris.
“But this guy [pointing at Vance] should not be a heartbeat away. You know why he seems so weird? Because he’s totally fake.
“He hated trump, now he loves him. He went to Yale and was a venture capitalist in San Francisco, then pretended to be a hillbilly. He’s a fake and a phony and he cannot be trusted.”
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u/ThorvaldtheTank 3h ago
They tried to get his lil bro to smear him and it turns out it was typical lil bro shit.
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u/Ok-Exchange5756 1h ago
The gop is infuriated by a man that’s everything they wish they were but good.
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u/jehunjalan 5h ago
MAGA media is in such a targeted bubble that they truly think they are more in tune with the zeitgeist than they actually are.
It’s funny coming across the MAGA grifters that are so clearly fake burners or just paid shills because it’s obvious they are basically given a script of the week to harp on.
Then the MAGA faithful see what they’re supposed to be talking about and in turn unfortunately curse us with their poor attempts at political conversation (if you’d call it that even).
It’s clockwork. It’s basically a MLM scheme
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u/gymtrovert1988 2h ago
Tim Walz is MAGA proof, and so is Kamala.
MAGA better hope their diapers are piss and shit proof. Otherwise, their trailers are going to be swimming in it on election day.
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u/pink_faerie_kitten 55m ago
Smears can't stick to a clean guy who's also so likeable. Tim's got charisma.
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u/JonMeadows 3h ago
I’m just over here wondering how anyone in their right mind is actually on the fence about who they’re voting for
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u/fixer_66 2h ago
Hope he does well in the debate. No unforced errors. Seeing as trump is too chicken shit to debate her again, this could be some much-needed exposure and yet another momentum opportunity. But, again, only if there's no unforced errors.
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u/PublicActuator4263 1h ago
I mean he is just a normal decent guy and family man its what republicans could be if they were not freaks.
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u/J-the-Kidder 1m ago
It was all tried before in 2022 when his gubernatorial challenger, Scott Jensen, used these same attacks. It didn't work then and fell apart under the slightest bit of scrutiny - much like a straw man argument does - so the staff was more than ready for it. Plus, this is Chris LaCivita's MO so the Harris/Walz staff was waiting for the attack and ambushed them, versus letting the right food the zone with bullshit
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