Dr. Scott Jensen is a physician and former Minnesota state senator who served from 2017 to 2021, and was the Republican nominee for governor in the 2022 election. He debated Tim Walz three times in 2022 during the Minnesota gubernatorial election.
Fool us once, shame on YOU. Fool us twice, shame on US; an important axiom for people from all walks of life, especially for voters. But don’t expect Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to buy into this life lesson because he has somehow devised a blueprint for fooling people repeatedly and suffering few consequences, if any.
Because I worked with Tim Walz when I served in the Senate and unsuccessfully ran against him in the last gubernatorial election, I am often asked what noteworthy qualities he brings to the table as a vice-presidential candidate.
The word Teflon characterizes Walz’s nifty ability to avoid significant repercussions for his frequent miscues of memory, which are, at best, distortions of reality and, at worst, bare-faced lies. Whether Tim Walz is defending aspects of his military service (retirement rank, resignation timing, weapons of war), claiming unreceived awards, reporting erroneous outcomes from his COVID policies, dodging debates, or simply altering his family’s fertility journey, he routinely emerges unscathed. Like slippery Teflon, nothing much sticks to Tim Walz.
Don’t expect Tim Walz to stand strong and explain his thinking when faced with pushback for his ill-designed decisions. When he let rioters burn Minnesota buildings and businesses for three days, he claimed it was the Minneapolis mayor’s fault. When $250 million of money was bilked from hungry kids, he blamed a judge for making his administration continue to pay the fraudsters. When he locked kids out of schools for months on end, and their academic achievements dropped, he denied culpability by falsely saying that “80% of kids missed less than ten days of school.”
And don’t expect Tim Walz to discuss his nation-leading nursing home death rate during the Covid pandemic nor his decision to pay millions of dollars for a storage building to serve as a temporary morgue – which never saw a dead body.
Tim Walz has convinced much of the mainstream Minnesota media to accept whatever he says as fact and dispense with investigative journalism tools. Some reporters reveal tendencies to serve as his personal attack dogs, so don’t expect him to do anything that might jeopardize these cozy relationships.
Don’t expect Tim Walz to address lies, falsehoods, or half-truths. Don’t expect him to acknowledge that in the heat of a moment, whether it be during interviews, rallies, or speeches, he has a habit of big-time exaggerations. Why would he confess to committing careless embellishments when he’s been able to skate by such deceptions without noteworthy harm to his reputation or image?
Don’t expect Tim Walz to focus on everyday issues Americans face—that kind of conversation is fraught with political danger, and Walz is a pro at skirting the potential landmines involved in debates and unscripted press conferences.
Don’t expect Tim Walz to champion accountability regarding government fraud or waste because, in Minnesota, even the non-partisan legislative auditor has called out the Walz administration for its lackadaisical approach to the theft of public money.
And don’t expect law and order to be at the top of any Tim Walz speech because he knows better than to antagonize progressives who disparage the ‘rule of law’ as old-fashioned and unfair.
Finally, what not to expect from Tim Walz is losing. Walz and his team have created a successful recipe for running campaigns, and their formula has just the right mixture of deflection, deception, righteous indignation, moral outrage, evasive verbosity, debate avoidance, and squelching investigative journalism. These skills Walz has honed to near perfection, and sadly, they are also the qualities Americans customarily reward come election time.
In closing, I am compelled to share what should be expected from Tim Walz. Expect him to address his audience with hopeful and heartfelt words at a rapid-fire pace. Keenly crafted phrases will help him stay in safe harbors. The arc of his moral compass is more likely to bend toward an expedient moment in time than to be framed by a deeply rooted fabric of long-standing convictions. (His stunning repudiation of longstanding NRA endorsements and huge dollar contributions demonstrates a remarkable willingness to do whatever it takes to achieve electoral success and gain the fruits of victory.) For Tim Walz, the art of politics is perhaps best accomplished with a friendly breeze at his back, vigilant attention to ever-changing political winds, and a nimble spirit always ready to change course as needed.
