Tim Kaine is the right pick for VP: Our view

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine is not Mr. Excitement, as he'd be the first to say, but he is the smartest vice presidential pick Hillary Clinton could have made.

Kaine is not going to fire up the Bernie-or-bust crowd and he is, there’s no way to avoid noticing, a middle-age white guy  (58, to be exact). But he does have the virtue of checking every other box on Clinton's wish list — starting with the confidence that, as she put it in an interview with PBS' Charlie Rose, her running mate “could literally get up one day and be the president of the United States.”

She called that her top priority. It is ours as well.

If résumé is destiny, Kaine was inevitable. He is a former city council member, mayor, lieutenant governor and governor of Virginia who has become a student of war and foreign policy in the Senate. As governor, he even had to prove himself in the tragic role presidents must play all too often, as consoler in chief after a mass shooting (the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre that left 32 people dead).

Kaine’s political credentials are also unmatched. A former national party chairman and a former Catholic missionary to Honduras, he has never lost an election and has a solid approval rating in his state. He may not be Hispanic, but he speaks fluent Spanish, as he demonstrated Saturday at his first official event, a rally with Clinton in Miami. He comes from an important swing state with 13 electoral votes — more than twice as many as Iowa (home of another finalist, former governor and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack). And, key to Democratic dreams of a Senate majority, Kaine’s successor will be named by a Democrat — Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

Clinton pick gives Trump an opening: Opposing view

Low-maintenance and low-key, a Southern politician married to the daughter of a former Republican governor, Kaine always seemed a mismatch for the job that his friend Barack Obama gave him in 2009 as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He isn’t a partisan pit bull on the order of, say, Dick Cheney. But Clinton will have plenty of willing and ferocious attackers, from Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to a highly articulate and enraged cadre of #NeverTrump conservatives.

Those on the populist left would have much preferred a progressive firebrand such as Sanders or Warren on the ticket with Clinton. Instead, they’re stuck with Kaine, who is opposed to abortion and enthusiastic about trade. Though Kaine is perceived as wobbly on abortion rights, he says these are “moral decisions for individuals to make for themselves.” His record in the Senate — 100% scores from Planned Parenthood and NARAL — suggests he means what he says and should quiet liberal concerns.

A key sticking point is Kaine’s openness to international trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The Republican National Committee began driving that wedge weeks ago, calling Kaine a nightmare for Sanders backers. The party dug up 2007 quotes in which Kaine said he is “passionate” about trade and called protectionism a “loser's mentality.” In a perhaps Freudian spelling slip, the GOP even described a pro-TPP Kaine vote as “yay” instead of “yea.”

Kaine's abrupt post-selection transformation into a TPP foe is unconvincing. But the reality of Donald Trump may help drive up turnout among Bernie holdouts, even if the Democratic ticket is all they never wanted.

Kaine’s other potential looming liability is his acceptance of $160,000 in legal gifts when he held state office. His aides say most of the money was for work-related travel, there has been no question of any quid pro quo, and he went well beyond requirements for both disclosure and reimbursement. Trump, though he is a badly compromised messenger, was already launching broadsides to capitalize on widespread mistrust of Clinton. He immediately expanded them to include Kaine.

Like Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, his Republican counterpart, Kaine brings a steady temperament and unpretentious personality to the campaign. Voters might welcome that as a pleasant contrast to the high-flying Clintons and to Trump, who is obsessed with money, winning and “10s.” Kaine is no matinee-idol "10" and doesn’t mind saying so. Sitting in the back seat of a car with a reporter once during a long-ago campaign, he made so many jokes about his looks that his press aide finally sighed and asked him to stop.

Self-deprecation in a candidate is an attractive quality, one that Pence displayed Wednesday night in his Cleveland convention speech. But as close as they are to the perfect VPs, neither Kaine nor Pence can solve the real problem plaguing both their parties: a flawed, unpopular nominee at the top of the ticket.

USA TODAY's editorial opinions are decided by its Editorial Board, separate from the news staff. Most editorials are coupled with an opposing view — a unique USA TODAY feature.

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