Commentary

Sen. Tim Kaine, Democrat pick for Vice-President, is a near-perfect running mate for Hillary Clinton. He is a decent looking person, with a moderate amount of charm.  Kaine seems reasonably intelligent and able to answer most questions.  Not quite bland – but close enough so as to pose no challenge to Hillary, probably the least charismatic candidate ever nominated for the presidency.

But those are all the superficial reasons Clinton settled on the senator from Virginia.

A much more important qualification is Kaine’s Catholicism. His most important job is to lure moderate Catholics into supporting the Democrat ticket.  He will preach the Democrat gospel of “social justice” from the campaign trail, rather than the doctrine of Catholic orthodoxy. 

Ronald Reagan won the Catholic vote in 1980 and 1984; George Bush won Catholics in 2000 and 2004. Clinton and Obama won the Catholic vote in other recent elections.  The only Republican to win the presidency and (narrowly) lose the Catholic vote was George Bush Sr.

That data suggests the critical nature of Kaine’s mission this November.

Kaine is well-suited to the task: He has a history of third-world missionary work, which serves as an entrée into the Hispanic Catholic communities. But it is his practicality and self-serving character which will make him most useful to Clinton.

Long ago, Kaine jettisoned the teachings of the Church on core moral questions: He is now “personally” pro-Life – but has vigorously defended the government’s imposition of legalized abortion on America. (And, by “personally” – we presume that he would never, personally, seek an abortion.  Which is a good thing).  He joins a long list of Catholic public officials – Pelosi, Kennedy, Cuomo – who have seemingly prospered in this world by jettisoning the inconvenient truths of their faith; officials who continue to succeed without a peep of censure from the hierarchy of the Church.

For years, Kaine has defended the notion that taxpayers – many of whom are Christians with a deeper grasp of the abortion horror – should not be coerced into paying for abortions; but that “principle” has come into conflict with the Democrat Party’s new platform. Consistent with a lifetime of adjusting his principles to accommodate his ambition, Kaine has recently come to believe that taxpayers should help poor women and girls kill their babies. 

Which brings us to the central reason that Tim Kaine is such a perfect match for Hillary Clinton. The Clinton Family won’t have to worry about VP Tim raising Cain over the Mafioso-like operations of their White House.  He is perfectly flexible.