Harris should field a team, not a duo

"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him," advised Niccolo Machiavelli. Ignore the gender; note the plural.

Now that the veepstakes have ended with Democratic nominee-apparent Kamala Harris choosing Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate, I have a radical suggestion: Instead of the traditional path of campaigning as a duo and largely sidelining the impressive gallery of others who were considered as well, run as a team instead.

The potential Cabinet-in-waiting could include other successful governors and senators from swing states as well as andditional impressive and competent figures. The swing state issue is critical, because in America’s unique and problematic electoral system only those places really matter and Harris needs pretty much all the them. That includes Pennsylvania, whose own governor Josh Shapiro, a centrist who would have undercut the damaging narrative that Harris herself is too far to the left, was perhaps unwisely passed over.

Walz, a Midwestern everyman who was a geography teacher, football coach and longtime member of the National Guard, is not a foolish choice. Minnesota is not much at risk, but he may appeal in other Midwestern swing states like Wisconsin and is a friend of labor. Perhaps critically, in our era of never-ending silliness, he is much hailed as the coiner of the instantly classic and uber-accurate term “weird” to describe Donald Trump and his own VP pick, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio (in his bestselling book Vance pretends to be a hillbilly and, even more absurdly, tall).

So, imagine if alongside the pick for vice president, Harris also unveiled in coming days and weeks a comprehensive larger group that included many of the contenders. Imagine campaign posters all over the country that show not just the ”ticket” but also the team, including: