Tim Walz has been touring out of state lately, appearing at town halls, small venues, perhaps at even Chautauquas, in a mimicry of a comedy act or lecture tour, apparently to set us all straight on the error of our ways. Last week, Walz was in Eau Claire, Wis., pacing a stage on which a stool had be en placed for a bottle of water, like the spartan props of Lewis Black or Chris Rock. As Walz went for the bottle, his friendly audience could absorb his latest profundity. Walz said he put a Tesla stock app on his phone to get a little boost during the day watching shares of Tesla stock. “$225 and dropping,” Tim said, thumb pointing down. The crowd cheered because, you know, Elon Musk. We’ll be here a long time if we were to track Walz’s profundities. Outside the venue and all around the country, Tesla dealerships were being vandalized, Tesla cars shot at, keyed and kicked, and Tesla owners, who were never terribly sincere about saving the Earth in the first place, are buying bumper stickers that read “Don’t blame me, I already owned the car.” Into bed with this destructive crowd climbs Walz, supposedly a governor. Such irrationality suggests that he might not be safe around the Mona Lisa, either, lest he produce a pocket knife and disfigure her face. Supposedly a governor, who should know better. Tesla employs more than 150,000 American workers, many of whom probably voted for Kamala Harris and Walz. Those workers own Tesla stock. In Minnesota, the State Board of Investment, as of June 30, 2024, had 1.6 million shares of Tesla stock in its retirement fund and 211,000 shares in its non-retirement fund. Mutual funds in retirement plans own Tesla shares. Your Aunt Ethel probably owns Tesla stock and probably the good sisters of St. Joseph, too. No kind of fellow preening and begging to be taken seriously as a statesman would denigrate an American company of such magnitude nor would he take glee in the company’s declining share price. Walz is more like Donald Trump than he would care to believe in the sense that you wonder if anybody can get to him and make him see the light, or at least do some homework. In 2017, Tesla purchased a Minnesota company, Perbix in Brooklyn Park, a creator of sophisticated and automated automobile manufacturing equipment. Perbix employed 150 people at the time, with Musk vowing to recruit more workers. Walz should be the new mug on their dart board. In another whistle stop, Walz joined the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, who has a podcast along with a million other people. The two of them came to lament MAGA people and conservatives in general. Well, OK. But then … “I could kick their ass,” Walz said, meaning, again, MAGA people and conservatives in general. “I think I scare them a little bit.” You do, Tim, you do, but not because you’ve been to the gym. You let a city burn. You commit mortal financial sins and are in denial of them. No administration in the history of the state has ever experienced such repetitive fraud. No governor has ever blown such a bountiful surplus. You signed off on an unnecessary new State Office Building, another bill down the drain. If that’s cutting-edge progressive leadership, who wants it? Related Articles Opinion | Joe Soucheray: St. Paul Johnson’s hockey team was the pride of the city Opinion | Joe Soucheray: A little DOGE goes a long way. Be careful with the mail. Opinion | Letters: St. Paul’s West End has long had to fight for its character Opinion | Joe Soucheray: Transgender inclusion in sports is not fair unless compromises are made Opinion | Joe Soucheray: House DFL rolls by different rules than the rest of us. About going to work, for example. We’ve been through all this, but Walz continues to surf along the populist wave of people who don’t care. Worse, maybe Walz doesn’t care. Maybe they will start caring, depending how much Tesla stock they have in their retirement nest eggs. Full disclosure is required. I am not a Tesla owner, nor have I personally purchased any Tesla stock. Normal people call me a car nut. I need noise and big round instruments with sweeping needles. Oh, and smells, too, the sweet perfume of the petroleum miracle. I spend enough time sitting in front of a computer screen. Joe Soucheray can be reached at jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com. Soucheray’s “Garage Logic” podcast can be heard at garagelogic.com. ...read more read less