Citizen Kaine
As a politician, Kaine has elements of Joe Biden’s heart and Barack Obama’s brain: schmaltz in service of political advantage. He has never lost an election—from Richmond City Council, in 1994, to lieutenant governor, in 2001, governor, in 2005, and senator, in 2012. In one of thousands of e-mails released by Virginia’s State Library from his days as governor, Kaine once lamented to aides that, despite a decent record—he cut the budget, expanded early-childhood and technical education, secured funding for higher-education construction, reformed mental-health and foster-care programs, and reduced infant mortality—his term was often described, by the press, as having “no significant accomplishment.”