Hillary’s choice of Tim Kaine for vice president

The Democratic National Convention nominated Hillary’s choice for vice president and it was the senator from Virginia, Tim Kaine.

Kaine was born in Saint Paul, Minn. into an Irish Catholic family where seven of his great grandparents were Irish and one was Scottish. His family moved to Kansas City, Mo., when he was a baby and he graduated from a Jesuit all boys’ high school.

He graduated at the top of his class at the University of Missouri in 1979 and entered Harvard Law School in the fall of that year.

After his first year at Harvard, he took a year away from college and worked with Catholic missionaries in Honduras operating a Catholic School. He became fluent in Spanish during that time. He returned to Harvard and graduated with a degree in law in 1983. He met his future wife at Harvard and the two of them moved to her hometown, which was Richmond, Va.

In 1984, he was admitted to the Virginia Bar and began his legal career. He practiced law in Richmond for 17 years. He specialized in discrimination lawsuits in real estate due to race and disabilities. He taught legal ethics at the University of Richmond for six years. In 1994, Kaine was elected to the city council for the city of Richmond. He served four terms on the City Council.

In Richmond, the mayor is elected by the city council and it is normally a ceremonial position with the City Manager operating the city. Tim Kaine was elected as mayor in his third term and was the first white mayor in over ten years from the black majority city council. He considered the position of mayor to be a full time serious position and led the city during his four years in office. His focus as mayor was race relationship and the problems were reduced during the time of his administration. All crimes involving guns were immediately transferred to the Federal Courts and gun connected crimes were reduced by 50 percent. The Federal Courts gave much stiffer penalties than the city could give.

In 2001, the Democratic Party nominated Tim Kaine for Lieutenant Governor. He won the General Election with a 50.35 percent margin. His wife, Anne, is a state judge in Virginia and she was allowed to swear him into office in January of 2002.

After one term as lieutenant governor, Democratic Governor Warner was term limited and could not run again, so Tim Kaine ran for Governor of Virginia in 2005. Up until the week before the election, the polls showed Kaine trailing the Republican Kilgore by about 5 percent. He won the election by Clinton. He supports offshore wind turbines to supply electricity. He believes that coal should be used to generate electricity but a much cleaner system must be developed. He is in favor of exporting LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) to other countries. He is in favor of fracking to get natural gas from the shale formations. He voted with his party against the Keystone XL pipeline.

He supports the normalization of relations with Cuba. He supports the nuclear treaty with Iran. He believes that we have been successful in our stated goal of removing Al Quida from Afghanistan and should bring our troops home as quickly as possible. Kaine objected to the president ordering bombing against ISIS without senate approval. He sponsored a committee resolution that allows the bombing of ISIS but specifies that no ground troops can be used. This does not have the power to limit the activities of the president.

Tim Kaine owns a gun but he has an “F” rating from the NRA. He supports ObamaCare but he believes that some changes need to be debated. On immigration, Kaine supports the Obama position that five million illegal immigrants that are living peacefully in this country should be allowed to pay a fine and back taxes and be given a work permit to stay in the country. They should be eligible to apply for citizenship after completing the requirements. He supports samesex marriage with the couple having the right to adopt children. He supports the NAFTA agreement that allows Canada and Mexico to ship products into the United States without tariffs. He favors increasing the minimum wage.

Senator Kaine is a Liberal but he is not nearly on the same socialistic level as President Obama or Hillary Clinton. He would probably make a better President than Hillary Clinton. He does not have any charges of dishonesty or lying being made about him.

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