Ted Lasso fans were quick to spot the similarities this week between the Democrat’s new Vice-Presidential pick and a certain folksy, good-humoured, football coach. Within minutes of Tim Walz being nominated as Kamala Harris’ running mate, the internet was buzzing with suggestions that Ted Lasso was going to be the next Vice President.
“Ted Lasso has entered the presidential race, as VP candidate Tim Walz,” declared a headline in The Kansas City Star.
Smiling, joyful and keen to bring optimism to the American political landscape, Walz who also happens to be a former football coach, is an easy Lasso double. “Watching Coach Tim Walz laugh, encourage and speak from the heart …. One image kept popping into my head: Ted Lasso,” writes political commentator Jay Kuo.
Walz even has the same jovial resilience that made Ted Lasso such a great character in the Apple TV show. Under fire for some of his policies as Governor of Minnesota being too liberal, Walz recently deflected with a wide smile: “What a monster! Kids are eating and having full bellies so they can go learn, and women are making their own health care decisions!” If ever there was a Ted Lasso move, that would have been it.
“After years of trauma, division and fear, America needs a Ted Lasso,” continues Jay Kuo. “And Kamala Harris understood that. She knew that the thing Democrats were most lacking was the excitement, the happiness and the dream around what is possible… Walz brings a humility and a sense of service that is the very antithesis of Trumpism.”
The idea of Tim Walz showing up at the Oval Office every morning for ‘biscuits with the boss’ now seems to be a talking point, a welcome moment of light relief in the name-calling quagmire of US politics. And like Ted Lasso whose team adored him, Walz has many former students who are surfacing now and praising him for his humanity and genuine caring leadership skills both as a teacher and football coach.
Ted Lasso, for anyone not familiar with the show, is about an affable mid-Western football coach who arrives in London to lead an underdog British football team to victory, improving everyone’s lives and spreading kindness. Lasso’s particular skill is uniting a team once torn apart with distrust and hatred for each other and showing them how to believe in themselves. If Walz can do the same in American politics, he will really be onto something. Perhaps just as Ted brought Roy on side, Walz might even bring Trump to heel, or at least some of his followers. It’s a tough ask, but maybe not as naive as it seems.
“Tim Walz will unleash hell on earth,” a Trump fundraising email insisted, also describing him as ‘dangerously liberal’. But the problem for Republicans is that kind of apocalyptic name calling is laughable when it’s aimed at an affable guy prone to cracking dad jokes. In the same way, that Richmond fans once liked to call Lasso a “wanker”, it’ll be hard to make any unpleasant name stick to Walz.
Like Lasso, Walz is nice. And sometimes, that can be contagious.
