2016 Is Tim Kaine mean enough for Trump? 'America's Dad' is signaling that slashing partisan attacks aren't exactly his style.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Spiro Agnew he's not.

In the week since he was nominated as Hillary Clinton's running mate, Tim Kaine has become more and more comfortable with the idea of sticking it to Donald Trump — the traditional role of a vice presidential nominee. But the man now being dubbed on rally posters as “America’s Dad” is making it clear that smash-mouth partisan attacks aren't exactly his style.


Kaine doesn't lead his rallies with assaults on Trump, nor does he linger on them. He holds the knife gently, and wields it politely and with more than a dash of condescension.

In Daytona Beach, Florida, Kaine was riffing Tuesday on the virtues of Hillary Clinton’s pre-K education plan when it struck him that Trump had just cast a baby out of one of his events: “As I'm thinking about pre-K, sometimes you wonder who the baby is, right? You wonder who the baby is." In Richmond, Virginia, it was nearly half an hour before Kaine confronted Trump’s war with Khizr and Ghazala Khan, but when he finally got there he concluded that Trump’s attacks were the “lowest of the low.”

Here in North Carolina’s third-largest city Wednesday, Kaine concluded that Trump’s economic plans aren’t going to rally swing voters, citing a Moody’s analysis that shows Clinton’s fiscal proposals would create more than 3 million jobs and Trump’s would ax more than 3 million jobs.

“And you would put the United States, put it into a lengthy recession. I don’t think that’s going to go on the bumper sticker,” Kaine said, drawing polite laughs for his G-rated jab.

Clinton chose Kaine as her running mate for his steady style, his grasp of executive power and foreign policy and his warm style of retail campaigning. But she also picked the Virginia senator because he knows how to throw a political punch without seeming personal. Still unanswered is whether Kaine is capable of the kinds of slashing attacks that might later be required of him in an election in which both presidential candidates harbor deep disdain for each other.

“He’s being forceful in what he’s said. He doesn’t go over the top, there’s no hyperbole,” said Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who works on Democratic messaging. “He’s not going to do what Donald Trump does, which is just name-calling and bullying in an out-of-control and irresponsible way. That’s never going to be Tim Kaine.”

“He can do it in a gentle way. He’s a gentle intellectual,” said Florida state Sen. Chris Smith, who represents Broward County in South Florida.

Kaine is beginning to settle into his role as the vice presidential nominee, where the media and the public see two sides of him. At small, intimate events Kaine peppers everyday citizens with questions about the economy, their jobs and their lives. Aides sometimes have to remind Kaine to circulate; his earnest nature gets him engrossed in conversations quickly.

But at campaign events, Kaine gets more aggressive, repeatedly pitching Clinton as a “you’re hired candidate” and Trump as a “you’re fired” politician, one of Kaine’s most familiar campaign mantras. Similarly, Clinton is a “bridge builder,” and Trump a “trash talker” who insults people based on their race, in Kaine’s view, working in Trump’s battles with New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and District Judge Gonzalo Curiel into his standard stump speech.

“He trash talks allies, he trash talks foreign leaders, he trash talks people with disabilities, he trash talks women and says offensive things about them, he trash talks fellow Republicans,” Kaine said in Richmond. “I mean, the thing that has amazed me is the depth of his trash talking of Latinos.”

In his 2012 Senate race against Republican George Allen, Kaine’s campaign tested an advertisement aimed at contrasting the two candidates. When using a narrator’s voice the ad was deemed negative by a focus group, but by inserting Kaine’s voice speaking plainly about the contrasts, the reception was far more positive, said Mo Elleithee, a former aide who is still close to Kaine.

“It’s how he’s always been. Tim Kaine has never been someone afraid of showing a contrast. One reason he does it so effectively is he doesn't use a sledgehammer,” Elleithee said. “He’s incredibly conversational and that’s not threatening to your average observer.”

Kaine aides disputed any suggestion that the Virginia senator is going easy at all on Trump. And on Wednesday he flashed his first unprovoked attack. While touring a manufacturing plant in High Point, North Carolina, Kaine made impromptu remarks that knocked Trump’s record with small businesses.

“The thing about Kaine is that he delivers his attacks with a smile, which makes them even more cutting,” a campaign aide said.

And Democrats say Kaine’s light touch is what is needed during this election cycle. They say that Kaine only needs to subtly guide attacks toward Trump, rather than come out with his guns blazing at every rally and interview.

“No one could do as much damage politically to Donald Trump as he is doing to himself. You know Tim and Hillary have to respond, but they’re doing it in a responsible way,” Stabenow said.

Kaine is “punching him with a smile on his face,” said one senior Democrat on Capitol Hill. And that punch feels like it’s coming from “the friendly neighbor next door,” said a national strategist working directly with Democratic campaigns.

Republicans aren’t as impressed with Kaine’s dry anti-Trump attacks. But they concede that they might work anyway when Trump is getting outsized press for kicking babies out rallies, refusing to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan and tangling with the parents of slain soldier Humayun Khan.

“I don't think he's very good at it,” said Josh Holmes, a former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “Then again, I think their best strategy is to hit the mute button and let Trump set himself on fire.”

The Virginia senator also seems to have drawn an early line by not attacking anyone by name other than Trump and running mate Mike Pence, who Kaine said on Tuesday was “not right” in his past negative assessments of LGBT culture. But Kaine made no mention of defeating Sen. Marco Rubio in Florida, and presented no call to arms to oust Sen. Richard Burr in North Carolina.

Democrats and Republicans agree that Kaine is likely to be the liaison to Capitol Hill should he be vice president, and it doesn’t make much sense for him to begin bashing Senate Republicans that he is good friends with.

Kaine has set boundaries on how far he will go to get a crowd revved up. He’s totally fine asking whether the crowds at events believe Trump’s rhetorical promises, eliciting the entirely predictable response of “no.”

He also engages friendly barbs from the crowd. In Greensboro, as he began his remarks, Kaine said he would slice and dice the contrasts between Clinton and Trump. A man yelled back: “No comparison.” Kaine joked that his work there was done and started to walk off the stage.

But unlike candidates more prone to bomb throwing, Kaine doesn’t try to incite his crowds.

“Immigration reform done the right way is really important. And the Donald Trump plan, which is not limited to immigration reform, is to shake your fist at Americans and call ’em names. Call ’em names,” Kaine said in Daytona Beach.

“He’s a fascist,” a man yelled at Kaine, who never acknowledged the highly charged accusation that stood to derail his folky message.

“Whether it’s an immigrante nuevo, someone here who is here their first year, or whether it’s a Latina governor of New Mexico,” Kaine finished. “Those aren’t los valores de mi pueblo — those aren’t the values of my people.”