“He certainly comes off as inoffensive, but on policy, he’s a regular tax-and-spend Democrat.”

Indeed, Kaine’s talent for blurring distinctions is considerable.

Kaine opened and closed his governorship with unsuccessful proposals to raise taxes. Succeeding Gov. Mark Warner, who won a $1.4 billion tax increase for schools, welfare and police, Kaine urged a tax increase for roads and rails.

He tried and failed to reassemble the bipartisan coalition that had backed the Warner tax initiative. As he was leaving office, Kaine recommended higher taxes to relieve recessionary pressure on the state budget. Not even Democrats touched that one.

A devout Catholic — he jokes that he might have become a Jesuit priest if not for the celibacy requirement — Kaine says he personally opposes abortion as a matter of faith. Yet, he has stoutly resisted Republican-led efforts to restrict abortion rights.

Like Obama, Kaine says he was against same-sex marriage. But in 2006, Kaine resisted Virginia’s constitutional ban as legally flawed. It was approved overwhelmingly by voters and thrown out in 2014 by a federal judge.

Kaine opposes the death penalty for religious reasons, though he authorized executions as governor.