For several well-placed Republican insiders on Tuesday, the response to Kamala Harris’s choice of Tim Walz as vice-president was one of overwhelming joy. “We are cheering,” said one veteran Republican operative, opining that Harris had picked the weakest-possible running mate on Harris’s short list. A plugged-in Washington insider marveled: “Republicans were in need of a lifeline this week and all so thrilled that Kamala Harris willing to give one to our side in our moment of need.”

Until Tuesday morning, these Republican operatives had been universally convinced that Harris would pick Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro. For them, it was a no-brainer. “Shapiro would have taken Pennsylvania off the table,” said the Washington insider. That would have then left Trump with a far more tenuous path to victory. As a senior Capitol Hill aide said of the choice, “I was super-shocked.”

The divide among Republicans wasn’t whether Harris made a sub-optimal choice but whether she actively made a bad one selecting the Minnesota governor. On the mild side of that debate, the senior Capitol Hill aide didn’t think Walz did Harris “any harm” — but also noted that the Minnesota governor was not the right pick to get her to 270 electoral votes.

Other GOP operatives saw Walz as presenting a........

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