Tim Walz is fond of a particular saying: “Mind your own business.” But it’s conditional. For example, if your neighbor ventures out of his house without a face diaper, Tim Walz doesn’t want you to mind your own business. In that case, he wants you to call the authorities on your neighbor, and he set up a snitch line for that very purpose.

Or if your fourth-grade son simply wants to go to the bathroom at school without having the cult of transgenderism shoved in his face … well, he’s out of luck. Tim Walz insists that tampons should be available in the boys’ bathroom. Because one never knows when it’s that time of the month for a pre-adolescent boy.

But, hey, mind your own business.

I mention these things because, once again, your humble correspondent has drawn the short straw, and once again, just as with Joe Biden on Monday night, I’ve been tasked with listening to the late-night headliner at the Democratic National Convention last night so you don’t have to. In this case, it was the vice-presidential nomination acceptance speech of deployment-dodging, valor-stealing, ChiCom-sympathizing Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. (Credit where credit is due: Walz spoke for 17 minutes. But if you were ever inclined to show your appreciation for what we do here at The Patriot Post, now would be the time.)

Walz played the folksy card like he always does. And he plays it well. If you didn’t know anything about his lies or his record, you’d think he was a swell guy.

Walz lied about a lot of things. “If these guys get back in the White House,” he said, “they’ll start jacking up the costs on the middle class, they’ll repeal the Affordable Care Act, they’ll gut Social Security and Medicare, and they will ban abortion across this country, with or without Congress.”

That’s five whoppers in just 34 words — a spectacular feat of Strunkian efficiency.

Walz also falsely suggested Donald Trump and JD Vance would ban in vitro fertilization, a procedure that he has falsely claimed he and his wife used.

To be clear: Under a Trump-Vance administration, abortion would be left to the 50 states, just as the Constitution intended it to be. In fact, the Republican Party platform specifically says, “We will oppose late-term abortion, while supporting mothers and policies that advance prenatal care, access to birth control, and IVF (fertility treatments).”

Even Walz’s throwaway lines were based upon lies: “While other states were banning books from their schools,” he said, “we were banishing hunger from ours.” Uh-huh.

One other thing we noticed about Walz: For an unpaid assistant, he sure talks a lot about having been a football coach. In his words: “I coached high school football long enough to know — and trust me on this — when somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.” This, too, is a lie about The Heritage Foundation’s much-maligned Project 2025, a governing roadmap from which Trump has repeatedly distanced himself. (We think this is a mistake, by the way. We think the Republicans should lean into good conservative governance rather than run away from it. But such is the power of the Democrats’ efforts to demonize.)

After Walz’s speech, JD Vance, the Republican VP nominee, stopped by the Fox News booth to weigh in on what he saw: “They cannot say that Kamala Harris has lowered grocery prices because she hasn’t. They can’t say that Kamala Harris has lowered the price of housing because she hasn’t. They can’t say that Kamala Harris has secured the border because she’s opened the border. What they can say … and what so many of the speakers did say, including Tim Walz, is that if you want a better life for your children, if you want to vote for Donald Trump to change the direction of this country, you’re a bad person. And I think that’s just a fundamental message that falls flat for Americans who have suffered under the policies of Kamala Harris. … I thought it was actually a very dark and ominous tone, where they attacked Donald Trump, and they attacked the people who vote for him rather than offer a compelling vision for the future. So it fell flat to my ears. Of course, the American people will make the ultimate decision.”

Vance didn’t mention the controversies surrounding Walz’s military service, but we imagine he’ll have plenty to say about this on October 1, when he and Walz are scheduled to debate. At that time, Vance will be charged with rebutting not only the litany of lies that the Democrats have been trotting out but also painting a more optimistic vision than the one we heard last night from Tim Walz.

“What I found so odd about this entire speech,” added Vance, “and all the things I heard from the convention speakers is they’re painting this very dark and ominous portrait of the presidency of Donald Trump when Donald Trump’s presidency delivered peace and prosperity for the American people. Why can’t they run on Kamala Harris and what she’s accomplished? Why do they have to lie about Donald Trump? It suggests that they actually don’t have a whole lot to run on.”

Fear, though, is a powerful message to run on. And that’s pretty much all the Democrats have.