In a little over two weeks, the Democratic Party has gone from "Biden/Harris" to "Harris/Walz," as their ticket has now been completed with Vice President Kamala Harris's selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate. But what's more astonishing than the lightning-fast schedule for all this unfolding is how utterly seamless it has all been. The party quickly unified behind Harris after President Joe Biden announced he was dropping his campaign, and from all indications today it looks like the party will further unify around the choice of Walz to round the ticket out. There are no simmering "Hillary Clinton supporters versus Bernie Bros" bad feelings tearing the party apart; instead, all the various factions seem content with the way things have worked out. That is an incredible accomplishment, for Democrats. Both progressives and centrists lined up to endorse Walz after this morning's announcement, with no hesitation.

As I wrote yesterday, Walz seemed like the best choice to me. Democrats are now on a crusade against weirdness, and Walz is about as normal a guy as you can imagine. He looks comfortable in the shlubbiest of clothing, he looks completely at ease with who he is, and his authenticity is going to go a long way towards perhaps repairing some of the damage Democrats have suffered with the rural, White regions in the country. Walz is from such a region, and it has made him who he is. He is "Minnesota nice" and will be incredibly hard for the Republicans to demonize him in any effective way. He does not look like some rabid lefty with "San Francisco values," to put this another way. He looks like a guy that runs a feed store in Podunk County instead.

Walz's introductory campaign ad shows this beyond any doubt. Here is the text of the ad, which runs a minute and a half long [Technical note: there is one difference between what Walz actually says in the ad and the captions that run with it, at the very beginning: Walz says "When I grew up...", while the text reads: "Where I grew up...." What follow is what Walz actually says.]:

Sometimes life is as much about the lessons you learn as the lessons you teach. When I grew up, community was a way of life. My high school class was 24 people. I was related to half of them. I learned to be generous towards my neighbors, compromise without compromising my values, and work for the common good.

My dad was in the army and with his encouragement I joined the Army National Guard when I was 17. I served for 24 years. I used my G.I. benefits to go to college and become a public school teacher. I coached football and taught social studies for 20 years. And I tried to teach my students what small-town Nebraska taught me: respect, compromise, service to country.

And so when I went into government, that's what I carried with me. I worked with Republicans to pass an infrastructure bill. Cut taxes for working families. Signed paid leave into law. I codified abortion rights after Roe got overturned. Because I go to work for the common good.

But enough about me. Let's talk about you, because that's what this election is about. It's about your future. It's about your family. And Vice President Harris knows that. She too grew up in a middle-class family. She too goes to work every day making sure families can not just get by, but get ahead.

We believe in the promise of America. In those values I learned in Nebraska, and we're ready to fight for them. Because as Kamala Harris says: when we fight, we win.

The guy was a high school football coach, for Pete's sake! Think that'll go over big in the Midwest? Yeah, so do I. He has the regular-guy appeal the Democratic Party desperately needs right now. One comment I read today sums it up: "He's Joe Biden, 20 years ago." Just an average kid from an average small town who went on to bigger and better things, but never lost sight of who he is and where he came from. He has an authenticity that's going to be hard for the Republicans to attack, especially considering the candidates they have chosen.

The traditional campaign role of the vice-presidential candidate is to be an attack dog. The presidential candidate must pick and choose which battles to fight and how to fight them, often preferring to stay above the worst of the fray, while their running mate steps in to attack with more vigor. That's not entirely the case with Harris, since she has already shown plenty of willingness to take on both Donald Trump and JD Vance in feisty fashion. But Walz has been doing a pretty good job of this himself, which is one major reason why he got the nod. But he does so in a folksy, down-home way that avoids viciousness or meanness. He will play the "happy warrior" role to perfection, at least if what we've seen from him so far is any indication.

This is going to help further define the choice voters face in the upcoming election as one team trying to fix America's problems and head towards a positive future while the other side wallows in bitterness and rage and is fighting to move the country into the past. That's a pretty good setup for Democrats, since voters almost always prefer future-looking candidates and sunny optimism over dark fearmongering.

We'll all get a chance to get introduced to Walz in the next few days, and then the Democrats will put on a big show for the entire country with their national convention. While Trump and Vance will be spewing apocalyptic warnings, Harris and Walz will be highlighting everything positive about their ticket and their party. National polling is already shifting towards Harris, although the trend won't really be definitive for another week or so.

Kamala Harris has turned this race around in breathtaking fashion, in only a little over two weeks. Tim Walz is going to help continue this trend. A guy that can get endorsed by Joe Manchin and Bernie Sanders on the same day seems like a guy that pretty much every Democrat (and a whole lot of independents and never-Trump Republicans) can get behind as well.

I waited to finish this article until after I saw their first joint rally, held in Philadelphia. And I have to say, they both knocked it out of the park. The crowd had energy levels not seen in the Democratic Party since the presidential campaigns of Bernie Sanders. Kamala Harris has gotten a lot better at campaigning, and Tim Walz easily equalled her energy and enthusiasm. I will have more to say about today's rally tomorrow, but I will close today by echoing the very first thing Walz had to say, as he was thanking Harris for her introductory speech and for asking him to be on her ticket. He thanked her for, and I quote: "bringing back the joy."

That pretty much summed up today's rally, and hopefully it will define their entire campaign. Kamala Harris -- now to be helped by Tim Walz -- can bring back the joy to American politics.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant