We generally don’t get very much news out of another day on the trail for the presidential surrogates, including the veep nominees. The rare exception comes if the speaker suddenly veers off the script set at the top of the ticket, as occasionally happens with Mike Pence (to the great delight of the liberal media). We saw the reverse of that scenario in Detroit yesterday, when Tim Kaine addressed the Democratic faithful. To listen to the man or watch the speech (included below) you’d run across moments where you might wonder if he’d ever actually met Hillary Clinton.

You can get a brief recap in more supportive tones from the local media. (Wood TV)

White House hopeful Tim Kaine was back in Michigan Tuesday.

Kaine focused on the economy and curbing poverty as he addressed hundreds of community leaders and supporters in Detroit. The event was held at Focus: HOPE, a training facility that helps people learn skilled trades to get into or return to the work force.

Kaine’s speech came less than 24 hours after his Republican counterpart, vice presidential candidate Mike Pence visited Michigan. The Indiana governor addressed GOP supporters during a private Lincoln Day dinner in Macomb County, less than 20 miles away.

Before we get to the good stuff, here’s the video of a good chunk of the speech.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiVfc2hwE0U

There were times when it was hard to tell whether Kaine was promoting the agenda promised by the top of the ticket or some other fictional Democrat who isn’t in the race. You’ll find all sort of claims tailored to the audience in there, but some of the policy messages will leave Clinton followers scratching their heads. One of Hillary Clinton’s policy advisers, Michael Shapiro, tweeted out some of the high points for progressives.

.@timkaine lays out bold progressive vision: Wall St never wrecks Main St; oppose TPP; raise min wage; expand Social Security; public option

— Michael Shapiro (@mpshapiro) October 18, 2016

You have to zoom all the way to the final three minutes of the speech before Kaine finishes talking about poverty and gets to what he and Hillary actually plan to do about it. This includes, “making sure Wall Street never wrecks Main Street again… rejecting trade deals like TPP… raising the minimum wage.”

Excuse me.. did you just say you were going to make sure Wall Street never wrecks Main Street again? Have you read any of the released portions of transcripts of speeches your running mate gave to Wall Street? She certainly didn’t sound like she was interested in reining anyone in to me. Must be another of those public position versus private position things, huh? And the “dump TPP” talk goes over well in a union town, but this is the same deal that she previously referred to as “the Gold Standard.” Will we be upgrading to Platinum status now?

Pat Ward of Fox News is following Kaine on the trail and he caught a few other gems from the speech. One of them is the fact that Hillary is now a… Cubs fan?

.@timkaine tells Detroit crowd: Hillary & I have always rooted for the underdogs, she's a @Cubs fan, Lord, we root for underdogs. #cubs

— Pat Ernityleave (@WardDPatrick) October 18, 2016

That’s a great line to use in the Midwest, but from 2000 to 2007 when she needed to impress the people of New York, Kaine’s running mate emphatically reminded everyone that she had always been a Yankees fan and showed up for interviews in a Yankees ball cap. Besides… this is Detroit. Shouldn’t Kaine have referenced the Tigers? Either way, it’s another case where these people will say absolutely anything to scrounge up a few more votes, pretending as if we have no technology to dredge up the various garbage they’ve said in the past.

But baseball aside, Ward also picked up on this gem. The Clinton campaign is back to saying they support the Fight for 15… at least for today.

Kaine in Detroit says they will push for $15/hr minimum wage and propose doubling the Child Tax Credit.

— Pat Ernityleave (@WardDPatrick) October 18, 2016

Once again, that’s a great line to use in front of a union crowd, but Clinton has frequently avoided endorsing a national minimum wage of fifteen dollars per hour. The most she’s been willing to say in other venues is twelve, while leaving it to the states to decide the rest. (That’s pretty much what happened in New York, where she also “endorsed” the plans of the governor.) At other times she’s hinted that she would favor fifteen dollars. The fact is, she says what she needs to say to impress the audience of the moment and Kaine seems to be dutifully following in that pattern.