Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, is one of the best speakers in the United States. Walz would make a great vice president. His speech in Philadelphia on Tuesday showed us why.

Walz is a cross between a football coach, veteran from 24 years in the Army National Guard, high school social studies teacher, congressman and governor. This is not a metaphor: He is a cross between all of these things. It is rare for America to see a political candidate who has such a diverse background.

He doesn’t come from one of the three most common backgrounds: Either a career politician who has worked his way up (like Bill Clinton) over the course of 20 or more years, a rich businessman (like Sen. Ron Johnson from Wisconsin) who self-funded his campaign, or a maverick like the late Paul Wellstone who went from college professor to U.S. senator.

Walz has managed to unite a career in teaching, serving in the military, coaching high school football, and politics. This is unusual for someone running for president or vice president. He also is not an attorney, which is refreshing.

The speech Walz gave was very assertive, very aggressive, very enthusiastic, very authentic, and very funny. He made the audience, actual and television and YouTube, feel good about themselves and their country. He also blasted the Republican ticket, former President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, and gave no impression of being afraid of either of them although he asked the audience to be afraid of Trump returning to the White House.

Moreover, he backed Harris strongly and sincerely. He made it clear that she would indeed have his back, and the audience must feel good about how he would be there to share his considerable experience in legislative and executive positions with her.

Walz was also very personal, especially talking about years of IVF with his wife Gwen before the birth of their first child, Hope. He didn’t say so, but it was seven. They used IVF for their son Gus, too. Millions of Americans presumably identified with Tim Walz.

Walz is not eloquent like President Barack Obama. He is not a statesman like the late Sen. John McCain. He is not a spiritual/moral leader like the late Sen. Joe Lieberman.

Walz is unique. He was running a pep rally in Philadelphia with forceful arguments and great one-liners. He spoke from the heart and the gut and was easy to follow. He wasn’t the guy next door so much as a man with consummate experience to be vice president or indeed president.

At one in the same time he did not sound like a politician and did sound like a politician. He did not sound like almost all politicians, but he did sound like the kind of politician we need as vice president.

He was likable, inspiring, a politician who made you believe in yourself and in the possibility of change for the better. He did not give a policy speech with rational arguments, data, and financial details, not that such arguments are bad or not useful in speeches. Yet they are not always suited to the task at hand.

Walz is the American Midwest, separated from the extremism, left and right, of both coasts as well as the deep south. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Kansas, Nebraska where he grew up on a farm -- he is America without elitism and without racism, homophobia and sexism.

He is not so much the “common man” as a man with a breadth of experiences and knowledge to do the job.

He is an American leader who encourages you to love your country.

Dave Anderson has taught political philosophy at the University of Cincinnati, Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University, ran for Congress in Maryland in 2016, and is editor of Leveraging (Springer, 2014).