If I am Kamala Harris I am thinking that maybe I don’t want Joe Biden to call about the vice-presidential nomination.
I am thinking I’m Kamala Harris because the people who decide such things have made Biden’s VP pick the paramount political issue of the week. They are thinking Joe has to pick a black female, and if she can’t be Michelle Obama or Oprah, Harris is the next best known. (What about Beyonce?)
Actually my first thought was, Is there a black woman who can also check one of the LGBTQ boxes? Why check two, if you can check three? Or, how about going for four by finding someone who is also a survivor of a rare and dreaded disease? If you think nobody thinks like that, think again of the Democratic National Committee.
So OK. I am Sen. Harris again, and I am thinking that I am, at 55, possessor of a fairly safe seat, and (since Diane Feinstein is 88) soon to be the senior senator for California. Now, even a junior senator from California has loads of clout. My constituents are some of most powerful and best-known people in America, and I have tons of resources to call on. Because California. I can make a big impact on the Senate and, through it, on the country. I will have my name on major legislation and on buildings, roads and bridges, and retire beloved by all.
If Joe calls, he will ask me to give that up for a 50-50 chance to become the next Mike Pence with a leg up on a nomination for president. The latter could be good unless Biden messes up big time. Either way, in 12 years or less I will be a has-been. And it is a risk versus as sure a thing as there is in politics. I could be a has-been by December.
And if Biden needs help in California from the VP choice, he’s going to lose anyway. That thought must have occurred to him. (That’s also why Kristen Gillibrand had better count on keeping her Senate pass.)
So that is what’s wrong with the pundits' first choice.
And the second is Stacey Abrams of Georgia. She is best known for losing a close race for governor of her state. We already have had a winning candidate for governor of Georgia as president.
Next name of the list may be Rep Val Deming of Florida, ex-top cop. She made a good impression in the House impeachment hearings, but she is hardly a household name even in Florida.
Then there is Sen. Tammy Duckworth, black, female, combat helicopter and double amputee. She lost both legs in a chopper crash. She checks THREE boxes. DNC Chairman Tom Perez should be drooling. But she has a very moderate voting record, which doesn’t help Biden with any of the party wings lined up to get into a flap over his choice, whoever she is.
And, finally, there is maybe the most interesting of all, Susan Rice. Former national security advisor to President Obama, former U.N. ambassador. There’s always Benghzi Benghazi Benghazi, Trey Gowdy would put on his war paint, and Devin Nunes would get back onto TV. But her specialty is foreign affairs, and that’s where Biden already has his opponent on the ropes. I mean, even boypa Kim off him.
So although the people who decided we have to talk about Biden’s black, female running mate this week, it doesn’t seem to me that they have got anybody locked in. But if I were Harris, I’d get out of cell phone range until this thing is decided.
Minor correction: Tammy Duckworth is Asian American, not African American. So she checks a not-white box, although I can never quite tell if the woke PTB give Asian Americans as much intersectional cred as African Americans and Hispanics. And yes, Duckworth is independent, and she is much-admired in Illinois.
ReplyDeleteAll of this smacks of the worst sort of tokenism. If there are Democrats who will, out of some sense of political purity, stay home on election day because Biden did not pick a black woman, then we truly deserve four more years of Trump.
ReplyDeleteI assure you there are, and Joe knows it. Of course, it doesn't help that the purity goals are set by the likes of Chuck Todd, Mara Liasson and Dan Baltz who don't have a rooster in the fight. But the Ds brought this on themselves by encouraging it back when it started.
DeleteReally? Blame the media? Maybe those you mention are sympathetic to that type of thing, but I think elements in the DNC were the ones driving it the tokenism. Last time around, it was the rabid Hillarites, Donna Brazile and Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Kirstin Gillibrand tried running on that "I Am Woman" platform, and it didn't get much traction.
DeleteLord knows I am all for women taking over everything, but they have to be able to actually, you know, run stuff, not just stand there looking female.
With Biden's age, they have to pick someone who can hit the ground running if something happens to the president. I don't care how many woke boxes they check.
ReplyDeleteAnd now this. "President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to relocate the upcoming Republican National Convention from North Carolina to another state if its Democratic governor doesn’t allow his party “full attendance” at the event. In a series of tweets, Trump targeted Gov. Roy Cooper for being “still in Shutdown mood” during the coronavirus pandemic, saying he would find a more accommodating state if Cooper doesn’t cave to his demand. Nearly 50,000 people are expected to attend the August 24-27 event in Charlotte, according to the RNC’s website."
ReplyDeleteI've got the perfect location: The Trump Doral. Trouble is, he just laid off half of the staff.
DeleteI think there is zero chance that 50,000 people are going to show up. That would be a chrome-plated public health disaster. Even the die-hards have a better instinct of self-preservation. But that he's even thinking along those lines shows how delusional he is. He still thinks he can declare the crisis over by fiat.
Delete