Of course by now everyone has heard that Joe Biden has chosen Kamala Harris as his running mate. I have been bragging to my family that I called it early on. I'm pretty sure Biden has known for quite a while who he was going to pick. An indication about why he has delayed making the announcement was a tweet from the president shortly after it was official. He said Ms. Harris was "...very, very nasty!" Of course that is his favorite adjective for women. He also said Harris had been " very disrespectful " to Biden. Which is rich coming from Trump. In spite of the hail of rotten tomatoes which will be ongoing from the president and his campaign, Ms. Harris is not one who will wilt under the attacks. She and Biden have apparently mended their relationship, which had suffered during the first debate. She and Vice President Pence will be featured in a debate. I'm betting she will be able to hold her own.
Interesting commentary in the Post this morning
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/08/11/kamala-harris-woman-republicans-could-not-stop/
I wish Harris luck, but I thought Rice would have been a better choice. Given Biden's age and possible health limitations, it's very possible that the VP could be president before 2024. I'd feel better about Rice being in charge than Harris.
ReplyDeleteMy concern about Harris is based on a single incident, which perhaps was just her having a bad day, but it left an impression on me. I watched the Democratic debate (I can no longer remember if events were this year or last year - my sense of time is distorted by the pandemic, but I'm pretty sure this was pre-pandemic) in which Tulsi Gabbard carved her up with some sharp questions, one of them insinuating that Harris was a pot-smoker who, during her time as attorney general, had imprisoned many thousands of California residents for marijuana-related offenses. What struck me was that Harris wilted under the pressure. She clearly hadn't prepped for that line of questioning, and didn't do a good job of thinking on her feet. So, fairly or not, my impression is that she is a wilter.
I didn't see Tulsi Gabbard's questioning about marijuana offenses (though if I were her I wouldn't be talking about sketchy things from the past. The name Assad ring any bells?) To be fair, unless they change the laws, prosecutors do put people in jail for marijuana offenses.
DeleteMichael Sean Winters had some things to say in NCR today: https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/kamala-harris-good-newsbad-news-vp-pick
He talks about both positive and negative points. He doesn't see her as progressive enough. Which in my eyes isn't a fault, but I'm a centrist, kind of like road-kill.
My main thing against Harris, which MSW brings up, is '...Harris' bizarre comments about the Knights of Columbus. In 2018, she asked a judicial nominee, Brian Buescher, "Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed a woman's right to choose when you joined the organization?" Brian Buescher is a fellow Nebraskan, and from what I've heard, a decent guy. And the question is along the lines of, does a bear live in the woods? Is the pope Catholic?
I think Jim's concern about withering is on target, but I don't think Pence has the ability to question Harris like Gabbard.
DeleteDid you know the Knights oppose the right to choose ... Hard to believe that Harris didn't know the answer to that. My guess is that we was trying to emphasize re judge's anti-abortion stance.
Yawwwwwn.I guess this means Biden will be able to carry California. Oh? He would have carried it anyway?
ReplyDeleteBiden said, brain deadly, that he would seek an Africa-American woman. Well, he got the woman. (So did Walter Mondale. So did John McCain. See where that got them.) But technically, she is of Jamaican-Indian heritage; neither Jamaica nor India is in Africa. As one of NPR's sensitives said this morning, she "identifies" as black, though. Well, anyone can identify as any sex these days, including sexes that didn't exist in my youth. So why not race? But if we are going to play that game, Joe could have picked Bernie Sanders.
I would have wished for a bit more gravitas. But there wasn't a whole lot of that on Biden's short list. Come to think of it, there isn't much of that in his party. But I suppose that, having checked all the boxes Harris checks, maybe the party is out of boxes and can start thinking about governing again.
As I understand it, most Jamaicans are of African descent, whose ancestors were brought there during the days of slavery. Which doesn't make them African Americans, since Jamaica is its own country. But it does make them African (at least as ancestry goes). And the ones I have met (admittedly few in number) definitely qualify as Black.
DeleteKatherine, unsurprisingly, I’ve met a whole lot of Jamaicans through my son , his wife, and their family and friends. Only one of their close Jamaican friends is not black, but is descended from the Europeans who brought in African slaves. Her (white) family has been in Jamaica for a very long time.
DeleteDid any of you read the article I posted?
ReplyDeleteMy d-I-l is Jamaican. She became an American citizen when she was 25, after coming here at age 15. Black Jamaicans are also descended from Africans. So is she African-Jamaican-American? She identifies as African American. I have no problem with that. Our grandchildren will identify as African American also even though their father is an English-Scottish-Irish-German-French American mutt.
Susan Rice would have brought out all the hate Obama, Hate Hillary, Obama was spying on Trump, Hillary is responsible for Benghazi baggage. Not the best choice in the current political climate.
Anne, I agree. Yes, I read the article. I think you are right about Susan Rice.
DeleteAlas, Susan Rice is the better qualified, but not the best choice for the reasons Anne states.
DeleteI expect to see Birthers having fun with Harris's ethnic mix, though.
She was born in Oakland, but some of the make-up-your-own-reality bunch will try and say it was Chenai, India. But everybody knows place of birth doesn't matter unless you're a Democratic nominee. It was crickets when Ted Cruz or McCain were running, even though neither were born on American soil.
DeleteObama was born in Hawaii. Didn't matter.
DeleteYeah, they wouldn't even believe his birth certificate when he produced it!
DeleteBret Stephens. New York Times conservative, claims Rice was awfully adoring of dictators when she was U.N. ambassador. He can say that because he is an anti-Trumper. If he were a Trumper, he would have to count it on the plus side. He doesn't think she does much for Joe.
DeleteTom, I just saw Stephens' article about Rice. I stand corrected: Kamala is a better choice.
Deletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/10/opinion/susan-rice-africa.html
Anne, I tried to click through to that WaPo article but it's behind a paywall for me.
DeleteWell, I am behind the times about the Birthers. Jacob Wohl has asserted Harris is not eligible to be prez because she is an "anchor baby," and went to high school in Montreal. Snopes has the story here: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/kamala-harris-eligibility/
DeleteJim, thanks for the link to the Brett Stephens article. I was never a fan of Rice. This sentence pretty well sums her up for me: "She has been inept in her diplomacy. She has played politics with human rights and played realpolitik with the truth." Yeah, Harris was the better choice .
DeleteJim, Harris is only 55. Not quite over the hill yet. Aren’t you around the same age?
ReplyDeleteAnne, I'm not quite *that* young and spry anymore :-). But I don't have any objections to Harris's age. It's Biden's age, and even more so his general fitness for this extremely stressful job, that worries me.
DeleteJim, that worries me a bit, too. But then I think of the general fitness of the present incumbent. I have my doubts that our democracy could withstand another four years of him. Even if Biden dies in office (and I'm going to pray for his health every day) Harris can step in and do the job better than Trump. Any of the people who were under consideration could.
Delete"I have my doubts that our democracy could withstand another four years of him."
DeleteYes - it doesn't bear thinking about. Let's not put us to the test.
Jean, you are the most insightful political analyst of the group. What do you think of the VP choice?
ReplyDeleteI think we are living in a dystopian novel with a greedy lying dumbass as prez and a lot of Rapture-believing white supremacists in his admin stoking a race and culture war.
DeleteJoe and Kamala were not my first, second or third choice candidates. But they're the only viable choice right now. Whether this ticket will play to independents in swing states, not me, is really the question.
My guess is that Harris will annoy a lot of those independent voters in swing states, especially in the Midwest, for the same reasons she annoys me. I don't care identity politics 24/7. I don't care for GenXers, Third Wave feminists, people who use the word "hurtful," ex-girlfriends of Jerry Brown (though I like Jerry), politicians from California (except Jerry), or members of The Squad. But I'll settle for annoyed over enraged, and hope the independents feel the same.
Thanks for posting the link to the Post's opinion piece. I am most interested in where Harris is vulnerable so this can be addressed by the campaign.
DeleteSpeaking of Rapture expectacy Georgia Republicans have nominated a QAnon for a House seat that only a Republican can win, even if the Republican thinks liberals dine on babies. She can snuggle up to Jim Jordan as a peer, and they can think deep thoughts.
DeleteJim Jordan, that wretched little man. Speaking of, your friend Louie Gohmert is getting better all thanks to hydroxychloroquine!
Deletehttps://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2020/08/11/covid-positive-tyler-rep-louie-gohmert-postpones-fundraiser-but-says-hes-feeling-remarkably-well/
Aiieeeeeeee! Here's what Trump was about Harris's eligibility to be pres as reported in the WaPo. The reporter who asked the question should be slapped for letting him start sowing seeds of doubt.
Delete“So I just heard that, I heard it today, that she doesn’t meet the requirements,” Trump said when asked about it during a White House press briefing. “I have no idea if that’s right. I would have assumed the Democrats would have checked it before she gets chosen to run for vice president. But that’s a very serious … You’re saying that they’re saying that she doesn’t qualify because she wasn’t born in this country?”
So at the end, he snaps back to birtherism.
DeleteWell, if Biden wins, and they REALLY want to address the BLM problem, my suggestion for Attorney General would be Michelle Alexander, civil rights attorney and author of "The New Jim Crow". Or maybe we've hit our limit of African-American women in high places.
ReplyDeleteI read something that surprised me a bit about Harris. She is a Baptist. I guess I expected her to be Hindu, or a "none". There are many kinds of Baptists, and I expect she is not of the fudamentalist type. But interesting.
ReplyDeleteShe and Joe are giving pretty good speeches right now, demonizing Trump and talking about what regular Americans need across the board. It's a little schmaltzy, but I think after four years of Trump's inability to connect with Americans emotionally unless it's rage and scorn it is refreshing.
ReplyDeleteI've sort of made myself a personal pledge to try to be more forgiving of public figures. Whatever Kamala Harris's past sins and failings have been, I am willing to give her a chance to show that she has grown beyond them. Some people do achieve that.
ReplyDeleteJim, Your reward will be great in heaven. But, as Willie Starks intoned (All the King's Men), "Man in conceived in sin and born in corruption. He passes from the stink of the didie to the stench of the shroud. There is something on everyone."
DeleteTom - Willie Starks is too right. I don't think any person - certainly any political candidate, especially if they have been in politics for a long time - can meet today's impossible standards of perfection and righteousness. I support the traditional Christian method of acknowledgement, repentance, forgiveness and reparation.
DeleteWhen the Democratic primary was in full swing, many of the candidates, including Harris, scored hits on Biden for policies he had supported in the 1980s and 1990s. He has changed his thinking on some of those issues since then. Does that represent accumulated wisdom on his part? Or does it simply make him a windsock? Or is life more complicated than simple dichotomies?
I have changed my thinking on a lot of things over the years. Doesn't mean my original positions were not sincerely held, just that life's experiences lead one to see things from other perspectives. I would be more concerned about the mental rigidity of a person who never changed his opinion on anything.
DeleteI thought Harris's hits on Biden (about busing) during the debate were unfair, for one thing, it's water under the bridge. Literally nobody wants to bring back busing nowadays. Apparently Harris and Biden have mended their fences now. She commented, "It was a debate!" Meaning, all's fair in love and war, and politics is war. Or something .
"To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often." -- Cardinal Newman
DeleteHarris will be a good choice if she motivates Blacks, Hispanics, and young people to all show up in very high numbers. That is all possible.
ReplyDeleteIf that happens the Republicans who voted for Obama and now Trump may not matter. They might even be willing to vote for Joe as being not far left. However they could be scared off by Harris, maybe as much for being a woman as for being non-White.
I think the Repubs who are turned off by Trump and are willing to vote for Biden will be fine with Harris. She isn't as left as some are trying to paint her.
Delete