Word dropped this afternoon, all the speculation is done, all the fighting steps up a notch, and we finally have a WINNER!
It's DAN QUA- wait wrong Veep announcement.
As mentioned often before, the selection of the Vice President doesn't do much to improve - or worsen - a Presidential campaign as long as the pick is a sensible, solid one. It's a first test for the President: showing off his/her decision-making of who'll they also pick as Cabinet members, agency bosses, what have you. It underscores the direction and theme of the campaign as well: Picking someone with foreign policy cred is one thing, picking a Veep with economic reform ideas is another.
Biden picking Kamala Harris says four things:
1) He is looking at keeping a big tent going for the Democratic Party. Much of Harris' voting record is a solid Left history. Despite her image and reputation as a state Attorney General, her history as a U.S. Senator ranks her pretty high on the liberal scoring charts (govtrack ranks by "most conservative" so in liberal measurements Harris is at the other end). Biden is recognized as more Center than Left, so getting a solid Liberal Left candidate should appeal to many at that end of the spectrum (she's closer to Bernie Sanders than Elizabeth Warren).
2) He is showing no ill-will to the time in the debates when Kamala went after Biden for his school busing stance and other not-good positions early in his Senatorial career. Once Harris dropped out of the primaries, she eventually backed Biden for the ticket to show party fealty, and Biden as a long-time player had to respect that. There's also Biden's Passive-Positive traits of Congeniality and team-building: He has a world-view of bipartisan outreach, and repairing bridges to party leaders who opposed him fits that world-view. This is Biden's way of signaling to other factions in the Democratic Party (and any moderate factions left among Republicans) that he will have an Open Door of sorts to his Oval Office.
3) He is demonstrating to the Party and to the general voters that he keeps his word: Biden promised he would choose a woman as a Vice President and so he did.
4) He is living in his comfort zone. Not that he and Harris will see eye-to-eye on every issue, it's that Biden is one of those Senators who viewed his time in that setting as membership in an exclusive club. Senators tend to favor Senators as political allies even when they're disagreeing on issues (note how John McCain wanted fellow Senator Joe Lieberman as his Veep in 2008 even though Lieberman was a Democrat(!)). Biden had to be thinking "If Kamala was cool enough for the Senate she's cool enough for my campaign."
Voting, of course, still matters. Turnout remains key for Democrats to overcome the obstruction and suppression the Republicans are already signalling to the world. What today's decision does is move the campaign closer to cohesion and planning for the big run to November. It's a moment to stir up support and fundraising and momentum in the media (by the buzz on Twitter today, it seems to have done all three).
It also means I need to make more 2020 bumper stickers!
4 comments:
There's also the "She kicked my ass all across the debate stage, I want her on my team" factor. Can't wait to see her debate Pence.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
Should have picked Susan rice
Sorry MyCue23 but:
1) Susan Rice lacks the elective experience that Harris and other suggested candidates have (knowing *how* to campaign matters)
2) Rice's scoring on the political spectrum made her more Centrist than *Biden*, which hurts any chances to excite the more liberal and Progressive bases. One of Hillary's failures in 2016 was selecting Sen. Kaine, someone who was viewed as Centrist as well, alienating a Progressive faction that dreaded their wants would get ignored by Hillary's administration.
3) Susan Rice is directly connected to the Benghazi brouhaha. And while most Democrats know THAT was a fcking witch hunt and wouldn't hold it against her, it would have been a big enough "scandal" for Fox Not-News and a Republican Senate to rehash that whole circus to embarrass her all over again.
Rice may qualify in a Biden administration for Sec of State or a key ambassadorial role. Veep was a bridge too far.
I would rather have Susan Rice as the "President in waiting". And Kamala Harris is at liberal as being on the right side of public sentiment allows. I frankly don't care about liberal or moderate. I care about competence. Joe may have picked the most expedient candidate, but he didn't pick the best one.
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