Let me preface this by making clear that nothing, but nothing, here suggests that Trump is a viable or better alternative to any person, living or dead. That said, the job of president doesn’t start at 10 am and end at 8 pm. The job of president isn’t done by committee. The job of president requires someone capable of being woken up at 2 am after a couple of international trips to be told of incoming ICBMs and make the decision of what to do about it. I don’t make the rules.
All of this raises the next question, which must first be decided before any argument about the nuts and bolts of how to accomplish it: If not Biden, then who? Apparently, the decision-makers have already made their decision without asking those of us who want two things, someone who can beat Trump and someone who can be trusted with the presidency.
According to Axios, it’s Kamala’s party now.
If President Biden steps aside, Vice President Harris would be almost impossible to beat for the nomination, thanks to endorsements, money, optics and 2028 politics, top officials tell us.
Why it matters: All Harris needs is Biden’s backing. If she gets it, the Obamas and Clintons likely would follow, making any challenge an affront to the sitting president and two former presidents.
There are many reasons why this might be so. Most of all, she’s the veep. If the pesident can’t do the job anymore, the vice steps in. That’s the generally accepted scheme of things. It even says so in the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. While politics may present other paths, this is the straightest line and most obvious answer, no matter how unsatisfying it may be. After all, it’s not as if anyone wanted Kamala to be president, as conclusively shown by her failed campaign for the office when she dropped out before Iowa because she was about as unpopular as they come.
But then, Biden made her veep for a reason, right? After all, she was a woman of color and little mattered more in the heady days of 2020 than being a woman of color, no matter how many black men she burned as a prosecutor before she morphed into a pseudo-woke senator.
And that gives rise to the next problem. How can the Democrats skip over a woman of color as candidate when they’re all about identity?
The big picture: If she gets Biden’s endorsement, the only way a top-tier Democrat could challenge her would be to risk their future by saying “not your turn” to the first woman vice president, first Black American vice president and first South Asian vice president.
But what if Biden was asked, right before lunchtime, whether Harris should be his heir apparent?
The intrigue: Biden and his closest advisers have long felt Trump would beat Harris. They question her political skills and likability beyond the liberal bases. But polls show her running no worse than Biden in a hypothetical match-up with Trump.
And the old codger elder statesman can advise his youthful grasshopper to temper her unlikability with a . . . more competent veep.
Biden’s private worries wouldn’t necessarily keep him from endorsing her publicly. It’s called politics. Biden would push to pair her with a moderate Democratic governor like Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro (51), Kentucky’s Andy Beshear (age 46), North Carolina’s Roy Cooper (67) or Illinois’ J.B. Pritzker (59).
But as Harris was to Biden, a more moderate running mate will be window dressing to a Harris administration. According to White House press secretary and gay black woman, Karine Jean-Pierre, Kamala Harris was more than just a pretty face.
If Biden “got there” on deciding to throw in the towel, top Democrats expect he would announce he was endorsing Harris — his running mate in 2020, and partner in governing for the past three years. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during her briefing Wednesday that one of the reasons Biden picked her back in 2020 “is because she is, indeed, the future of the party.”
Is it Kamala Harris’ party now?
At least bring in someone competent. Maybe resurrect Frank Underwood?
“But polls show her running no worse than Biden in a hypothetical match-up with Trump.”
That’s a telling statement. “No worse than Biden,” under the present circumstances, is very bad indeed in terms of electability.
One would think that that the Dems would have learned the lesson of maintaining that “It’s her turn”, from Hillary’s disastrous performance against Il Douche in 2016. They need to decide whether virtue signalling is more important than victory at the polls.
Unfortunately, they need not just to defeat him Il Douche, but to do so in a manner so decisive that we don’t see a repeat of Jan 6th w/ him claiming the election was rigged and urging his followers engage in violence.
Neither Biden nor Harris are likely to be able to accomplish this.
I wish everyone would just get off Joe Biden’s back. He just had one bad night. He had a cold, suffered from jet lag, and it was after 9:00pm. And how would you look after sharing the stage with that other guy for more than an hour? You never thought of that, did you? And didn’t you see how well he helped Dr. Jill off the debate stage? Gallant. Okay, so he starts work at 10:00am,takes an afternoon nap, and stops working at 4:00pm. So what? Hunter is now attending national security meetings. We are all safe. Nothing to worry about. Just stop it.
“After all, it’s not as if anyone wanted Kamala to be president”
How dare you. See the Urban Dictionary entry for KHive for a glimpse of our coming corporate media landscape.
You’re preparing us, aren’t you? I can feel it already.
Tomorrow’s post will present “the nuts and bolts of how to accomplish it.” With the promise of a few important pardons in the bag, President Coprolite will step down. Kamala will run against DC as the incumbent president. She will have delegates and money like the Wicked Witch. Incumbency will carry her to victory.
Dammit, tomorrow’s post has ruined my whole day.
p.s. If DC is clever (he isn’t), he will promise to pardon President Coprolite’s son’s gun charges. The cable news coverage would be far more interesting than it is right now.
Kamala is an enigma. What kind of character is she portraying? Obviously she’s an idiot, but many politicians are idiots, yet their teleprompters don’t cue them to spew nonsense. Are they planning to turn the presidency into a Rorschach test, or some kind of absurdist theatre, making it obvious to everyone that the president is merely a figurehead who entertains us while the country is run by unseen rulers? Or is she just a plot device designed to facilitate the installation of Trump? I’m on the edge of my seat.
“Or is she just a plot device designed to facilitate the installation of Trump?”
The narrative blowback would be something to behold. Then again it’s blowback all the way down.
One major factor in selecting Harris to replace Biden would be that she can legally spend the Biden/Harris campaign funds.
All other candidates would have to start fundraising from zero while she spent against them (or would have to be convinced to exit the race and give the funds to a PAC or the DNC).
I’m not the nation’s foremost campaign finance expert. I’m going to make a wild guess that you probably aren’t either, and are regurgitating what someone else of dubious merit claimed. And yet, you couldn’t stop yourself from raising the nuts and bolts despite it being expressly excluded from this discussion. I hope you’re at least right so you aren’t making people stupider.
Maybe I’m wrong, but if so every news article about the topic is wrong as well (including the WSJ, BBC, and NYT off the top of my head). I am not a lawyer, and the best I can do is reference reputable sources.
Plus, I’d argue that the $240 million in the campaign fund is more than nuts and bolts, and is a major factor in selecting a candidate. That amount is more than the amount raised by the campaign as of the end of May ($232,436,391.53), which is the last reported date on the FEC website.
This is a law blog. If you aren’t a lawyer and don’t know a statement of law to be accurate, never, but never, repeat it here. And that was nuts and bolts. Off to reddit with you. You have no business here.
Since the start, Harris has been Biden’s insurance policy. The whole, continuing effort to prop him up is centered on blocking her succession. The only way the party rallies behind Harris is if Biden keels over and perishes before they can get him on life support.
As was Biden Obama’s insurance policy and some argued on SNL in 1989, Quayle was GHWB’s.