At some point later today. Democratic presidential candidate (that’s right, the vote’s been taken and the deed is done) Kamala Harris will announce her choice of running mate. It could be one of the worn list of potential vice presidents, or it could be a surprise. Who knows? More importantly, who cares? Why has the scrutiny of Harris’ VP choice engendered such vicious and critical scrutiny?
“Common wisdom” is that the person chosen will be a “signal” of what Harris’ presidency would be about, which raises two questions. First, is it a substantive signal or is it a political choice calculated to help Harris beat Trump in the general election.
Traditionally, vice presidential candidates are chosen for their contribution to the win, whether by demographics or personal characteristics. The notion is that by adding a person from another part of the country, the candidate “recognizes” that state’s value and touches the locals to win their votes.
Now that the candidates have expanded beyond white men, racial and gender demographics bring another dimensions to the ticket. Since Harris has the black, Indian and female boxes checked, a white male running mate checks the others, except for Pete Buttigieg, who covers both white male and gay sexual orientation, missing from the other potential veeps (as far as we know).
The scrutiny, and concomitant attacks, on the potential running mates has been stunning. Since when did the choice of vice president get so much attention. Does the vice prez candidate really matter that much? How much did Harris matter to the Biden administration? Other than a few incoherent gaffs at speaking engagements, did she do anything?
In the ordinary course of politics, intense scrutiny would be paid to the person at the top of the ticket to determine whether they would be the kind of person voters would want to serve as president. Of course, since Biden’s withdrawal, there has been no ordinary course of politics and Harris morphed overnight into the adored savior of the Dems, untouched by scrutiny and, if media reports are to be believed, capable of riding unicorns prancing on rainbows. Is the scrutiny being paid to the vice presidential hopefuls a displacement of angst over the Democratic ticket given that the public played no role in the choice at the top of the ticket?
The second question is why, oh why, is America and the media looking to Harris’ veep choice as an indicator of whether she will be woke or liberal, moderate or extreme, rather than asking Harris to cut the platitudinous crap and provide some hard details on why anyone should vote for her (beyond the obvious)?
Why have so many, particularly in the media, become obsessed with Harris’ choice for vice president? Does it really send a signal? Does it really matter at all?
Consider that Trump chose J.D. Vance, who appears to be doing the impossible, making Team Trump even crazier and more outrageous than Trump alone.
Even worse, what if Harris’ choice of running mate turns out to be the person Americans would have chosen to run against Trump for president had the Democratic Party not anointed Harris to avoid the likely ugly convention chaos while denying the people the chance to pick the candidate they actually want to be president?
Update: It’s Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, whoever he is.
*Tuesday Talk rules apply.
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The primary reason for the intense interest is that it’s a proxy fight between wings of the Democratic Party in a similar way to the Perez- Ellison fight for chair of the DNC a while back. Harris can say things that appeal to all of the party’s factions, but there’s only one VP slot. I think VP selections have frequently mattered in the same way in prior elections even if they are usually forgotten after the election: Lieberman, Palin, Biden, and Pence all come to mind as candidates designed to send a strong signal to specific parts of the electorate.
I think who is Vice President does matter, because almost 20% of U.S. Presidents have died in office, leaving the VP to take over. Oyster Bay’s own Theodore Roosevelt most likely would’ve never sniffed the Presidency had he not be VP for McKinley. Its easy to forget because most of the time they aren’t going to do much while in office, but they do need to be ready to step in should something happen to the President. Donald Trump is 78 years old so he has decent odds that he would die in office. I’m not sure I would feel great about having JD Vance stepping into the role should something happen to him.
I’m not sure there is a chance of someone being picked that the people wanted for President. A convention would’ve been a shit show and the headlines would’ve all been “Dems in Dissary”. Typically n the last 40 years after two terms the VP ends up running anyway, with the exception of Hillary in 2016 (I had forgotten they pushed Biden out. I wonder if he would’ve won in if they ran him in 2016?).
I was not expecting a Bad Religion song posted in the comments of SJ!
The VP is important for 2 reasons:
1. Even if the president doesn’t die; the VP has the inside track for the next nomination. This is true even with “insurance policy” VPs who are so terrible that they protect the president from removal. Tim Walz, who nobody had ever heard of before today, is now a credible candidate for president 4 or 8 years from now.
2. It’s not unusual for the VP to be the real power behind a vacant throne. Bush/Cheney is a good example of this, Kennedy/Johnson is a case where it didn’t work out so well, and the throne had to be vacated. It’s likely that Waltz will be the “adult in the room” as Harris abuses her staff, serves word salad, and giggles inappropriately at random intervals.
Because Tim Waltz is a straight white male, he can be unceremoniously jettisoned if necessary. This may indicate that the Democrats have learned from the Harris/Biden situation. In the future, if they choose a “marginalized” VP, she will probably be competent or at least electable.
It feels more momentous than it is because Harris herself benefitted greatly from being VP, and previously both candidates were liable to croak while in office thus leaving us with the successor. Other than that, Harris has the benefit of being new and shiny and in her honeymoon phase with the party, so anything she does is gonna be obsessed over.
Walz it is. Whatever, as long as the numbers move in the right direction, I don’t care. Might as well be reading tea leaves to determine what it means that she picked him over Shapiro (they were the betting favorites). She could give a clearer signal with a little thing called a platform. That’d be nice to see.
Vance deserves all of the scorn and more.
Walz who?
Is this supposed to send a message or is the message “not Shapiro” to calm the pro-Hamas left fringe? What little I’ve heard about Walz is all over the board, so I have no idea what to make of it other than he’s not Shapiro.
He’s not going to be popular with the military. He was the senior NCO for his unit and when they were tapped for deployment to the sandbox he retired just when they needed the senior leadership.
Basically, he abandoned the younger troops just when they needed his skills and knowledge most.
Google the following for full details.
Thomas Behrends
Command Sergeant Major (Retired)
Paul Herr
Command Sergeant Major (Retired)
That is a swift boat attack.