Joe Biden’s staff finally chose his running mate: it’s Willie Brown’s former mistress.
The New York Times was drooling over her:
“Political warrior” — Nah, she slept her way to the top.
“Woman of color in No. 2 slot of Major Party” — she’s not even an African-American, she’s half Indian and half Jamaican. In some photos, she could even be confused for white.
But beyond that, does anything matter other than what box she checks on her Census form? No, apparently not.
“Pick seen as safe, but energizing” — No, sorry, it doesn’t work that way. There’s an inverse correlation between “safe” and “energizing” VP picks. When Obama chose Biden as his running mate in 2008, that was a safe pick. When Trump chose Pence as his running mate in 2016, that was a safe pick. Tim Kaine was safe and boring.
Paul Ryan in 2012 was “energizing” because at the time–and I know it’s hard to remember at this point–he was a conservative fan favorite. But it also ran the risk of energizing the left against him because he was seen as a radical fiscal conservative. He was not “safe.” Remember when they made an ad about him throwing an old lady in a wheelchair off a cliff? Paul Ryan was arguably a liability for Romney given how much the left hated him.
Sarah Palin was “energizing,” but not “safe” at all for McCain in 2008. She got the base revved up, but the pick backfired because voters saw her as wildly inexperienced and kooky. The media ripped her to shreds. How many TV-watchers still to this day think she actually said, “I can see Russia from my house”? She never did. Tina Fey played her on SNL and said it, and millions of Americans think Palin herself said it.
There’s safe picks, and there’s energizing picks. But none that are both.
Kamala Harris is not “energizing.” Do people forget that she ran for President last year? She flamed out spectacularly and shut down her campaign in December. She didn’t even make it to the Iowa Caucus.
And you’re trying to tell me this woman is going to “energize” the Democratic base?
If that was the case they wouldn’t have rejected her campaign less than a year ago.
When Kamala Harris ended her campaign on December 11, 2019, she was polling at a measly 3.5%:
In early July 2019 she may have been in 2nd place in the Democratic race for, like, a day, but that was it. She had a brief spike but then quickly fell down to 4th, and then eventually 5th, where she ended her campaign.
If the Democratic voters wanted Kamala Harris, they would have shown it by actually supporting her candidacy when she ran for President.
Now, you might say that her terrible performance in the Dem Primary just last year doesn’t matter because hey, Obama won the election with Biden as his VP, and Biden flamed out way early in the 2008 Democratic Primary.
But Joe Biden 2020 is not Barack Obama 2008. Obama had enough star power, help from the media, and his own massive cult following to win in 2008. Joe Biden only has the media propping him up. He has no charisma, no cult-following that would crawl through broken glass to vote for him (Trump does, though), and no compelling reason he should be president other than “Orange Man Bad.”
Joe Biden needs a superstar running mate pick now. Obama in 2008 did not. Obama was the superstar.
Kamala Harris is not the answer.
The media certainly loves her and thinks she’s #Inspirational–I won’t deny that–but I doubt many voters will be “energized” by this.
Do you really think there are people out there that were going to vote for Trump, but will switch over to Biden because Biden picked a Woman Of Color as his running mate? Those voters do not exist.
Most will see this pick for what it is: a cynical, superficial ploy by the Biden campaign to pander to BLM based on nothing but Kamala Harris’s ethnicity.
The thing is, though, Kamala Harris will not energize the BLM-wing.
Kamala Harris may be officially “black,” but she is not the candidate BLM wants. She’s not nearly enough. Remember why she flamed out in the Democratic Primary? You could be forgiven for drawing a blank, as her campaign was so uneventful. But it was these five words: “Kamala Harris is a cop.”
“During her 28-year tenure as a county prosecutor, district attorney (D.A.), and state attorney general (A.G.), Harris proved quite willing to live up to the epithet. In the public eye, she spoke of racial justice and liberal values, bolstering her cred as one of the Democratic Party’s rising stars. But behind closed doors, she repeatedly fought for more aggressive prosecution not just of violent criminals but of people who committed misdemeanors and “quality of life” crimes.
Every attorney general fights for state power and police prerogatives. It’s part of the job. But over and over again, Harris went beyond the call of duty, fighting for harsher sentences, larger bail requirements, longer prison terms, more prosecution of petty crimes, greater criminal justice involvement in low-income and minority communities, less due process for people in the system, less transparency, and less accountability for bad cops.”
Remember when Tulsi Gabbard took her to task for her record as a prosecutor?
The media will ignore all of this, of course. But far-left activists who have spent the past two months raging against law enforcement and calling to “Defund the Police” won’t.
These tweets all come from far-leftwing accounts. They are not happy about “the cop”:
49.2k likes 👀
This dude’s name is “SocialistMMA”:
This account “NoComradesUnder1K” replied:
(Most of the time the left can’t meme, but this is a quality meme. Credit where it’s due.)
I’ll keep going:
These are not right-wing accounts.
The Bernie campaign’s national press secretary blasted the Harris pick today:
Democratic Socialists of LA weighed in:
This chick has a hammer and sickle in her Twitter name:
I could keep going, but you get the point: the far-left is not placated by the fact that Kamala Harris is a woman of color. They’re the opposite of placated.
Now I have no problem with her “tough-on-crime” record. In fact, to me it’s a rare positive on her record. But the Biden campaign does not care about me. My vote is already locked-in for Trump. The problem for them is this will not fly with the people they are actually counting on to win the election.
The whole point of the George Floyd Riots of the past few months was to whip up black support for Biden. And it all culminated with. . . Kamala Harris. Very anti-climatic.
They’re counting on their base to forget about her record, but they won’t.
Kamala Harris is a dud for the Democratic Base.