Amy Klobuchar makes her move

She is running for Vice President.  

Third Debate

Democrats are mostly ignoring Amy Klobuchar. She is widely acceptable to voters,  but not very many people's number one. 

Amy Klobuchar has a brand. It is understood by people in Minnesota, where she is a US Senator, and it is understood by Democratic activists (now called the Twitter party) and by the media punditry. 

But she isn't well known generally. She is new on the national stage.

 Her brand: She is Minnesota nice. She is bipartisan. She represents an end to political trench warfare and ugly name calling. She is Midwestern-friendly. She is electable. She is politically moderate. She has the good qualities of Joe Biden, without his history, the gaffes, the vote in favor of the Iraq war, the Delaware corporate ties, the hair sniffing, the being too old. 

She is a woman, but doesn't subtly communicate she wants to go to war with men. She also isn't a Socialist, and she didn't say she was part Native American. She isn't homosexual. She isn't a billionaire. 

Because of all the things she is not, she is also not number one on very many voters' list. However, she did make the cut for the Third Debate, barely. 

Odd person out

She communicated at the Third Debate that she is OK with being second banana by how she dressed. She wore a teal jacket.

She didn't dress to command. She dressed to support.

Second Debate

Of course it was intentional. This was a showdown, game on. She didn't just impulsively pick something out of her closet on a whim. Indeed, her previous debate clothing drew attention and commentary, because it was exactly similar to Elizabeth Warren's. 

There was some joking media commentary on this--my goodness, two women wearing similar outfits to an event, how terrible!  

I consider this evidence of the triviality of media discourse on politics, particularly as it relates to female candidates, the commentary missing the point completely. In fact in the Second Debate each were costuming themselves in the uniform of command and power. That was the story: two women vying for power. Instead, the commentary treated it as a Hollywood fashion disaster.

Klobuchar knows how to dress for power. Her official photo shows her in perfect female power outfit, the clothes that 9 of 10 candidates on the Third Debate stage chose. Dark suit for men; solid colored black or blood red for women. Square shoulders. Small, non-flappy lapel.

Dressed to command

Klobuchar represents a swing state in the crucial swing area, the Upper Midwest. In a blowout election no area of the country matters, but in a close election it almost certainly comes down to Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, four states with enough electoral votes to win or lose the election.

If California (Harris) is in play, then the Democrat is toast. If Texas is in play (O'Rourke, Castro) then Trump is toast.

If Biden becomes the nominee, the party of women needs a woman. Harris theoretically has appeal to black voters, but in reality Biden is getting them on his own, at least for now, via his association with Obama. The calculation may be that Trump will stimulate black turnout. The marginal turnout in question is women and voters in the Upper Midwest. Klobuchar fits the bill.

If Sanders or Warren become the nominee, Klobuchar would serve a different purpose, to show that the progressive nominee can work with moderates. A Sanders-Warren ticket--in either order-- might be ideologically consistent, but it would communicate immoderation of the kind the progressive base would love, but might distress moderates, and it might not engage Black and Latinix voters. 

Harris might be a better match for Sanders, and Booker or Buttigieg might be a better match for Warren, but Klobuchar has a great brand advantage over the other potential VPs. She projects reasonableness and moderation and low drama. And she is from Minnesota.

Washington taking command of Continental Army

Being VP to Sanders or Warren would be Klobuchar's Plan B. Her Plan A is being the solid, safe, youthful complement to Joe Biden. 

Klobuchar had an audience of one on debate night: Biden.

There is a look one carries when one is positioning oneself to take command. Klobuchar understands this, and she stepped back from it. 

It is sound, practical politics for her. Biden is old. So are Sanders and Warren. 

Lots could happen.