Biden departs. Harris enters. Trump remains.
The cast has changed. Who plays what role in the new drama depends on what the new drama is about.
Until yesterday, Republicans had a view of the election. Trump was the bold man who was trying to save a country in decline, and who was unfairly set-upon by the deep state and radical woke cultural elites. The alternative was a frail, senile, corrupt puppet of those dark forces. Trump was the hero of the story. Biden was the fool, a tool of Knaves.
Democrats had a contrary view, expressed by Ana Navarro on ABC's The View. "The choice . . . is between a good, frail, old man, surrounded by a steady, experienced team, or a crazy, loco, old man surrounded by a bunch of criminals and hooligans.” Biden was the wise hero; Trump was the narcissistic sociopath.Yesterday the matchup changed. Trump decided to stay in character. For three or four days after the assassination attempt Trump's campaign hinted that the near-death experience turned him into a kinder, gentler unifier. Midway into the convention speech he went back to type. He wrote yesterday:
Republicans are trying to define Kamala Harris. Trump complains that she has a weird laugh and that she is "crazy." Another tack is to sexualize her. Flags and bumper strips call her a "Ho," i.e. whore. (A Trump-supporting local Republican wrote a comment for publication saying he had "wet dreams" about Harris and that "I wish that she'd give me a BJ.") A third approach is to attack her legitimacy by challenging her merit, saying she was chosen to meet a DEI diversity quota.
Who is Kamala Harris? She is 59; Trump is 78. Harris could emphasize relative youth, or at least a retreat from gerontocracy. The age-and-infirmity issue could be turned 180 degrees against Trump. Harris legitimately pushes "reset" on the election. Pete Buttigieg as VP would enhance the new- generation narrative. It would also reverse the script from the inarticulate-Democrats to the team that, finally, can explain things and sell the Democratic policy agenda. Democrats could win with this.
Trump will try to make Harris look like a mix between Tlaib Omar, AOC, Bernie Sanders, and Stalin. It will be unpersuasive if Harris positions herself correctly. She was a former DA and Attorney General. She needs to clean up some careless talk about paying legal fees for violent BLM protesters, but she could re-emphasize law and order. That sets up the contrast between herself, a law enforcer, and Trump, a flagrant law breaker. Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania and its former Attorney General, would help make that case. Shapiro is a centrist Democrat. That would set up a "normal centrist Democrat" versus the crazy, wicked Trump. That, too, is a winning matchup.
Harris has one immediate task. She needs to look and sound like a president, not a second-banana useful to campaign to female voters. She needs to give a serious talk, one without big smiles and hand waving, about the state of the nation. A president narrates to the American people the state of the nation and the world. She needs to pass the competency test. She needs to look and sound like a commander in chief. She needs to describe the American economy and her plans for it. She can do this from some Vice Presidential office, doing the job of president-in-waiting. Her strongest matchup is for the American people to see a normal, healthy Democrat to contrast with Trump and his high-drama, divisive schtick.
If she doesn't define herself, then Republicans will define her. We can imagine Trump as president because we have seen him being president. Now we need to see her as she defines herself.
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21 comments:
Is America ready for a woman of color to be president? It’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future. Skepticism is understandable, considering that a major political party went totally berserk when we elected President Obama. That’s why their current nominee is a lying criminal who led a coup attempt. But Democrats aren’t the only ones who find him as appealing as a dog turd someone left on the sidewalk. There are also independents and even a few still-sane Republicans. For example, a Nikki Haley voters PAC has pledged it’s support to Kamala Harris. Hopefully, there will be more.
So don’t count Harris out. She’s already polling within the margin of error against Trump, and that will undoubtedly improve. Republicans are running so scared that Speaker Johnson is threatening legal action. Maybe they’re hoping their Supreme Court flunkies can help them out.
The big job ahead that has to be started immediately is for VP Harris to convince all of us that she is up to the job, and will continue to work hard to extend the Biden legacy. That is exactly what Biden's supporters will expect.
A few comments about the Biden announcement:
- it was not a well choreographed transition.
- a minion wrote the "I won't run for reelection" letter and President Biden signed it. I'm pretty confident he did not write the letter.
- we are promised that Biden will say more in a few days
I would have expected more to be done simultaneously or shortly afterwards:
- why wasn't VP Harris available to speak shortly afterwards to accept the reins?
- why weren't other D leaders at the ready to appear on camera to set the tone of the party's next steps to get VP Harris nominated at the convention?
- why has President Obama refused to affirm Biden's choice to name VP Harris as the D candidate to fill Biden's shoes?
It is good to see that eventually the right D names are blessing the decision.
The next few months will be watched to analyze how the Democratic Party recovers.
I hope both campaigns work hard to restore voter confidence, and start focusing on the issues the US faces along with the rest of the world.
VP should be another woman, bro.
Thank you Joe, you did the selfless thing that needed to be done. Now Trump, the rambling at times incoherent old man, would be the oldest president ever. It’s time for a person in their prime to take over. I think she will win, contrary to what one of your regular commentators believes. If Harris loses, then América deserves the chaos. Harris should be the law and order president, someone who believes cheating on financial records, raping, fraud, overturning democracy are wrong.
Trump is no longer a sure thing and he knows it. I doubt he will do a debate with Harris out of fear. Whew.
Kamala Harris was never chosen as VP due to merit. Joe Biden was specific in saying that he wanted a Black woman as VP, which narrowed the field down to a handful of candidates. Even Democrats were unimpressed with Harris in the 2020 Democratic primaries when she got less than 2% of the vote.
It's clear that Harris was groomed and promoted politically by Willie Brown because she was good at giving Willie Brown blowjobs. Kamala is a bubble-headed whore, and not a serious and qualified leader. She cackles like a brainless rooster.
Barry Obama and Nancy Pelosi knew what they were doing when they declined to endorse Kamala Harris for President.
The New York Times (NYT) editorial board wants Vice President Kamala Harris off the 2024 ticket because of “profound concerns” about her electability.
The push to dump the nation’s first black vice president was posted just after President Joe Biden announced he would not run in the 2024 election — and it could threaten Democratic turnout in November.
NOTE TO COMMENT READERS
I published the comment by Curt Ankerberg. He is a candidate for Mayor of Medford. He is a local Republican in a party that has gone election-denying-MAGA here in southern Oregon. Readers who are disgusted by him, and unhappy with me for publishing his comment, should remember that he is NOT far out of step with the local Republican leaders in policy, although he is more vulgar and outspoken than most of them. I present Curt Ankerberg so that local Republican readers can clean up their own house if they choose to. Or they can endorse him and vote for him. But at least you will know what you are getting.
Curt Ankerberg sends comment here for publication almost daily. I am happy he reads me. I delete most of them and leave them unpublished. I send the ones that hint at violence to the police who tell me they keep an "incident file" on him on my behalf. He often impersonates other people, which forces me to review every proposed comment for content to be sure it isn't Curt Ankerberg slandering someone while using someone else's name to do it.
Peter Sage
As Curt’s comment illustrates, many Republican attacks will not only be lies, but stupid, racist and obscene. That’s just who they are.
A third approach is to attack her legitimacy by challenging her merit, saying she was chosen to meet a DEI diversity quota.
Given how poorly KH ran in the 2020 primary, she wasn’t chosen for her political competence. There were plenty of Democrats who ran much better than she did in the primary.
Given how Biden specifically chose “a black woman” for the Supreme Court, and his political debt to James Clyburn for getting him nominated in 2020, It’s hard to imagine any other reason why Biden would have chosen KH.
Democrats and liberals have a long history of making choices based on race and then accusing anyone who notices and objects to that of racism.
Was KH chosen for the content of her character, or the color of her skin? Asking for a friend…
As much as I would like to see a Gretchen Whitmer or even Senator Warren in that slot, my Pragmatic inner self says a Josh Shapiro or Mark Kelly will ease the predictable backlash by ReThuglicans.
Nice to see Curt revert to his deplorable self. Not.
I agree completely with Peter’s penultimate paragraph. Another framing of the matchup is Prosecutor vs. Convicted Felon.
Apparently “the Lord God Almighty” visited Joe Biden in the person of Nancy Pelosi…
So where exactly is Joe Biden? He's recovering from "covid" on Rehoboth Beach?
... Does he even know that he dropped out?
Is he still alive??
M2inFLA stated the obviously suspicious nature of this letter.
... No breaking news address to the nation??
Not once in this letter does he even mention a successor especially Kamala Harris? Only in a text on Twitter "oh yeah, l endorse Kamala Harris. ...anyway"
Point to the democrats
this is how you pull a coup d'etat
As many of you alluded to, it's very unlikely that she really will not be the candidate. There is no way in the world, try as she might, that she could ever beat Donald Trump.
RFK junior said in his press briefing yesterday that it is basically down to a 2 person race (he almost said 2 man race then corrected himself) between him and Trump because Harris is basically a brush off. She couldn't even make it to Iowa in 2020
Truly, the only chance she has to become President is if Biden resigns, which he very well may do, or, he dies...
But of course you have the Obamas(Barak has not endorsed her)fighting with the Clintons, and of course Hillary is chomping at the bit to try again. ...Oh that would be sweet to watch her go down even worse a second time.
And of course, all the other unknown characters that could be potential candidates.
No I don't believe White Buffalo Wallow Woman Warren will even be considered.
...anyway
As I've said many times on chat streams over the last few weeks that the democratic national convention in Chicago 2024 will make 1968 look like the Monterey pop festival.
We will know soon enough "...with the passage of time."
Aaaaand Harris just laid out the prosecutor vs. felon comparison for CNN. Everything is going according to plan.
“Democrats and liberals have a long history of making choices based on race and then accusing anyone who notices and objects to that of racism.”
What a joke. When Trump calls White supremacists “very fine people,” accuses immigrants of being criminals and terrorists or claims that Mexicans are rapists and murderers, I don’t suppose that qualifies as identity politics because Republicans are directing it at “real” (white) Americans.
Just for the record, you deplorable simulacrum of a human, Nancy Pelosi endorsed Kamala Harris this afternoon.
... Grammatical errors
Mike ... C'mon dude, that has been debunked a thousand times over. Context is everything
Sorry, That was David in Ashland. I just forgot to put my name in the URL
... and it’s all they've got.
And McCain picked Palin because of her ... what did she offer?
Can you fill us in on Pence and Quayle's qualifications (besides being white males).
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