The Harris Pol

Okay, I think a Biden-Harris ticket has a good chance of winning California now...

I wrote a while back why the vice-presidential selection doesn't matter for Joe Biden, that all the people on his short list were very good, and that in the end when it comes to casting their ballot people will be voting for either Joe Biden or Trump.  And noted that I thought Kamala Harris was the likely choice.

(This wasn't prescient analysis, just good listening.  Many months ago, I was listening to an interview with Joe Biden. He was asked if the experience of running for president was an important consideration to him for picking a vice president.  He said, "Yes."  There was no equivocating, or saying that there were many consideration.  Just "Yes."  Given that Biden had committed to picking a woman, and considering that it later became clear having a black woman on on the ticket was very important, there weren't many people who fit that earlier category.  "Many" as in meaning "no one else," though I'm sure it wasn't Biden's only criteria.  But it was a pretty direct one.)

I also think Kamala Harris was the best person to select.  She's been elected here in California for a long time now, and she's excellent.  Not without her flaws, not as liberal as one would think a politician from California might be, but she's liberal on most issues and her tough-on-crime past is not anything that Republicans can criticize her for.  She's also whip-smart.  Having her on the ticket also gives an indication of at least something of the future of the party.

Early on in the decision process, I said to a friend that one reason I hoped she'd be selected is that I would love to see the VP debate with Mike Pence.  We've seen her in action in debates and at Judiciary Committee hearings.  She has her facts, she's a former prosecutor and Attorney General of California, and she is unrelenting.  In fact, I added that I'd love to see Joe Biden ask if they could do a sort of tag-team thing and let her debate Trump, because she'd wipe the floor with him.

I saw Jason Johnson say on MSNBC that he thought that Sen. Harris's main task -- at least at first -- would be to energize the youth vote, that might have preferred Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren or Andrew Yang.  I think he's right, but I also think it's something she can do and do well.  Moreover, she'll have a more receptive audience than usual since the two biggest issues for young voters are Climate Change and guns, both disastrous issues for Trump-Pence.  And then add to that a hatred for Trump and a pandemic with 167,492 Americans dead.

However, among her many responsibilities during the campaign, I suspect another will be to continually go after Attorney General William Barr throughout the campaign.  Not just does she serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee, but her tough questioning of Barr is one of her iconic moments.

I also think that Kamala Harris is the vice presidential candidate who Trump feared the most.  In fact, he may have been the candidate overall who Trump feared, if not "the most," significantly, to the degree that even he sent out a tweet of admiration for how big a crowd she got when announcing her candidacy.

What has gotten some mention in Biden's selection of Harris as his running mate, but not as much analysis as I think it deserves -- but will as the campaign goes on -- is that she of all the people running for president slammed him hardest. And yet he still picked her. That speaks loudly about them both.

Indeed, related to this, one of Trump's plan of attacks, which has already crept in, is how critical she was of Biden and already is being called "phony" by Trump for her support of him and "nasty" for hard question of Brett Kavanaugh. If the Trump campaign continues this, it's going to cause them problems on a lot of levels, most especially I'd think for women voters.  First, it will reinforces Trump's inability to be open to opposing views and demand total loyalty, firing anyone who dares say a word against him.  Second, it will conversely show how open and decent Biden is to not hold grudges and accept many viewpoints.  Third, it ignores that Harris while criticized Biden harshly, it was on only one issue. Fourth, this allows them to explain how close Harris was to Biden's late-son Beau, when both were attorneys general, and how fond Joe Biden is with her personally.  And fifth, there is a not-so-subtle message from such Trump attacks that a woman should be acquiescent, she should quietly listen to The Man and never dare criticize him.  It's a recipe for disaster to go after her for that.  Moreover, there's even a sixth reason that Trump going after Kamala Harris for any non-policy reason is so ill-advised -- if you spend time attacking the vice-presidential candidate, whoever that person is, you've lost focus on the only thing that's really important:  your presidential opponent.

There was an op-ed in The Daily Beast by Matt Lewis about how hypocritical it would be for Democrats to claim that sexist attacks on Kamala Harris are out of bounds, given how the party treated Sarah Palin.  It must be noted that Lewis wrote for Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller website, and it shows.  His false charge is egregiously empty. Sarah Palin was never attacked for being a woman. She was relentlessly ridiculed because she couldn't name a newspaper she read, said her foreign policy experience was living near Russia, asked McCain staffers what the vice president does and more.  She was slammed for being an idiot, and in fact polls showed that John McCain lost votes because voters were concerned about her being a heartbeat from the Oval Office.  All that aside, I'm not sure who thinks, as Matt Lewis does, that it's a good idea to argue for making sexist attacks.  But if Republicans do try to make sexist attacks -- and given that this is Trump, I don't think "if" goes nearly far enough, because I'd lay down cash money on the dog whistles -- I think Republicans will take a pounding hit by women voters who they are losing in droves and are probably on thin ice with many others.

There's another dynamic at play with her selection which has gotten little attention, since it has nothing to do with the campaign.  So, we're going to take a small detour for the moment.  But if Biden-Harris win the election, it will open up a Senate seat in California.  State law says the governor can either appoint someone who will fill the seat until the term would otherwise expire -- which would be January, 2023 -- or call for a special election. Appointing someone is a great power decision for a governor.  And there are some excellent candidates in the state, among them Rep. Karen Bass (my Congresswoman); Rep. Katie Porter, the excellent first-term representative from Orange County, Secretary of State Alex Padilla, Attorney General. Xavier Becerra or Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis..  But replacing a minority woman in the Senate. most-especially in a state with a great many constituencies, is fraught with risks -- since Gov. Newsom has his own political plans, including running for the Senate, and every constituency will likely feel it deserves the seat.  So, he might opt for letting the voters decide in a Special Election.  The problem for Newsom (given his hopes for his own future) is that whoever runs in a Special Election and wins would likely be the favorite to win again when the partial term is up -- and there are some great possible candidates who have an interest in the seat, among them Rep. Adam Schiff, Rep. Eric Swalwell and Rep. Ted Lieu.  However, thrown into this mix is that when Sen. Dianne Feinstein's term is up on January, 2025, it's seems probable that she won't run again, and another California seat will be open then.

End of digression.

But similarly, in regards to political futures, what Kamala Harris's nomination also does is set up the foundation for who could lead the party post-Biden.  There's no guarantee that it would the vice-presidential nominee, especially if the ticket doesn't win, but even if it does.  But having Kamala Harris sitting in that position is a strong foundation for looking down the line and seeing what comes next.

I think Kamala Harris will be an excellent vice-presidential candidate.  Aside for following her career here in California, I’ve been closely reading her tweets for the past few weeks, and she’s been on a tear.  And now, she’s on a mission.

There was a lot of very good people for Joe Biden to choose from.  I think she was the best.