Vice President Kamala Harris

[BoSoxGal]

Thoughts?

I’m totally okay with it. The news made me get a lump in throat and itchy eyes.

[Big RR]

She wouldn't have been my first choice, but I can live with it. Her record as the San Francisco prosecutor leaves a lot to be desired (her positions a a prosecutor were as bad any,if not most, prosecutors and nowhere near the progressive she claimed to be; she even opposed police body cams as I recall) and this is something she will have to deal with. And hopefully she will be able to do something with that whiny voice that grated on me during the debates. From my perspective, he could have picked anyone and I would still support him, but I wouldn't relish her as president (over Trump and Pence certainly, but not someone I'd choose; her choices for judges would still scare me).

Hopefully this choice will get him the votes he is looking for.

[BoSoxGal]

Why would her choices for judges scare you?

[Big RR]

Because she appears to be a typical law and order, police can do no wrong, prosecutor from her record. Her rhetoruc has changed recently, but I pay more attention to what a persons did when (s)he had a chance to make a difference than his/her more recent rhetoric. Winding back offenders' rights is not something I support, buut I am seriously concerned about where she stands.

[BoSoxGal]

A few months ago she wouldn’t have been a choice I could get excited about, but my perspective has changed largely because we have this looming issue of police and justice reform and the charge that democrats aren’t law & order oriented. Harris did do some reform and seems to be willing to do more now that she isn’t so constricted by being a cog in the system - but I think those of us who have worked in it know that reform won’t happen unless it is driven from a place that respects the good aspects, and it will take a former player to command respect from the current players. That’s just pragmatism. In an ideal world my choice would’ve been Stacy Abrams, but the world is so far from ideal right now.

I hope she doesn’t stall Biden’s momentum. I think he was carefully counseled about her proven appeal to educated suburban women, and that a woman of color would energize the black vote more than the level that turned out for Hillary, that she has a great immigrant story and is both tough as nails and whip smart. She pushes a lot of important buttons. Hopefully she does good!

[Big RR]

Well, I share in that hopefulness; time will tell. I won't go into her record as it's fairly well documented online and is hardly progressive; it makes me skeptical. Indeed, I'm very skeptical; she may be a real reformer from way back (who was constrained by the system), or she may have just seen the light and become one now, but if it's true I really don't care which. I'll give it a little time and see.

Either way, Biden still has my vote over Trump/Pence.

[MGMcAnick]

I heard her on Colbert's show one night several months ago. I opted in for her campaign updates after that, but opted out when they started asking for money. It didn't take long.
Frankly I think she's a good choice. I'll vote for them by mail. I applied for my general election ballot at the same time as my primary.

[Joe Guy]

I don't like her much. She wants to be president more than anything. If I were Biden and elected president, I wouldn't accept any food or drinks from her. But I'll still vote for Biden. I'd vote for Nixon if he were running against Trump.

[Econoline]

I was still sort of hoping for Sen. Tammy Duckworth, but I could see that she was probably not still near the top of the list. Of the small group of women who were still considered to be in the top tier, I think Harris was the best pick.

Charlie Pierce explains it quite well:

Long about 4:20 ET Tuesday afternoon, Mike Pence of Indiana felt a cold chill Down There and he didn’t know why.

Joe Biden returned to the inevitable by selecting Senator Kamala Harris to be his running mate. This decision put Pence in a nutcracker. Either he has to debate Harris on television—and he’s seen what happened to witnesses before Senate committees when Harris’s turn came around to question them—or he won’t get the chance, because this selection has to make some of the cutthroats on the other side wonder if dumping Pence for, say, Nikki Haley, is the proper countermove. [Narrator: They won’t, but you know some of them are thinking about it.] Frankly, given the choice between public evisceration and public defenestration, I don’t know which way Pence would go. Maybe he should poll on it.

The pick makes all kinds of sense. It always made all kinds of sense. It energizes the most loyal segment of the Democratic base. It honors the election of Barack Obama and the legacy of Biden’s work in that administration, while simultaneously acknowledging the reality, seen now in the streets, that, despite the fond anesthetic rhetoric of conservatives, the election of Barack Obama did not solve entirely systemic racism in this society. It puts a prosecutorial edge on the campaign that any campaign against the current president* needs. It injects the campaign with hot molten steel. At the same time, Harris is a genuinely charismatic person. And it demonstrates that, unlike the incumbent, Joe Biden can handle tough criticism like an adult. Nobody was tougher on him during the campaign than Harris was. (Her summoning up his history on busing was the single most memorable haymaker of the entire cycle.) The pick says as much about him as it does about her. There won’t be anyone tailoring intel reports to avoid presidential tantrums.

(Also, Harris’s election would enable Rep. Katie Porter to run for Senate in California. Bonus!)

There is some baggage in Harris’s past as a prosecutor, and as an attorney general, which gives me pause, and which is why I didn’t vote for her in the primaries. But given the way events have unfolded over the past several months, and given the way the entire dynamic of the election has changed so utterly, the logic behind choosing her grew more compelling, not less. I kept coming back to the times I sat in at various hearings in which she challenged the members of the administration* that has led the nation into disaster, and she did so before they led the nation into disaster. She has receipts to carry us into the next decade.

[Scooter]

Donald Trump thinks highly enough of Harris to have donated to her campaign. Twice.

[BoSoxGal]

[Scooter]

So does that mean that Pence's wife will have to stand next to him at the VP debate?

[Big RR]

Donald Trump thinks highly enough of Harris to have donated to her campaign. Twice.

I guess I shouldn't hold that against her, but it's difficult not to do so.

[Scooter]

Not sure how who chooses to contribute to her campaign can be held against her, but she later donated all of it to an organization working for the rights of Central Americans.

[Big RR]

You're probably right, but when an opportunist like Trump donates money to a political campaign, it's clearly not out of the good ness of his heart (if he even has one), and it makes me wonder why he helped support her. I'm retty sure it has nothing to do with her support of central american people, and more likely is toed to some of her more reactionary law and order positions at that time.

[ex-khobar Andy]

You're probably right, but when an opportunist like Trump donates money to a political campaign, it's clearly not out of the good ness of his heart (if he even has one), and it makes me wonder why he helped support her. I'm retty sure it has nothing to do with her support of central american people, and more likely is toed to some of her more reactionary law and order positions at that time.

It's probably more cynical than that. Regardless of the politics, donate to the one you think will win. If in doubt, give it to both the contenders for any important position. That way, whoever wins, you can claim access. Even if you don't use that access yourself, you can claim that you have the incumbent in the palm of your hand which has to be useful in business negotiations where the state or city might have an interest.

[Sue U]

Yeah, that's about right -- but take the gloves off.

Although I am not a fan of the "two-party system" and I have plenty of issues with the Democratic Party in particular, this is not an election in which to sulk over the fine points of policy and ideology. We need someone with the skills and tough-mindedness to present a thorough public prosecution of Trump and his cabal of crooks, someone who can dismantle a dissembler and, importantly, someone who cannot and will not be mocked, since this is what American politics has devolved to. I have been pro-Kamala ever since I saw her speech at the Women's March in January 2017 and even moreso after she cleaned Jeff Sessions' clock and made Brett Kavanaugh cry in Senate committee hearings. She is not my ideal candidate, but we do not live in Utopia, and in this critical battle where democracy actually hangs in the balance we need killer, not a policy wonk (sorry, Liz).

[TPFKA@W]

I read up and on her and her parents. You would think she inherited enough smarts to stay out of this political shit-show.

[ex-khobar Andy]

She is not my ideal candidate, but we do not live in Utopia, and in this critical battle where democracy actually hangs in the balance we need killer, not a policy wonk (sorry, Liz).

Rather like WW2, and bringing Churchill in as PM in 1940. There were better men available, and after the war, Churchill was roundly beaten in the next election by Clement Attlee. But at the time, and for the time, Churchill was the right choice.

My preference was Susan Rice. But I'll take Harris.

I'm halfway through The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson. It's pretty much what it says on the box - an almost day by day account of WW2 from the time Churchill took over until about the end of 1941. (I think - I haven't peeked at the end of the book so I don't know when it ends. No spoilers please.)

[Econoline]