Kamala On Deck

My tea leaves reading ability, as for most people, is limited, yet I think all signs point to a Biden exit from the election. The obvious placeholder is the Vice President, for both bureaucratic and political reasons.

The bureaucratic or process reason is that there isn’t time to stage a fair competition for the replacement of the top of the ticket. Harris is the obvious quick fix. There are apparently legal issues beyond my ken with how the campaign money would be reallocated if Harris is not the replacement.

The political reasons are first, the merits of avoiding a wild scramble for the replacement spot, and second, the mobilized state of Harris’s existing supporters.

So is this good or bad? I would say it hinges on two questions. 1) Can Harris beat Trump? and 2) If she is president from 2024 to 2028, will the wheels come off the country?

I believe she can beat Trump. I would look forward to her cleaning his clock in the second debate, although I also thought Hillary did well in her debate with Trump, and we all know how that turned out. It should be noted that Harris’s electoral performance in the 2020 primaries was completely lackluster, including among African-American voters. Perhaps she was not regarded pragmatically as the candidate most likely to win, the same view that eased Biden onto the ticket.

This time around, Election Topic A is Trump’s rampant, avaricious insanity. Any minimally capable Democrat can beat him, since anti-Trump is the prime electoral motivation.

On the second question, there is no reason to think any sort of gross incompetence would plague a Harris administration, no more than Biden.

I also think Biden can beat Trump, though I would dread the prospect of a second debate. Otherwise, Biden’s decline does not concern me at all, since the Federal government is not run by an individual, appearances notwithstanding.

As usual, we could all wish for different options. I wrote about Harris’s platform during the 2020 primaries. It was yesterday’s mashed potatoes. I also go back to a soundbite that kept playing, where she gave uninspiring lip service to fiscal responsibility. This was no progressive Democrat. I also recall a sound clip of her getting bogged down in a broken-record quote that made her look like a twit. Undoubtedly, we will be seeing that again.

As usual, we don’t have the luxury of great choices. The country is still not ready for Bernie or AOC. A caretaker administration sets up a huge competition for the Democratic nomination in 2028. There are a number of options. At the very least, a change in the ticket will prop up all the down-ballot possibilities for the 2028 election and keep at least one house of Congress in Democratic hands.

So release the Kamala. A fresh start will be nice.