2024 U.S. Election of President and Vice President

[astralis]

Literally none of that matters. This is going to be the most important VP pick in our lifetimes. Everything you said just boils down to "woke black woman". Team Trump is going to be blowing more whistles than a steam locomotive. I really hope she picks Kelley... Centrist, fighter pilot and spaceship captain American hero from a swing state. Also seeing Shapiro. If she picks a progressive or fellow minority, I think she sinks her own ship by playing right to Trump's self-evident strategy.

this is actually a good example of the power imbalance between the two parties. Trump's VP pick was sub-optimal as far as political strategy goes -- just doubling down, vs trying to get the swing voters. yet he has a relative freedom to do so.

I agree that Harris will need every last advantage she can get, and that means picking a VP smartly. geographic sorting does not work in the Dem base's favor.

[astralis]

Everything that has happened the past month explains why I was wanting a No Labels presidential bid to be credible and on the ballot.

Biden was getting crushed in the polls -- him quitting now gives Dems a fighting chance, no more.

a credible No Labels presidential bid would simply weaken the Dems, not act as a moderating influence.

[rj1]

I'm a Republican who's going to have to vote Dem to get my way. I feel so strongly about Ukraine that I'm prepared to ignore the other issues for which I oppose the democrats. I'm boxed in...and it sucks.

We don't really know what a Vice President Harris inherently believes about it. We know what she's said, and we know what Trump thinks about it, but there's no guarantee that when she becomes President Harris she'll take the same tack as Biden has. Biden's view of the world is heavily post-World War II/Cold War-based. The last Democrat that was President from Harris's generation did not view Europe as that important in the modern world. It's not automatic to me that when she's in charge she wants to spend hundreds of millions on the Ukrainian war effort compared to spending it on her constituents back home. (I think she's going to be more Palestinian friendly than Biden was, there's this large generational divide on Israel/Palestine inside the Democratic Party, and they can't call her anti-Semitic either because she's married to a Jew.)

I personally think Harris has quite a few policy differences with Biden that are just kept private. (She effectively called him a racist in a presidential debate 5 years ago. She got picked to be Vice President because - informed mainstream media rumors go - Clyburn said the VP had to be black and Pelosi pushed for it to be a woman, so when you narrowed the field that much, the 2 main options ended up being Harris and...Susan Rice - a lifelong bureaucrat that had never held elected office.)

It goes to how I don't think our media cover politics correctly. A good question to ask Harris when she 95% becomes the party's nominee are what changes would potential President Harris to make to the Biden Cabinet? Would she want to keep Blinken, Austin, Sullivan, Haines? Would she tell them to take a hike? If so, who is she bringing in? Trump's a known quantity. Harris is an unknown and her staff since the beginning of her time as Vice President has not been highly thought of. There was a long CNN article I remember from late 2021 of her and Biden's teams each knocking heads. She completely hated getting the immigration assignment from Biden and ran away from it as much as she could.

"...That being said, I feel bad for Uncle Joe..."

He's not my uncle and I feel not at all bad...while wondering, if he truly cared about the nation, what took him so long? This party is poorly postured to compete and the endorsed candidate STINKS. That's because "Uncle Joe" was too arrogant to see his trajectory and those around him were to toady to confront the reality for him and too selfish to lose sight of that reality for themselves. They'd lose their jobs.

Well...they had the greatest influence and Joe had the greatest responsibility. Neither rose to the party or, more importantly, the nation's need. Now they're WAY behind the curve. 1.) They'd better hope for another debate. 2.) Kamala (or whoever) had better come out of the gate swinging, cogently and precisely hitting Trump over and over again on his failings while spilling all the snide asides possible regarding felonious conduct and general asshat demeanor he brings to the fray. If Trump was bloody after the assassination attempt, he'd better be leaking like a sieve after the debate.

Agreed. Politicians have a sense of vanity of they look in the mirror and think "only I can fix this" and that explains the last year of Joe Biden. If you look at polling, he's been losing this election a long time, way before the late June debate. The late June debate just gave Democrats the excuse to push him out. Biden's team had this completely tone deaf message focusing on foreign policy and democracy. That's not what the electorate cares about. I absolutely hate Trump and Vance's speech made me really depressed about what the future of the Republican Party is (this Republican Party are effectively 1970s/1980s Labor Democrats), but their speeches showed they understood the American people at this moment in time way better than Biden does.

I listen to the excellent Curse of Politics podcast from Canadian political hack David Herle, and I was listening to one from a year ago recently where Herle ends an episode saying "I want to give a Hey You to President Biden. Biden recently announced he was running for reelection...and I think this is a mistake."

[rj1]

Everything that has happened the past month explains why I was wanting a No Labels presidential bid to be credible and on the ballot.

Kamala Harris (60).

• US Vice President, four years.
• US Senator, four years.
• California State Attorney General, six years.
• San Francisco District Attorney, seven years.

Ms Harris has a strong ethical record

She was this draconian Attorney General and District Attorney against minor drug offenses, most of those people still in jail, then when she's running for President and later VP jokes about her pot smoking days.

[TopHatter]

Literally none of that matters. This is going to be the most important VP pick in our lifetimes. Everything you said just boils down to "woke black woman". Team Trump is going to be blowing more whistles than a steam locomotive. I really hope she picks Kelley... Centrist, fighter pilot and spaceship captain American hero from a swing state. Also seeing Shapiro. If she picks a progressive or fellow minority, I think she sinks her own ship by playing right to Trump's self-evident strategy.

Very well said. I'm also hoping for Kelley. He's about as ideal a pick as you can possibly get.

[zraver]

Kamala Harris (60).

• US Vice President, four years.
• US Senator, four years.
• California State Attorney General, six years.
• San Francisco District Attorney, seven years.

Ms Harris has a strong ethical record (e.g., recusals), a long history of taking a tough approach to gun crime, and a proven ability to come from behind in a tight election. She has actively supported LGBTQ+ rights and staunchly defended the environment. Under AG Harris, California became the first state to require all police officers to wear body cameras.

Senator Harris has worked to expose and oppose voter suppression activities and in bipartisan support (with Rand Paul) of election security. Candidate Harris has refused single-candidate Super PAC financing as well as funding from corporate PACs and lobbyists.

On economic issues, she is pretty much the opposite of Project 2025 mindset.

Literally none of that matters. This is going to be the most important VP pick in our lifetimes. Everything you said just boils down to "woke black woman". Team Trump is going to be blowing more whistles than a steam locomotive. I really hope she picks Kelley... Centrist, fighter pilot and spaceship captain American hero from a swing state. Also seeing Shapiro. If she picks a progressive or fellow minority, I think she sinks her own ship by playing right to Trump's self-evident strategy.

[Bigfella]

At this point? I'm struggling to think of something the Democrats haven't done to try and make sure they lose this race! Maybe Kamala Harris can get caught accepting a bribe live on national TV. That should clinch it for Trump!

Getting Joe to quit was the right move and it probably wasn't going to happen without that terrible debate performance. Unfortunately he wasn't going to quit without clear evidence he couldn't go on - only so much the party itself could do about that.

Trying to make the rest of the campaign as smooth as possible is the best possible outcome here.

[Bigfella]

Thanks!
I guess that Biden is not alone in having age fog his memory! With him it was substituting Putin for Zelensky, with me it was Nixon for Regan!
Oops!

If it makes you feel any better Ted Kennedy's run against Carter in 1980 didn't do the latter any favours. It ended up as a brokered convention, though Carter was guaranteed the nomination. Not the giant clusterfuck that 1968 was, but not ideal.

[Monash]

At this point? I'm struggling to think of something the Democrats haven't done to try and make sure they lose this race! Maybe Kamala Harris can get caught accepting a bribe live on national TV. That should clinch it for Trump!

[Amled]

"...At that time it unleashed an internecine cat-fight that virtually handed Regan the White House on a silver plate."

I'm old enough to remember that it was Nixon who won but I also remember a campaign that showed RFK leading until shot in L.A. HHH, our serving V.P., trailed in the primaries until RFK was removed. LBJ gave them a fighting chance by withdrawing in March, 1968.

Riots at the Dem convention later. Crazy days.

Thanks!
I guess that Biden is not alone in having age fog his memory! With him it was substituting Putin for Zelensky, with me it was Nixon for Regan!
Oops!

[S2]

"...At that time it unleashed an internecine cat-fight that virtually handed Regan the White House on a silver plate."

I'm old enough to remember that it was Nixon who won but I also remember a campaign that showed RFK leading until shot in L.A. HHH, our serving V.P., trailed in the primaries until RFK was removed. LBJ gave them a fighting chance by withdrawing in March, 1968.

Riots at the Dem convention later. Crazy days.

[Amled]

For those who still remember, this is not the first time that the Dems have been in something like this particular pickle.
As in back in the day when Johnson declared that he would not run again. At that time it unleashed an internecine cat-fight that virtually handed Regan the White House on a silver plate.
This time it’s even worse! With less than four months to your election, the Dems better settle four-square behind one name, or else history will repeat. Only this time with Trump as the recipient of that silver plate victory.
The Dems do have some small advantages, in that most of the Reps PR campaign has probably been based on attacking the Biden/Harris ticket, and it will take some time to re-saddle.
Not on that, but listing to Trumps victory speech at the convention .It was like vintage Trump. Lashing wildly; and sometimes almost incoherent, at all and sundry. Something that must have given some people second thought!
But it all depends on the Dems getting their act together in the time remaining!

[S2]

I'm a Republican who's going to have to vote Dem to get my way. I feel so strongly about Ukraine that I'm prepared to ignore the other issues for which I oppose the democrats. I'm boxed in...and it sucks.

"...That being said, I feel bad for Uncle Joe..."

He's not my uncle and I feel not at all bad...while wondering, if he truly cared about the nation, what took him so long? This party is poorly postured to compete and the endorsed candidate STINKS. That's because "Uncle Joe" was too arrogant to see his trajectory and those around him were to toady to confront the reality for him and too selfish to lose sight of that reality for themselves. They'd lose their jobs.

Well...they had the greatest influence and Joe had the greatest responsibility. Neither rose to the party or, more importantly, the nation's need. Now they're WAY behind the curve. 1.) They'd better hope for another debate. 2.) Kamala (or whoever) had better come out of the gate swinging, cogently and precisely hitting Trump over and over again on his failings while spilling all the snide asides possible regarding felonious conduct and general asshat demeanor he brings to the fray. If Trump was bloody after the assassination attempt, he'd better be leaking like a sieve after the debate.

[DOR]

Kamala Harris (60).

• US Vice President, four years.
• US Senator, four years.
• California State Attorney General, six years.
• San Francisco District Attorney, seven years.

Ms Harris has a strong ethical record (e.g., recusals), a long history of taking a tough approach to gun crime, and a proven ability to come from behind in a tight election. She has actively supported LGBTQ+ rights and staunchly defended the environment. Under AG Harris, California became the first state to require all police officers to wear body cameras.

Senator Harris has worked to expose and oppose voter suppression activities and in bipartisan support (with Rand Paul) of election security. Candidate Harris has refused single-candidate Super PAC financing as well as funding from corporate PACs and lobbyists.

On economic issues, she is pretty much the opposite of Project 2025 mindset.

[statquo]

Joe's done-

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/202...ace-rcna159867

Time to get behind Kamala and not ask any questions. Dems have to unify.

That being said, I feel bad for Uncle Joe. Thought he did a decent job and to see him get tossed to the curb wasn’t very dignified.