Late Night Track -- King of the World

 

Why I'm Ridin' to Paris with Biden and Harris

(Sorry, I couldn't help it, but wouldn't you rather cast an absentee ballot from Europe right now anyway?)

Malarkey!
The Sanders fans who didn't even bother to get out and vote for him?
I think you're projecting your own bias.
Shameful. https://t.co/EvHoUkb254

— Kamala is with Joe and so am I! ⚖️ (@AlasscanIsBack) August 1, 2020

I mostly agree with Kamala is with Joe and so am I (obviously, I am too!), but I think there's something to consider about what Fineman is saying.

Allison Floyd talks about a "group of certain voters" here:

Sometimes in life (often), you don’t get exactly what you want, when exactly when, you want it. Part of being an adult is squaring with that and learning to adapt.

Hell hath no fury like a group of certain voters who first choice POTUS/VP candidates aren’t their number one pick.

— Allison Floyd (@AllisonRFloyd) August 1, 2020

There's really more than one group opposing Harris, and they all appear to have a decent amount of fury. The Sanders left actively worked to undermine Hillary in 2016, but it's not just them this time.  Misogynoir explains some of the additional opposition, but not all of it. Those people are comfortable enough trying to "I-want-a-black-woman-but-not-that-black-woman" her with Karen Bass and Susan Rice. So what makes her unique?

Well, Harris represents a shift in the Democratic coalition that no one else does. She's more prepared to run in 2024 or 2028 than anyone else Biden might pick. She makes other competitors for the White House, like Eric Garcetti, not "next up." On her own, she's a nearly total break from the past. Though she was a strong early supporter of Obama, she didn't work in his administration. She's not a Clinton. She doesn't just bring change, she cements change, and for all of these people, there may be no turning back after her.

Harris makes a whole lot of people, particularly old powerful old white men like Chris Dodd and Ed Rendell, who have fancied themselves power brokers for decades (Rendell, in particular, seems to always be vocal at VP selection time; the OK-but-boring-as-cottage-cheese-and-twice-as-white Dodd thought he could win the presidency in 2008), almost totally irrelevant. She won't need them going forward, and they know it.  She shuts down a lot of the Bernie "revolutionary" insurgency down ideologically, because she's just as progressive as they are but has the color-within-the-lines political strategy that they really abhor. While I'd like to say, "Fuck 'em!", it's to Biden's benefit that he takes all of this into account as he's looking not to just win, but to win by as much as possible and to have the strongest coattails he can.

I'm not saying that I think Biden has to give Sanders, or Dodd, or Rendell anything of much value. I'm really done with white men in the White House for the rest of my life after Biden, but I'm OK with him humoring them for a few weeks and including them in the conversation. Let them feel important one more time in their careers if it will minimize the infighting for the next three months. They're the past, and we won't need them after that.

I think Joe knows where he wants to go. This wasn't an accident:

Joe can read the polls:

In the meantime, I'm really glad Biden is our nominee in 2020, not just because we're in such tumultuous times and need someone that as many Americans are familiar with as possible, but also because he knows and is comfortable with being the bridge candidate to the future. You just can't do better than a well-liked former VP for that.

I'll be very surprised if our ticket isn't Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at the end of this month. Everything between now and then is basically a performance.