The Democrats are enamored with Joe Biden, who has been at the center of power for more than fifty years. They didn’t push him to drop out of the presidential race on ideological grounds, or policy disputes. They wanted him out because it became near-scientifically clear he couldn’t do the job any longer. Every one of his public appearances became a popular hunt for guffaws: will he forget the name of some domestic or foreign high-level official? Will he kiss the wrong woman believing she’s his wife Jill? Will he stop in the middle of a sentence and stare at the air above in a bout of dementia?
The Democrats are desperate to keep the White House in 2024, because should Trump win, he would make America, if not great again, very different and extremely right-wing. He could become a Republican FDR who ushered in twenty years of unchallenged rule in the White House and on the Hill. If you’re a Democrat, this has to be scary.
This is why former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca) does not want VP Kamala Harris to inherit Biden’s spot in the campaign. At 84, Pelosi has been a Democratic insider practically from birth – her father was the mayor of Baltimore for twelve years. She would have loved to endorse Kamala Harris – what’s there not to endorse? She’s a woman of color, used to be a tough Attorney General, and served a short stint in the US Senate. But her performance as VP left much to be desired. President Biden put her in charge of slowing down illegal immigration, a task she failed spectacularly.
Also, there’s the IQ thing. Maybe it’s the fact that she’s from California, although I’ve known some pretty sharp men and women from California, including Nancy Pelosi. But somehow Kamala Harris is much better at giggling out loud than she is at, you know, saying words. I’m talking about her coconut tree folksy soliloquy, quoting her grandmother: “I don’t know what’s wrong with you, young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
Deep.
She also said, “None of us just live in a silo.”
And, “You have to see and smell and feel the circumstances of people to really understand them.”
Sure, words to live by (if you get any of this gobbledygook), but not so much to president by. And Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic leadership know it.
This is why last week, in a meeting with fellow California Democrats, Pelosi advocated for an open process to choose the party’s next nominee after Biden steps down, as Politico put it: “in an effort to avoid the appearance of a Kamala Harris coronation.”
The Democrats have two excellent, young, vibrant, smart state governors who could beat Trump: Gavin Newsom of California and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. Now, the 12th amendment says the president and the vice president cannot both be from the same state, which rules out Newsome as VP. Common sense suggests that two women on the ticket after 46 men in the office could be a little too much for the conservative American voters, and that rules out Whitmer.
I’m guessing Pelosi wants to see Newsom as the party’s presidential candidate and Whitmer as his VP. This would be one smashing ticket, even this late in the race. It could be the kind of ticket that could sweep down-ballot Democrats as well. Both governors are handsome, quick on their feet, proven executives.
But then old Joe Biden exacted his revenge on Pelosi who led the effort to derail him and followed his announcement of stepping aside with an endorsement of Kamala Harris, which started an avalanche of unity endorsements, including from George and Alex Soros, and maybe sealed her nomination in Chicago this August.
Thanks, Uncle Joe.
For the record, the party’s true elders, former president Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, on Sunday praised Biden for deciding to step aside but did not endorse Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s nominee.
It’s going to be an exciting convention in Chicago from August 19 to 22, and I expect the hordes of pro-Hamas protesters outside and maybe inside the United Center will make it feel like 1968 all over again (entitled young folks clashing with the police).
TELL ME WHO YOUR FRIENDS ARE
As an Israeli American, I sincerely hope Kamala Harris will not win. Remember those Biden administration officials, many of them Jewish, who resigned in protest of the White House’s policy toward Israel? Following Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race on Sunday, former Interior Department employee Lily Greenberg Call, who resigned after 13 months on the job, told Politico she was optimistic. Drawing from her brief tenure working under the vice president, Greenberg Call, stated that her firsthand experience gives her reason for hope.
Greenberg Call served as an Iowa Caucus organizer for Harris during the primary campaign. She became the first Jewish political appointee to publicly step down from her position in the administration. Her resignation was a protest against the US government’s stance on Israel’s war against Hamas.
Another former Biden policy adviser, this time at the Education Department, Tariq Habash, expressed guarded optimism about Vice President Harris’s potential approach to Israeli-Palestinian issues. He believes she might be more open to policies prioritizing PA Arab rights and addressing Israel’s actions in Gaza and other areas.
Habash told Politico that Harris called for a Gaza cease-fire before President Biden and represents a younger generation. He also mentioned her repeated support for a two-state solution.
“It’s difficult to envision any Democrat taking a more problematic stance on the current situation than Biden, given his unwavering position over the past 10 months,” Habash remarked.
Josh Paul, who can forget Josh Paul, who used to work at the State Department on arms transfers to US allies (that’s the Jews), suggested that Harris appears more “flexible” than Biden regarding Israel policy.
“I would say I have cautious and limited optimism — but also a deep sense of relief that the Democratic party will not be nominating for the Presidency of the United States a man who has made us all complicit in so much and such unnecessary harm,” Paul told Politico.
