Biden VP news megathread (pg 286 - been selected, announcement could be today)

[Badger]

I asked this a couple of days ago and got no answers, so maybe this time I'll be more lucky.
Which exactly are Klobuchar's apostasies that make her a "moderate" and anathema to the left-wing of the party?

Her biggest flaws are being boring and not particularly intelligent.

As somebody who hopes that they're considered by their brethren to be a decent human being, I don't know how to express my disgust with this characterization. Jesus f**king christ.

She couldn't name the President of Mexico, something that 90% of this site could do. And as Pete pointed out, she sits on the very Committee that deals with trade and such. Klobuchar is a light weight, a paper tiger.

Oh, give me a break! You don't get to go to Yale & then Chicago Law before then rising to become a major metropolitan area's District Attorney, your state's U.S. Senator, & a major candidate for President of the United States if you're "not particularly intelligent," & you know what? I think you know that. But no, one bad brainfart on the scale of a misstep that literally anybody & everybody can make & has made from time to time & all of that's just negated. Obviously.

Next you're gonna tell me that Barack f**king Obama himself was "not particularly intelligent" because of that one time where he said there were 57 states.

Obama obviously meant 47, and got confused putting it in the context of going to all 50.

Klobuchar is not ready to be president. And if you're this comfortable with someone who knows so little about our neighbors, you're part of the problem.

Way to address the actual substance of what I said.

If you're comfortable with haranguing a professional woman about a mere brainfart like it was a war crime, then you're part of a much bigger problem.

It's not a brainfart, it's a geopolitical question mark and should be treated as such

It is geopolitical Trivial Pursuit. Admittedly, knowing the president of Mexico is more important and knowledge worthy than say the prime minister of Bulgaria, but it doesn't necessarily mean she's ignorant of us Mexican policy.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that, despite being a rabid political geek like just about every poster here, this is one a few times in my life I honestly can't tell you who the president of Mexico is without Googling it. Hell, the only serve one term down there anyway.

In short, nice to know, but it doesn't mean she's ignorant or even not educated on issues of trade, the influence of drug cartels, immigration, Etc.

[Badger]

First rule of the veepstakes: you act like you don't want it.

"Much"

[Badger]

So from what we've heard so far, Abrams isn't under consideration and the shortlist appears to be: Harris, CCM, Klobuchar, Whitmer, and Warren.

Please not Warren. I love her, but we need some youth to contrast with Biden, and it's not worth giving her senate seat up even for several months.

CCM seems like a bit of a lightweight to me. Yes, she's actually won State wide office, to the Senate no less, feels like she brings nothing else to the table other than being a Hispanic woman. I wish she was in her second term at least.

I'm torn between Klobuchar, Harris, and witmer. Witmer is probably my least favorite of the three. She seems cool enough, but she's rather new. But boy wouldn't it be great to tack down Michigan? I guess the former prosecutor me likes Klobuchar and Harris and thinks either one of them would kick ass at the job. While I think Biden will win Minnesota anyway, it would be nice having Klobuchar helping to make it less competitive and needy of resources. Even though she made no Headway among black voters while running for president, I have this wild delusional hope that potential of becoming the first black vice president, let alone the first black female vice president, might at least light a mini fire under black turnout. The drop-off there really sunk Clinton last time.

[Badger]

Does MA have a law where the governor can only appoint a senate replacement from a preapproved list from the legislature?? Cuz that's the only way Warren would be at least a non-detrimental pick.

It's irrelevant. The legislature would just change the law to prevent Baker from jeopardizing the position of Senate Ds.

Probably? Maybe? Despite the overwhelming democratic majority of the legislature, which I'm pretty sure is large enough to override any veto, Massachusetts politics is really weird with a surprising number of conservatives. Let the legislature go ahead and pass the law now and then let's talk about Warren.

incidentally , I'm still opposed to warren in that situation because the last thing we need to balance out this ticket is another candidate in their late 70s

[Badger]

Why do people keep posting polls here? These are clearly all just name recognition, and/or in this case Ohioans' well-known hatred of anything Michigan

Is it really that unreasonable to think that the vice president should be a person that most people have heard of?

Who was the last really obscure VP pick who ended up adding anything to ticket?

Cheney added a brain

Cheney definitely was not obscure, he was Secretary of Defense for GHW Bush's entire term.

And Whitmer is a current governor, and Cortez Masto, Duckworth, and Baldwin are all current Senators — all a good deal less obscure than "faceless bureaucrat who last held public office twenty years ago"

The Gulf War rendered Cheney someone decidedly not faceless bureaucrat in the public mind. Besides, he was well-known and regarded in GOP circles.

[Badger]

The chaos agent in me wants it to be Warren.

I thought you wanted Biden to win? Are you back on our side?

Is it really even a “side“ if it’s just a handful of entitled ManChildren having a temper-tantrum?  I mean, the Bernie or Busters are collectively the political equivalent of a fruit fly and even that is probably giving you too much credit.  In any case, unlike you, Sawx is...you know...an actual progressive, so I’m sure he’s still going to do the right thing on Election Day.

there are so many biden psychos on this website but none are as fucking boring as you

Anyway, if you support Biden there's no reason to push for a VP who's going to dramatically undercut him like Warren

How does Warren undercut him polling indiciates that Biden/Warren is the strongest ticket https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1244371267307872256

Meh. That 2% difference can be written off as name recognition combined with margin of error. Lauren is not beneficial when one of the biggest concerns about by is his age, and having another White septuagenarian on the ticket doesn't help him compared to multiple other qualified women of color not named Stacey Abrams.

[Badger]

A Latino is a must.
Biden already has black support and he can get Kamala and Obama to campaign for him. He lacked Latino support in the primary (relative to Hillary) and needs to be aware of this weak spot. If Biden loses, it will be because he doesn’t listen/takes-for-granted Latino voters in the same way Hillary ignored some of her base.

Does an English-speaking half-Italian Senator whose paternal grandfather happened to immigrate from Mexico solve that problem?

Does a half-white guy who grew up in Hawaii with his white grandparents from Kansas appeal to blacks?

You can't compare Obama to Cortez-Masto.

Even though, Obama did grow up with his White grandparents, when he got older he moved to NYC and then Chicago. He lived and made a name for himself in the South Side of Chicago is which a predominately Black area. He was a community organizer as well, he made personal connections with Black Chicagoans and ended up marrying one (Michelle). Also, many Black people would not have been as enthusiastic about Obama if he was married to a White woman.

Furthermore, if President Obama grew up in Wichita, KS he probably wouldn't have made it far. Being connected to Chicago helped BO a whole lot.

Besides man, Obama's.... you know, black? Regardless of what kind of foot he had in white culture, black Americans could all look at him and see a face that would have been ordered to the back of the bus along with their parents and grandparents 50 years earlier.

It's part of the reason that Americans have resisted integrating African Americans the same way they have other ethnicities. The grandsons of Ellis Island immigrants Giuseppe, Casimir, and Sheamus largely lost whatever accents their family had and tended to be more accepted in jobs, housing, education, Etc to the point that their grandkids eventually became Don Draper clones in the suburbs. Freed slaves grandkids, and they're great great great great grandkids for that matter, whether they relatively light skinned like Obama or as dark-skinned is someone like Seal, theyre still instantly recognized and perceived as "black person".

[Badger]

I'd have my concerns for the campaign, but I would LOVE a Vice President Warren.

I felt that way about her as president.

[Badger]

Just pick Kamala to help ramp up the turnout. An African American woman would be a great addition to the ticket, but demings, and especially bottoms and Abrams, are all minor Leaguers.

[Badger]

Kamala Harris prosecuted a mentally ill woman shot by SF police. The jury didn’t buy it.

A) most of the stories about Kamala's prosecuting days have been very twisted and leave out context
B) a prosecutor's record is *never* going to be perfect, considering the profession.

[Badger]

Gross

[Badger]

Something else that should be noted in terms of the "Fox News/Republicans attacks on the VP" that was discussed in the past few pages... remember that during the primary, Trump was the most afraid of Harris of most of the possible nominees. And despite having an attack line for most of the Dem field, he never quite could figure out how to attack Harris. That should be kept in mind.

That's because Biden is a, a decent human being, and be, needed to worry about shein off black voters and anti-racist whites. Trump and fox have neither of those restraints whatsoever. The fact that she was elected attorney general and then senator of the largest state in the country is going to be subsumed by the fact that she may have slept with Willie Brown Early in her career. San Francisco radical will become a chic phrase on the Facebook again, and one can even expect perhaps some mild birtherism about her background. There's nothing there, but there wasn't anything there about Obama either and....

[Badger]

That's because Biden is a, a decent human being, and be, needed to worry about shein off black voters and anti-racist whites. Trump and fox have neither of those restraints whatsoever. The fact that she was elected attorney general and then senator of the largest state in the country is going to be subsumed by the fact that she may have slept with Willie Brown Early in her career. San Francisco radical will become a chic phrase on the Facebook again, and one can even expect perhaps some mild birtherism about her background. There's nothing there, but there wasn't anything there about Obama either and....

I hadn't heard about this, but if Harris gets picked as the running mate I'm sure this "scandal" will come up. Here's one for the guys who despite being liberal on most issues, will simply refuse to admit that sexism is an issue in American politics.

A woman studies law, gets accomplished in her field, becomes a district attorney, then attorney general, then senator, then presidential candidate, then running mate, and she had sexual relations with another politician decades ago. One of these things is not like the other.

Oh, you're preaching to the choir there. What's more I agree with prior post that I think they won't stick to Harris. Fox News will certainly try though.

[Badger]

If you don't think it will be Kamala, it really is a pick em'. I'd argue Duckworth, Whitmer could be the best buys if you think he wants someone with statewide experience.

https://www.predictit.org/markets/detail/5883/Who-will-win-the-2020-Democratic-vice-presidential-nomination

The only statewide experience Duckworth has is the appointed position of Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs.

She's literally a US Senator.

That's federal experience, which yes, she has a ton of. But in the context that Devils30 used the term "statewide experience" (Whitmer, who's never been elected at the federal level), federal experience ≠ statewide experience.

This message has been brought to you by the Society of People who Think that Words Should Mean Something.

Statewide experience is just being elected on a statewide ballot, which being a Senator obviously is. Duckworth doesn't have much statewide executive experience, but she absolutely has statewide experience.

By otherwise mentioning only Harris & Whitmer (both of whom were actually elected to state-level offices: CA state AG & MI Governor, respectively), Devils30 seemed to be alluding to experience in state-level office (which Duckworth doesn't have), not just experience being listed on a statewide ballot (which all three have). To my eye, Devils30 seemed to be (incorrectly) making the argument that Duckworth & Whitmer's state-level experience was somehow better than Harris', which would be incorrect given that the former has no state-level experience apart from Director of the state's VA. It'd make no sense for Devils30 to be making the argument that any one of them is better than any other at being listed on a statewide ballot, because they *all* have experience being listed on statewide ballots.

Ah, I see. In that case, you're right. Honestly, I don't think levels of experience really matters when it comes to Duckworth/Harris. Both of them are plenty qualified, although I'd argue Duckworth's federal experience better prepares her for the presidency than Harris' DA and AG stuff. Whitmer is honestly not as qualified, only having 2 years as Governor definitely hurts her.

Executive experience counts. Having a few more years in the US Senate is at best only slightly better qualification then running the largest state ag office in the country for several years, and arguably comprable.

Personally, I see Harris's resume in terms of experience and ability to step in as Superior.

[Badger]

If it's Bass, Rice, Abrams or Demmings I'm not voting for this guy. Biden on his own was not a great candidate and it's taken everything I have to get over the way he was carried to the finish line by the rest of the establishment. If it's Harris or Whitmer I won't vomit in rage. If it's Warren I'll laugh at the inevitable train wreck and the fact that Joe spent 5 months deliberating just so he could take the political equivalent of his work wife on the ticket with him and all I got left with is a 70 year old "mom and pop" ticket.

While I agree Bass and Abrams would be poor picks and Rice not that great either, as Dem, there is just no excuse not voting for Biden and risk another 4 years of Mr. Trump. I'm very sorry, but that's just my opinion.

I sincerely understand why you feel that way. More than you can possibly know. But unfortunately for me, my political loyalties are very loose at best. I am a DINO by proxy simply for the fact I despise the Florida GOP and am unrepentantly liberal in terms of economic policy, gay rights and the fact that overturning Roe vs Wade is an egregious and disgusting plight that will NOT fix anything because it does not protect women from the unwanted sexual advances of men and does even less to protect women who are victims of rape, incest, threats etc. Ultimately the only way to stop abortion is to stop unwanted pregnancy and Roe vs Wade is a convenient cop out despite of the fact that I agree that abortion is categorical murder.


So in other words you better have a DAMN GOOD candidate if you want me to vote. I may yet refuse to do so because "Not Trump" is not good enough for me. It's why I didn't vote in 2016.

"Not being a fascist" is not a good enough reason for you to vote against a fascist?

[Badger]

Trump right now

Smell that dog sweat.

[Badger]

Sorry folks, gotta write in Bernie now. It's over

In Arizona no less.

Trump and McConnell thanks you.