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

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

https://twitter.com/WakeUp2Politics/status/1288253975167471621

Below that it looks like it says “VP: Highly qualified woman, diverse group, black, ...es what to look for”.

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This is like Biblical scholars deep-diving into fragments of papyrus to determine the exact date of the Gospel of Mark.

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Is this wording giving too much away? From an email I got about 90 minutes ago:

This Friday, my good friend Elizabeth Warren and I are hosting a virtual discussion on our plan to win this November.

He’s not going to announce his VP in July.

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https://theatlantic.com/article/614662/

Atlantic article about Bass’s visits to Cuba in the 1970s and her ties to the leftist Venceremos Brigade.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

https://theatlantic.com/article/614662/

Atlantic article about Bass’s visits to Cuba in the 1970s and her ties to the leftist Venceremos Brigade.

She's not going to be the pick, this was always a red herring to distract the media. I'm beginning to believe Duckworth is stilk very much in this thing.

I’m rapidly warming to Bass as someone I’d support, and I think Duckworth would be great electorally, but I still think it’s going to be Harris. She’s like Romney in the 2012 primary.

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If self-described socialist Bernie Sanders was beating Trump at the top of the ticket before the pandemic and the return of Black Lives Matter, I don’t think Congressional Black Caucus chair Karen Bass being Joe Biden’s running mate will be this massive disaster the KHive seems to think she (or any non-Harris candidate) will be.

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Can’t stand all the sexism from Bass Bros like *checks notes* Dolores Huerta.

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Can’t stand all the sexism from Bass Bros like *checks notes* Dolores Huerta.

Dolores Huerta isn't the one unfairly criticizing Sen. Harris. Try to keep up.

This is the first google news result for Dolores Huerta: https://paydayreport.com/exclusive-dolores-huerta-on-backing-karen-bass-over-kamala-for-vp-1500-mathematicians-refuse-to-work-on-predictive-police-mexicos-untold-covid-strikes/

“She’s a very humble person, she’s not a self-promoter,” says Huerta, who has known Bass for decades. “She would be very good at the Vice Presidency; she would be able to support what the President is doing rather try to keep the limelight.”

This is essentially the same critique that’s been leveled at Harris for the past week, minus the stuff about the debate. Is Huerta a sexist who hates ambitious black women?

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Can’t stand all the sexism from Bass Bros like *checks notes* Dolores Huerta.

Dolores Huerta isn't the one unfairly criticizing Sen. Harris. Try to keep up.

This is the first google news result for Dolores Huerta: https://paydayreport.com/exclusive-dolores-huerta-on-backing-karen-bass-over-kamala-for-vp-1500-mathematicians-refuse-to-work-on-predictive-police-mexicos-untold-covid-strikes/

“She’s a very humble person, she’s not a self-promoter,” says Huerta, who has known Bass for decades. “She would be very good at the Vice Presidency; she would be able to support what the President is doing rather try to keep the limelight.”

This is essentially the same critique that’s been leveled at Harris for the past week, minus the stuff about the debate. Is Huerta a sexist who hates ambitious black women?

Um, Dolores Huerta previously endorsed Kamala for President.

Yes, and now she’s endorsing Bass for Vice President, for the same reasons that the Harris supporters in this thread and in the KHive are calling sexist and/or racist (i.e. that Bass would stay under the radar and not focus on her own presidential ambitions). Is she afraid of ambitious women just like Chris Dodd and Ed Rendell or what?

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Wait did the Sanders supporters really believe that if Biden picks someone that doesn't run in 2024 was really going to lock up the primary for the left? Lol, with the conversion to the primary and the strategic distribution of pragmatic voting blocks like Labor Dems, Black Americans, and Metropolitan Liberal Elites they will always get who they want out the primary until further notice.

I don’t think anyone believes that a Bass vice presidency would mean 2024 would be locked up by a progressive, but at least it’d be an open primary. Although with Harris’s political skills she might fumble away the massive advantage of being the incumbent VP.

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Apparently the Warren fundraiser has 40,000 people watching at the moment.

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I have no problem with Duckworth or Warren being VP but it would be a missed opportunity. Black people have been one of the most loyal constituencies for Democrats for the past 100 years. I think we deserve a spot on the ticket this time especially since Biden will not be here if it weren't for South Carolina. Picking Duckworth or Warren will basically just be telling us that "You were going to show up anyway".

We had the top spot on the ticket in 2 of the last 3 elections. If you, or other Black people, thought it was that important then maybe y’all should’ve supported one of the black candidates and not pushed the old white guy. It’s just a bit weird how you complain about having an old white ticket but were the main reason Biden is the nominee in the first place, as you said above about South Carolina.

Warren should’ve been the nominee this year and should be the VP pick as well. I’m fine with VP Harris, as she’s by far and away qualified to step in as President. I’d just prefer a caretaker VP to match Biden’s caretaker President role.

My opposition to Harris is purely long-term. I want a competitive primary in 2024, and if she pulls a Gore/Hillary and clears the field then the Democratic Party is screwed out of the post-Obama reckoning that we put off this year in choosing Biden. We need to have a primary (without the influence of a looming Trump re-election or Biden/Bernie blocking off both lanes in the party) to decide the direction of the party.

This doesn't make any sense. For one, there's always a looming Republican threat. And two, how is it that Biden and Sanders "blocked both lanes"?  Democrats were free to vote for literally dozens of other candidates. Maybe Democrats just wanted to be represented by the actual vote getters.

Biden made it so the middle and establishment consolidated behind him instead of younger candidates like Bullock and Kamala whole Bernie blocked Warren from consolidating the left. If neither of them ran this year we probably wouldn’t have had a ticket with a 70+ year old at the top.

Warren is also 70.

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Clyburn keeping options open for a nonblack running mate? Time to switch all my hopes and dreams from Bass right back to Warren.

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Antsy to know when he’s gonna announce so I can know when take a break from this board and wait out all the insufferable centrist sore winners in the KHive.

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Optics, optics, optics. Polling be damed, the vp to the first black president will not pass over qualified black womenmy preferred candidate in favour of a 70 year old white womana candidate I don’t support. There will be backlash

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The people concern trolling about Warren’s having been a Republican 30 years ago are gonna freak when they hear about Brown v. Plata and Harris’s attitude towards pot.

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Wonder how much Biden’s team has investigated the lawsuit against Duckworth when she was head of the Illinois VA. That was the only thing Mark Kirk really brought up against her in 2016 from what I’ve seen, and it clearly didn’t work then. I still think that if you want a “do no harm” candidate to not rock the boat before the election, she’s your woman.

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I can't find an article, but someone from Axios was on MSNBC this morning saying the final two were down to Harris and Rice.

Sucks if true, for various reasons.

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Ranked choice vp vote when?

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Yeah, I didn't buy Harris getting more criticsm than any other potential pick. Rice gets more, she just doesn't have defenders watching this thread all the time ready to strike back

See also: any mention of Karen Bass ever.

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Does the hate for Rice just boil down to "Benghazi"? I'm not saying that's not a big problem that Biden should give Biden pause about picking her. But if that's it, then I don't see why we need to be in panic mode over Rice if she's passed all the other vetting.

I think it’s also that she brings literally nothing to the ticket besides just being a black women Joe Biden knows from the Obama administration. We don’t need a seasoned, establishment foreign policy wonk, that’s the whole reason Biden was picked in 08 in the first place.

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Seen two articles today by conservatives (Meghan McCain and S.E. Cupp) and both said they would not vote Biden with Rice on the ticket. Take it for what it is, but I think Rice does more damage than she helps. (not withstanding both those people are ridiculous anyway)

And we need Meghan McCain’s vote why?

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Except most average voters are not like us on this board. If they think Harris or Rice has a high probability of becoming a campaign liability, they can deal with 48 hours of angry activists in exchange for avoiding lasting problems.

This. A black woman VP would be wonderful, as would another minority woman as VP, and as would a white woman because we've never actually had a female VP. But the whole "IT HAS TO BE A BLACK WOMAN!" thing is pure beltway consultant logic and not grounded in reality. Duckworth is just such a great choice that I feel like the only reason she won't be chosen is if Biden bows to consultant logic.

This. Someone like Whitmer or Duckworth would be great. I don’t know where the idea that it has to be a black woman came from.

Establishment types and the KHive (but I repeat myself).

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Tangentially related question, has Atlas ever done a demographics survey?

Yes. Young, white, male, and disproportionately LGBT+.

Do we have a lot of gays here?

I’m one.

Yep, I'm one too.

Just because I'm gay doesn't mean I jump on the first gay man I see.

Speak for yourself.

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I still think he’s gonna decide by the 10th and release the pick later next week.