Biden's running mate

[brucejoel99]

If I were already sure that I was gonna end up choosing a woman to be my running-mate, then I'd still make the public pledge to do so because it was undeniably successful in accomplishing its immediate goal: overshadowing anything & everything that Bernie could've possibly said at the one-on-one debate on Mar. 15th. Similarly, as Biden didn't, I wouldn't pledge to necessarily choose a woman of color as my running mate, just because doing so would immediately close off the possibility of considering as many of the qualified potential options - one of whom I'd inevitably have to pick - as possible.

At the time of the Veepstakes, I was all-in on Warren, but in hindsight, Kamala was probably the best option. With margins of just 10K in AZ, 11K in GA, & 20K in WI, who knows how a different running-mate could've butterflied the outcome?

[brucejoel99]

I would have picked Amy Klobuchar simply because of her circumstantial relevance to the election. She is incredibly popular in Minnesota and would have translated over to nearby Rust Belt States, I think. Plus, she is widely seen as a moderate cementing gains in Georgia and Arizona.

The perception that she failed as a prosecutor to hold Chauvin accountable rendered her a non-starter as a running-mate, which is why she withdrew herself from consideration as soon as all of that came to light. Aside from her not having really been liked by the progressive wing (which - despite all of the loud #RoseTwitter voices - did generally support Kamala's selection, & the support of which he couldn't afford to hamper in a significant way in the run-up to November), it simply would've been the worst possible optics for Biden - who owed his nomination to the Black community, another community whose support he couldn't afford to hamper in a significant way in the run-up to November - to still opt to select her after the Floyd murder. At the very least, selecting her likely wouldn't have provided much - if any - help in regards to increasing Black & minority turnout in such a state as GA, where a margin of just 11K votes ended up making all of the difference.

[brucejoel99]

I would have picked Amy Klobuchar simply because of her circumstantial relevance to the election. She is incredibly popular in Minnesota and would have translated over to nearby Rust Belt States, I think. Plus, she is widely seen as a moderate cementing gains in Georgia and Arizona.

The perception that she failed as a prosecutor to hold Chauvin accountable rendered her a non-starter as a running-mate, which is why she withdrew herself from consideration as soon as all of that came to light. Aside from her not having really been liked by the progressive wing (which - despite all of the loud #RoseTwitter voices - did generally support Kamala's selection, & the support of which he couldn't afford to hamper in a significant way in the run-up to November), it simply would've been the worst possible optics for Biden - who owed his nomination to the Black community, another community whose support he couldn't afford to hamper in a significant way in the run-up to November - to still opt to select her after the Floyd murder. At the very least, selecting her likely wouldn't have provided much - if any - help in regards to increasing Black & minority turnout in such a state as GA, where a margin of just 11K votes ended up making all of the difference.

Ahem-who else was criticized during her campaign for her work as a prosecutor/DA? (Harris) Look how that turned out. In addition, you forget that Black turnout had nothing to do with Harris, I 100% guarantee you. Black turnout for Biden was present in the primary in force well before Kamala Harris was the VP nominee. It was all due to Trump and Biden. That's why turnout was high among all groups. “After four years of a Trump presidency, people felt strongly that the country was going in the right or wrong direction and felt it was important to keep him in office or get him out,” UNC professor Heberlig said.

"Ahem," Kamala wasn't the (white) prosecutor whose office had literally opted to not charge Chauvin for engaging in police misconduct years before he'd go on to murder George Floyd. Optics matter. Moreover, Kamala was better placed than Klobuchar to turbocharge turnout among the Black voters who help to make up the Democratic base & the swing voters in rapidly diversifying suburbs across the country & more particularly in the Sun Belt. Pre- & post-VP selection polls bore this out. But nah, you're probably right: "Black turnout had nothing to do with Harris," despite the relevant polling directly contradicting such an assertion in its indication that Biden hadn't previously had as many Black voters locked up as he needed to in order to win in November by 43K votes, a.k.a. the literal electoral equivalent of just the skin of his teeth.