It is as difficult to sink a business without debt as it is sink a ship without holes.
- Manlobbi
Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy❤
No. of Recommendations: 18
Kamala Harris completed a short speech to the Biden/Harris campaign staff with Joe listening in via Zoom or conference call while quarantining. The imperatives of the moment made the content and delivery of the speech fairly critical to re-establishing beneficial inertia. The speech lasted roughly 25 minutes (I joined late, probably about 5 minutes in...). She did very well on all fronts:
* expressed gratefulness to Biden for what he was able to accomplish in one term
* recognized the work to date of the campaign staff by announcing she's keeping the campaign manager
* quickly pivoted away from angst about the circumstances of this shift in candidates
* quickly pivoted TO a concise itemization of the issues in play -- abortion, healthcare, voting rights, etc.
* unveiled a concise, effective summary of her own biography
The core of the speech will likely become a new campaign theme...
I know Donald Trump's type.
Whle reminding voters of her biography, something a VP candidate now at the top of a ticket needs to do, her speech perfectly framed the contrast between her and Trump. She said words to this effect...
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I started as a prosecutor in Alameda County, CA then was State Attorney General for California. In my time, I've prosecuted sexual predators. Donald Trump has been found guilty of sexual offenses in a court. I prosecuted for-profit schools that defrauded thousands of California residents of millions of dollars and got restitution for them. Donald Trump ran a for-profit company Trump University that was shut down for fraud. I've prosecuted public officials for corruption. Donald Trump has been charged with multiple counts of corruption. I know Donald Trump's type...
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She seemed confident and relaxed yet energized... As if she knows having the challenge of campaigning in the second banana role lifted will allow her to aggresively campaign without worrying about outshining the top of the ticket. And here's one for factor for everyone to consider. Unlike a PRESIDENT running for a second term, for now she is only the VICE PRESIDENT. That means Constittionally, she still has very few formal time-consuming responsiblities. She is free to devote 100% of every day to this campaign, something NO sitting President can actually do. This is a dynamic the Republicans have probably not thought much about.
I have no magic 8-Ball to predict any election. From a pure candidate standpoint in a political landscape of twenty years ago, Harris would wipe the floor with a Trump-like candidate. As it stands, facing a world where one of our political parties has gone "Constitutionally rogue" and taken half the judiciary with it, a candidate like Trump is not crippled as much by fealty to facts and reality. Nonetheless, I think Harris has the skills to reach enough of the dis-enchanted electorate to make this a more competitive battle.
WTH
No. of Recommendations: 0
Although I hope she gets people to believe in her…
20 years ago her lack of experience would have killed her out of the gate. I am well aware we are in different times now since 16. We face an “electorate “ so stupid that they believe in a convicted felon spouting completely debunked lies and nonsense, don’t see a problem with 1/6 but deride any Dem as a Socialist gun stealing open borders take yer money and life away schemer. There are several Dems more palatable to the center, but if the inside baseball is right and Obama made this catastrophe happen, she would be the most PC choice. And they’ll probably lose with her too. They’re already messaging that in the new donation requests- hey, at least keep us in control of Congress!
No. of Recommendations: 15
20 years ago her lack of experience would have killed her out of the gate.
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I'm not sure I'm following...
Her resume includes:
* deputy DA in Alameda county in California (8 years)
* DA in San Franciso (7 years)
* California State Attorney General (six years, 1.5 terms)
* US Senator (4 years)
* Vice President (4 years)
That's far more years in public service than Obama or Hillary. It's more years in statewide elected office than Obama or Hillary Clinton. And it's four years in the #2 slot to learn about budget tactics, information flows between departments and the Oval Office, power struggles within any Administration, etc.
And twenty one years in a public role related to operating a statewide justice system in a state equal to ten percent of the entire country?
Other than some Senator who has been in office for dozens of years, how could one be more broadly prepped for higher office than that? And at this point, wouldn't a resume reflecting 12, 18, 24 years in the Senate be a turn-off to most voters?
I'm not saying she is UNIQUELY qualified and no other could do... There are many on the Democratic bench that have been mentioned previously (Jamie Raskin, Adam Schiff, Gretchen Whitmer, etc.) that would be equally well equipped from this perspective but they aren't already VP and frankly, they may be needed exactly where they are to defend other parts of the larger chess board.
WTH
No. of Recommendations: 14
20 years ago her lack of experience would have killed her out of the gate.
This is odd. 20 years ago the President was George Bush Jr, who had less time than Kamala does in government service. Twenty years before that was Reagan, who also had less time than she. Less than Obama too, for that matter. And now that I think about it, she has far more than Trump did or ever will. Been in government longer than Carter was when he ran, too. Also JFK. More than Dukakis, and certainly more than Hillary.
Obama made this catastrophe happen
For the record, the number of volunteers for the Democratic Presidential race has gone from 300/day to 28,000 in the 24 hours between Sunday afternoon and Monday afternoon. More than $200,000,000 has been raised in that 24 hours, the largest single day in political fundraising history. She has effectively taken over the Biden re-election organization, keeping on the head of it and already visiting the troops at the national headquarters, held two televised events parts of which have been widely quoted:
“ You know, as many of you know, before I was elected as vice president, before I was elected as United States senator, I was the elected attorney general if I've mentioned, of California, and before that I was a courtroom prosecutor. In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds. Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump's type. “
Republicans are in panic mode, threatening vague lawsuits and now second-guessing their VP choice, who was picked for his Silicon Valley connections, but who will not bring a single voter in who was not already going to vote for Trump.
and they’ll probably lose with her too
That could happen. With Joe it was a guaranteed loss. He’s been an excellent President and a consequential leader, but it was time to go. Now the entire playbook Republicans hoped to use is out the window. All those “He’s too old” bumper stickers sitting in Republican campaign headquarters have a new meaning, and, have you noticed, the media has a shiny new thing to pay attention to instead of the “same old, same old two guys saying the same old two old guys things”.
Yeah, some catastrophe.
No. of Recommendations: 5
There are several Dems more palatable to the center, but if the inside baseball is right and Obama made this catastrophe happen, she would be the most PC choice.
Would you mind explaining that phrase? I've never heard it. It sounds like "but if the inside baseball (skinny) is right, and Obama made this catastrophe happen".
I don't know if it was Obama that started it, but Pelosi is great at vote counting (Johnson blew one, Nancy never did). So what was going on were groups talking to each other to get to a consensus. First they had to agree it wasn't a one off, that there definitely was a decline, then they had to introduce it to Joe, and get him convinced also. Obama may have spoken up to a few to help convince them, and he's no stranger to the vote counting process. They all talked about the pathway and how they would all throw in behind Harris (I'm sure a few wanted an open convention) and Joe waits to get the go ahead to announce so they can thrown their support to Harris. It's likely that some people, especially insiders, were tapped to suggest that Joe shut down as the consensus builds, and now we're seeing the coordination of the endorsements. Anyway, some 2500 people were talking back and forth to coordinated this event. It's extraordinary there were no major leaks in the process. My hats off to Pelosi and others who coordinated this and pulled it off so smoothly. All I had to do was wait and watch.
I went from being concerned to being happy for the tributes to Joe, hoping Harris would get the nod, the endorsements seeming to underscore it, to being fairly certain Harris has that wrapped up and being happy about it. Thanks Joe, you did us proud in the end. Happy remaining Presidency.
And early on Albaby gave us our choices, and outlined this was the best one for downballot. It took me a while to get over that most likely we're going to lose to Trump. Now we've got to put Harris across.
No. of Recommendations: 3
Other than some Senator who has been in office for dozens of years, how could one be more broadly prepped for higher office than that? And at this point, wouldn't a resume reflecting 12, 18, 24 years in the Senate be a turn-off to most voters?
You make a lot of sense here WTH, I like some of our Senators, but I may not see them as Presidential. I'm of the opinion that a lot of people could be good Presidents with the right staff.
No. of Recommendations: 13
"20 years ago her lack of experience would have killed her out of the gate."
20 years ago Donald Trump's 34 felonies, draft dodging, raping, stealing classified documents, paying-off porn stars, racism, misogyny, multiple bankruptcies,
inability to spell, incessant lying, refusal to show his tax returns, stealing from a children's charity, going to Jeffrey Epstein's Child Molester Island 7X,
insane rambling and lack of experience "would have killed him out of the gate!"
But what America really wants to know is where does Kamala stand on Hannibal Lecter and sharks?!
No. of Recommendations: 2
I'm of the opinion that a lot of people could be good Presidents with the right staff.
Even Trump. But, of course, Trump will never put together the right staff. He had good people in his first administration but eventually they either quit or he fired them. In a second Trump administration he will have nothing but sycophantic yes men and women.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Trump will never put together the right staff.
Trump looks for loyalty and for a few he inspires it. I wonder what it's like to live in that kind of political environment.
No. of Recommendations: 3
No. of Recommendations: 0
20 years ago her lack of experience would have killed her out of the gate.
This is odd. 20 years ago...
Ok, to clarify, I was making a narrower point - just because she's been "in government" longer doesn't mean she's more qualified for President than past Presidential candidates.
Put her experience up against DJT's 0 in 2016 - absolutely. Going back further -
Carter - Governor of a major Southern state
Reagan - Governor of CA
Bush 1 - tens of years in CIA, State, whip for Nixon & Ford
Clinton - Governor of AR
Bush 2 or Gore - well, Bush 2 meh, Gore 24 years in elected positions before that election... we know.
Since Obama's election WTP seem to be going "off the board" for euphemistically "non-traditional" candidates. Biden was drawing sighs 4 years ago as too much time in there. Being a prosecutor and getting elected to the Senate once is not a lot of executive political experience - so the pattern holds.
I didn't say DJT was ever qualified, and now he's worse: weaponized.
