I know there are already such laws in other states, but here’s the problem:
It’s obviously sketchy. It takes the decision out of the people’s hands. It’s one thing to take a governor’s power and modify it, it’s another to cancel an election to guarantee your party remains in power.
Nothing can stop Baker from appointing Democrat Scott Brown to the seat.
I predict Tammy Duckworth.
I’ve said all along that his pick should be Kamala Harris. As time goes by, I feel more strongly about this.
If Harris can somehow bridge the divide between “law and order” and “Black lives matter” and consistently deliver campaign speeches to that effect, I think she’d be perfect.
I think when Biden’s greater concern was the upper mid-west, Klobuchar made the most sense to him. I still think he’d prefer to pick her. But this is a fluid situation calling for real politik choices, and Biden is keenly attuned to them.
If he now feels his election is better assured by picking a black co-pilot, he’ll do it.
Harris was my favorite pick at the beginning of the veep contest, but I literally face-palmed when she pulled her busing “gotcha” in the first Democratic primary debate. Overtly attacking the presumed front runner in an election already anticipated to be vicious from the Republican opponent was tone deaf and gratuitous. It had the effect I dreaded would occur, she was instantly punished and she could never again regain her popularity as a contender for the top office.
She’s a dynamite pick for veep and will one day be a terrific president. I do wish her skills for the AG slot weren’t wasted as VP, but Biden really can’t pick anyone else, given that experience and readiness for the top job is his highest priority.
Now I just have to figure out who can assume the AG role.
Maybe Adam Schiff. He’s a former assistant US attorney and Harvard Law. And his seat is assured to remain safe in the Democratic column.
The Harris fan club is confident of her abilities despite the fact that she:
Was at 3% in the polls before dropping out, and some even had her in the 1% club with Inslee, Bennett, and 10 other white guys.
Had a notably dysfunctional campaign.
Never did all that well among black voters but somehow she’ll mobilize black voters? She adds nothing to that effort that Biden doesn’t already have.
The evidence of her political skills is scant, the evidence of her competence at running an organization nil. If Biden picked her, her dysfunctional campaign would become part of his campaign, unless the Biden campaign excluded her sister and forced a staff on her. Which isn’t unheard of, I just can’t imagine Kamala selling Maya out like that.
No question she had a horrible campaign team with no real coherent strategy or brand. The fact that it was a tough field to run in does not excuse. I quickly soured on her as a presidential candidate. But the role of a VP nominee is a different thing completely. She’d be great on attack mode.
I don’t know what sort of president she’d be. I suspect fine enough if the need to step in arises. Blacks won’t vote “for her” because she shares identity some. But they will feel that Biden is showing them respect both by her identity and by the fact that she can talk a tough love police reform game. The alternative of someone who might undercut Trump’s rural strengths some like Baldwin or even Duckworth is still tempting and before recent days maybe the way to have gone.
Now? Black voters gave Biden his win. In this context he needs to acknowledge that in this choice. He likes Harris. She’s more prepared to step in than is Abrams or Bottom and has less baggage than Rice.
I don’t think VP nominees run their own campaigns with their own staff. They are part of presidential nominee’s campaign. There is no tossing of her sister. She just is not part of the Biden team.
If he selects Harris as VP, how about Obama as AG?
Nah. Gotta save Obama for the Supreme Court. 
While occasionally VPs do come from within the Presidential field(mostly they do not), it would be unprecedented to pick one whose campaign actively fell flat on its face. Biden was picked, but his campaign was never much of a factor in the first place. It was neither bad nor good, just nobody cared. John Edwards got picked after he ran an incredible campaign that vaulted him from nobody to 2nd place. Bush 41 got picked afterr a decent workmanlike campaign that fell short mainly because his opponent had generational charisma.
But picking someone who was hyped early and cratered in epic fashion would be an unusual choice. yes, campaigning for President is different from campaigning with a nominee as VP, but it’s not like Biden doesn’t have choices that didn’t fail so glaringly and didn’t try to stab him in the back and didn’t want until the race was basically over to endorse him.
Still can’t understand people listing Abrams. When was the last time a VP candidate never served above state house? Or had no executive experience like being a mayor?
You’re far from the only one who misremembers that. However, you can look at her polling numbers and see she was steadily declining from March into late June. She got a bump from the first debate that she didn’t sustain. You can draw a straight line to connect her slow decline before the bump to the same decline after the bump.
Oh, I don’t know if “misremembers” is quite the right term. I pay close attention to this stuff.
Harris was certainly already sinking in the run-up to the debate, which I think is why she attempted to distinguish herself by attacking Biden. And yes, she received a short-term bump. But over time, I didn’t expect it would wear well. And it didn’t. The decline after the bump isn’t that slow. It fell rather quickly again, then resumed the slow slide into “not this time.”
Right, but that’s not “immediately punished”. It helped her immediately. She just couldn’t back it up/sustain the bump.
Addie, not sure if Biden’s complete fail in ‘08 made him a better choice than someone who at least had a moment somewhat in the sun.
Anyway. I do think the specific time requires Biden demonstrating his awareness that he owes Black voters a huge show of respect. Paradoxically a candidate identified as Black can get away saying things about rural white voters being left behind as well that right now might be a minefield for Biden or a white VP to express … coming off like all lives matter does. And that outreach is also important to make.
Would the promise of Obama in the Cabinet (AG or Secretary of State?) be an asset or a liability to the campaign?
In the international community he’s quite possibly the most respected US President in the modern era, which is something that America is crying out for at the current time after the total disaster that Trump has been
Asset.
If I were Biden I would literally say, “Remember how awesome Obama was? If I’m president, you’ll get…more Obama! He won’t be the president again but I’ll have him in a position of great prominence and he will be one of the leading voices of my presidency. It’ll almost be like another Obama term!”
I mean I swear to God I’m not even joking. I would literally say this.
So instead of hearing Obama, Obama, Obama from the right 12 hours a day you want to hear it 28 hours a day? Spare me. Literally. Spare me.
Why not? They’ll always have their targets. Might as well be him.
I doubt he wants this, but maybe.