Because Harris’ seat is up in 2022, her appointed replacement will serve out the rest of her term with no need for a special election.
Pretty much, yeah.
Cool, but in any case, her seat wont be open.
Don’t forget that in addition to checking the African-American box, she is also Indian-American. The Indian-American voters are an growing block.
No, Harris does not pass as Italian. Tulsi Gabbard does; Nikki Haley does; but Harris does not look like any kind of Italian. But yes, she is racially ambiguous, insomuch as “race” is a real thing. I knew numerous people of color who during the primary earlier this year, claimed to not know that Kamala Harris WAS “a person of color” at all. Like Barack Obama, her connection to the African-American community comes in a more round-about way than most Black Americans - how much this will matter to the voters, I don’t know. It certainly WILL matter to many racist assholes but those people were probably never going to vote for Biden anyway.
I think she’s a great choice as a purely strategic matter. Honestly, unless she eats live babies for breakfast, her specific views are secondary at this point. Biden had to pick a Black woman or he’d have risked losing a lot of votes. But - sad as it is that we need to think in these terms - she is not as likely to set off racist alarm bells the way someone like Stacey Abrams would. Moreover, her LE record helps to undercut some of the shit that Trump would like to fling. Plus, she’s shown she’s capable of being articulate and thinking on her feet - traits that are likely to improve over time as she gets more practice. And she’s young enough that we can hope for “President Harris” someday, even if Biden manages to hang on for an entire term.
Does she get Biden any interesting votes in key states?
I don’t think there’s any way to know that until she actually gets out on the campaign trail as VP. Which is going to be damn difficult because of COVID, but hopefully we will be seeing more videos from her than we have of Biden.
Right, her full name is Kamala Devi Harris
You’re right. And maybe that’s why nobody would ever do that again.
MSNBC just informed us that Kamala means Lotus in Sanskrit.
I think Harris is a good choice. A weakness to the ticket may be the whole “coastal elites” thing. I hope we do not make the same mistake as last time by ignoring the “flyover” states - IMHO the upper mid west and Ohio valley are make-or-brake states this time. While Joe is good with Labor, I hope having an east/west coast ticket does not become a liability.
I guess she’s a good foil for the “law and order” call by the right, but her and Biden’s “tough on crime” records don’t sit well with the left. She was slapping poor kids parents with $2500 fines and threats of jail time for truancy. She’ll demolish Pence in debates (who wouldn’t), and that’ll be entertaining anyway.
Look for her to energize voters in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.
Even if I didn’t already know this, I could tell you’re not a progressive XT 
. Because man, many progressives do not care for Harris and she’s not one herself. Despite her pretty liberal-seeming voting record in the Senate she’s more identified with the doctrinaire liberal establishment Dems like Biden than the activist progressives. 538 makes the same note in their commentary on the Harris pick.
Her pick is a partial rebuke to progressives, not a salve for them. She’s okay on that front mind you. She’s a San Francisco left-moderate like Gavin Newsome was, which=pretty liberal in most other corners of the country. But to call her a progressive would be a stretch and considering her history as an AG she’s undoubtedly a disappointing pick for a lot of genuine progressives.
Solid pick.
I was leaning Susan rice. My thinking was In Star Trek terms, Biden is a McCoy. Rice is Spock, Harris is Kirk. Spock balances McCoy more than Kirk balancing McCoy.
This is why I was leaning rice as vp, with Harris as ag,a good independent Kirk spot.
I believe Harris will bring a good amount of voters with her. Should this team win they will have quite the clean up to do to get the government back on its feet. Harris will be a huge help with that gargantuan task.
Now we have 4 continents represented in Biden and Harris, North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Biden promised to pick a woman for his running mate, and considering that the murder of George Floyd by police and the recent BLM protests have brought issues of race to the fore in recent months, I’m glad that his pick is a woman of color.
Also of note is that it’s been reported that the GOP is behind the push to get Kanye West on the ballot in some swing states in a transparent attempt to siphon off some Black voters to a third-party “candidate.” Hopefully having a Black woman on the Democratic ticket will counteract this.
I’m not super happy about Kamala, but it is hard to argue that she’s not a smart choice. Being “tough on crime” ruffles my feathers. Most Americans aren’t like me. Most Americans don’t like thuggish cops, but they aren’t comfortable with getting rid of them if it also means letting the violent criminals win. I don’t like that it is like this, but I get it.
Kamala will say 70% of the right things about the need for social justice reform. Under any other climate, I’d be disappointed we aren’t aiming higher. But I’ll gladly take 70% over the horrible shit we’ve got now.
I am stoked that Maya Rudolph will have job security for a while (assuming the Dems win).
And I fully expect Trump to try to paint her as “foreign” just like Republicans did with Obama. How long until he pulls out a cringe-inducing “Apu” accent when talking about her?
Not my number one choice, but certainly not a disaster. She’s proven she can attract a diverse audience. She’s already had a lot of scrutiny. She’s young, has her wits about her, and in good health.
I think people tend to over-estimate the vice president selection. As HappyLV said earlier, the main thing is to avoid harm. As an example, Sarah Palin did harm to McCain’s campaign because she was clearly in over her head at a time when brains mattered to Americans (at least it mattered to a majority of them). It hurt even more because it reinforced the perception people already had about McCain, which was that he was fumbling around and not really serious about addressing the mounting problems of the country. It was always about McCain vs Obama first, but as part of that analysis, people do look at the vice presidential selection as evidence that the president can surround himself with competent people. I think Rice would have been better, but Harris definitely passes that test.
I think she’s a solid pick. As pointed out by others, she doesn’t have any obvious negatives like Rice would have with Benghazi or Bass with Cuba and scientology. I look forward to seeing her on the (virtual) trail. She now has the highest odds of becoming the 47th POTUS. The key for her will thus be to campaign for 2020 VP and not for 2024 POTUS.