News to me. But there were rumors of VP Alexander Stevens bring an atheist.
You may be thinking of Judah Benjamin, who held several confederate cabinet posts.
Way off topic, drop this in the thread.
Moderating:
FWIW he ended up line item vetoing the voucher “scholarships” for those in “low achieving” districts under a certain income level. But it was a concession to get the budget done.
Add in his support of Israel.
It would signal a strong play that she at least will have voices that are … not of her base … as part of her closest advisors.
That openess to having those voices part of the conversation may appeal to some centrists and center rights who are swayable, even as she herself expresses base positions, including greater pressure on Netanyahu.
I don’t think she would lose any teacher support by having Shapiro on board. And her promoting pressure on Bibi would mollify some Michigan Muslims who dislike Trump but are upset with what they see as Biden’s enabling.
The balance of keeping the base on board and excited, while signaling that she is not controlled by them and respects some more conservative perspectives, is tricky.
At the vice-presidential debate, there’s a fair chance of it being pointed to as a flip-flop. Vance has certainly changed views, although not so recently.
Of course, Vance would attack for something else if a flip-flop charge wasn’t readily available.
It isn’t actually clear there will be a vice-presidential debate this time around. No date or venue had been selected before the President decided to drop his reelection campaign and I can’t find any indication that has changed.
Plus I suspect J.D. Vance is a chickenshit coward just like his running mate.
He was in the Marines. I mean for just one term iirc and he was a “combat correspondent” so he likely saw combat. So, not a coward. Perhaps chickenshit.
Not a flip-flop. That headline is deceptive as hell. From the article cited Kelly had concerns over one aspect of the bill and was not a co-sponsor. The bill has never come up for a vote because of the filibuster. At no point did he say he opposed the bill. Legislators vote all the time for bills despite having misgivings over certain aspects. That’s called compromise, and it’s how legislatures should work.
I agree that substantively this is a nothing issue – it’s more about organized labor putting a shot across the bow of the new ticket. What we’re seeing with both Kelly and Shapiro is core Democratic constituencies laying down a marker to see how their priorities are going to be considered and addressed by Harris.
Speaking as a Jew with a mostly-queer friend group, I don’t think she should pick a Jew or anyone queer. She’s already a Black Immigrant* Woman. Let’s not add another group that a lot of Americans “feel uncomfortable” with.
I hadn’t thought of it from that perspective. My gut instinct is that she wants to say as little as she possibly can about the war in Palestine, and let everyone hope she is on their side. Because that issue is just toxic to anyone on the left. There are a lot of voters who feel very very strongly on both extremes of it, and they all voted for Biden 4 years ago. I’m hoping to lose as few of them as possible.
And honestly, there are enough antisemites out there that I’m afraid having a Jew a heartbeat away from the presidency would be a detriment to the ticket.
someone, maybe you, pointed out that you need to print tens of thousands of t shirts and other merch before the convention begins, and you can’t keep a secret once you’ve ordered the merch to be made. So I, also, expect the announcement shortly before the convention.
- yes, I know she was born in the US. But, you know, she doesn’t LOOK like …well, you know, those non-immigrants that we are comfortable with. She looks like she came from somewhere else. Same as Obama, and it hurt him.
Vance calling Kelly a flip-flopper would be the best thing that could happen. Kelly would just have to be ready with one of the many quotes from Vance that show that he previously hated Trump.
“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy,” Vance said in an interview with Charlie Rose in 2016, while publicizing his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.” “I never liked him.”
“As somebody who doesn’t like Trump, myself, I sort of — I understand where Trump’s voters come from,” Vance later said in the Rose interview. “But I also don’t like Trump himself, and that made me realize that maybe I’m not quite part of either world totally.”
“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office,” he wrote in the op-ed, describing his own families’ adoration and commitment to Trump.
Yes, from a strictly winning-the-election POV that is clearly the best strategy, but it will be tough to pull off.
Also speaking as a Jew, I started out thinking the same as you argue. I’ve changed my mind. Sure there is antisemitism, on the Right, on the Left, in the middle, everywhere. But we still have several people of Jewish heritage and faith (to differing degrees) and other connections on the list. Because despite the antisemitism that exists everywhere they are still able to win governorships and senate races in diverse regions.
Jewish identity is in practice not much of an election handicap, and, like if it was another woman as VP running mate, the number who would have voted for the Black South Asian woman with Jewish step children if only her VP wasn’t Jewish … is likely not large.
There may be arguments against him, but I am now of the mind that Jewish is not one of them.
I think it’s probably true that Kamala’s husband is going to be enough to repel any anti-Semites who might otherwise have been tempted to vote Democratic, so the downside of a Jewish running mate is less than it would be in other years. OTOH, it would make the campaign’s presumed desire to talk as little as possible about Gaza somewhat harder to acheive.
I’m having fun imagining Republican apoplexy if Nicky Haley became the VP pick. Go all-in on the South Asian demographic. Definitely won’t happen, but still fun to imagine.
And in these evaluation speculations we are seeing one of the many things Harris or any candidate for that matter has to juggle in the selection – not only trying to avoid giving the opposition an easy handle to grab on to (which they will be looking for anyway) but also the near inevitability that someone in her own base/coalition OR among the sought-after “middle” will get all nitpicky-whingey about feeling a particular group identifier or single-issue policy plank is unrepresented in the ticket (or that it’s represented by the “wrong side”).
Which is one way to try to handle it. But events may make that hard to do. Accepting then that one way or another Gaza will be in the new cycles (be it Biden actually brokering something good, or more divisive bad) ignoring it may not be possible.
How then to play the hand she wants to play as president? The message that we are a steadfast friend of Israel, and we are not the sort of friend who encourages them to drive drunk. Israel has a right, an obligation to defend itself, and that right does not justify any and all levels of destruction.
It’s a message that makes neither extremes of Zionism or anti-Zionists very happy, and is a move off of unwavering support that has been more the norm. Having a strong support of Israel VP on board may help sell it to the Israel supportive side, and the message of increased pressure on Israel may sell it to the less extreme Palestinian supporter side. It still will have detractors on both sides.
She may have to take the subject head on and that may be the way to do it.
Also also speaking as a Jew, but more relevantly as a marketer, “Harris-Shapiro” has a very Jewish ring to it. It’s like a big flag saying Whoa, there’s a Jew on the ticket! There may be voters who are (even subconsciously) more turned off by that than by the fact that Harris’ husband is Jewish.
It seems like a silly detail – and it’s absolutely a bad reason to not nominate him, if Harris and the DNC think he’s otherwise the best person for the job – but it would definitely give me pause.
You can even sing it to the tune of “Hava Nagila”:
Harris-Shapiro,
Harris-Shapiro,
Harris-Shapiro,
Twenty-twenty-four…
Let’s have another term
Let’s have another term
Let’s have another term
And then do Josh again!
Slate weighs in and says Whitmer is best, which continues to be my opinion (Kelly comes in second in my book):