I wonder if the final selection will just come down to the number of skeletons in the closet. Those should all come out during confidential interviews with the candidates and will (probably) never be known to the general public. When the announcement is made, everybody will speculate on the reasoning without all of the information the campaign had.
Build the Walz? I do still like the sound of Harris-Kelly, but Harris-Walz is all right. Not as smooth to say, but good.
I really don’t think there is ANY need to offset Vance’s military experience.
I’ll throw into the mix today that it is, after today, looking very likely that Israel and Lebanon will spiral into a full out war. Which has the potential to pull in Iran.
Does anyone think that possibility might influence what message Harris wants to signal with her choice?
An interesting look at Walz’ military service.
Trust me, if the Dems nom Shapiro, the MAGAs will 'trumpet" loudly and constantly their veeps military experience. They will have to wait until the pick is made, mind you.
Sure, but you remember the GOP propaganda machine will latch onto anything. Yes on Astronaut, but combat veteran is also good.
Also the military vote is not small.
Lol the military isn’t going to suddenly vote dem based on the VP pick being a vet or not.
And even if the dem VP is a vet they’ll go after him anyway, just like Kerry.
No one thinks “the military”, or any other large segment of the electorate, are going to flip from Republican to Democrat based on who Harris picks for VP.
On other might there be a handful of veterans in the swing states who might go from Democrats who probably won’t turn out, to Democrats who will because they see a career a military guy on the ticket who looks and sounds like them? I can see that, and that could swing it.
That’s the calculation Harris’s people are doing right now. And I hope they are being ruthlessly cold hearted and calculating about it, without any thoughts of principles and policies. I don’t envy them the task, there is a lot at stake, the stressing and overthinking we are are doing as random folk on Internet is I am sure multiplied a thousand fold for them.
I like the earlier suggestion of appointing his brother, Scott. (I’ve got a signed copy of his book, BTW.)
Politico is reporting that Kamala will begin campaigning with her VP choice in Philadelphia:
That matches a Monday announcement, which is what fills have been predicting.
He was a CSM, Command Sergeant Major.
Check out post #755 for the NYT mention of this.
Oops, I misread.
It’s interesting that reading the posts here have made me feel like I’ll actually be kind of disappointed if it’s Shapiro, given the arguments I’ve seen about what he brings to the table. I’d also feel less safe as a resident of PA if we lost him.
No.
Talking to a Philadelphia Black audience, Shapiro seemed to me to be speaking with a slight local accent he would not use elsewhere. Philadelphia mayor Cherelle Parker, who was involved if we are both talking about the same speech, is about as conservative as you can be and still be a Democratic Party politician in good standing, so she is not going to complain about cultural appropriation. But he may need to avoid doing this elsewhere.
Doubling back to any need to consider a compare and contrast with Vance -
One thing that has to be made as clear as possible (given the sensitive context of a recent assassination attempt) is the number one job of the VP is being who you feel comfortable can take over in a crisis. Age and health related Vance has a good chance of having to do that. Pounding in how solid and experienced and ready any of these top choices are in comparison to a very inexperienced and much derided by all Vance who was chosen solely for his skill as a bootlicker, will be a win. And is a way to emphasize Trump’s age as well without dissing Biden.
Yeah, reading this thread makes me feel good about the Democratic bench.
I dug up a document written by an associate of Pete ( but not requested by him, apparently) going over the candidates. It does suggest him as the best choice, but makes some good points about the others IMHO.
https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1sdHPxhRYkDdXiY6QlP1TIwhD1VWnhb_LtMx_ll4eNjs/mobilebasic
I’m wondering when the pick will leak. Announcing on Monday, hopefully Sunday night?
I’m not kidding that I’m cool if she picks Kelly, Shapiro, or Buttgieg.
My only concern would be Buttgieg costing votes due to being gay. I still think that would drive right-wing maniacs to a new fury.