Yeah. The American voter just loves technicalities.[/s]. I can’t think of a surer way to doom her campaign.
But they love reality shows!
How disappointing.
Over in the enthusiasm thread, there’s some discussion of the Republicans for Harris demographic group. IMHO, that’s who Harris should be courting with her VP pick.
Did Mark Kelly tip his cards that he’s not the pick?
“I spent my life in the Navy and at NASA, where the mission always comes first. Now, my mission is serving Arizonans,” Kelly said in a post Sunday evening on X, formerly known as Twitter, before deleting it about 30 minutes later.
My guess? This was an already-scheduled post that had nothing to do with any vice president search, but as soon as it went up, a staffer may have realized how it sounded and quick took it down.
FWIW, about an hour and a half ago on CNN, they were talking as if it’s known that the VP announcement won’t be made until Tuesday. I was listening to a short bit in the car, and not sure if that was speculation or something sourced.
It occurred to me that everyone is in DC and it’s just a 2.5 hour drive to Philly. They could definitely announce as late Tuesday afternoon and not have logistical issues with getting someone out there in time for the rally.
Ok so Kelly’s people deleted the first post about serving Arizonans, and almost immediately replaced it with this:
Did his socials team have two different posts drafted depending on Harris’ decision, and they posted the wrong one originally? 
Is Kelly going to be the pick?
It would be a bold move to announce before the boss does. It could also be that he means that he will serve Harris and the choice that wasn’t him.
My thought is that any social media activity right now from the finalists would have to be given a thumbs-up from the Harris team. That’s why I thought the original post was already scheduled and got posted by accident. But now this one goes up…
The comments on that post are certainly reacting as it was confirmation that Kelly is the pick.
I also see that it’s the same post on his Instagram page.
Sure hope those comments prove to be right. Though I’d be fine with Walz too.
The more I think of it, the more I think this is the sort of misdirection that this type of post represents.
Then again, I’m at the point where any news is imbued with significance it probably doesn’t warrant. I should prob just wait for them to announce.
It’s probably too late for an announcement today. (9:30pm on the East Coast.)
Either way, the will-s/he, won’t s/he tension and reporting on it continues to serve Harris well, and helps offset the “wait until Tuesday” by increasing the tension. Less space for Trump’s oily goo to seep into otherwise moderate/independent facing news.
Good. As stated before by nearly everyone, the Democratic Party needs to use every single legal and advertising trick to attract people to the platform, encourage turn-out, and avoid turning OFF any winnable group (that isn’t already an out-and-out neo-fascist / bigot / racist POS, granted) because the consequences for NOT winning in 2024 are arguably far worse than not winning in 2020, given the damage SCOTUS has done and Trump’s stated intents.
Skillfully working the impressions of the VP, keeping tension high, and building respect for the “bench” has worked well, and hopefully they can keep pushing the higher energy and younger perspective against Trump to a win in November.
Events may have caught up with her. The Southeast isn’t going to be paying attention to announcements on Tuesday because they’ll be dealing with a Hurricane/Tropical Storm dumping absolutely ridiculous amounts of rain on already saturated soil. Any impact on GA, SC, or NC is going to be severely muted. Hell, large areas may not even have power to see the announcement.
But maybe they’re not focused on anywhere down here.
Counterpoint though, it would be a great opportunity for Harris (acting on both Biden and her own behalf) along with the newly chosen VP to be on-scene after the event, unless the political calculation is that it’s too “political”. I can’t imagine Trump doing much on the ground events, because, well, no huge crowd of adoring fans, and no grift.
I would consider it too political. If nothing else, the security around such a visit has a liklihood of disrupting recovery efforts and don’t think the 'Pubs won’t try to make hay out of that. Also, the storm won’t be clear of SC until late in the day on Friday (when it moves into NC and VA). There’s little chance she flies into the Big Bend while the storm is less than 200 miles away. With all that said, next week is a lifetime away and the VP pick will be old news by then.
Look there’s not an objectively right answer here. Most of the country and almost all of the ‘gettable’ states won’t feel the impact of Debby until long after the announcement if at all. But if her campaign has a (apologies) “Southern strategy” that includes GA, SC, and NC, then she’ll lose any potential bump from the announcement just based on people having bigger fish to fry.
Personally, I would have gone with an accelerated announcement “in the interests of getting this done and focusing efforts on protecting life and property in the face of this life-threatening event.” In other words, look and act Presidential. That’s the best argument against Trump because he literally has no idea how to do it and no inclination to do it even when it’s explained to him.
Plus, he’s too cheap to pay for the paper towels that are de rigueur for his visits to the humble masses after a storm.
The more I see Shapiro speak the more he annoys me because he sounds like he is doing a bad Obama impression. Has he always sounded like that? Anyway, that probably means that he will be the selection.