Tammy Duckworth retired as a lieutenant colonel. But everybody seems to sweat risking senate seats.
Best candidate, no? Why does it have to be a woman if there are more qualified candidates? Identity politics…
There is now a pretty good bench of female and non-white candidates, although why you’d reach into a state legislature for one I have no idea. For my money Duckworth is the best choice, but I could see Klobuchar since she helped Joe out big time, or Deval Patrick, who is ready to be President on day 1. Stacy Abrams would be asking for a Quayle/Palin situation, no one has any idea how she’d fare on a national stage. Stick to Senators and governors.
I don’t get the Stacy Abrams love. Her most notable accomplishments are losing a state election for governor and being a talking head on tv.
I would love to see Booker get the nod. He was never able to take advantage of his strengths and was never given a decent chance to break out from the pack. I think he would do very well as a VP candidate. He doesn’t help by coming from a solid blue state* but maybe he could help bring out some of the voters who stayed home last election. And he has youth and vigor. Something that may be very important when voters look at both Biden and Bernie.
But realistically I think the party will feel like a woman candidate will be needed. I was originally thinking Klobachar but now I’m wavering. Duckworth may be a good choice. I don’t know how much name recognition she has nationally. I’ve also never seen her in a debate format. With most likely only one VP debate I’m not sure that’s very important anyway.
I would love to see Trump dump Pence and pick Haley. I would much rather see her a heartbeat away if the election goes that way. I doubt either would go for it. Haley can run on her own in four years with little of the Trump baggage and Pence has been a loyal if boring soldier. Trump loves loyalty.
*Although that means his senate seat stays blue.
Yeah, Duckworth would counterbalance Biden well - she’s got enough political experience to justify the pick, she’s got a background and personality that would allow her to bring two false legs to an asskicking competition against Pence and still win, the “minority woman” thing will make Uncle Joe look better, and she’s already managed to make waves in the Senate via the breastfeeding rule. Biden needs someone younger with a strong personality to give him a boost. Also, while he doesn’t need a Midwesterner specifically, it doesn’t hurt and he needs to avoid picking someone from the Northeast.
I don’t know who would balance Bernie that could actually get along with Bernie. All the people who might mitigate Sanders’ weak spots are ones he and his supporters would hate, even if they agreed to the run. Sanders will want a yes-man (or yes-woman) in the role; the last thing he wants is someone to pull focus from him. At a WAG I’d say he’ll go with Castro but honestly, he may surprise me.
As for Stacy Abrams, I still want to see her kicking Kemp out of the governor’s mansion and cleaning house in Georgia before jumping to the national stage. Georgia needs it desperately.
She needs to be a woman, but not elderly (Warren) nor from a liberal coast (Harris). That still leaves many fine choices.
(More urgent is the need for Biden to get coaching and practice. His gaffes are getting worse, and he’s having trouble controlling his temper. I worry about a major gaffe, or about Biden being reduced to rubble in a debate with Trump.)
There were several stars on the Democratic stage; Thomas Friedman thinks it would be wise to pre-announce that many of the nominee’s rivals will be in the Cabinet. (Friedman’s examples include Klobuchar for V.P., Bloomberg or Sanders for SecTreas!, Harris for AttyGen, Warren, Steyer, Buttigieg, Booker, Romney and Yang for other cabinet posts. Bill McRaven for SecDef, and AOC for Ambassador to the U.N.!)
Tangent: Look, I like AOC but she’s a first-term Congresswoman. I know she gets both left and right riled up for different reasons, but let her actually get a handle on the job she’s basically just started before we elevate her to higher things (whatever they might be).
I’m trying to remember the last time if ever I successfully guessed who was going to be picked for VP. Probably never and the pundits don’t have a much better batting average.
For me, it’s not a matter of how charismatic or electrifying Klobuchar’s personality is. It’s mostly a matter of how Biden, at best, was well on his way to a 2nd place finish in a contested convention scenario. She changed the whole dynamic of the race by dropping out and endorsing Biden. Had she not done so, we would probably still be looking at a 5 person race right now rather than a duel between Biden and Sanders the rest of the way (yes, I’m ignoring Tulsi). My guess is that Biden promised her the spot, and to go back on that would be a disaster. Or, as they say in south, “you dance with the one who brung you.”
For Bernie she’s one of the few Democrats who is also not part of the establishment. She would tick off the boxes of being young and a woman while avoiding the box of being mainstream.
I’d love to see Mike offer to shake his hand only to be kissed on the lips by Pete.
A CNN analyst says it’s a certainty that Pence is dumped for Nikki Haley I take a lot of stock in that.
[ul]
[li]It allows Donald to troll the Democratic convention and steal some of the spotlight from Biden[/li][li]Pence adds nothing, Nikki Haley has two X chromosomes and might attract some female voters[/li][li]Donald loves to stick the shiv into people no matter how loyal they have been to him. Loyalty is a one-way street with him[/li][/ul]
I’m not sold on the “gotta be a woman” notion. Whitmer would be tolerable, Harris would be awesome but I’d much prefer her to be AG with a mission to put the current crime syndicate in the White House behind bars. I’d like Corey Booker or Deval Patrick. Julian Castro would go a long way to getting the Latino vote. One thing I think is given: it will not be a white male.
Nothing whatsoever.
Good god, I certainly hope nobody seriously entertains the idea of putting Tulsi on the ticket.
She’s gotten a massive pass from the media on a bunch of stuff, but that benign neglect won’t last if she’s the VP pick.
Nothing for Joe Biden. For Sanders she would make the ideal running mate.
Sure, Donald loves to stick the shiv into people. The problem is that Pence would have no reason to not stick back.
Pretty much all the Bernie supporters I know (and I know a bunch) think Tulsi sucks ever since her ridiculous no-votes during impeachment.
On Nikki Haley, why would she agree? She’s young, and doesn’t need a VP spot to be a credible candidate for president in '24 or '28. I think she’d only agree if she thinks Trump’s re-election is a certainty, and even then only if she thinks that the GOP will be in a good position to win again after 8 years of Trump. Neither of those seem like more than 50/50 bets, if that.
I agree. She will be in a much better position in 24 if she is able to put forth her own ideas rather than running on Trump’s legacy and carrying his baggage.
Let’s be optimistic and say she runs for veep and loses. But she gets to campaign across the country, get a ton of local pols to get to know her and like her and campaign with her, she gets a night to debate the Dem nominee and be on all the networks. Then going into 2024 she’s going to be one of the better known Republican contenders. She’ll be able to make television appearances on the talk shows for four years bashing everything Biden does. Take this running mate gig and become an instant 2024 contender, win or lose.
But she’ll have the stench of Trump all over her and the Evangelicals will be pissed off that she took Pence’s spot.
That was some hard-nosed leadership, right there. Bernie/Tulsi would give Trump the landslide he desperately dreams about. It’s hard to think of a worse choice for an elderly candidate.