The Kamala Harris presidential candidacy

[Victoria Raverna]

What is the "high crimes and misdemeanors" that he used as the reason for the impeachment?

[Isgrimnur]

"The articles cite her gross incompetence in dealing with the crisis at the southern border and her betrayal of the American people," the website said.

Ogles also released a statement regarding his decision to introduce the articles. The statement claims that "countless women and children have been raped and murdered" because she "willfully disregarded" her responsibilities as Vice President.

I wonder how being President of the Senate is supposed to keep people from being raped and murdered. Wasn’t Greg Abbott supposed to get rid of rape in Texas?

[Unagi]

Can he bring up raped women and children without talking about abortion? I guess so.

[Victoria Raverna]

They care so much about women being raped that they chose a convicted rapist to be their president candidate?

[Isgrimnur]

Adjudicated, not convicted.

[Victoria Raverna]

A lot of new youtube videos seemed to say that Vance turned out to be a bad choice for Trump. Are they correct or they were just propaganda from Democrat side?

Is it too late for Trump to change his VP candidate?

[waitingtoconnect]

He’s the best apparently according to maga. I find him flat and lifeless in speeches and interviews. Almost like the soul has been sucked from his body

[YellowKing]

A lot of new youtube videos seemed to say that Vance turned out to be a bad choice for Trump. Are they correct or they were just propaganda from Democrat side?

It's not propaganda. There is heavy consensus from just about everyone outside the MAGA-sphere (and probably many inside it) that this was a bad choice.

A VP should shore up the candidate's weaknesses and/or help them pull in voters from a state they're weak in. Vance does none of those things. He only appeals to Trump's base, which was already voting for him.

Even worse, Vance is heavily disliked by a lot of the rural voters he was supposed to appeal to. He's seen as a fake and a fraud. I believe I saw an article where according to polls he was the first VP candidate since 2000 that had a negative favorability rating when announced. Couple that with his lifeless campaign speeches, and it's a disaster.

As has been pointed out before, Vance was picked because Trump, with his endless ego, felt 100% sure he was going to win and wanted a loyal lapdog by his side. Somebody that would not pull a Pence and allow a free and fair election to go uncontested.

As far as being "too late" to switch VPs, no, not technically. Though I imagine if Trump did want Vance out, he wouldn't boot him. Instead, Vance would make up some BS story about having to step aside for personal reasons "leaving no choice" but for Trump to choose a new VP. However, I think the optics would look really bad. Trump would look like he was terrified of Harris and that his campaign didn't know what it was doing. I'd think it would be highly unlikely Trump would admit to choosing poorly.

[waitingtoconnect]

The other aspect is with trumps age jd Vance is a real chance at having to assume the presidency.

So voters will really look at him because trumps age is an issue as much as Bidens for voters.

With Harris it’s much less likely her VP will have to take over permanently.

As for replacing Jd all of maga are just cut from the same cloth at this point. Mtg, Tim Scott, Lindsey Graham, Kari Lake… Lauren Boebert… desantis, Haley….

I suppose he could go for Chris Christie - now that would be good for the laughs.

[Scraper]

The other aspect is with trumps age jd Vance is a real chance at having to assume the presidency.

So voters will really look at him because trumps age is an issue as much as Bidens for voters.

With Harris it’s much less likely her VP will have to take over permanently.

As for replacing Jd all of maga are just cut from the same cloth at this point. Mtg, Tim Scott, Lindsey Graham, Kari Lake… Lauren Boebert… desantis, Haley….

I suppose he could go for Chris Christie - now that would be good for the laughs.

I have a feeling that anyone that fits the shoring up weaknesses categories in the GOP flat out refused to even take part in Trump's vetting process. Who in their semi right mind would even consider it after the way he treated Pence and countless others in his prior administration.

[Unagi]

The other aspect is with trumps age jd Vance is a real chance at having to assume the presidency.

<snicker>

[Unagi]

So voters will really look at him because trumps age is an issue as much as Bidens for voters.

Are you being serious here? Cause, if you are, you are totally kidding yourself.

Anyone considering Trump is not measuring things like that at all.

[Skinypupy]

So voters will really look at him because trumps age is an issue as much as Bidens for voters.

Are you being serious here? Cause, if you are, you are totally kidding yourself.

Anyone considering Trump is not measuring things like that at all.

Look man, Ronny Jackson confirmed Trump could live to be 200 years old.

And if you can't trust an unstable alcoholic who ran a pill mill from the WH, got demoted by the Navy, and whose medical license was revoked, then who can you really trust?

[waitingtoconnect]

Well I do presume there are some fence sitters given Harris is running now. And in the mid west every vote vote counts.
Except in Chicago of course where people vote early and often for the Democrats (Kidding!!)

Vance is just red meat for the base. In more ways than one given pence.

Speaking of people who are kidding themselves-

Mike Pence praised Biden’s decision to end his presidential bid and called for national unity. Despite the normalcy of Pence’s rhetoric, MAGA posters immediately began blasting the former vice president for his supposed traitorousness.

“President Joe Biden made the right decision for our country and I thank him for putting the interests of our Nation ahead of his own,” Pence wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “After the assassination attempt on President Trump and President Biden’s decision to end his campaign, now is a time for leaders in both parties to project calm and send a message of strength and resolve to America’s friends and enemies alike that, whatever the state of our politics, the American people are strong and our American military stands ready to defend our freedom and our vital national interests anywhere in the world.”

[hepcat]

Does Pence have any real power within the GOP these days? I feel like Trump completely destroyed that man's political career. Mind you, I'm not crying over that. Pence is a homophobic ass. But you have to wonder about the people who enthusiastically run into any relationship with the Mangerine given his track record of turning on everyone who works for/with him at some point.

[Victoria Raverna]

After Trump survived the assassination attempt, MAGA think God protects Trump and that he is going to live long enough to Again Make America Great Again.

[GreenGoo]

God wouldn't have let someone shoot at his head. But god works in mysterious blah blah blah. Burn the heretic!

[El Guapo]

Does Pence have any real power within the GOP these days? I feel like Trump completely destroyed that man's political career. Mind you, I'm not crying over that. Pence is a homophobic ass. But you have to wonder about the people who enthusiastically run into any relationship with the Mangerine given his track record of turning on everyone who works for/with him at some point.

Nope. He does have some stature with the national media and probably with some Trump-skeptical conservatives, though.

[hepcat]

This is how I envision Pence out and about in his hometown post Trump.

[Unagi]

"Huh? I am *not* a bum. I'm a VP. I once had wealth, power, and the love of a wonderful man. Now I only have two things: my certification of electoral votes, and... uh... my thermos. "
-Pence

[hepcat]

[El Guapo]

Reading buzz about Buttigieg as a possible VP pick. Which I'm a bit torn about - I really like him quite a bit, as every clip I see of him he comes across as pretty smart, sensible, competent, and funny, but at the same time I worry about voter response to a young gay man vs. a bland straight VP choice.

[Apollo]

Bret Stephens brings up some of Kamala's weaknesses in this op-ed: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/23/opin ... 5e64fe3415

I've never been a fan of Kamala but I've never been a hater, either. My greatest concern with her is her poor campaigning track record and the fear that she will start openly voicing approval of unpopular Democratic policies, especially on immigration which is one of the party's biggest weaknesses (There's a reason Trump has so much support despite being a vile, lying asshole). I've got my fingers crossed and I hope nothing he mentions here becomes an issue, but there's plenty of red meat out there for her detractors. And I admit the rush to choose her without seriously considering anyone else makes me more than a little nervous.

[Unagi]

Black woman / Gay man may indeed be a bridge too far.

[EvilHomer3k]

A lot of new youtube videos seemed to say that Vance turned out to be a bad choice for Trump. Are they correct or they were just propaganda from Democrat side?

It's not propaganda. There is heavy consensus from just about everyone outside the MAGA-sphere (and probably many inside it) that this was a bad choice.

A VP should shore up the candidate's weaknesses and/or help them pull in voters from a state they're weak in. Vance does none of those things. He only appeals to Trump's base, which was already voting for him.

Even worse, Vance is heavily disliked by a lot of the rural voters he was supposed to appeal to. He's seen as a fake and a fraud. I believe I saw an article where according to polls he was the first VP candidate since 2000 that had a negative favorability rating when announced. Couple that with his lifeless campaign speeches, and it's a disaster.

As has been pointed out before, Vance was picked because Trump, with his endless ego, felt 100% sure he was going to win and wanted a loyal lapdog by his side. Somebody that would not pull a Pence and allow a free and fair election to go uncontested.

As far as being "too late" to switch VPs, no, not technically. Though I imagine if Trump did want Vance out, he wouldn't boot him. Instead, Vance would make up some BS story about having to step aside for personal reasons "leaving no choice" but for Trump to choose a new VP. However, I think the optics would look really bad. Trump would look like he was terrified of Harris and that his campaign didn't know what it was doing. I'd think it would be highly unlikely Trump would admit to choosing poorly.

And don't forget how anti-Trump he was. There's lots of audio of Vance all but saying Trump is a rapist as well as calling him America's Hitler.

[Apollo]

Reading buzz about Buttigieg as a possible VP pick. Which I'm a bit torn about - I really like him quite a bit, as every clip I see of him he comes across as pretty smart, sensible, competent, and funny, but at the same time I worry about voter response to a young gay man vs. a bland straight VP choice.

He's one of the only people in the Democratic party under 60 that I really like these days. Would love to see him as a VP pick, but I think it will be Shapiro (probably the best choice) or Kelly. A youngish white dude will probably help reassure those who still aren't happy about Biden dropping out and aren't comfortable with Harris yet, but being gay might make the ticket too exotic for some.

[El Guapo]

Reading buzz about Buttigieg as a possible VP pick. Which I'm a bit torn about - I really like him quite a bit, as every clip I see of him he comes across as pretty smart, sensible, competent, and funny, but at the same time I worry about voter response to a young gay man vs. a bland straight VP choice.

He's one of the only people in the Democratic party under 60 that I really like these days. Would love to see him as a VP pick, but I think it will be Shapiro (probably the best choice) or Kelly. A youngish white dude will probably help reassure those who still aren't happy about Biden dropping out and aren't comfortable with Harris yet, but being gay might make the ticket too exotic for some.

One possible upside to Buttigieg is that he seems perfectly suited to our media environment. Like he's really good at generating concise biting clips that are also funny, and so perfect for going viral.

[Unagi]

And I admit the rush to choose her without seriously considering anyone else makes me more than a little nervous.

To be clear, she was on a 2020 ticket as the VP to the oldest nominated presidential candidate at the time. She was vetted and selected by America once already.

The rush to 'choose' her wasn't really a thing. She was presented as Biden's running mate and his obvious go-to choice (She is his VP, right? That implies he picked her to take over), and then the Dems supported her publicly and the Democratic party seems to 'have the votes'. She was the only serious option, IMO.

I don't mean to brush off your comment though. Let's "seriously consider" someone else: Gavin Newson... He doesn't want to run against Trump. I'm not sure who else may have gotten enough quick support, and 'quick support' was/is important in this context, I believe.

[Unagi]

Reading buzz about Buttigieg as a possible VP pick. Which I'm a bit torn about - I really like him quite a bit, as every clip I see of him he comes across as pretty smart, sensible, competent, and funny, but at the same time I worry about voter response to a young gay man vs. a bland straight VP choice.

He's one of the only people in the Democratic party under 60 that I really like these days. Would love to see him as a VP pick, but I think it will be Shapiro (probably the best choice) or Kelly. A youngish white dude will probably help reassure those who still aren't happy about Biden dropping out and aren't comfortable with Harris yet, but being gay might make the ticket too exotic for some.

One possible upside to Buttigieg is that he seems perfectly suited to our media environment. Like he's really good at generating concise biting clips that are also funny, and so perfect for going viral.

My LGBTQ kid is down on Buttigieg due to his support of Israel in the war with Gaza. I've encouraged this child to look a little deeper into Buttigieg's position on it all.

All I can really say is that I would love an America that would put Buttigieg on a winning ticket, and I've been getting signals from America that I should not love it.

[El Guapo]

And I admit the rush to choose her without seriously considering anyone else makes me more than a little nervous.

To be clear, she was on a 2020 ticket as the VP to the oldest nominated presidential candidate at the time. She was vetted and selected by America once already.

The rush to 'choose' her wasn't really a thing. She was presented as Biden's running mate and his obvious go-to choice (She is his VP, right? That implies he picked her to take over), and then the Dems supported her publicly and the Democratic party seems to 'have the votes'. She was the only serious option, IMO.

I don't mean to brush off your comment though. Let's "seriously consider" someone else: Gavin Newson... He doesn't want to run against Trump. I'm not sure who else may have gotten enough quick support, and 'quick support' was/is important in this context, I believe.

Yeah, a big part of the question is what kind of process is feasible under the circumstances? Like we generally expect the presidential nominees to be picked by voters primarily, but obviously there's not enough time to have a state-by-state primary. One of Harris's strengths here is that of all democrats other than Biden, she has the greatest claim to (small d) democratic legitimacy by virtue of being on the Biden / Harris ticket during the 2024 primary cycle (and secondarily having been picked by voters in 2020 on the Biden / Harris ticket).

So essentially anyone else who could be picked as the nominee would in the position of being chosen by democratic elites (whatever that process would look like) with no voter input. Under those circumstances, what's the value of a more elaborate (but still fundamentally elite-driven) process?

[ImLawBoy]

The way this has broken has been pretty much a best case scenario for the Ds and the worst case scenario for the pundit class (i.e., Bret Stephens and his ilk). As a lot of folks have been saying all along, if Biden were to drop out the party needed to quickly unify around a successor candidate and the most obvious choice was the sitting second-in-command. The hope from many (including myself) was that party unity would then lead to the voters falling in line and agreeing to go with Harris.

Instead, there was an almost immediate, massive groundswell of organic, small donor support for Harris after Biden's announcement. The D voters are the ones leading this call for Harris to be the candidate, followed by the delegates and the pols falling in line. Without the time for a true do-over on the primary, this is a great substitute for a demonstration of true popular support for Harris as a candidate.

Of course, that means less fodder for the pundits to try to tear down a bunch of candidates and say why none of them will be able to beat Trump, so you get garbage like columns saying the Ds are moving too quickly and should have a mini-primary so they have something to write about that will get clicks.

[Unagi]

The way this has broken has been pretty much a best case scenario for the Ds and the worst case scenario for the pundit class (i.e., Bret Stephens and his ilk). As a lot of folks have been saying all along, if Biden were to drop out the party needed to quickly unify around a successor candidate and the most obvious choice was the sitting second-in-command. The hope from many (including myself) was that party unity would then lead to the voters falling in line and agreeing to go with Harris.

Instead, there was an almost immediate, massive groundswell of organic, small donor support for Harris after Biden's announcement. The D voters are the ones leading this call for Harris to be the candidate, followed by the delegates and the pols falling in line. Without the time for a true do-over on the primary, this is a great substitute for a demonstration of true popular support for Harris as a candidate.

Of course, that means less fodder for the pundits to try to tear down a bunch of candidates and say why none of them will be able to beat Trump, so you get garbage like columns saying the Ds are moving too quickly and should have a mini-primary so they have something to write about that will get clicks.

NAILED IT

[Grifman]

https://twitter.com/RichardHanania/stat ... 7930117484

[hepcat]

Although if she wins, I'm fairly certain MAGAts are going to make Jan. 6th look like a street festival. There's no way they'll believe a woman...a BLACK woman...beat Trump. The amount of voter fraud conspiracy theories will be through the roof.

[El Guapo]

Biden's giving an address at 8 pm. I'll definitely be tuning in for that.

[Smoove_B]

Biden's giving an address at 8 pm. I'll definitely be tuning in for that.

But Laura Loomer and Charlie Kirk assured me he was dying or dead. Are you suggesting we now have power over life and death? That a secret cabal of necromancers raised Biden's lifeless corpse to give a speech tonight?!

[YellowKing]

Although if she wins, I'm fairly certain MAGAts are going to make Jan. 6th look like a street festival.

I'm not too worried about a Jan. 6th event, because Biden's in the White House and he'll have security ramped up to unprecedented levels. Jan. 6th was only able to happen because Trump allowed it to happen.

Now, could there be random violent acts throughout the country? Absolutely. Nutjobs gonna nutjob. But I imagine security across all levels of law enforcement is going to be on high alert.

[El Guapo]

Although if she wins, I'm fairly certain MAGAts are going to make Jan. 6th look like a street festival.

I'm not too worried about a Jan. 6th event, because Biden's in the White House and he'll have security ramped up to unprecedented levels. Jan. 6th was only able to happen because Trump allowed it to happen.

Now, could there be random violent acts throughout the country? Absolutely. Nutjobs gonna nutjob. But I imagine security across all levels of law enforcement is going to be on high alert.

I'm more worried about state actors in swing states mucking around in the election results.

[Paingod]

Although if she wins, I'm fairly certain MAGAts are going to make Jan. 6th look like a street festival. There's no way they'll believe a woman...a BLACK woman...beat Trump. The amount of voter fraud conspiracy theories will be through the roof.

Knowing there's a mob mentality waiting for a lit fuse, the Capitol Police would be complete fools to not have the place ready for lock down with heavier forces than before. A wise man once said "fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again."

[raydude]

Although if she wins, I'm fairly certain MAGAts are going to make Jan. 6th look like a street festival. There's no way they'll believe a woman...a BLACK woman...beat Trump. The amount of voter fraud conspiracy theories will be through the roof.

There is nothing the Jewish Space Laser Corps can't do.