Yesterday President Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate in the 2024 presidential campaign, finally, reluctantly, stepped aside and passed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Mixed feelings here. Relief that the excruciating decision has finally been made. Disappointment that his anointed successor, however inevitable she might have been, is someone I’ve never liked.
Nevertheless, I’m breathing again. Support seems to be coalescing quickly around Harris, although nothing is official until the delegates vote at the DNC next month in Chicago. Her choice of running mate has become the next focal point. I particularly like Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, but a swing state governor with executive experience would probably be a better choice. She’ll need all the experienced help she can find.
I’ve paid no attention to her activities as vice president, which is probably why I think she’s done nothing in that capacity. She bungled her first assignment, to handle the immigration problem at our southern border. Since then I’ve only become vaguely aware of her attention to the abortion issue. But I expect that of any woman — and any human being with half a brain.
One thing that gives me hope for a Democratic victory in November is Harris’s experience as a prosecutor. I like to imagine her shredding Trump and his lies in several televised “debates” — which he’d now be wise to avoid — and throughout the campaign. A prosecutor vs. a convicted felon.
Sic ’em, Kamala.
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Header image: Nathan Howard/Getty Images
I was disappointed when she choose to become VP and gave up the senate. I thought being a Senator from California put her in the best place for her skills. She could have been effective there for decades, but I feel she’s thrown that away for promises.
Still, I think she has a better shot than Biden.
You had a chance to see her in action before she became VP so certainly knew her better than I did. I do agree that her chances in this election are better than Biden’s were and I hope for everyone’s sake that she can pull this off.
Hopeful!
Fingers crossed!
FDR’s VEEP famously called his job “not worth a bucket of warm spit.” Indeed, handling immigration was responsibility with little authority and a too-little budget. She was loyal to Biden throughout her term. Let’s hope she will now display decisiveness and leadership. I was pleased with her opening appearances.
I’ve not seen any of her recent appearances. There will be lots between now and Election Day. I may or may not come to like her but I will for sure be voting for her, regardless.
“someone I’ve never liked” why?
I’d never heard of her when Biden picked her as his VP. I did a cursory search and it appeared that she was often changing her position on various issues. And I think I read that her staff doesn’t like her. Early in her term as VP, I was negatively impressed by her activities, or lack thereof. And after that I just didn’t pay any attention to her or what she did or didn’t do. All in all I was just left with a fairly negative impression. I’ll be seeing a lot more of her in the next few months and my opinion of her may very well change. For now I’m just relieved that the Dems have a viable candidate.
You know, I have always liked Kamala after seeing her in action while she was in the Senate. I cannot get over the huge sense of relief that I felt when I heard that Biden had dropped out of the race; I had hoped that he would throw the entire weight of his office behind the candidate that he felt should follow him, and that is exactly what he is doing. Kudos to him!! Back to Kamala… her mother was a cancer researcher, her father is a professor at Stanford, and she was raised in an enriched environment with very bright, high achieving parents who valued their work more than making a lot of money. I’m a California girl (before I was a Colorado woman) and I know what a crazy, diverse, and complicated state it is. You know, date palms, camel races, the ocean, the desert, EARTHQUAKES, orange groves, lots of different people who came from different places, great agriculture, and then there is northern California. And Silicon Valley. Where else in the world do you learn how to deal with rattlesnakes, rip tides, mountain fires, and hunting for another student who can translate for you when a parent comes to the school. You have to be great at building coalitions to become Attorney General in a state like California, but that is exactly what Kamala did. Did I mention that Kamela’s mom worked in a research lab!!! Yay for growing up with a BioGeek mom, and no wonder she has excelled as a prosecutor.
You know, if the orange man hadn’t blocked the border bill that had been negotiated with bipartisan support, and that gave the republicans most of what they wanted, he wouldn’t be able to attack her as a failure on the border. I wonder why he did that?
When people I respect and who have paid more attention to Kamala than I have, say she’s competent, I take notice. And I’m certainly encouraged by the excitement she seems to be generating. As Obama once said of Hillary Clinton, she’s “likeable enough.” I do wonder about her foreign policy experience, or lack thereof.
It does infuriate me that a perfectly good bipartisan immigration bill had been negotiated in Congress — finally — and then with a snap of his fingers, a con man who’d been voted out of office kills it. Bunch of Republican toadies in Congress.
I think that over the last four years Kamala has gotten a significant amount of foreign policy experience; the word is she reads the daily briefs which is sooooo much more than the orange man ever did. I was so encouraged by her statement about the need for a two-state solution giving both Israel and Palestine autonomy.
The orange man can read?
It’s hard for me to imagine that anyone thinks there’s any possible solution other than a two-state solution. Two free and independent nations. Peace.