18 Comments

I do not understand why anyone wants Newsom. Unless it’s the hair

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Your post would have been more engaging had you highlighted any other of the Dems in the wings, rather than the threadbare ‘diversity hire’ tropes on Harris.

Once Biden exits, please do give a gimlet-eyed review on each of them.

Oh, and please correct Rich Lowry’s name. Thanks

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Whether Kamala takes over as President before January or Biden stays in office for now but Kamala becomes the nominee, either way she will need a Vice President. And that may be where Newsom comes into this strange picture. Two crazy Californians in the White House and/or on the ticket to go there, at a time when the state is falling apart? Fun times. Meanwhile if someone else gets to Trump before January, absent civil war we’re probably looking at Vance/DeSantis or DeSantis/Vance.

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Why would Newsom want to play second fiddle to Kamala Harris, of all people?

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Oh it would totally chafe, he’d hate playing second fiddle. But Kamala is VP so has that head start. My theory is she’d soon flame out as President, be chased from office, creating Newsom’s opening

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Newsom can't be Harris's running mate. The Constitution requires the two candidates come from two different states. Article 2 section 1.

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Good thing I’m not a lawyer. I’m only seeing some ambiguous-sounding language involving Electors

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Oh hell, a mere technicality !

Dems don’t respect the Constitution anyway. They’ll just have Biden sign yet another executive order on his way out. Problem solved.

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My prediction is that Harris is about to become our president, as Biden will resign after falling gravely ill from Covid. (Whether he actually has Covid or not is anyone’s guess.) One of two things will then happen - either the Dems have given up winning in 2024 and will run Harris as the sacrificial lamb in an unwinnable race, saving their more viable candidates for 2028, or Harris will become entangled in some scandal, lawsuit, medical issue, etc., which will make it impossible for her to run and they’ll replace her with a candidate they believe has a shot at beating Trump. Probably Newsom.

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Possibly, but I’m not so sure. Biden might be persuaded to exit the race, but not to resign the presidency. He’s not that guy.

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Recent polls have included Harris as well as Trump and don't show that she would necessarily do better than Biden: https://www.realclearpolling.com/latest-polls/election

Kamala Harris has been a woeful campaigner: her 2010 race for Attorney General of California was won by less than 1% ... against a Republican opponent in California!

She will struggle with working class voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, states on the only plausible Democratic path to a bare victory in the Electoral College. Scranton Joe might have done better.

Going for her is that no Democrat with presidential ambitions will want the nomination now, in these circumstances, when they would have a better chance in 2028.

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Yes, the problem for the Dems is Harris is basically a dud but also difficult to pass over in favor of someone else. That’s what happens when you saddle yourself with a diversity hire. And if Democrats think that getting rid of Biden will solve their problems, they’re kidding themselves. The coverup of Biden’s decrepitude is a huge scandal in which Harris and the wider party are complicit.

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Harris has only been tested once in a national campaign, the 2020 Presidential Primaries, and she did horrible. The only reason that Harris is polling as well as Biden is that she's not on the campaign trail or publicly speaking. Make her the candidate and we have a whole different ballgame.

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I think he should stay in. They knew how infirm he was to begin with. They ought not humiliate him. They owe it to him to continue. Zero of this situation was not foreseeable. They foresaw-or should have- all of this. Make your bed. Lay in it. Surprises are one thing; natural consequences of your actions are another.

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Facing the prospect of a debacle on Election Day 2024, the Dems are far less concerned about Joe Biden's feelings than they are about their own political survival. It may be, however, that time has already run out for the Democratic Party. After this huge scandal, I doubt that the voters will be in a forgiving mood.

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But there are some 28% of the boneheads out there who don’t see it that way.

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As an American, I am delighted that some of our political sausage making is being revealed.

Politicians, media, and donors are giving us insights into how the game is played

Unfortunately, relatively few people will recognize mercenary nature of the political classes.

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It’s a week in DE to game the escape and evasion plan: the set of extraordinary demands that must be met, the gaudiness of the homage, the obeisance of the successor, guarantees of legal and financial top cover for he and the extended clan, and lifelong extraordinary emeritus status. As that keen “politician” Gerry Adams once said, “The hardest negotiation is always with your own side.”

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