Of course they were holding her back. I don’t think there’s any argument they weren’t.
If she had been out and doing town hall events, it would have drawn attention to the fact that Biden wasn’t doing those things. Normally an energetic VP is a great partner who can double the number of events a candidate can do. But, the Biden campaign was too worried about her making him look old and feeble.
Actually, now that I think about it, Pence is the only other VP i can think of in the last few decades that got as little attention as Kamala. Biden and Cheney were both more on the radar when they were VP. With Gore, I’m not sure, since my biggest memory of him was running against W.
Biden didn’t get as much attention as Cheney, but had his moments because he kept swearing and making weird remarks.
also he jumped the gun on marriage equality while Obama was dancing around civil unions so forced his hand into supporting gay marriage…
but still no one really cared about him making speeches, especially since the president was Obama, one or the best orators in our lifetime, regardless of what you may think of his policies.
which reminds me, Harris does seem to be drawing from his style a bit. not as obviously as buttigieg tries to, but she seems to be subtly using some of the rhetorical devices. her speech that “we’re not going back” was pretty good. she also said (i think in another speech) that “we want to ban assault rifles; they want to ban books”. she’s getting good at it.
Bush Senior did enough as a VP that he was elected to follow Reagan. Bush Sr. chose Quayle as his VP, but that guy was such a lightweight that he became a laughingstock and nobody really cared what he did. Clinton and Gore really did seem like a partnership. Gore was doing some pretty visible things as VP and Clinton didn’t mind sharing the spotlight. Cheney was pretty infamous as a VP.
It’s more the last 2 VPs that were relatively low profile. With Biden that wasn’t much of a surprise, he was an older dude chosen for his connections serving under a very charismatic guy who was a great orator. With Pence… well I don’t think it’s any surprise that the spotlight was on Trump, and that Trump didn’t want to actually give Pence anything to do.
Of course they were holding her back. I don’t think there’s any argument they weren’t.
If she had been out and doing town hall events, it would have drawn attention to the fact that Biden wasn’t doing those things. Normally an energetic VP is a great partner who can double the number of events a candidate can do. But, the Biden campaign was too worried about her making him look old and feeble.
she probably has been, but it doesn’t get coverage because no one ever cares about VPs.
except for Cheney probably but that’s another story.
Actually, now that I think about it, Pence is the only other VP i can think of in the last few decades that got as little attention as Kamala. Biden and Cheney were both more on the radar when they were VP. With Gore, I’m not sure, since my biggest memory of him was running against W.
Biden didn’t get as much attention as Cheney, but had his moments because he kept swearing and making weird remarks.
also he jumped the gun on marriage equality while Obama was dancing around civil unions so forced his hand into supporting gay marriage…
but still no one really cared about him making speeches, especially since the president was Obama, one or the best orators in our lifetime, regardless of what you may think of his policies.
which reminds me, Harris does seem to be drawing from his style a bit. not as obviously as buttigieg tries to, but she seems to be subtly using some of the rhetorical devices. her speech that “we’re not going back” was pretty good. she also said (i think in another speech) that “we want to ban assault rifles; they want to ban books”. she’s getting good at it.
Bush Senior did enough as a VP that he was elected to follow Reagan. Bush Sr. chose Quayle as his VP, but that guy was such a lightweight that he became a laughingstock and nobody really cared what he did. Clinton and Gore really did seem like a partnership. Gore was doing some pretty visible things as VP and Clinton didn’t mind sharing the spotlight. Cheney was pretty infamous as a VP.
It’s more the last 2 VPs that were relatively low profile. With Biden that wasn’t much of a surprise, he was an older dude chosen for his connections serving under a very charismatic guy who was a great orator. With Pence… well I don’t think it’s any surprise that the spotlight was on Trump, and that Trump didn’t want to actually give Pence anything to do.