The Kamala Harris Problem
www.theatlantic.com
Few people seem to think she’s ready to be president. Why?

In June 2021, at the end of a two-day trip to Guatemala, the vice president sat down with the NBC anchor to discuss Biden’s immigration agenda. Harris had recently become the administration’s lead on the so-called root-causes element of border policy, working with Central American countries to alleviate the violent and impoverished conditions that lead many migrants to flee north to the U.S. in the first place. The questions should have been easily anticipated—such as whether Harris had any plans to visit the border itself, where crossings had surged. Yet when Holt did ask that question, Harris threw up her hands in evident frustration. “At some point, you know, I—we are going to the border. We’ve been to the border. So this whole, this whole—this whole thing about the border. We’ve been to the border. We’ve been to the border.” Holt corrected her: “You haven’t been to the border.” Harris became defensive. “And I haven’t been to Europe,” she snapped. “I don’t understand the point you’re making.”

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    124·
    8 days ago

    I think the plan was to hand it to Harris.

    But then they realized she was almost as unpopular as Biden, so Biden wanted to hang on.

    The alternative is Biden was always going to step down and he was just stalling till there wasn’t time for it to be anyone else.

    Primaries help Dems feel involved and increases turnout, being told someone the voter base is the candidate and we don’t have a choice is how Republicans become presidents.

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
      31·
      8 days ago

      I’ve heard this argument before, but the primary that got us Biden was also a shit show where a candidate that was deeply unliked eventually became the nominee as other candidates strategically dropped out to make room for him.

      I heard way fewer complaints about Kamala being selected to replace Biden than I ever heard about Biden being the nominee in 2020. Nobody felt like the primary had nominated the most popular candidate.

      I also don’t buy the conspiracy theory that Biden always planned on dropping out, and deliberately did so after a chance for a Primary had passed to hand the nomination to Harris by default. That just doesn’t check out strategically. Biden is clearly in cognitive decline and they knew that he was basically unrunnable, but swapping out an incumbent is a risky move.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
        62·
        8 days ago

        Yeah, we haven’t had a fair primary for decades.

        Even 08 Obama has to work against the party. I don’t remember how 92 was, just that Bill was the first candidate to go on MTV and genuinely engage with the youth.

        I still remember him answering “boxers or briefs” and playing the saxophone. But I wasn’t paying attention to the primary back then

        But…

        Your argument for why there couldn’t have been a plan for Harris to take over, was that Biden was clearly in cognitive decline long before this election?

        But they thought a primary would contentious and bad for the general?

        Aren’t those both arguments for why Biden’s admin would have a plan to replace him without a primary and Biden would go rogue and refuse to stand down at first?

      • Elbow@lemmy.zipEnglish
        21·
        8 days ago

        I wish we could do something like the Jungle primaries that some states have where all the parties run together and the top candidates advance to the general election regardless of party. That seems to put a damper on extremism.

        Ideally though, I’d like to see us move away from the presidential system to a proportional parliamentary system, but that would take a constitutional amendment.

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      8 days ago

      Back when she was picked Some More News did a video that detailed the history of how Democrats lose when they anoint a candidate rather than having a primary.