We’ve got three months and counting to show President Biden our deep appreciation for his service by electing his chosen candidate, Kamala Harris, and all the other down-ticket Democrats, in November.
On behalf of the American people, I thank Joe Biden for his extraordinary leadership as President of the United States and for his decades of service to our country.
I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) July 21, 2024
Also worth sharing:
My statement on today: https://t.co/U0meOCtlfp
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 21, 2024
PST
I feel energized.
mali muso
Got my first text from the actual campaign (not the multiple groups shilling to share a donation) with a link to donate to Kamala. One of the options was $46 which is what I settled on. Still feeling sick and sad about how this went down but I’m behind her all the way.
Zzyzx
Listening to the coverage today – I left the house and went for a drive – I do think that this might be non-horrid. We’re now going to a “Biden was amazing!”/”People are excited about Harris” news cycle which is needed.
I hated everything that happened since the debate but I’m going to trust that maybe the Democrats weren’t just being stupid.
PST
I haven’t flipped on a television set since about half an hour into the debate, and I’ve barely looked at news sources. There was no way for me to affect the decision, and I didn’t know what the better option was, so I hid my head in the sand. I feel so much better now that the way forward is clear.
PaulWartenberg
I still hate the Beltway media and punditry that went out of their way to claim a scalp.
I will support Harris to the fullest and I hope she picks Gwen Graham former congresswoman from Florida who’s the daughter of Bob Graham.
Suzanne
Saw this on Jake Tapper’s Xhitter feed:
BWAAAAAAAAAA AAHAHAHAHAHA AAHAHAAAAAAA get bent motherfucker
Turgidson
Gonna need some more time to mourn the withdrawal of *easily* best president since FDR (and I’m saying this as a HUUUUGE Obama fan). But I’m heartened by how quickly the party seems so far to be rallying around Harris, and there is definitely a chance that this resets the exhausting/exhausted narrative that had calcified. Gonna remain pissed about how this all went down, maybe forever. But we’re here now; let’s make some fucking lemonade out of these lemons and get Kamala elected.
rikyrah
I Smoked #DropOutDon (@BlackKnight10k) posted at 2:25 PM on Sun, Jul 21, 2024:
Kamala Harris CAN beat Trump.
Here’s my worry. Harris can’t:
• beat the media
• beat the donors
• beat the PACS
• beat the Supreme Court
• beat the snakes in the party
• AND beat Trump at the same time.
The only patch to victory is to UNIFY RIGHT NOW.
The problem: the party couldn’t even unify behind Biden even though he already beat Trump and is one of the best Presidents in history.
If you can’t be trusted to unify behind him, you can’t be trusted to unify behind a Black woman.
We have 4 months to prove me wrong. Let’s get to work.
(x.com/BlackKnight10k/status/1815105715394285753?t=y6LEFcG_L5psD6QOAEdp8w&s=03)
rikyrah
@Suzanne:
Phuck Outta Here 🤬
hrprogressive
Rallying around Harris is our only path to victory.
We can deal with the fucksticks and douchecanoes who shivved Joe in the back after we win.
Gonna give her a donation later. Hadn’t yet donated. This feels like a great moment to do so, and show the Kamala-Mentum is on her side.
rikyrah
@mali muso:
I did the $46 donation too.
rikyrah
Black Girl Photographer (@LeciaMichelle11) posted at 4:11 PM on Sun, Jul 21, 2024:
Let me state the obvious:
If MVP were a wh.ite man, there would be no talk of an open primary. None. The racism and misogynoir is coming from inside the house (in this case, the Democratic Party).
(x.com/LeciaMichelle11/status/1815132607073354134?t=yadwW3sST6gOiIn9y0aAYw&s=03)
Other MJS
For Heather Cox Richardson fans, she says she’ll do a broadcast later tonight.
Cacti
@Suzanne: Die in a fucking fire, Manchin.
Spanky
So who hasn’t endorsed Harris yet?
Obama
Pelosi
Hoyer (my rep)
All old guard, and imo badly needing retirement.
Who else?
ron
Still completely disgusted and demoralized. I’ll check back in a month to see if all the coming court cases will be resolved. There is no plan.
Starfish
Cheryl posted Harris’s statement at LGM, and it was good.
UncleEbeneezer
I’m thrilled to support Harris.
But f*** the Biden-Backstabbers, forever.
They are Dem traitors who can’t be trusted.
KatKapCC
@Suzanne:
Can we get that guy who used to fly taunting banners over Mar-a-Lago to do it with this message over Manchin’s mansion? And yacht? And, I assume, palace in the Caymans or something?
UncleEbeneezer
BINGO
Spanky
Note: Link goes to The Democratic Voter Project, not an explicitly Harris fund.
Aussie Sheila
Posted below, but I’ll say it again. Biden was and is, the best US President in my political lifetime.
He has made his choice to not seek the Presidency again and has endorsed his smart, intelligent and fierce VP Harris to run for President.
I absolutely understand the grieving of the Dem rank and file who worked so hard for his victory in 2020.
It’s a bitter pill.
But I’m confident VP Kamala Harris will beat trumps old, fat, white and criminal arse like a drum.
Stay focused and united.
I’m confident in the Dem rank and file, and in the anti fascist US electorate.
J. Arthur Crank
@Suzanne: Throwing his hat into the ring to be the VP nominee?
Also too: fuck his mamma.
Grumpy Old Railroader
Hated how it went down but it was Joe’s own decision to step down so we need to STFU about him being “forced.” IMO If everyone quickly gets behind Harris, this may turn out to be a very good thing. Now I personally did not want Joe to drop out but it sure looks to me as though the party leaders started to get nervous as polls showed a majority of Democrats wanted a younger candidate. So Patooie to those that say the party leaders and donors were in the driver’s seat.
Now can we please focus on Prosecutor Harris vs Convicted Criminal Trump?
Phein64
My 20- and 30-something children think this could bring back in a lot of younger voters who weren’t excited about Biden (fools that they are). Their consensus for VP is: Pete Buttigieg.
Ksmiami
Manchin can get fucked. Harris 100%
Suzanne
@J. Arthur Crank: He can throw his hat into the ring, if by “ring” you mean “toilet bowl”, and by “throw his hat” you mean “scrub with his tongue”.
Fuck that guy eleven ways from Sunday.
Starfish
My mom who said she was not going to vote for President said she is voting for Harris.
Martin
I think Harris should pick someone younger than her. Democrats have age as an advantage and should lean into it.
No matter what this election is going to be a referendum on Trump. 2020 was as well but with a different dynamic – Covid turmoil meant voters wanted a stable, experienced hand and Biden was a good fit for that. But we don’t have the same turmoil, what we have is the future expression of what American society should be as defined by Project 2025, and Democrats need a competing vision. There isn’t a lot of room for flipping votes, but there is a lot of room to get low-turnout voters, and for Democrats that’s young people, who I’ll note are the ones most impacted by Dobbs since abortion/IVF is more a young people than old people issue, as are trans/identity rights. So go grab those voters by appealing to them. Young voters showed up for Biden, but he lost a LOT of them with his Israel policies, and their enthusiasm has waned. Get them back.
schrodingers_cat
Many of the donors who wanted Biden out are not going to want Harris as the nominee. Will we have her back?
Mai Naem mobile
I’ll go vote for Harris but Schiff and all the other assholes can go fuck themselves. I am wondering if this is how the BernieBros.felt. I got a call from the Biden Harris campaign yesterday about canvassing(hahahaha a brown person canvassing in a red area with guns) and I agreed to phonecalls but honestly I am too pissed off right now. There better not be some centrist POS as her Veep to mollify George Clooney and his tax cuts. Oh, and stop with the Mark Kelly stuff. I have sacrificed my ears enough for the “Mark Kelly supports open borders” jingle that I heard in my dreams during the 2022 Senate race.
lowtechcyclist
@Spanky: Both of our Senators have issued TYFYS statements about Biden, but nothing about Harris.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
And here I thought Joe Liebermann was the biggest political douche to ever be a Senate Dem at one point.
Ruckus
@Zzyzx:
If Joe Biden was running I’d vote for him. He has given a lot of his life to making this country work and he’s done it well. We rebounded from the last guy’s disaster of a job with Joe Biden in charge and his right hand, Kamala Harris.
I’m for giving that right hand a full on shot at not just helping but running the show and I think she is the best choice for the job. Because she is at least a million miles above him in every measurable way. OK 2 million. But then most of us are at least 1/2 million miles above him in every measurable way.
I don’t call him shitforbrains for no reason, he’s more than earned it.
Mai Naem mobile
@schrodingers_cat: if we don’t get Kamala back then you know for sure it was the feature not a bug.in the whole Biden’s gottago plan from the donor class.
Aussie Sheila
@schrodingers_cat:
Not that it matters in my case, but Biden chose his VP wisely. She is going to kick trumps arse into the long grass. She’ll beat him like a drum.
Dems need to remember she was and is, Biden’s nominee. If you loved and trusted him, you should love and trust her.
Martin
@Phein64: Pete is the bold choice. It broadcasts very clearly what the Democratic Party stands for and he’s great at messaging. He’s VERY good at drawing contrast to Trump, and that’s really what this campaign needs to be about. Actually AOC would be a bolder choice, but I think Harris/Pete has a really good synergy.
Turgidson
@Spanky:
As much as I love Obama, his unwillingness to use his political capital as revered former president at crucial moments has been very disappointing. He needs to get on board, dammit. If he offers a full-throated endorsement of Kamala, the party’s elite wannabe-shadow-king douchebags will get cut off at the knees and we’ll be able to move forward.
Suzanne
@Martin: I agree. I said in the last thread….. I really like Buttigieg, but there’s a lot of good options. Rachel Bitecofer says it needs to be a Midwest governor. I think Josh Shapiro is fantastic and absolutely a rising star. I’d hate to lose him here, but I suppose I can share.
WaterGirl
@mali muso: Would you mind forwarding that information to me? Because Kamala is not in ActBlue, and there seems to be some misleading fundraising going on.
mrmoshpotato
@PaulWartenberg:
Yes! Fuck ’em!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Turgidson:
Per a previous comment of mine:
Thus, his statement is completely on-brand for him.
Eolirin
Already fixed,nm
Martin
@schrodingers_cat: And all of the donors that wanted Joe to stay have Harris’s back. And there were a lot of them too.
schrodingers_cat
@Aussie Sheila: I love her and trust her. I don’t trust the demographic that voted R in 2016 and 2020. And the media which is a propaganda arm for the RNC.
matt
@Suzanne:Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia announced on Friday he has officially left the Democratic Party and filed as an independent.
WaterGirl
@Suzanne: @KatKapCC:
Steep isn’t here to tell me when people break the margins but running too many strings of characters together.
hrprogressive
@Phein64:
I am but an n=1 sample, and I am 38.5 so not really “young” by those standards.
But the more I think about it, the more pissed and angry I am that a bunch of rich white plutocrats knifed Joe in the back for this.
I was gonna vote Dark Brandon, even if I wasn’t excited about it.
Now?
I feel fired up to prove all those shitheads who wanted Joe out just how little I give a shit about what they want, because they don’t want Kamala, either.
Will other voters feel the same?
I legitimately hope so.
PST
I cannot believe that people like Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi wanted Biden’s scalp or looked for an opportunity to stab him in the back. Everything we’ve seen and heard for years tells us that they admire him deeply and wanted nothing more than for him to succeed in defeating Trump. Those two, in particular, are completely out of the fray and have nothing to gain as individuals. They have also been in a better position than the rest of us to witness Biden’s performance up close. I am 70 years old and have friends in their 80s. I have watched many of them turn a corner. Biden has been a stupendously good president, but that is no guarantee that he could win this campaign or that he could repeat his success. I simply do not believe that those two acted in bad faith, and I think that is true for many others as well. The most natural instinct of any normal Democrat was to ardently hope that Biden would succeed.
Grumpy Old Railroader
Sources please. Because I checked my Ouija Board and asked my Magic 8-ball and they disagree with your statement
lowtechcyclist
@Grumpy Old Railroader:
I’m 100% for Harris, but there’s nothing to focus on yet. Maybe by this time tomorrow, so many prominent Democrats will have endorsed her that her nomination is a fait accompli. That hasn’t happened yet. I’ll be calling Hoyer’s and Cardin’s and Van Hollen’s offices in the morning.
mali muso
@WaterGirl: Sure. It’s the Biden campaign ActBlue but repurposed with a Kamala message. Link here.
Suzanne
@WaterGirl: I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to break the blog. But Manchin is such a ridiculous egomaniac.
Martin
@Suzanne: Shapiro brings Israel back as an issue in a way that was hurting Biden. I agree he’s good in every other way, but that might be a big enough problem to avoid. Harris needs to repair that particular problem which will be tough enough without someone who is openly pro-Israel here.
Geoduck
Ditto the comments about Obama, he should have endorsed Harris in the same message thanking Biden, but now he needs to get out there by tomorrow at the latest and 100% back her.
And of course, add me to the support Harris 100% brigade.
Layer8Problem
I’m behind Harris and will do everything I can to get her elected. I’m still mad. The “Biden bad because OLD/he hates Gaza/he was not the candidate I wanted in the first place/he can’t make the Newspaper of Record happy/when have the polls ever been wrong” crowd got the win. Maybe they were right. God help us they better be. If not and it was just a bunch of bad vibes and unhappy billionaires tossing Biden over the side, the rest of us have to win this in spite of them.
I won’t be forgetting how this went down.
UncleEbeneezer
@Mai Naem mobile: Bernie wasn’t pushed out through whisper campaigns, MSM smears (shared regularly here) and donor pressure. Bernie lost, fair and square, to Hillary and Biden, who got more votes. There’s nothing similar about the two scenarios.
dc
@WaterGirl: Biden is sending out this link. His campaign is her campaign now. I don’t think Biden would be sending us the wrong link.
Cacti
I’m all in for Harris. Potentially good running mates in no particular order:
Gretchen Whitmer (MI), Josh Shapiro (PA), Mark Kelly (AZ), Jared Polis (CO), Pete Buttigieg (IN), Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), Ben Ray Lujan (NM).
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: I need to step up then. 😃
RIP Steep. 😥
Shalimar
@Grumpy Old Railroader: If she’s wrong, then you won’t need to have Harris’s back because there won’t be opposition. We will see either way in the next 3 weeks.
Percysowner
@Spanky: Sherrod Brown
Aussie Sheila
@schrodingers_cat:
I understand your trepidation, but I don’t share it.
I believe the Dem Party rank and file will ensure she is the Dem nominee for President.
And she will kick arse. I am very confident in her skills and talent.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
He was losing with no path to victory. The majority of voters and Democratic voters expressed their clear opinion that he is too old. We were facing a Trump landslide. Biden spent hundreds of millions on ads in swing states and his polling dropped.
Like the champion he is, he did what was best for the country. We have a chance, just a chance, to win this election now and the party seems to be coalescing around Harris. She has been an integral part of all the successes of the Biden Harris administration.
We have a chance to win this now. Let’s gooooo!
Eolirin
@Suzanne: Losing Shapiro when he’s still in his first term seems insane to me. VP isn’t that meaningful.
KatKapCC
@Suzanne:
Thank you, because I absolutely needed that laugh today!
mrmoshpotato
@UncleEbeneezer: Yup. Pouty Shouty got his ass beat like a rented mule, fair and square, in 2016 and 2020.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Please not our glibertarian, techbro governor (Polis). Yes, he has a (D) after his name only cuz he’d never have had any future in CO politics w/o it. He’s an awful, neoliberal Reaganomic type. POC, ie the base of the Dem party, can’t stand him. The tsunami of young, white professional self-professed “progressives” love him for that very reason (economics).
Suzanne
@PST: Nancy Pelosi is the most ruthless, single-minded political operator of this era. She has always been dedicated to that and not to personal loyalty. I have no doubt that she honestly believed that Joe simply could not make a plausible theory of the case for winning. I don’t think she wanted to do him dirty. She’s not evil. But she puts winning ahead of a lot. Always has.
To note: she groomed her own successor and stepped away from power herself. I think she gets it.
We celebrated and cheered her wins over the years, and rightly so. The same qualities that led her to those wins also led her to encourage Joe to go.
mrmoshpotato
@Suzanne: Only 11 ways?
Eolirin
@WaterGirl: 💔
Honestly that comment was a bigger gut punch than anything else that’s happened today.
KatKapCC
@WaterGirl: Oh, I’m sorry!! I’ll be more careful going forward.
dc
This is the link from Kamala’s Threads account: secure.actblue.com/donate/social-kdh-july-2024?refcode=sm_20240721_kdh_th
Threads: threads.net/@kamalaharris?hl=es
Suzanne
@Martin: Yeah, we’ll see. She’s got a lot of good choices.
Hildebrand
Amidst all the ‘excitement’, I just want to offer this – my daughter, who is gay, and just graduated from college, is now seriously considering grad school in the UK because she and her partner (who is Latina) are deeply concerned about what happens if America’s misogyny and racism dump another Trump term on us.
For all you celebrating, you get to tell her not to worry, you get to tell her not to feel like the most consequential President of quite some time has been pushed out and that may bring about something catastrophic for folks who aren’t straight and white.
Will she work her butt off for Kamala? Yep. But the profound uncertainty is deeply concerning – and she would like folks to acknowledge that.
LMM
The AFL-CIO released a statement praising Biden/Harris for everything they did for the workers in the country. They didn’t endorse Harris. They said they were convening in a few days to “plot their best path forward”. Whatever that means. Didn’t AOC say that union endorsements take time?
rikyrah
DFW Sports 4Life (@Kennymack1971) posted at 5:56 PM on Sun, Jul 21, 2024:
They’re shook. They ran Joe Biden out with the intention of bypassing VP Harris. They didn’t expect the party to coalesce around her this quickly.
They really had no plan beyond “mini primary” and a vague idea for an “open convention”. The party is saying F that noise. t.co/5Sj42l5zlw
(x.com/Kennymack1971/status/1815158925706035337?t=Y2VnJSU88JtmeC9BccrBig&s=03)
Timill
Slate has a ‘definitive’ guide to the VP contenders…
Summary:
Tier 1: The Swing-Vote Governors
In alphabetical order with ages in parentheses, those are Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (46), Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (51), and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (52).
Tier 2: The Replaceable Senators
That’d be Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet (59), Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly (60), and Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy (50).
Tier 3: Big Names but I Don’t Think So
This is where I’m putting California Gov. Gavin Newsom (56) and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (42), who were both mentioned as potential presidential alternatives to Harris during the period in which a miniprimary seemed vaguely possible
Tier 4: Hunter Biden. He’s reportedly taken a major interest in politics recent—hey, where are you going? Too soon?
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Aussie Sheila:
That’s my knee-jerk reaction; I’m neither optimistic nor pessimistic, just wanting to do whatever it takes to win in November.
However, as I state here often, I take my cue from the base of the *Democratic* party, black folks, black women specifically. I’ll be seeing how Black Twitter reacts to this over the coming days as well.
Geoduck
@Suzanne: Whatever her previous accomplishments, I repeat for Pelosi what I said about Obama: she needs to get in front of a camera tomorrow, at the latest, and endorse Harris. If she has been pushing Biden out the door behind the scenes, that has to end now.
Enplaned
@rikyrah:
One of the problems with the Democrats is they’ve sought to grease the skids for whoever is favored. The most egregious example of this was 2016, when the powers that be arranged for Hillary to be nominee. That rubbed so many Democrats the wrong way that the Bernie insurgency was surprisingly successful.
I’d rather have this things settled at the convention than before. It’s weird to want fear/downplay/whatever outward displays of democracy in action. Presumably the delegates are a more-than-average-progressive cross section of America, so I’m not sure what Harris (or anyone else) has to fear from them.
BarcaChicago
After all the chaos and maneuvering in back rooms, if she is truly is the uncontested candidate, I am deeply moved and goddamn thrilled. And I believe we will win this election.
My issue has never been with Kamala, it’s been with the unprecedented nature of flouting a primary election and the shady nature of how this all went down, as well as not being sure that those who forced this wanted Kamala Harris as our candidate, in addition to the procedural obstacles and potential attempts to grab delegates, etc
In a lot of areas of life, I definitely want to be right, but in politics I just want to win and i welcome being wrong if it means we will win.
Suzanne
@Hildebrand: Yeah, Spawn the Elder, who is trans and gay, texted me immediately after the announcement and said “idk how to feel”.
J. Arthur Crank
@Suzanne:
Harsh, but fair.
Eolirin
@Cacti: You want to throw away the senate? They have a Republican govenor in NV ffs.
hedgehog mobile
100% Team Harris. That said, I’m taking the night off to catch up on the Tour de France and eat cookies. Also, Joe Manchin can get fucked.
dc
@LMM: They have to get everyone on board. A union is a big, complicated organization. But individuals, like Obama or Pelosi, they have no excuse.
Aussie Sheila
@LMM:
Of course they do.
They have to get the whole leadership team together to make any meaningful statement that properly reflects their membership.
I’m confident they will endorse VP Kamala Harris for President.
Give organisations time to digest the news and to act.
In the meantime … I just read that Joe Manchin is considering a run.
May I say I hope he doesn’t suffer a myocardial infarction if he does decide to run.
UncleEbeneezer
JFC, delete your damn account.
M31
@LMM:
yeah a big union like AFL-CIO should take time, but not too much!
United Farm Workers already has endorsed Harris, but that was probably a pretty easy lift for them. Hmm, the most pro-union administration in the history of the US, or the MASS DEPORTATIONS NOW brigade?
Cacti
Who better to make the case against Trump and Trumpism than a former prosecutor.
Harris will tear him a new arsehole in any remaining debates.
lamh36
Coming out from lurking to say…
This Biden news is hitting me harder than it might have.
My car was stolen on Friday night from my apartment complex garage, and apparently used to commit a crime in another county.
Had to get a police report on Saturday…I took it in stride and I was handling that…no anger, no tears, and yet this news from Biden has legit has me more emotional than the theft of my car…smh
I was more emotional this morning right after the letter from POTUS Biden, and now I’m mad, I’m pissed but have always been a Kamala Harris supporter, so I’m FUQ’N ready to support the Harris for President Committee.
M31
I wonder how many delegates are getting bags of cash waved at them? I mean, now that bribery, uh, I mean gratuities, are legal.
Martin
@Geoduck: So, I know people are anxious about this, but is there a single credible name floated instead of Harris? Newsom said he’s not interested. Whitmer too. Across the board everyone is declining to compete against Harris just as they declined to compete against Biden in the primary.
I take Pelosi and Obama staying out of this as indication that this deal is done. I get the sense people don’t understand how this sort of thing needs to happen. If you want Harris to be taken credibly as the preferred candidate having the most powerful Democrats *not* taking a stance benefits her. You want her to be seen as having earned this. Obama/Pelosi are providing that opportunity, and they are doing that because they know that the party has consolidated their preference.
Plus Harris has now taken control of the campaign money. She’s got $130M to hold off challengers.
LMM
@dc: I absolutely agree on the individuals. I am hoping that Harris will still get the endorsements from the organizations that had endorsed Biden; and I hope they get out there and do it soon!
O. Felix Culpa
@Aussie Sheila: The fly in the ointment is that she is not the official nominee yet. Doesn’t mean it won’t happen, but there’s a non-zero chance of her being bypassed, since apparently the political elites and donor class now get to choose our candidates
Of course I’m going to back her 100% when and if she is nominated.
Suzanne
@Geoduck: I wrote in the previous thread….. my immediate read — and I will note that I may change my mind on this — is that the Obamas want to avoid looking like they have their thumb on the scale for Kamala and having this decision look like it’s made without any input from party members.
Remember that part of the criticism of HRC was that everyone lined up behind her immediately and her only real opposition was Sanders…. and that wasn’t a great look.
If it comes out that the Obamas or Pelosi are trying to undermine her, then I’ll be pissed.
eclare
@M31:
The teachers’ union that Randi Weingarten runs has also endorsed Kamala.
trnc
I would point out that one of the many big differences between us and the republicans is that we have a platform that can be carried out by any good progressive president, whereas repubs are literally the party of DT now.
They’re a cult. We aren’t.
ETA: But as I’ve said many times, Kamala is my pick for the nomination.
Martin
Harris has raised $27.5 million since the announcement. I think we got this.
eclare
@lamh36:
I’m so sorry about your car!
Spanky
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Problem is, we already made our preference known in the primary. There’s nothing in the process that allows further input. The convention is where “the elites” have their say.
Starfish
@lamh36: Oh, I am so sorry about your car.
Martin
Newsom endorses Harris.
Betty Cracker
@Martin: Just saw that. Whoa!
Spanish Moss
I am sick about the way this whole thing unfolded. I was behind Joe all the way, but I was never certain about the safest course, there is so much I don’t know. I feel some relief that this question has been decided, and I trust Biden.
I think this change will generate some excitement, particularly among younger voters. It seems likely that Kamala will be the nominee, and my adult children (in their early to mid thirties) are excited about it. They would have voted for Joe, but there was no enthusiasm there.
I am a big Kamala fan. I am excited about the prospect of voting for a woman for president again! I think she’s got this.
japa21
@MomSense: That is one of the areas of disagreement. I and many others were confident in Biden’s chances of winning. That is not longer relevant. I am less sanguine about Kamala’s chances of winning but will support her to the hilt.
@Enplaned: 2016 was not rigged nor were the skids greased for Hillary.
As a general note, Gov Cooper of NC has already endorsed Harris. Just a hunch, but those talking about him being the VP might be correct.
lowtechcyclist
@Enplaned:
Citation needed! It can certainly be argued that Hillary was the proverbial 900-pound gorilla, and few saw the point in running against her. No behind-the-scenes string-pulling needed.
The same thing was happening in 2008, except for a certain upstart Senator from Illinois.
MomSense
@Martin:
Wooooo to the Hoooooo!
M31
@Suzanne: lol I want Obama to hold off just enough for the MAGA incel loser brigade to start frothing at the mouth that “it’s going to be Michelle Obama” and letting their racist freak flag fly (not that it’s not going to with Harris) but then have the Obamas endorse Harris
hitchhiker
@PST:
Same, same, same.
Percysowner
Nikki Haley Voters PAC Announces Support for Kamala Harris
Eolirin
@Suzanne: That criticism was entirely media manufactured bullshit. No one had the stature to compete with her besides Biden and he wasn’t going to run because of Beau. She would have beaten any other candidate handily and they all knew it.
Starfish
@O. Felix Culpa: I know that some people are scared of this, but I don’t think it will happen because Harris has many endorsements.
I think there were very noisy people wanting Biden to step down. Various uninspired names were floated as alternatives, and then there was a very vocal group of “Hey, if it is not Biden, it is Harris” so I don’t see anyone wanting to be the point person on tearing the party apart.
Suzanne
@lowtechcyclist: It’s been reported frequently in the last few weeks that Obama advised Joe not to run against Hillary in 2016.
That’s the kind of stuff that people hear and interpret as “greasing the skids”.
Omnes Omnibus
@Enplaned:
No one greased the skids. FFS!
Cacti
If the party coalesces around Harris, I can’t imagine the AFL-CIO endorsement will be far behind. There has never been a time in the history of the Republican Party that they didn’t want to destroy the American labor movement.
Which makes me wonder how big a cash bribe O’Brien of the Teamsters received to speak at the Republican convention.
MazeDancer
27.5 million bucks in 5 hours for Kamala.
That’s for you, too, Joe.
And about half of what George Clooney, personally, better be ponying up.
M31
lol and now all the “FUCK JOE BIDEN” merchandise has nowhere to go
I mean, they’ll cobble up some new racist/sexist stuff, but still
Spanky
@Martin: Good. Good. Keep them coming.
hitchhiker
@Enplaned: well, that nonsense got you a very nice pie filter.
Eolirin
@Betty Cracker: Not surprising. Everyone who backed Biden staying in is going to back Harris.
When the more prominent dump Biden folks back her too we can consider this wrapped up.
Randal Sexton
I have been asking more normie types if they think it would be harder for the Trump/MAGA folks to lose to Harris than lose again to Biden. They seem to think, ‘yeah, maybe’. That could be something. Underdogs love a good fight, and really just a chance, just a chance. I kicked in a hundo to the first Harris tagged thing I have seen, and am waiting for the bj actblue link to do so.
eclare
x.com/Brandi_Buchman/status/1815128192111534452
These sound good! Drink special already named for Kamala.
Martin
@Betty Cracker: I think people need to give Obama and Pelosi a bit more credit for understanding what the party and Harris needs here. She’s got this sewn up, but for all the people upset about this being decided by donors and insiders, doubling down on that by having donors and insiders coronate her doesn’t help.
Mayor Pete also endorsed, btw.
Suzanne
@Eolirin: It’s been reported that Biden wanted to run in 2016, did not because Obama advised him not to, and Biden has apparently harbored resentment toward Obama for that to this day.
Scott s.
@PST: thank you for your take on this. I tend to agree with you.
Jeffro
@Suzanne:
triple, nay, QUADRUPLE co-signed ;)
Ruckus
@matt:
Manchin has been at best a middle of the roader for ever. He’s so milquetoast that he seemingly doesn’t know how to pick a side. Now maybe that works because of the state he’s from but being the line that EVERYBODY ELSE is on one side or the other from really gives him just about zero power. And he doesn’t/wouldn’t need to be very far from center to not be standing on that line but that’s his choice, standing tipie toe on both sides not to offend anyone, means he’s actually offending everyone. Except the other 5 humans that can’t make up their minds either.
lowtechcyclist
@Martin:
No, I want to not have to spend another goddamned day wondering who our nominee is going to be. I want that uncertainty OVER. That’s what I want.
japa21
@Suzanne: “It’s been reported” has been a phrase slung around a lot lately. Doesn’t mean a thing.
Geminid
@Timill: Andy Beshear is not a swing state Governor. That doesn’t neccesarily mean he wouldn’t make a good VP candidate.
I would rather see someone else selected though, because Kentuckians really need him as Governor. And Beshear’s term is over in January, 2028, which is just in time for him to run Rand Paul out of the Senate.
Jeffro
@Spanky: Obama will likely weigh in and endorse Harris once the nomination is formally settled/voted on/whatever.
trnc
@Aussie Sheila:
Wholeheartedly agree.
Eolirin
@Cacti: O’Brien’s speech wasn’t pro-Republican and a lot of Teamsters vote Republican. I think he was being honest when he said he went because it’s another place to expound on labor’s priorities and because of much of his membership voting that way.
I dunno if it was smart, but I don’t think it was cynical.
Starfish
@Suzanne: I think that people took one old interview where Biden was annoyed about it and tried to make a big deal about it in recent days. There has been too many insider gossip type stories and too few “Where’s the doctor’s report on Trump’s injury?” type journalism.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Percysowner: This is the kind of stuff that makes me thing that Trump is toast in the general election.
I think the real internal polls are showing this and Biden decided “Why in the hell am I am going to die in the White House if Harris can do this? The only reason I came back was to stop that orange clown from wrecking the place”
eclare
@Suzanne:
I’ve heard that too. Also that their respective staffs couldn’t stand each other.
O. Felix Culpa
@Starfish: I fervently hope you are right.
Eolirin
@Suzanne: From unsourced anonymous claims right?
Suzanne
@japa21: Of course it does. Perception matters a lot. Even if it isn’t fair. It affects how people behave.
Fair Economist
@Suzanne: I was going to make a joke about Manchin running for the nomination. BEEP BEEP BEEP ABORT ABORT ABORT
eclare
@lowtechcyclist:
Yep. The past three weeks have been emotional torture.
Cacti
@Geminid: Speaking from experience, when Obama won his first term, he immediately plucked Janet Napolitano from the Governor’s chair in Arizona when AZ was still light red. This was not a good thing for AZ dems.
Martin
@lowtechcyclist: Sorry, you don’t get that. I understand why you want it – I want it too. But democracy is a process, one that we fail a lot, and one that Democrats really value, which is why so many people are upset, and we need to signal a need to return to that – which is what Obama and Pelosi are doing.
To be clear, I don’t think Obama and Pelosi’s message will have any material impact on how this goes, but we need to build a sense of agency going into the convention. That’s what they’re doing.
Nobody has navigated this space better than Obama and Pelosi. Give them some credit. They know what they’re doing.
Ksmiami
@hrprogressive: just donated/ 4th time in 4 days. Harris or bust
Mai Naem mobile
@UncleEbeneezer: i agree with you that the two are not the same. I am just talking about the anger. Apart from Holy Joe, I don’t think ever felt so po’d at other dems.
Captain C
@Suzanne:
And made sure that said successor’s fingerprints were mostly kept away from all this. Mostly, anyway.
Mai Naem mobile
@Geminid: what about Ralph Northam or is his late term abortion stance problem?
me
@Martin:
So Democrats should go another month without a candidate? That’s insane. There’s shit do be done to preparing for the actual election and there needs to be a person to fill the role.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Suzanne: IT
DEAN’SROMNEY’sMANCIN’S MOMENT IN THE SUN!!!Suzanne
@Eolirin: It doesn’t matter if it’s sourced. The impression was, at that point, that the institutional party had favorites. People read stuff like that, and even if it’s unsourced, it adds to this sense that there’s some shadowy group of weird people pulling the strings. Like it or not, that’s a feeling that loads of people have and they are distrustful. “Smoke-filled rooms” and “power brokers” and all that.
Aussie Sheila
@Spanky:
If by ‘elites’ you mean Dem Party delegates, yes that’s true.
I have no problem with Party delegates making this decision in these circumstances. At all.
Martin
@me: We have a presumptive candidate just like we did yesterday. We don’t get a candidate until the convention.
Fair Economist
@lamh36: Oh that’s rough, and quite the double whammy. Hope you can get your car situation straightened out toot suite.
Hope we can ALL get the nomination situation straightened out toot suite too.
Old Man Shadow
Followed through on my word and re-registered as a non partisan voter.
I love how now everyone is fucking rallying. Where was this fucking energy a month ago? Oh right, that energy was being dumped into shiving our candidate and damaging our chances.
Now that the fucking time has been wasted attacking our own and we’re in the fourth quarter down by two scores with two minutes left, now that the tantrum has paid off, we’re all gonna hop on the fucking kumbaya train and rally.
Well, praise the freakin’ Lord, I guess.
Shit fucking pisses me off.
Jeffro
I have to admit, it’s a little bit funny – a little! – in the midst of all this to watch karma biting various people in the ass in such a short time.
Nikki Haley sold her soul and kissed trump’s ring after all…and now her jealousy and/or fear of KH being the first woman president will be all for naught. She’ll just be another bootlicker who backed the wrong, orange, crazy horse.
Joe Manchin left his party looking for ‘relevance’ and a way to reclaim the Democratic Party for the mushy middle…and now, when a (bless me) ‘centrist’ white male just might be what the soon-to-be Madame President is looking for as VP…OOPS! He left the party, just last week.
The media look like fools now if they don’t get focused on trumpov’s obvious age- and dementia-related issues. (We HAVE to remember to pound on them about that, all year long). “Who’s the oldest presidential candidate ever NOW, snooze media?”
All of the pundits and endless opining: all time wasted. All the column inches. Do the cable networks think people are going to watch them MORE now? LOL
Meanwhile, Dark Brandon (or as I would now encourage him to think of himself, “Immune Joe”) can run the country, drop a gazillion executive orders, order Jack Smith to release everything he has on trumpov in the stolen documents case, order an audit of every American who makes more than $100K, forgive every last dollar of student loan debt, and make pot legal. Who cares if any of it sticks. Let America see the possibilities of what can happen if the right people had more power.
Martin
You’re starting to get it.
Jeffro
@Cacti: and Cooper (NC)
Geminid
@Mai Naem mobile: I like Ralph Northam and I thought he was a really good Governor, but he’s not that special. I don’t see picking him ahead of the current Governor and Senator prospects.
Lyrebird
Yeah I was surprised that whoever made the list for Slate didn’t have him near the top of the list. Love Mayor Pete, but I think cis het white swing state governor is a likely pick, Cooper may be termed out, and they are already friends from way back.
Sad about the shambles of our national media and the ugliness, still very ready to go do whatever I can for four more years of progress with Prez Harris.
Geoduck
@Martin: I’m not an Eeyore doomsayer, but I disagree. Until Harris is officially locked in as the new candidate, she does not have this sewn up. The Rfkers who contributed to this mess are still out there, and they will probably find someone dumb and pliant enough to challenge her, and pile money on him. And so again, every Dem who is actually on our side needs to get out there and endorse her. No more of this “find a path forward” crap.
Jeffro
This.
Aussie Sheila
@Jeffro:
Heh!
Now you’re talking! 😉😎
Archon
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: When everyone told Obama and Pelosi to drop the ACA, they pushed it through. I spent 8 days in intensive care where my family and I didn’t have to worry about how this was gonna be paid for because of Obamacare.
So we can be mad at the process but shitting on Obama and Pelosi isn’t the best strategy for Democrats moving forward.
Eolirin
@Suzanne: That doesn’t mean there are.
It’s impossible to avoid perceptions that are fabricated and false, and if we don’t make even the slightest attempt to assert that truth matters, then we will lose forever.
We are not as good propagandists and cannot be.
Geminid
@Lyrebird: I expect nothing but bullshit from Slate Magazine. They could have left Cooper out because they don’t want him; too much of a moderate.
Jeffro
This, over and over.
Also the sheer CONTRAST: a one-term loser who tried to overthrow the government when he lost, vs a one-term raging success who stepped down when things became insurmountable. Biden has beaten trumpov, AGAIN, just by stepping off, endorsing Harris, and letting history be the judge.
And did y’all see Hunter Biden’s statement? Can anyone even imagine one of the trumpov kids saying anything remotely like that about their dad, at any point in time?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Old Man Shadow: The difference is the RNC, when the Ten Foot Tall Donald Trump that everyone imagined turned out to be some crazy old man who is so despicable that when someone tried to murder him, even his own voters didn’t give a shit.
SiubhanDuinne
@Suzanne:
Joe Manchin can completely, utterly, and publicly GET FUCKED. Really, the balls of some people.
ETA: Or, what @rikyrah said.
Lyrebird
@Mai Naem mobile: @Geminid:
No no no on Northam as a national candidate. Through what sure looked like cluelessness and no malice, he did not handle the situation well when the story broke about his college-age parrticipation in some blackface catastrophe calling itself entertainment. Eventually that was gotten through, but no, wrong skill set.
Wise!
Burnspbesq
Is it too soon to say “fuck Joe Manchin?”
Talk about failure to read the room.
Ksmiami
Ps everyone. DOnAld TrUMp is OLDddddd and a fucking fascist POS. We can win this.
Scout211
Moving forward.
Ksmiami
@Burnspbesq: fuck that disloyal fucker
Jeffro
@Mai Naem mobile: Northam is like, way, way old news at this point.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Burnspbesq:
Just like Lieberman, that’s Mansion’s superpower.
Suzanne
@Jeffro: Yeah, agree.
It reminds me of all that training I get at work, about not accepting so much as a bottle of water, to avoid even the appearance of bias. That appearance of being favored, even if it is just an appearance, did some small amount of damage to HRC. Obama and Pelosi staying out of it right now strikes me as wise.
I deeply admire good strategists.
O. Felix Culpa
@Timill:
Honestly, that list with two or three exceptions makes me gag. It would be Tim Kaine redux: nice enough white guy with zero pull. Love Pete, but highly unlikely. Same for big Gretch: two women on the ballot aren’t gonna happen. Maybe Beshear, but why would you hand the Kentucky governorship over to the fascists? Hard NO to Bennet and Newsom, for different reasons. Kelly is a bad idea because it would be tough to replace him with another Democrat in Arizona.
SuzieC
Thread may be dead but my 30-something son says young Dems are energized and excited to vote for Harris. They didn’t like Biden. His pick for VP: Barack Obama! Because why not.
Ruckus
@MomSense:
shitforbrains has passed the line from asshole to idiotic old fart insanity. Past it quite a while ago.
Not that he wasn’t close to that line before, but anyone with 2 cents or more worth of sanity would never vote for him this time around. He’s gone bye bye, gaga, flipped out completely, lost the keys to any level of even his normal abnormal, he needs a telescope to even see normal and a Saturn 5 rocket to get there.
Old Man Shadow
@Martin: Oh fuck off. People made a choice to bitch and moan and DOOOOOOOM for a goddamned month kneecapping our chances instead of fucking rallying and fighting.
Just because I have to fucking vote for whatever warm body the powers in the Democratic party pick (and I sure as fuck ain’t confident it’ll be Harris until the vote is taken) doesn’t mean this party hasn’t acted in the most cowardly, fucked up fashion.
Eolirin
@Martin: I’m sorry, this is the wrong way to address the bigger problem, which is that at least a third of the coalition feels extremely betrayed by the entire situation. If nothing is provided as a sop to that rage, and the only thing that will be is Harris very quickly getting full support, there is a risk they will burn the fucking party down.
dc
@Lyrebird: Cooper is a former attorney general too.
Layer8Problem
@lamh36: It’s understandable events like this in sequence will hit harder than one at a time. Be charitable toward yourself and how you react.
Geminid
@O. Felix Culpa: What do you think of Mark Kelly? You live next door to Arizona, so to speak.
Betty
I have heard Andy Beshear, young Dem Governor of Kentucky, as a possibility.
Geoduck
@SuzieC: Because Obama can’t be president again.
Myself, no idea who Harris should pick.
Jeffro
It’s never too soon, too late, or too repetitive to say and keep saying, “fuck Joe Manchin” =)
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Joe is still leader of the party. I expect him to still be a major force on the campaign trail. The endorsements that have already come out today are, I expect, entirely Joe working behind the scenes. I’m waiting to hear what he lays out as the path forward.
Also some idiots are saying he should go ahead and resign the presidency so Kamala can run as an incumbent. I’m reserving my remaining “Fuck you”s for that crowd. I expect him to keep having legislative accomplishments and being the most accomplished President of my lifetime, right up to Inauguration Day.
O. Felix Culpa
@lamh36: I’m so sorry about your car. What a bummer. And the Biden news is a gut punch. I won’t rest easy until Kamala is formally nominated.
Kay
These are The Green Papers, where you can find out about your state’s delegates to the national convention. Should you just have a sudden impulse to that do that
this link should work
Hoodie
@japa21: He was the first person who came to mind. Termed out, still popular in NC, gentlemanly guy who would probably not have any problem being a wingman. Already friends with Harris from their AG days. The way NC tends to work is a big black turnout makes it winnable and Cooper could add a bit at the margins. He’s the kind of guy people like and trust, kind of like Biden was as VP. Winning NC takes some pressure off WI/PA/MI. Also likely helps down ballot for NC Dems. We must keep Robinson out of the governor’s mansion. That way lies madness.
Rusty
I got my first Kamala message through Joe’s campaign, so I’m making regular monthly donations as a sign of commitment. Go Harris!!
Lyrebird
@dc: right, another former DA, and a Gov who stood up for trans rights in a big way. I mean, I will be 100% behind the Harris ticket even if they go with Harris-WarmBucketofSpit, of course, but Cooper has more fire in him that Tim Kaine I would say.
Sister Golden Bear
@lamh36: I’m so sorry, that sucks.
For me, anger is an energy and I intend to fucking use it. Most immediately to make sure we win the presidency and both house of Congress.
O. Felix Culpa
@Geminid: I like him, but I worry about replacing him with another Dem in Arizona. Don’t know what the Arizona laws are for replacing a Senator. It could be a heavy lift if it comes to an election.
Betty
@Timill: Those three Senators are way too centrist. We want at least a somewhat progressive team.
Old Man Shadow
I mean, I suppose at this point, it’s a fucking possibility because if there’s one thing the past month has taught me it’s to rule no dumbassery out, but I’d like to fucking hope that those of us pissed off by this shit can wait to start taking our own scalps until the risk of fascism has diminished greatly.
Jeffro
Fro Jr and I got home this afternoon around the same time. He was always going to vote Biden, but he relayed that many of his college-age friends were like, “eh…two old guys…one’s nuts, and one can barely put a sentence together”
(just reporting what he said they said, peeps!)
He is super-relieved that we have a younger, spirited, female candidate. He says all of his buds are thoroughly disgusted by trump’s corruption and malice (my words not his)
They want something NEW. Well…they have it. Let’s run hard with this energy!
Another Scott
$100 monthly to Harris.
This process was aggravating, but Biden made his choice. Now we have to make ours, for ourselves and for the future we want to see.
The choice is still stark, and easier than any in a very long time.
Eyes on the prizes. We can’t let the fascists win.
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I’m not sure the people saying Biden should resign really want Harris to win. They definitely haven’t thought this through. It’s a terrible idea, a trap.
schrodingers_cat
@lamh36: This has hit me hard, harder than HRC’s 2016 loss. Because it was Democrats that did it to their own President. Who never did get the support that he deserved.
Chip Daniels
I will never not be proud to be a Democrat. Campaigning for Obama, and for Hillary, and Biden, and now for Harris are things I will happily have remembered after I am gone.
Martin
@Betty: I think Democrats win by turning left here. So far, that’s worked for Dems. Biden supported a lot of progressive ideas, labor, etc. Hold onto all of that, and express a vision that is a strong contrast to Project 2025. Embrace the diversity of the Dem coalition.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: Hahahaha
Quinerly
@schrodingers_cat:
I believe so.
And, do you have her back?
Lots of bitching and moaning on this blog. When I chat with just everyday people today, they are excited.
And, not for one minute do I think Joe was forced out. Politics is rough. He has been at it longer than pretty much anyone. He realized he couldn’t win. End of story.
zhena gogolia
@Turgidson: He used it. He used it in the negative sense.
Another Scott
@lamh36: :-(
Sometimes things seem to come all at once.
Sorry for the hassle, annoyance, feeling of being invaded, cost, and time. Make time for yourself. Hang in there.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Martin
@SuzieC: Obama is a terrible pick for VP because you want the VP to be able to carry out the duties of the President – which he probably can’t do due to constitutional restrictions. So succession goes to the Speaker, which in this moment, we definitely don’t want.
Something to pass back to your kids.
zhena gogolia
@Geoduck: Don’t hold your breath.
Sister Golden Bear
@Burnspbesq:
It’s always a good time to say “fuck Joe Manchin.”
Burnspbesq
@Cacti:
Not sure who I want as the Veep nominee, but I gotta say the idea of a debate between SecPete and Vance is putting a big shit-eating grin on my face.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
She was also born 3 yrs before Joe Biden. And stepped away from political office, last year.
I wonder if that has something to do with her opinion.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Chip Daniels:
+1
different-church-lady
Keep in mind: if we’re still in-fighting a month from now, we’re fucked.
Burnspbesq
@Old Man Shadow:
Chill. We’re Democrats, we don’t do the right thing until we’ve exhausted all the other possibilities.
CaseyL
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Ask them how much they like the idea of Mike Johnson (R-Christofascist) being next in line for the Presidency if anything happens to Harris.
Ivan X
@Jeffro: This is consistent with all young people I’ve talked to.
zhena gogolia
@Martin: But what does Clooney think?
Poe Larity
@Martin:
Harris/Swift 2024
We need to not mess around here.
Chip Daniels
@Martin:
And Michelle is right there! Polling better than anyone!
zhena gogolia
@MazeDancer: Don’t hold your breath.
Eolirin
@Old Man Shadow: Take away the people the base are passionately devoted to and what is the point of even trying to win? We’ll know we’ll be thrown under the bus the second we become inconvenient. The whole coalition will fracture.
That’s game over. Dems can’t abandon minority interests in order to win over whites or donors; we don’t get full fascism everywhere, but we get enough fascism locally that those groups don’t get to survive in lots of places. Why would you vote for Democrats if they can’t promise you survival and aren’t even going to try? No one’s going to vote to keep someone else safe when there’s no safety on offer for themselves.
That’s exactly what’ll be getting signaled if Harris isn’t the nominee or if there’s friction around her becoming the nominee. What needs to be put to bed, as immediately as possible, is the idea that the Democratic party does not have it’s base’s back.
No One of Consequence
Weekend of the Long Knives indeed. Good to know the Lay of the Land now. I, for my insignificant self, will Long Remember who used those knives.
I won’t slit the country’s throat for spite, but I don’t forgive, and I Hates a FOREVER. Pols have made calculations and made their resulting calls. But your typical Dem Voter isn’t your typical American. A good number of them *REMEMBER* things, and trust usually isn’t recoverable. Lookin’ at you Pelosi. Lookin’ at you Schiff. Lookin’ at you O’Bro’s. Lookin’ at you, media and talking heads. All you Fuckers and your ilk. You’ve engendered a SIGNIFICANT amount of ILL WILL, sewn karmic seeds that will take root and flourish, sure as the sun will rise in the East tomorrow.
I take some small measure of comfort in that.
Karma is RELENTLESS, if a little less than timely.
Fuckers.
-NOoC
eclare
@O. Felix Culpa:
One commenter said the governor, a D, would appoint a replacement.
Chet Murthy
@Suzanne: @Hildebrand: All I can say to young people in vulnerable groups, is this: prepare for the worst, hope for the best. In. That. Order.
I tried to convince my niece to learn a European language to no avail. Just to prepare.
The one good thing is that other countries, other well-managed countries, want young people. They don’t want old folks like me (I’m guessing you’re still young enough to count as “young” since you have kids in their teens/early 20s).
zhena gogolia
@Martin:
Not in this country. Not any more.
zhena gogolia
@Martin: What utter bullshit.
Soapdish
No one has asked me, but this was my idea for a Harris ad campaign:
Announcer: Do you think a woman could be the leader of a country?
(montage of current or former women leaders like Sanna Marin, Jasinda Ardern, Angela Merkle, etc. (OK, not Theresa May) from other countries saying, “Of course!”)
(Followed by Harris looking at the camera and saying, “Of course!”
(Yes, I understand that the other side comes back with the “Off Course” campaign, but I really like the idea of women supporting women in positions of power)
Martin
@Poe Larity: She does turn 35 in December. I’m in.
My daughter wants Neil Patrick Harris so we can have a Harris/Harris ticket.
Eolirin
@Burnspbesq: There’s probably not going to be a VP debate. And there may not be a second Presidential one either.
zhena gogolia
@Old Man Shadow: There’s no train to jump on anyway. Clooney hasn’t weighed in yet.
zhena gogolia
@Scout211: But what does Clooney think?
CaseyL
@Eolirin:
They wouldn’t fight for their own President, why would I think they’d fight for anyone’s rights?
My vote and GOTV efforts are on board, because Fascism must be defeated, but my trust and loyalty are gone.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Soapdish: Better yet
Film of Trump tongue kissing a helmet.
“Is this what you want to be the president for the next four years? Vote Harris and don’t accept stupid shit”
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: How long before her new found fans turn on her? When does the din of But Her Pollz from innumerate people begin.
Vichy Times is already calling her names.
zhena gogolia
@SuzieC: Well, that shows his political savvy.
Lyrebird
@Another Scott: Thank you Another Scott, you might be one of many Scotts in the world, but you really stand out in living up to your own stated value of going steadily forward toward what is most important. I really appreciate your comments even when I have a different take at times.
@Burnspbesq: That debate would be a wonderful thing to behold! And I am glad Harris will not be debating Vance after all, bc sorry she is way too good for that piece of trash,
see I am not a cool cucumber like Another Scott ha ha ha
Part of why Gov Cooper is at the top of my list is because of the very measured but warm way Madame VP spoke about him while she was there in NC, maybe two days before Joey O’Biden’s announcement.
Still ahve some heartsick feelings about how this went, but lots of fire to move forward, and I am SO happy for Dr. Jill that maybe she will get more low-key time with her hubs.
lowtechcyclist
@Martin:
I disagree – this will likely do quite the opposite. What “building a sense of agency going into the convention” means is more weeks of uncertainty, giving us reason to believe that the strings are once again being pulled behind the scenes by big donors and their pet Congresscritters.
We voted for Biden and Harris in the primaries. Biden’s out, and we’re still not sure what led up to that. (I have a feeling that when we find out what was going on behind the scenes the past few weeks, we’ll have a long list of people we’ll want to kick in the crotch.) We don’t want weeks more of ‘process’ to make us more paranoid than we already are.
The remaining candidate that we voted for is Kamala Harris. The sooner the uncertainty is ended, the sooner our agency will have been recognized and accepted as definitive. And the sooner we can all pull together and try to get her elected, rather than having weeks of not knowing who’s going to be in either spot on the ticket. Screw the fuck out of that.
I don’t think they’ve navigated it well at all. I think Pelosi’s the GOAT when it comes to rounding up 218 votes, and holding the vote right away while everyone’s still committed. But that doesn’t mean she knows what she’s doing every which way.
ETA: And wrt Obama, I agree with comrade scott’s sentiments @42.
SuzieC
@Martin: Oh, I know. But I appreciated his spirit.
eclare
@Poe Larity:
Swift is literally a childless cat lady. That would drive Vance nuts, based on the asinine thing he said in the past about childless cat ladies.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: He will ask Amal his Assange defending British wife, and get back to you.
ETA: I do think even lowlifes like Assange deserve representation but I don’t think they should have a say in who is the Democratic Party nominee.
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat: They are? What are they calling her?
zhena gogolia
@Jeffro:
Well, good for him, but we don’t. Not yet. And I’m not holding my breath.
Eolirin
@Martin: oh ffs this better be a joke.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: Yeah. Not proud to be a Democrat, for the first time in my life.
Chet Murthy
@Enplaned: “I’d rather have this things settled at the convention than before.”
Yeah, no, that’s not -democracy-. Did you vote for a delegate in the primary? No, you voted for a candidate. So what you’re rooting for is the exact opposite of democracy.
Geez, it’s not hard. Have some pie.
zhena gogolia
@No One of Consequence: Come sit by me.
Layer8Problem
@Martin: Ah, nothing but clear sailing now, eh? Everyone happy with a common purpose?
I’m seeing a lot of people ready to fight to win this thing, and a few saying “now everything’s much much better!” And the rest are wondering where their choice in the primary went and what new thing the big donors and big players and Republicans have in store for the vice president. I don’t think she’s in danger from crippling ageism somehow.
No, I don’t think you’re getting it at all.
schrodingers_cat
@O. Felix Culpa: Vice President Kamala was often derided for being out of depth but now she could lead the Democratic ticket.
Subsole
@Old Man Shadow:
You are not alone.
This was repugnant. Even if it was necessary – and I do not for one instant believe it was – they did this in about the most craven, doubletalking, low-down, outright vile way imaginable.
And everyone telling us to suck it up and be rays of sunshine need to factor in that a fundamental trust has been damaged.
We’ll do our part down here on the ground floor. That was never in doubt. True yesterday, true tomorrow. But the coup caucus and their mighty caste of infallible brain-wizards had goddamn well better come through.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: I know, right?
Jeffro
@Another Scott:
ROGER THAT!
Burnspbesq
Enough of this foolishness for now. There’s cricket to be watched.
zhena gogolia
@Jeffro: What choice? Who is our nominee?
Martin
@Eolirin: Of course it is.
zhena gogolia
What a black day.
Poe Larity
@eclare: She accepts the nomination and Travis walks in, kneels, and proposes.
Then the laser show starts and she starts the concert.
Trump concedes the next day.
Suzanne
@eclare: The AZ governor appoints a replacement and then there’s a special election held to fill until the regular election. So the appointee doesn’t stay very long.
When McCain died, the appointed replacement was Martha McSally.
Chris T.
I can see the next NYT editorial now: “With Biden stepping down, the Democrats must nominate Trump”…
(In the spirit of $81-to-Biden I sent $59, Harris’s age, in today.)
Eolirin
@Martin: Given the amount of stupidity being thrown about lately, I’m not going to assume that. :p
Chet Murthy
@Spanish Moss:
OK, so first, I’ve been depressed about things since the debate, descending bit-by-bit, until … well, let’s not talk about that. But if this turn of events is how we get our first woman President in these here United States, I guess that’ll be OK in the end. I mean, I’m still bitter for Hillary’s sake (I know/hope she’s moved on and living her best life, but I’m still bitter AF), and so if this is how we get a woman President, that’d be great!
Shorter: what you said!
Jeffro
@zhena gogolia: nickel bet! ;)
(PLUS…if I lose…I will send Fro Jr over for an hour of chores of your choice. He’s good at weeding! That’s what we were doing while we talked)
“So…you lost a bet and I’m over here pulling weeds?”
“Yes, son…the world is a cruel and unjust place…”
Geminid
@O. Felix Culpa: My understanding is that Governor Hobbs would appoint a replacement if the ticket wins. Kelly could resign the seat in December, so the replacement would be in place when the new Congress convenes in January.
Eolirin
@Suzanne: Which makes AZ a very bad place to pull anyone from. We could easily lose the special.
Layer8Problem
@different-church-lady: Don’t you worry, I can hold a grudge and work toward Harris’ election. Entirely different set of muscles, y’see.
Subsole
@Archon:
Pelosi and Schumer are absolutely not coming off my shitlist. I expect both to fuck off into the nursing home after this election. Do not pass go. Y’know, since age is so critical, and all.
Obama, I am fine with. His whole thing is being sober and measured and not rushing things. (And I like to think maybe he’s just a little bit sad it came to this.) Him I trust. The rest can go hang their shingle somewhere away from me.
Bill Arnold
One wonders if this team has analysed Trump’s (and Biden’s) speech patterns, and is sitting on interesting results. Worth asking.
Prediction of Alzheimer’s disease progression within 6 years using speech: A novel approach leveraging language models (Samad Amini, Boran Hao, Jingmei Yang, Cody Karjadi, Vijaya B. Kolachalama, Rhoda Au, Ioannis C. Paschalidis, Open Access, 25 June 2024)
mrmoshpotato
@Burnspbesq: You enjoy their noise? :)
Sadly, there’s only one baseball game tonight.
karen marie
@Martin: Daniel Drezner (who I don’t read directly but I follow Brad Delong’s substack and Delong posted Drezner’s take) is suggesting Andy Beshear. I don’t know what he’d offer that’s superior to anyone (well, other than Manchin – spit – or Romney – spit spit spit) but he seems like a decent guy.
O. Felix Culpa
@zhena gogolia: Exactly. And we don’t have a veep candidate either, and we’re supposed to be ok with that, and with whoever the PTB eventually hork up. Yay.
I’ve been an elected officer in the Democratic Party and I’ve never felt so gut-punched since that horrible day in November 2016. I’ll still vote D of course, and I’ll do my postcards because I said I would, but nobody’s gonna make me think this was right.
eclare
@Suzanne:
Thanks for the information.
Eolirin
Also you all better gear up for what’s going to be one of the ugliest most disgusting campaigns we have ever seen.
Harris is going to be painted as a conniving whore for the entire rest of the election cycle. Every racist and sexist stereotype is going to be thrown at her, with the same level and intensity as the Biden’s old campaign. It is going to be extremely vile.
O. Felix Culpa
@Geminid: According to Suzanne above, there’s then a special election for the permanent replacement. Not a risk I would be willing to take, not in Arizona.
Kay
Subsole
@O. Felix Culpa:
Shapiro. He seems like he’d have pull in the three states we really need to shore up: WI, MI, PA.
I know we all love Harris, but I am telling you, she is going to get hammered there. Joe was our Union household insurance. We need someone we can plug in to shore that bloc up. Because if we lose the blue wall, we’re fucked. Also, it doesn’t take a Senator or other official out of a red state.
Princess
I like the idea of Buttigeig for Vp. Number one job of VP is yo be an attack dog and he’s brilliant at it. Also, he’s from the Midwest and I think he’d be an asset for those crucial states. And he has a national profile.
Im also intrigued by Doug Jones but I think he brings us fewer votes.
I don’t want to lose any of our senators or governors. The only one I’d consider is Chris Murphy. He could help us on the left with foreign policy.
ssdd
Newsom, AOC, Buttigieg all backing Harris. Good to see.
Suzanne
@Eolirin: Yeah, agreed.
Also, quite frankly, I don’t think Mark Kelly really wants it. I don’t get the sense that the guy is that ambitious w/r/t a political career. I mean, he’s already been to space. I think there are better choices.
Martin
@karen marie: Beshar is the safe ‘checks the right boxes’ choice. White man to balance out a black woman. Red state governor with a bit of an accent.
I’m not sure the old formula applies any longer. I don’t think you win by appealing to the center. I think you win by appealing to the unenthusiastic Dem voter. There’s a reason why Trump fears Taylor Swift probably more than anyone, and why he was as strong a supporter for Biden as the nominee as anyone here
My sense is that Chris Murphy would be a good choice – I think he’s a better campaigner than Beshar, though I don’t know Beshar all that much. Pete would be a good and bold choice. AOC would be a very bold choice.
Starfish
AOC just endorsed Harris.
MomSense
@Subsole:
Pritzker. He can do it.
Ruckus
@Hildebrand:
My sister, who graduated college about 57 yrs ago was gay and did OK.
Now that might not mean much because while being gay was frowned upon, to say the least, but because of her I knew a lot of gay people. What they mostly did though was hide that most of the time. Not always though. In her later years she really just seemed to not give a damn what others thought about it. But then we also lived in CA, which at least used to be a lot more open than many other places. And maybe still is.
jnfr
I know it’s all a shock, but I am quite psyched for Harris to run. And very impressed with the degree that the Party is pulling together behind her. Not perfectly, not yet, but with some serious momentum.
This could be the start of the generational change which is long overdue. And potentially our first female President, post-Dobbs, against the most anti-woman team you can imagine… I like our odds.
tam1MI
Your entry on Pete Buttigieg is incorrect. He now lives in Traverse City, Michigan. :)
Subsole
@Betty: Don’t like taking a blue official out of a red state. Especially when they’re the only thing holding back the tide.
Please, as a red stater, if it is at all feasible, pull your talent from a place that can spare it. We need every blue official we have to keep our governments from ruining us.
My vote is Shapiro, unless someone makes a damn powerful case otherwise.
BlueDWarrior
@Subsole: Wouldn’t be surprised if there is some scuttlebutt about a new Democratic Senate leader, especially if the Dems retain the Senate.
TiredOfItAll
Question for the folks writing postcards (I’ve got 200 addressed to Wisconsin voters but have yet to write out the message). Are you going with the standard message that the postcard organization wants us to write? Or writing something more specific? I’ve separated my postcards by classically male & female names (with a bunch where I can’t really tell) and have been thinking I would write something specific to the ladies re Dobbs etc. What are y’all doing? Thanks in advance for any replies.
BlueDWarrior
@tam1MI: I think Whitmer is fully committed to running her term(s) out in Michigan. Like if I were to pick it’d either be Shapiro or Cooper (NC).
I really really think NC is the next Georgia and we need to be galvanizing the DEM party there as hard as we have in Georgia.
Ruckus
@LMM:
Didn’t AOC say that union endorsements take time?
I don’t know if she did, but they do. On any major question the leaders have to have a vote on what the union as a whole feels. That takes time.
Eolirin
@Subsole: He’s barely been in office and isn’t term limited. He’s also a Jew when we already have enough drags on the ticket in the Midwest and will make Gaza back into an issue given his stances on the war.
Phein64
@Sister Golden Bear: The Clash, Clampdown:
Let fury have the hour, anger can be powerDo you know that you can use it?
Ksmiami
@Eolirin: I’m not sure that’s going to work without redounding back on the GOP. Kamala will bring the youth back. There’s a reason the GOP electeds are mostly hiding from Dobbs.
rikyrah
Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) posted at 6:29 PM on Sun, Jul 21, 2024:
I can’t think about Joe Biden without tearing up a little.
This man ran for president 5 times and lost then enthusiastically backed Obama and played the establishment number two to the greatest leader of his generation.
He wanted to run for president in 2016 but couldn’t because his son Beau died and he was too wracked with grief.
So he comes back in 2020, saves the country from Donald Trump and despite being a career centrist, proceeds to have the most pro-union, pro-working class administration in 80 years, pulls the country out of Covid, pulls us from the economic disaster of Trump into the best economy in the world.
He’s then betrayed by the media class and has to drop out because he’s too old for them. He steps down, for the good of the country, and immediately turns around and full-throatedly endorses the the first Black woman Presidential candidate finalist in U.S. history.
This man.
t.co/gZXNAH7xGI
(x.com/Mikel_Jollett/status/1815167141471273204?t=MFvnYLd51KbpwUPMhvuFRA&s=03)
trnc
@Jeffro:
Thanks for that. I hadn’t seen Hunter’s statement. Certainly any bullshit smoke the uday kids blow up pop’s ass couldn’t go 5 words without insulting someone else in the process.
Eolirin
@Ksmiami: I’m not saying it’s going to work. I’m saying it’s going to happen.
They’re gonna focus on the Kamala is a cop thing to try to kill youth engagement.
Starfish
I know some of you were worried about the donors, and here they come to give their money to Harris.
nytimes.com/2024/07/21/us/politics/democrat-donors-harris-biden.html?unlocked_article_code=1.800.I9O…
trnc
@Burnspbesq:
It is never too soon to say that, nor can it be said often enough.
Another Scott
@Eolirin: We cannot control what others do. Yes, they will throw everything at her. They’ll throw everything at any Democrat these days. We need to run on our program and run hard on it, while also fighting against them.
I don’t think that anyone has any illusions any more. Millions saw TCFFG lie about everything at the debate. They’ll keep doing that as long as it works for them.
Our job is to do our best to make sure that it doesn’t anymore.
Cheers,
Scott.
Bupalos
@rikyrah: It’s a counterfactual so there’s no way to disprove it, but I think it’s about half the strength of the black caucus and fear of perceptions of insult there and half need to unify quickly that is bringing a storm of endorsements.
it’d be nice if folks pushing th “Biden is old because Kamala is black” thing could maybe readjust their perspective on what happened here considering what looks like a lightning fast shift to Harris.
KatKapCC
@rikyrah: Oh man, crying now.
SuzieC
@rikyrah: OK you made me cry. I’ve held it together all day until now.
CaseyL
@Princess:
I love Secretary Pete, and he’d make a fine VP or even President – but not this year. He’s gay and there’s a lot of anti-LBGTQ shit floating around. More than there was in 2020.
We have a WOC for our Presidential candidate (well, we’d damn well better have her as our Presidential candidate!). That’s a big enough leap for some people, and I’m not keen on adding another out-of-the-box bigot target to the ticket.
Eolirin
@Another Scott: The vilest thing they had to throw at Biden was age. This is going to be very ugly in a much worse way, and we need to be ready for what that’s going to mean.
Chet Murthy
@rikyrah: Amen to all of that. I started tearing up just reading it. Thank you for sharing.
zhena gogolia
@Eolirin: With the NYT joining in very politely but relentlessly.
Ksmiami
@Eolirin: meh. That’s weak assshit when we’re facing Project 25.
Ksmiami
@Eolirin: ps. I’m not afraid of the GOP noise machine. I want that cult fucking crushed
BlueDWarrior
On the one hand, I’m mad that it had to come to this.
On the other hand, the opportunity granted to us in this tumult is incredible.
I mean… just think about it… we have the chance to, through the vector of Kamala Harris, clearly and resoundingly defeat not just Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, but every malefactor that has glommed onto them.
Every single alt-right chode, paleo-conservative fossil, many of the so-called Masters of the Universe.
Just like we did four years ago, let us clearly and resoundingly say to the Gods of Political Doom “Not today!”
Drive them back into the cave they crawled from, and see if we can bury them in there for a few thousand years when we do.
Martin
@Subsole: Isn’t Beshar term-limited? I know he has 3 more years, but KY has cut off his avenues from here.
Shapiro has a similar argument – PA is not a reliably blue state. Shapiro would re-raise Israel as a policy issue for the kinds of Dem voters that Biden was struggling with because Shapiro is very openly pro-Israel. I don’t think that’s insurmountable, but it risks putting the Harris campaign in the same bind.
What I think gets overlooked here is that the choice isn’t about checking boxes, it’s about drawing contrasts. You want candidates that draw particularly strong contrasts against your opponents, because that opens up avenues to campaign. That’s why Biden’s age became a problem – because you can’t attack Trump on that while Biden is there (and Trump is vulnerable on that) – and it was pretty apparent that a LOT of voters didn’t like the age of either one of them. That may be unfair, but that’s what it is.
So which VP candidates create contrasts to draw? And are strong enough campaigners to do that.
Rachel reporting that the party believes that Harris will have enough pledged delegates by Wed to secure the nomination.
Kay
@Bupalos:
Or, Biden told her early and she lined up the endorsements herself. This is hers. She’d ask them.
Chet Murthy
@schrodingers_cat: You’re not alone. You’re not alone. I will say this though: if the Dems unite behind VP Harris, it might be OK. Might. If we remain in disarray, we’ll be defeated in detail. It won’t take away the sting of having stabbed in the back this incredibly good and principled and skilled man who led out of the pandemic: it won’t do that. But at least, if we unite behind VP Harris, we might pull this out.
mrstealyourcostcosample
@Chet Murthy:
this is the bitter pill. Joe Biden is really a good dude and it’s not fair.
i don’t want to be glib and be like “deserve got nothin’ to do with it” but that’s apropos here.
i’m hoping we can pull it together as a party (seems likely)
SuzieC
@zhena gogolia: It won’t be polite. The NYT will say there are discussions “out there”, or people are JUST asking questions, about whether Kamala slept her way to the top.
Eolirin
@Ksmiami: I’m not afraid of it
I’m furious.
WaterGirl
@TiredOfItAll: I think it really depends on which postcard group you are writing for. Some insist on their exact wording, some are more flexible.
We have information about various groups – take a look at the postcard writing information on the 2024 Activism page.
If you don’t find your group listed in the postcard writing information, let me know.
Phein64
@Martin: I’ll have to check on this, but I remember one of the reasons Democrats wanted Nixon to resign before November 1974 was so that his successor couldn’t run for two terms. I.e., such a person could serve for a total of 10 years, but not run for a second full term if they had already served more than 6+ years. That would mean that Obama could serve two years as President.
BlueDWarrior
@Martin: Yeah there is hardly anyone making a whisper about trying to run against Harris to turn over delegates. With the exception of MAYBE the bleatings of Joe Manchin. But that’s just going to be a question of how loud the crickets are going to be if (or when) he announces.
mrstealyourcostcosample
@SuzieC: fuck ’em. how they talk and think about Kamala is how they talk and think about all women, and I think (hope) we have gotten better at pressing that case since Dobbs
K-Mo
@Hildebrand: My son is in a similar boat and I am relieved about today’s news. My hope level has risen by an order of magnitude. I’m not an expert on this stuff by any means but I think this was needed.
Chet Murthy
@mrstealyourcostcosample:
It’s actually worse than that. When Obama was finishing his time in office, Ta-Nehisi Coates observed that Obama was the Black man who made it OK for white people to vote for a Black man for President. This necessarily constrained his beliefs, his behaviour. The idea that somehow that man could get in office and be the barn-burning firebrand …. well, that was never going to happen. That was just incompatible with what Obama had to -be- to get elected.
So along comes a white man, and he does so many of the things that we’d wished Obama could have done. And I don’t want that to stop. B/c you just know that President Harris will be similarly constrained as Obama was. Sure, she’ll do fine. But I pine for the NFLTG Granpa Joe Presidency that we could have had.
Ah, well.
Kay
They’d probably hold Obama’s back in case anyone who is not Joe Manchin enters.Then he drops it. Like a piano on their head.
SuzieC
@mrstealyourcostcosample: Right on! Fuck em and fuck the horses they rode in on.
Martin
@CaseyL: So, Pete is only a bad candidate if you think the GOP attacks on the LGBTQ community are valid as a reflection of the culture.
I think this is the trap that Democrats constantly fall into – allowing the GOP to establish the terms of engagement, and then backing away after those terms are stated. For once I’d like Democrats to do the thing they are opposed to do is to look at those attacks on the LGBTQ community and say ‘the way we fight this is with LGBTQ candidates’ and then making that case to the public.
This is why I’ve been harping on the culture issues. The GOP are projecting a vision of American culture that shoves the LGBTQ community back in the closet. I don’t think most Americans want that. Support for same sex marriage is 68%. Why would Democrats not lean into that? Put forward a competing vision of the future where the LGBTQ community doesn’t need to be in the closet, because that seems to be where the culture currently is pointing. Embrace that, celebrate that, get those voters. Stop being cowards. Stop letting the GOP set the terms. Stop letting the GOP be the only voice in the culture war. Fucking fight.
Subsole
@MomSense: Ok. Why him over Shapiro?
Chet Murthy
@BlueDWarrior:
I don’t believe this bullshit about “the convention vote is democracy at work”. No, it’s supposed to be -ministerial- (like the vote on Jan 6 to confirm the electoral votes): nobody actually votes for a delegate. So there’s something we can do if we hear about some asshole Dem who wants to contest Harris’ confirmation at the convention: we can call everybody we know, every elected, and that asshole too, to BOMBARD them with our anger that they’re allowing that asshole to usurp our primary votes.
We can make the skies turn BLOOD RED with our anger.
Fake Irishman
@Kay:
It’s almost like Democrats can plan and strategize, even in tough situations. I’m so old I remember when Harry Reid was a useless, spineless leader… right before threaded the needle in Obamacare and blew up the filibuster to get us the DC Circuit Court.
Eolirin
@Martin: As long as that fight doesn’t include old people with stutters.
UncleEbeneezer
@Old Man Shadow: Right? I don’t wanna see the word “Unity” from any of these fuckers.
Martin
@Phein64: Yeah, a term less than 2 years doesn’t count against you, and you can be elected twice. So you can serve from between 4 years and change (two elections and resign immediately into your 2nd) to just under 10 years (assume just under 2 years of an existing term and then get elected twice and serve two more full terms).
Biden stepping down wouldn’t impact Harris’s time to serve. It’s less than 2 years of this term, and she can be elected two more times.
Martin
@Eolirin: Nobody said politics was fair. Democrats need to figure this out.
SuzieC
@Martin: My 30-something son is saying young Dems would love Pete as VP. As an old establishment Dem, I still think it is a bridge too far for the US.
Eduardo
I’ve have been despondent about November for a while and so I barely even entered in this site because I didn’t want to spread defeatism or even read a post headline that would send me even lower.
A lot of people are upset and I get it. I think Joe Biden has clearly been the best president this country has had since I got here in 2001. But after the debate I didn’t think he had a chance in hell. YMMV and I won’t even read any response to this out of respect for anybody’s grieving. Also you may be right and for all I know I am an idiot.
Also I trust Nancy Pelosi acumen more than anybody else in American politics.
This may work.
Just dropping my two cents. For the little the fuck it is worth.
Fake Irishman
@Martin:
Yep. One of the few things I’ve enjoyed about the culture wars on how the Dems have gone from cowering in fear over LGBTQ issues to getting filibuster proof majorities to vote in favor of some LGBTQ rights (gays serving in military 2010 and gay marriage in 2022). And the change has been QUICK.
Burnspbesq
@mrmoshpotato:
Effectively a quarterfinal tonight between MI New York and LA Knight Riders. MI has to win by a bunch or they miss the playoffs on net run rate (the first tiebreaker). Washington, San Francisco, and Texas have already qualified, and Seattle is out.
Fake Irishman
@Eduardo:
It just might work, and thanks for showing some restraint. We all deal with our anixiety in different ways and that’s OK.
Starfish
@SuzieC: I thought in the last election Pete was the young candidate that old people loved. This election, maybe the view on him has shifted with him actually doing things as transportation secretary. There are a lot of “Why are we dumping so much money in highways and not other forms of transportation?” conversations going on whether it be trains, bike infrastructure, or so on. We have crappy public transportation in places that could have better public transportation.
Eolirin
@Martin: I’m saying your position is incoherent. It applies to ageism and ableism just as much. Except clearly not in this case.
If we’re going to let this happen, we’re making a statement about how electoral outcomes are more important than that kind of value. Why should we risk things adding a gay person to a ticket with a black woman when we’re making these kinds of pragmatic electoral outcome driven decisions to even get here?
japa21
Time does wonders, well kind of. My initial response to this a few threads back was “Well, the election just got handed to Trump.” That has eased up to some degree. I like Kamala and want to see her win. It’ll be harder with her as the candidate than if it were Joe, but I think a Harris win would be far more devastating to the GOP than a Biden win.
I’m not going to say I am excited about it, but I am dedicated to a Harris win.
As to WI, MI and PA, I think we will see some joint events with both Biden and Harris to solidify the union vote.
Chris Johnson
@Zzyzx: For what it’s worth, I checked in on some of the doomer left-wing places I’d given up hope on because they were worse than THIS place.
I’ve not seen ONE yet that didn’t light up like a Xmas tree and start hopium-posting like maniacs. People freaked out. They’d believed it was impossible for anything to happen other than them trudging to the polls to pick their choice of old man older than their own parents and sometimes grandparents.
I’ve been trying to sell them on the idea that ‘see, this proves Joe Biden is smarter than you think, he turned out to take your side!’ combined with Joe’s list of accomplishments. I think we do better if we lean in to Joe’s incredible generosity as a public servant.
At the end of the day, he trained his team so well and supported them so much that they could go on without him, and with his full confidence.
It’s well placed, but it speaks to Joe’s character. I have said over and over that he’s a public servant. This is the act of a true public servant… and speaks to how good Kamala Harris is.
eclare
@rikyrah:
That does make me tear up a little.
Ksmiami
@BlueDWarrior: seal them in with lead and concrete.
Starfish
The pro-Harris jokes and fun times from the people accepting that Harris is the candidate are a delight.
hrprogressive
@japa21:
On the contrary, I definitely was super pissed when I got a text that told me about this.
However, watching Harris rake in $30M in about 5.5 hours, and watching people effusively say how excited they are about voting for her…
I will tell you I was not super excited about voting for Biden again, but was going to do it.
Now? I’m thrilled to stick it to all the fascists and shitheads who knifed Joe in the back by voting and donating to Kamala.
Let’s go get it done!!
Ksmiami
@Eolirin: it has to be a Dem governor as VP. I want Rory Cooper as I think about it.
Bill Arnold
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
If Biden did that, there would be no VP. The prospect of a President Johnson would be attractive to a large number of armed right wingers.
On a related note, VP candidate Vance would be the VP for the oldest president in the history of the United States, a elderly racist narcissist with obvious signs of some sort of progressive dementia. (His father declined into full Alzheimer’s.) Vance is already seriously thinking about a couple of sections of the 25th amendment, one suspects.
Starfish
@hrprogressive:
x.com/ChrisStephensMD/status/1815160171733328104
Someone made a joke that they were hope scrolling instead of doom scrolling.
Ksmiami
@Bill Arnold: Joe needs to serve out his term. End of story
Cara
@Old Man Shadow: Cosigned.
Geminid
@O. Felix Culpa: I am not sure that is so. There would be a special election but I think it would be held in 2026, and not as soon as Suzanne implied. Easy enough to check though.
Percysowner
Whiney McWhinerson is definitely upset ‘Have to start all over’: Trump complains he was forced to ‘spend time and money’ on Biden
Of course he’s also trying to back out of the next debate. Once it’s officially Kamala, someone should ask him if he’s afraid to debate a “girl”.
zhena gogolia
@hrprogressive: She’s not the nominee yet. Don’t hold your breath.
K-Mo
Donald Trump is 78 years old and he doesn’t take care of himself.
Citizen Alan
@Cacti: oh? Are the results of biden’s withdrawal not to your liking?
Subsole
@rikyrah: Trust this will not be forgotten.
The messiness. Just the sheer damned foulness.
I’m going to let this go and log off because I am working myself up, and I do not want to contribute negativity. We have enough of that.
Right now, we stand together and get Harris in. That means we call the party and we lean on them. Make it clear in no uncertain terms that fuckery will not be accepted. Harris or bust. I’m not trusting these people until the deal is done.
Today, we organize. Tomorrow, we fight. Same as it ever was.
But everyone needs to know that there will be a conversation about this shit down the road, and sooner than some folks will like.
zhena gogolia
@Citizen Alan: I know, right?
Eyeroller
@lowtechcyclist: It also means with no presumptive nominee we have lost several weeks to a month of campaigning while the Republicans romp through the media.
Chet Murthy
@Subsole: At a minimum, we need to reraise the subject of campaign finance reform. The rich hijacked our Democratic process, and that needs to be punished but severely.
Starfish
@zhena gogolia: The money is backing her, and they expect her to have the delegates soon. And note in that thing about the delegates that the one delegate expected her to have $30 million in 24-48 hours, and she has raised $27.5 in 5 hours.
zhena gogolia
@Starfish: Wake me up when she’s the nominee. I won’t hold my breath.
Subsole
@Eolirin:
Or people who are too Jewish.
Kay
Elizabeth Wagmeister
@EWagmeister
1h
Hollywood has galvanized around Kamala Harris more in the past 3 hours than it did this entire election cycle for Biden. Celebs had been too scared of bad PR to endorse either of the unpopular presumptive candidates. That has all changed now.
Starfish
@Chet Murthy: I think we need to reform a lot of things where the rich are far too powerful, but every time that happens they threaten to withhold funds. They are all big mad when it comes to Lina Khan, but we need her so much.
Citizen Alan
Go to hell and burn there. Pied.
lowtechcyclist
@Chris Johnson:
The President Is a Lot Smarter Than You Think
Bill Arnold
@lowtechcyclist:
I have a feeling that when we find out what was going on behind the scenes the past few weeks, we’ll have a long list of people we’ll want to kick in the crotch.
I am beyond “kick in the crotch”. I’ve been kicked in the crotch many times while doing martial arts; doesn’t hurt enough IMO.
KatKapCC
@SuzieC: It was said about her many times in SF and CA politics. Too many people in this country refuse to believe a Black woman might actually be capable and competent. Repugnant.
Citizen Alan
@Eolirin: TBH, I have always regretted the fact that no marginally credible candidate ran against her or that Malloy didn’t get better traction. I think she would have benefited from having someone in the race who would have been in the position of needing to aggressively take out bernie in order to get anywhere. She herself could not respond to any of his bullshit because the cosplay marxists would have thrown a fit.
lowtechcyclist
@Martin:
For the past 3+ years, they’ve stayed out of that trap, and haven’t thrown any Dem constituencies under the bus to gain WWC votes. (Before Biden, it seemed like they did it all the time, which was why I was almost never proud to be a Dem before 2021. Being proud to be a Dem is still a new thing with me!) Which is why their recent disarray took me by surprise, they’ve spent the entirety of Biden’s presidency almost entirely on the same page.
Something you said earlier about how elections aren’t about winning the center anymore, but getting low-engagement Dems to vote: I think it’s really been that way since 2004. If you look at the vote totals from 2004 and compare with 2000, Kerry got enough votes to win a landslide in 2000. The problem was, so did Dubya, only even more so.
But yeah, there are plenty of people out there who will vote Dem if they vote at all, and that’s the iffy part. We win if we can get them all to the polls.
Suzanne
@Geminid: The special election is held, IIRC, at the next cycle. So the replacement could hypothetically be in office for two years.
Chris Johnson
@Martin: I’m already seeing younger people suggesting Mayor Pete.
They sort of want to meme it into reality. The idea that they can flip off all the people who are threatening their very existence and literally vote for a black woman and, for instance, a married gay man, and that’s REALITY… I’m seeing younger people really struck by this. It’s this weird combination of sincere, and that they would literally drag themselves through broken glass with one good finger if it lets them do a thing that would PISS OFF the fascists THAT BADLY… it’s irresistible… I do wonder if we’ll double down, run Harris/Buttigieg, and obliterate the Republicans partly because it would be so funny to rub their faces in it and absolutely clown on them, both as a meme and for real.
EarthWindFire
Come sit next to me. I like Kamala Harris a lot. I hate what has happened and think it’s going to bite us in the ass. And I am not convinced that Kamala will be the nominee. If votes can be ignored, so can endorsements and small donor money.
Citizen Alan
@SuzieC: Tell him because the constitution.
Bill Arnold
@Eolirin:
Yup. Look at the replies on Harris’s twitter feed for the past month or three to get a partial preview.
Geminid
@Kay: One thing I saw in 2020 was the Biden campaign raising a lot of money after Biden picked Harris as his VP. They were running on a shoestring before that, but they matched the Trump campaign afterwards.
PatD
@Eolirin: meh, offset it with a strong focus on passing real student debt relief by act of Congress. The young care far more about that issue.
Citizen Alan
@Martin: I Like beshear, but in general, I don’t think it’s a good idea for the ticket to include someone who is incapable of carrying his own home state. I’d rather see beshear in the senate when His time comes.
Belafon
ActBlue posted that she’s gotten $46 million so far.
allium
@Jeffro: Cosigned like the multi-dimensional signal from Vega in Contact.
Ruckus
@Poe Larity:
shitforbrains will never concede.
Hell he thinks he is the highest life form.
You are never going to get someone who is that constantly WRONG and still thinks they are top shit, to concede anything
BellyCat
@Martin: Agree with Pete as VP to Kamala for the same reasons but with the ADDED BONUS THAT GOP HEADS WILL EXPLODE IF KAMALA/PETE WIN.
Want a showdown over the future of America? This would be it: Diversity vs. Fascistic Religious Zealots. Let’s see what the majority want and stop pussyfooting around.
tam1MI
The Dems I know are all very positively inclined towards Pete Buttigieg. That might make the bitter pill of the Coup D’Etat Caucus winning go down easier and overcome their intense dislike of Kamala Harris.
Geminid
@Suzanne: That potentially is a future stumbling block. But I think that if the people deciding this– and I trust Vice President Harris will have the final say– believe that Senator Kelly gives them the best chance of winning, this consideration won’t stand in the way.
And I think Senator Kelly would be willing to serve under those circumstances.
Geminid
@BellyCat: I see no value in making GOP heads explode. I want to win in November, and that is a different matter altogether.
Suzanne
@Geminid: Yeah, we’ll see. I don’t think he’s a bad choice.
Mai Naem mobile
@Lyrebird: i had forgotten the details on the blackface deal on Northam. I thought the physician part might help on the abortion front and VA supposedly being purplish. Obama said you have to be personally comfortable with your Veep pick(beyond the politics) and I think that’s why Kamala will go for Roy Cooper. Josh Shapiro is in his first gubernatorial term and it’s dumb to have the Veep candidate also be a current purplish state governor whose motivations on voting rules will be questioned( and yes I know about Jeb!.)
BellyCat
@Geminid: Winning is key, obviously. The benefit would be that this just might get the GOP to rethink their alliance with religious fundamentalism and their unholy initiatives.
phdesmond
@Eduardo: i’ve been absent for reasons similar to you. but i’ve spent all afternoon and evening here, knowing others would be sharing their feelings.
peter
Mai Naem mobile
@Geminid: i think Kelly is just a bad idea for this cycle. You win POTUS and have a more than reasonable chance of losing the Senate in a special election. On top of that you tarnish Kelly for 2028 if he decides to run again for the Senate. And the GOP will double down on Ruben Gallego’s race. I do not want to see a Sen Kari Lake.
Geminid
@Suzanne: I don’t know enough to say who would be the best choice. But while some people say the VP candidate should appeal to the youngs, I think Harris will do that anyway. There are a lot of older voters though, and I think Senator Kelly would attract them. He projects reliability.
I think Kelly would also appeal to Independents. He couldn’t have won that Arizona Senate seat if he did not, because Arizona’s registered Republicans outnumber the Democrats. Kelly ran 44,000 votes ahead of Biden in 2020, and that says something.
But Kelly is just one of several good prospects. I mainly want the VP slot to be filled soon, before Democrats start fighting over it with the news media egging them on.
Geminid
@Mai Naem mobile: Ruben Gallego is on track to beat Scari Kari Lake and having Mark Kelly on the national ticket would only help.
As for 2028, I see no reason why Kelly would be tarnished by a loss if there is one, especially under these circumstances. Tim Kaine did fine after he and Clinton lost in 2016.
Ed. Again, these are secondary considerations. The task is to win this year and Dems should pick the candidate who strengthens the ticket the most. That might or might not be Kelly, but gaming out what will happen two years from now is beside the point I think.
wjca
I’m sure you want that. But may I suggest you want to beat Trump more? If a centerist is what it takes to do that, do you object?
Cacti
@Citizen Alan: Wut?
wjca
Yes he did. After he won. But he didn’t emphasize them during the campaign.
You guys need to face the reality, unfortunate as it may be, that the country as a whole just isn’t as progressive as you would like it to be.
Geminid
@BellyCat: Well, that’s surely an ambitious program: win an election in 75 days and also instigate a cultural transformation of the Republican Party. A Twofer!
K-Mo
@Eduardo: High quality post.
Geminid
@wjca: Well, you may lack perspective because your feet are on the ground. Things would look differently from a loftier perch.
Glidwrith
@SuzieC: Someone on the Juicer threads said Biden came out of retirement to save the country knowing he would go out on his shield. It made me cry.
I have fought and argued for Biden with friends and family. My daughter is non-binary, I wanted the safest surest path with the man who has been more progressive than my wildest dreams.
I would not have chosen this path, but I am glad Biden need not die for us.
All in on Harris.
wjca
@Geminid: Busted!
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@wjca: And we come to the real reason Biden was shunted. The Donorcrats can’t win this fight.
Remember who had Biden’s back when it wasn’t cool.
Mai Naem mobile
@Geminid: you’re right there’s lots of other choices. I wouldn’t mind seeing one of TFGs impeachment managers as Veep like Jason Crow. I wouldn’t mind seeing Sen Chris Murphy who’s as white bread liberal as you can get and is involved in gun control since Sandy Hook. He’s 50 and solid blue state. You could possibly talk about gun control now since the Orange Messiah got shot at.
Ruckus
@Starfish:
This country needs many forms of public transit because our population needs vary a lot. I use an electric train to travel across LA county as much as I possibly can. But the problem is parking at the train station. Each station on the electric transit train I try to ride in often now fills up because so many more people are riding because even for a non senior passenger it is much cheaper than driving. For a senior it is even cheaper. Gas here is about $5/gal so even with a thrifty car, it’s expensive. But now the transit train parking area often fills up. I can ride the train all the way across LA county for $.35 off peak, $.75 on peak, for a non senior it’s $1.75