Kamala Harris has launched her campaign for the White House, after President Joe Biden stepped aside Sunday under pressure from party leaders.

The vice president has Biden’s endorsement, and is unchallenged as yet for the Democratic nomination, which will be formally decided at the Aug. 19 convention in Chicago.

“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” Harris said in a statement. “I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party—and unite our nation—to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda. We have 107 days until Election Day. Together, we will fight. And together, we will win.”

In her statement, the vice president paid tribute to Biden’s “extraordinary leadership,” saying he had achieved more in one term than many presidents do in two.

239 points
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I don’t like Harris, mainly because of her time as a prosecutor. I’m also not going to lie, I was having a really really hard time grappling with voting for Biden, I was begrudgingly willing to before the debate but when I watched it I was so outraged. I genuinely feel like his administration has been deceitful with his condition for a while. I’m not saying I wasn’t going to vote for Biden, I understand the stakes, but I kept watching his interviews trying to get any genuine motivation for Biden. All I saw was a stubborn old man who refused to even acknowledge reality.

I’ve been following Biden news and this week I was convinced that he would drop out and so I wondered who would replace him. Harris immediately came to mind. Now as I said I don’t care for Harris but before Biden announced this today I personally decided I would be willing to support Harris.

She isn’t ancient, I believe she’s more progressive, and I think she will be good in the debates. She isn’t my 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th pick, but I have far fewer hangups voting for Harris compared to Biden, and of course over Trump.

She isn’t the best candidate in terms of absolute popularity, but when you factor in funding logistics and the fact that I think many good Dems picks would want to run in '28 when the timing isn’t fucked, I think Harris is the most realistic pick. I’ll happily take her compared to Biden.

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-75 points

Back to the lesser of 2 evils. It never ends

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25 points

Yes, that’s what rational people do, pick the less damaging choice.

What the FUCK is wrong with you people who actively choose the more damaging choice for lulz?

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-4 points

I never endorsed anyone

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-6 points

And that’s how we get pulled further to the right. When did I say I had chosen anyone for the lulz. What the fuck is wrong with you jumping to conclusions?

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30 points

BOtH sIdEs

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-28 points

Both candidates are right wing so it’s not really “BOtH sIdEs.” People on the left would like some representation for once.

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64 points

The only way you’ll get a candidate that aligns with 100% of your personal beliefs, is if you run for office yourself

That being said, I’d love a real leftwing candidate

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11 points

And sometimes you have to run on or embrace the ideals of someone else just to get elected. Unfortunate.

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12 points

Yes, that’s how first past the post voting works.

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-55 points

It’s attitudes exactly like this why American Democrats are center right, and why we have had almost zero meaningful legislation to help the normal people for 40 years.

If your family survives this coming shitshow of a fasist coup, I hope you beg their forgiveness and tell them your small part in helping start it.

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9 points

So the DNC gets to make this decision not me. This is a last minute situation that hasn’t happened since the 60s, every ounce of divisiveness will only embolden the “facist coup”. The time is up, whoever they pick we’ve got to unite behind and hopefully rally voters to the booths. Honestly the presidency needs to be D so it can’t veto/ can veto, the VP can tie break, and executive orders. She will hopefully be a beacon to encourage voters to get more D in the senate and house. The house/senate flips and your meaningful legislation point becomes moot. Lastly I have no clue what you are saying in the 2nd paragraph, somehow voting for Harris makes a facist coup? No clue what middle steps are included to achieve that outcome but you must know something I don’t. Regardless I have no worries about my family but I appreciate the concern!

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23 points

why we have had almost zero meaningful legislation to help the normal people for 40 years.

The Affordable Care Act is why I was able to take a year off work to focus on my mental health after the pandemic crushed it. The Inflation Reduction Act is helping keep the renewable energy company I work for afloat and offering an optimistic future.

No one expects to end up on government assistance or using FMLA to take a few months off for an illness. We support it on the left because we know it’s the fucking right thing to do.

It’s all good and fine to criticize programs as useless theoretically when you don’t rely on them. But when you’ve actually experienced them and needed them, your perspective changes heavily.

Democrats have gotten good shit done for the average person, and I’ve personally benefited from it when I really needed it.

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-9 points

Do you think the ACA that passed was the ACA originally intended? Because it wasn’t, and there’s only one party to blame for why.

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44 points

As a normal person, I’ve been helped by legislation both by Biden and Obama. Just because it’s not perfect doesn’t mean it’s not good.

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8 points

SCOTUS, Congress, and POTUS have all, regardless of party have catered to corporate interest over the citizenry an OVERWHELMING amount my entire life, and I remember life before the internet.

Sure we get a few crumbs, cars for clunkers, a crippled ACA, a constant ‘will they, won’t they’ over college loans.

Meanwhile Citizens United gave corporations near unlimited influence, the repeal of Glass-Steagall led to the housing collapse in 2008 and the banks were bailed out. Even recently in COVID those most benefitted were the corporations and ultra wealthy who netted a 1.3 FUCKINGTRILLION dollar payday with almost no oversight or pressure to pay back, and we are STILL seeing fraud cases from that show up.

So was your little 3k ‘gift’ that was meant for relief during A FUCKING PANDEMIC in any way commesurate with the HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS the owner class (who was at no financial risk at any time) got to keep?

Do you feel all these little crumbs of social support they have doled out in meager and begrudging ways makes up for the fact that no matter what their party, NEARLY EVERY MEMBER of our top seats in government are more concerned about the interests of the wealthy than they are in normal people?

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4 points
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She wasn’t anyone’s top 4 even in 2020. Between what they did before Super Tuesday then, and now this, this isn’t democracy. This is DNC controlling what happens to prevent something like Bernie. People aren’t getting choice and primaries are pointless.

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2 points

People could have voted for someone other than Biden in the primaries. That was always an option. Just because the incumbent was running again didn’t mean the voters HAD to vote for him.

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-1 points

Quick poll

Please up vote if you had a chance (I did, that’s 1)

Please down vote if you didn’t get a chance to vote for someone else in the primary

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1 point

This is DNC controlling what happens to prevent something like Bernie.

I’ve gradually come around to “they’d rather see Trump than someone like Bernie” despite snorting at it the first few times I heard it suggested.

Bernie is too old now honestly. I’d vote for him, but I don’t think he’d win. At least where he is he can push for what’s right.

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178 points

You know what? I felt the same way before today. But I’ve been thinking about it a lot since the announcement, and the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that Harris is the best possible presidential candidate.

Like you, I don’t think she’d make the best president. Hell, she wasn’t even in my top 10. I’d have vastly preferred someone like Hakeem Jeffries. But here’s the thing: the person best suited for the office of president isn’t necessarily the best person to run for president.

Harris has all of the advantages Biden had: she can run on this administration’s record, since it was her administration too. Every positive talking point about the stuff that Biden’s done for the country can equally apply to Harris. Additionally, she gets his entire war chest, and with the president’s blessing today, she’s likely going to have 100% party support as well. To make matters even better, she doesn’t have any of the flaws he sported: she’s young, she’s sharp, she’s great in debates, and because she’s the antithesis of Biden in all of these respects, all of the criticisms pointed at Biden (which could also 100% be applied to Trump) will now all be applied to Trump and Trump alone.

Lastly, I think that now is the most favorable moment in our country’s history for a non-white, non-male person to become president. She’s got the built-in support of everybody who dreads another Trump presidency. A significant number of people who would vote for Biden but not Harris due to sexism or racism will be rethinking that position when the opposition is Donald Trump. Also, something like 40% of people in the US just simply don’t vote. Biden would never appeal to those people, but a black / asian woman who has succeeded in a mostly male dominated field could be very inspirational to a large number of otherwise apathetic non-voters.

I honestly think that Harris being endorsed for President is just an unalloyed good. I don’t see any realistic downsides, and an incredible number of upsides. It actually has me excited, which is a feeling I haven’t felt since 2008.

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-6 points

Agreed with all that! But I have one caveat.

the most favorable moment in our country’s history for a non-white, non-male person to become president

Look, I cried tears of joy when Obama won. I mean that literally. But guess when the conservative hate machine got dialed to 11?

Some will say it started earlier, but I disagree. Back then I occasionally listened to Limbaugh and Hannity on the radio while running errands at work. They actually had some sane takes now and again. Wasn’t very political, but I had my ear to the ground. The entire machine, especially Fox News, went so far off the rails in response to a black President, I simply couldn’t listen to any of them, not for a second.

Conservative brains take time to assimilate new social conditions, gotta chip away at 'em. I’m already hearing the, “Fuck them!” replies, but that doesn’t change the fact that these people exist and vote. And they’re going to get more and more violent.

Look at LGBT rights. We got them to begrudgingly accept gay marriage. Fresh off that victory, liberals asked for more and more acceptance. Too much, too fast, they went full-on berserk. Now I feel gay rights are perhaps worse than before.

Scared to see what a double-whammy of a black woman does to their brains. I used to laugh about conservatives choking on their outrage, same with Christians. “Ha! Losing ain’t ya!” But now it isn’t so funny. They’re in a corner and lashing out. What next?

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31 points

All, or at least the vast majority, of those people you’re talking about are already Trump voters. They’re going to continue backing Trump no matter who the Democratic party picks. They saw a black guy get elected president, and that radicalized them. They aren’t coming back. Pandering to the imaginary demographic of racists who will surely see the light if we elect the right candidate is simply a losing proposition.

Will there be right wing violence in response to a Harris presidency? Of course there will be. Is there right wing violence now? Of course there is. I understand that you’re tired of hearing the “fuck them” replies, but seriously: fuck them. They are a cancer on this nation. Holding back on doing something good just because you’re afraid that the fucking awful people you share a country with will do something awful just means that you never make any progress.

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5 points
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Too much, too fast, they went full-on berserk.

Raises a conundrum I struggle with:

No one should have to wait for rights, true.

yet

Idiots vote, true.

How should we act if we know fighting for certain rights means fascists have an easier time in elections?

Should we…:

A. Be publicly on the right side of history at risk of losing an election to the detriment of all.

B. Be publicly on the wrong side of a human rights issue in order to win, then try to privately backchannel to make up for the sin.

(Perhaps a false binary here, so ready to be corrected.)

Idealist in me says fight at all costs, maybe it’ll work out. Pragmatist in me says “win the damn election & backchannel the heck out of your term.” Feel guilty either way.

Edit: corrected word to “wrong” from “right”

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6 points

The thing is, they’ve already turned the hate machine up to 11. There’s not much farther they can go than here.

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1 point

I’m personally a little nervous about Harris–I remember the 2020 primary where her only notable accomplishments were accusing Biden of being racist over opposition to federal busing policies, and then flaming out shortly after and shuttering her campaign two months before the first caucus and polling single digits in California. Admittedly, she doesn’t have the same headwinds now that she had in 2020–she doesn’t have to differentiate herself from over a dozen other candidates and she won’t struggle to raise money–but she also made some unforced errors (e.g. coming out for total elimination of private insurance before revealing a plan that included private plans, or admitting her own policy on busing was essentially identical to Biden’s).

Hopefully, she’ll run a much tighter campaign now since she’ll inherit Biden’s staff and can focus solely on attacking Trump, but I do have some concerns.

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1 point

Polling single digits in California might actually be indicative of her having a better chance. The same reasons why she want the top choice in a deeply blue state may make her a stronger choice in more “on the fence” voters.

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31 points

I don’t know where all this “I don’t like Harris” stuff comes from. Considering the presidents we’ve had lately, hahaha… if she won, it would be amazing. I’m sure there are better people in the world, but they don’t even get close to the White House. We have to be realistic. She’s a great pick considering current political realities.

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7 points

Oh for sure. Don’t get me wrong; she’s not my ideal president, but she’d still probably be in the top 5 presidents we’ve ever had. That’s not necessarily making a judgment about her without seeing her performance first, it’s more of a statement about how bad most US presidents are. Still, I have high hopes for a Harris presidency. I think she’ll do a great job. She’s just not my #1 draft pick.

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7 points

Mainly her policies she has fought for and enacted while in political office

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43 points

Don’t forget that the fascists will push away moderates everywhere because they have no idea how racist and sexist they are, nor how to hide it, because it’s their entire platform.

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-2 points

I believe she’s more progressive

Convince me brother. I think we just sentenced ourselves to 8 years of “we’ll still move to the right, just more slowly than Trump.” Yes I’m going to vote for her, but would have loved for someone actually progressive to have a chance prior to 2032. If you run the calculus differently, tell me how.

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3 points

She’s Pro-Weed legalization, Pro-Medicare for All, and Pro-PRO Act. By all measures, she’s significantly more left wing than Obama, so I don’t exactly know how she could be “moving us to the right” at all.

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-1 points
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Because sometimes people change their views because of personal growth and other times they say they have changed them for political expediency, which is the viewpoint considered by the article I linked. You are aware she was a prosecutor who made a career out of locking people up, right?

Edit: Not in the branch of discussion I thought we were, I had not linked the article here. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/kamala-cop-record/596758/

Edit 2: The most relevant bit:

I can forgive a politician a vote on a crime bill that looks ill-conceived two decades later, or a too-slow evolution toward marijuana legalization, or even a principled belief in the death penalty, something I adamantly oppose. I find it far harder to forgive fighting to keep a man in jail in the face of strong evidence of innocence, running a team of prosecutors that withholds potentially exculpatory evidence from defense attorneys, and utterly failing as the state’s top prosecutor to rein in glaringly corrupt district attorneys and law enforcement.

At best, Harris displayed a pattern of striking ignorance about scandalous misconduct in hierarchies that she oversaw. And she is now asking the public to place her atop a bigger, more complicated, more powerful hierarchy, where abuses and unaccountable officials would do even more to subvert liberty and justice for all.

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3 points

mainly because of her time as a prosecutor.

What didn’t you like about it?

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-3 points

Her policy

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11 points

As to that 2028 topic…If Harris wins, it pushes all of them all the way back to 2032. Many of those hopefulf may like their odds right now, as opposed to 8 years later, unless those same people are confident Harris will lose against Trump.

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12 points

If Harris wins, this election is proof that a competitive primary that knocks out the incumbent isn’t a death knell for the general. I promise you, Harris will have opponents.

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0 points

Let’s hope so

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14 points

when you factor in funding logistics

This is an incredibly important point. Unless rich donors said they’d fully make up the current campaign war chest for the new candidate, there would be a significant funding issue. Being able to use the existing funds is extremely important.

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2 points

She has also gotten close to $100M in funding just in the last 24 hours. From small donators.

That’s a record of some sort

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3 points

I’m curious who are your top 4 picks?

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11 points

I’m pretty sure the DNC and it’s donors helped force this hand, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they field a different candidate.

That being said, I’d actually like to see a non shill run who will actually fulfill his promises with legislation and not half ass executive orders that die after 5 seconds.

They’ll never let Bernie in, but like cmon choose at least someone who can agree genocide is not good. Can’t believe we’re still scraping the bottom of the barrel for requirements here.

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1 point

Kamala/AOC ticket could win it I think

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11 points

Really? I don’t think AOC has a chance in hell among the voting public.

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7 points

No one who was going to vote for Biden is about to vote for Trump just because Kamala is a black woman… Stop worrying what the Republicans are going to think… They were going to think that about any “lib”, and it doesn’t matter because they were never going to vote for a Dem. The only people we need to worry about are the young progressives who still have no one to vote FOR and might stay home because of it… Throw AOC on the ticket and a lot of them will get excited enough to show up.

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13 points

The American public isn’t yet ready for AOC in executive office, as great a she would be. Her time is yet to come.

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3 points

Yeah I don’t totally disagree there… This would be a great time to force it though… If it was someone like Romney rather than Trump then a lot of centrist Dem/Reps would probably shift to him, but with Trump, I don’t think they’ll do that, at least not enough to matter… They’ll take anyone other than Trump. So AOC doesn’t cost us all that many votes from the center (under these particular circumstances) but she WOULD bring in millions of young progressive votes that will probably just stay home or vote 3rd party if there’s no progressive for them to vote for.

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6 points

I think they’ll err on the side of appeasing people who are on some level uncomfortable with minorities and women and run some generic straight white man.

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2 points

Yep probably… But that’s the wrong move… Those people aren’t about to switch to Trump just because they’re uncomfortable with a black woman… Trump is just too much of a Trump you know? Like if it was Romney running as R… Then yeah, but Trump is different. The people who “always vote” are going to vote blue no matter who… It’s the young progressives that need to be swayed to vote at all. And there are significantly more young people who could be swayed to show up than there are centrists who might switch to Trump instead of a black woman.

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3 points

I know Biden is Free after January, and he has experience being vice president.

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0 points

AOC would be a good VP or Speaker pick, but for president I think we’d need someone with more broad appeal.

I think Mark Kelly or Newsom would be able to capture enough votes.

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2 points

Honestly I think a Newsom/AOC ticket would do even better than Kamala/AOC… Just have to have someone actually progressive on there to get the young progressive left excited enough to show up

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26 points

After all the shit they gave Biden about his age, do you think Bernie, who’s even older, would be a good idea?

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-1 points

The problem with Biden wasn’t his age. It was his mental acuity.

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2 points

…which was due to his age. It can come on rapidly; he’s noticeably less sharp than he was 4 years ago.

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8 points

I think he meant candidates like Bernie.

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17 points
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Deleted by creator
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-1 points

Age shouldn’t be the criterion. It should be mental capability.

no he is not 100% sharp still

The perfect candidate doesn’t exist.

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5 points
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Deleted by creator
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4 points

I think Newsom could beat Trump. He has a track record of fighting for progressive (by dem standards anyway) shit and is used to telling Republicans to fuck off.

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2 points

Through a horrific series of events I watched him debate with Desantos on Fox News. I was fairly impressed with the job he did. I still have no idea why Desantos agreed to debate him lol.

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-8 points

Oh no

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8 points

Ok. Fine… who would you pick?

There is a reason for her being the transition cannidate. If you have better, please let the DNC know…

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1 point

Well I’d pick one of handful of progressive democrats the Dems have or Bernie but that ain’t happening. I’d at least pick Newsom.

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9 points
*

Ok. But fuck, if you have to have a cop out, waffle house excuse to say newsom, i have a hard time believing you. Newsome is hard for the fact that hes a “hard D” california govenor and you take a good hit in the swing states. Thats a real liability. Thats fair. Stand by it. Say that. “But Bernie” my ass. Bernie doesnt want it now.

Dont say “oh no” and not have an honest opinion that you arent willing to put your nuts behind. Get on board, or gtfo.

I swear. As a dem, and ill be honest, what pisses me off the most is that we are our own worst enemy. We waffle and push for a vauge replacement with no game plan, and bitch and moan when the answer given “just isnt quite what we want”.

We could have had an honest to god game plan a year ago. But we didnt get our shit together. Thats on you, thats on me, and its sure as fuck on the DNC. But we dont have that option now.

Fucks sake. Rant over. Sorry for being frustrated at a two word post and a half baked response. Fuck.

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13 points

Pick someone that is willing to run. Because thats how things work.

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-77 points
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We don’t stand a chance with her as the pick. Whitmer would’ve been a much better president pick

You can downvote all you want the polls show dems still losing with her as the pick

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2 points

Polls, polls, polls.

First, it’s Biden is too old. Now, it is polls, which have time and time been proven to not mean shit.

Since you apparently forgot the last time polls were discussed so much

https://www.rutgers.edu/news/what-happened-red-wave

Cheers.

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-1 points
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For me it’s always polls, I don’t care about Bidens ages I want someone who can for sure beat this shit stain (trump) and keep him out for good

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-29 points

No change this late would have been the best pick. Now the Dems just hand Trump the presidency. Maybe because they are scared of what Trump will do to them so they try to ally with him?

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36 points

She hasn’t even started campaigning yet, and she was even to Joe or even better.

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-37 points
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She literally has been campaigning? She is the VP she campaigns with Joe. She’s in the public eye, people know her and she still trails trump

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4 points

She’s barely in the public eye. When Jimmy Kimmel had her on his show, he did one of his ‘ask the people on Hollywood boulevard’ segments where he asked them who the VP was and people just kept getting it wrong or didn’t even know.

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30 points

She has been campaigning… For Biden. That’s the difference between being the backup singer and the lead singer at a concert. Sure the backup singer is still on stage and singing, but it’s just to support the lead singer, not to show off their own talent

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18 points

How can you possibly think that makes sense?

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2 points

I agree Whitmer would be the best chance at beating Trump in general.

But I do think that Harris can still do that job and that there’s logistical reasons why it’s going to be that.

I wish we’d have Whitmer, but I’m not terrified of it being Harris the way I was if Biden stayed in the race.

And if she picks a good VP that helps round out the ticket with the middle of the country, I could see the new ticket getting momentum.

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-41 points

Kamala Harris is probably the second-worst candidate behind Hillary Clinton that the Democrats could field against Trump. She’s disliked, she’s a hypocrite (look at her current ‘stance’ on legalizing marijuana compared to her previous record as a prosecutor where she ruined thousands of lives with criminal convictions for smoking wacky tobaccy), and a vote for Biden was going to be a de-facto vote for her regardless, because we know that if Biden was going to fall seriously ill or die during his second term, she’d take over the presidency.

The Democrats have many better candidates to run. I hope they don’t make the mistake of backing Biden’s running mate.

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0 points

Third worst candidate; fortunately the second-worst already stepped down.

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11 points

They don’t have anyone better right now.

At least now we don’t have to deal with Republicans attacking Biden for his age and we can turn that around on Trump.

I could run a full list of pros and cons on the woman but at the end of the day we got an upgrade if this decision should have been made much earlier. Gotta always vote blue no matter who. Can’t let Republicans get in.

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13 points

Of course, they’ll attack her for her gender and skin color.

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-30 points
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not her gender or color

it is the fact that she wants her boots licked

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-25 points

she is a prosecutor

her career was spent putting people in jail with Biden’s crime bills

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4 points

I am absolutely aware of her history as the district attorney of San Francisco and how she targeted young black men with nonviolent offenses throughout her career.

She was my least favorite out of the three options mentioned back in 2020 for VP but at the end of the day she’s not Trump.

I won’t agree with her on everything but Trump is this massive danger to society that can’t be overlooked or allowed any ground.

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20 points

She was a prosecutor 14 years ago. People are allowed to grow and change their opinion.

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5 points

enforcing laws that you don’t personally agree with and then advocating to change that law: hypocrisy, apparently

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13 points

Who exactly do they have who’s “better”, who ALSO would agree to run, who ALSO doesn’t have a mountain of baggage saddled with them? I’ve seen Whitmer thrown around, but she’s had a serious smear campaign and a credible assassination attempt against her already. Beshear’s another, he said he isn’t going to accept even if the DNC nominates him. Sanders also gets tarred with the “but he’s old” brush, plus the GOP can run thousands of hours of “he’s a literall socialist”. AOC is also similarly divisive, and I don’t think she’d accept anyway.

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-11 points
*

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Yang, plenty of good candidates.

Sanders would be a bad choice because he’s too old and while he’s certainly more compos mentis than Biden, he cannot escape that criticism. Michael Bloomberg would also be a similarly bad candidate for the same reason, plus also for running an incredibly expensive and half-assed campaign last time around.

Ladbrokes currently have Michelle Obama as the second-favourite to win the Democrat nomination. She would actually be a great choice because it means Barack gets another four to eight years in the White House, albeit as the First Man. She also seems like a very sensible candidate in her own right.

Alternatively, they could go the Reagan/Trump route and usher in a celebrity as their candidate. Someone like Oprah Winfrey, Taylor Swift, Stephen Colbert or Jimmy Fallon would be huge.

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6 points

Yang? Already flamed out once, and had very few specific policy goals beyond UBI.

AOC? If she accepts, which I doubt, she’ll face challenges of “she’s too young” despite her being of-age by the inauguration, and would certainly see a federal or SCOTUS case trying to disqualify her. I could see BOEs in multiple states trying to boot her off the ballot because of it.

Warren and Buttigieg both are saddled with lots of baggage - Warren’s already been tarred as a nut by mainstream media, and Buttigieg’s performance as Secretary of Transportation is…lackluster.

Michelle Obama would be foolish - it would see the same challenges as Hilary in the “we’re building another dynasty” angle.

Oprah is a poor choice, Taylor Swift, same. Colbert and Fallon would seriously be BAD choices.

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7 points

Taylor swift?! You’re proposing a literal billionaire as a more radical candidate than Harris?

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1 point

Michelle/AOC would crush it… That would be awesome

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9 points

He JOB was to prosecute those that broke the law…the law was “weed bad”…so…

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