Harris’s VP Pick will be??

Thought this was an interesting analysis. They covered 9 potential candidates including Whitmer and Newsom.

Gift article - no paywall
wapo.st/3Sd9EQT

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/21/replace-biden/

The Pennsylvania governor, who endorsed Harris on Sunday, checks a lot of the same boxes as Whitmer — a popular governor from a crucial state who is almost universally respected in the party.
But there are some key differences, which could either be assets or liabilities, depending on your perspective: He’s a man; he’s less experienced (having just been elected in 2022); he carries a reputation as a moderate.

Shapiro would also be the first Jewish American to lead a presidential ticket, after Joe Lieberman’s history making vice-presidential nomination in 2000.

Because of his relatively new status on the national stage, many have posited that Shapiro is more of an option for 2028. But it would seem hard for Democrats to ignore polls like one earlier this year showing that more than 3 in 10 Pennsylvania Trump supporters approve of him.

If you want the most broadly agreeable candidate, he’s probably it.
Biggest pro: Could have highest appeal to voters.
Biggest con: Relative inexperience.

An undersold achievement on the transportation secretary’s résumé is that he nearly won both the Iowa and New Hampshire presidential nominating contests back in 2020, when he was just a mayor of a midsize Midwestern city (South Bend, Ind.).

And if the party is looking for the antithesis of Biden’s inability to drive a message against Trump, it’s Buttigieg. His jousting with Fox News hosts and Republicans at congressional hearings is often shared widely in Democratic circles, as was a clip this past weekend criticizing GOP vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance. Buttigieg is a gifted messenger.

If there’s a big drawback with Buttigieg, it’s that he appears to be the wrong candidate to try to arrest the Democratic ticket’s budding problem with diverse — and especially Black — voters. He got very little support from such groups in 2020. And his tenure as transportation secretary hasn’t always been a smooth ride.

Biggest pro: Unmatched ability to take the fight to Trump and the GOP.
Biggest con: Record of appealing to disaffected diverse voters.

the LBGTQ know how to organize!

And I think they would be misguided - about the only ammo they have is she's "untested." Well, if she becomes President - she's "tested." 

Exactly. He can walk that line. Plus, being ex-military he can avoid the “he’s just weak and soft, won’t be a fighter” nonsense.

I already expressed my preference for Kelly earlier, however I wanted to add something else. Everyone is very excited about new possibilities, and the fundraising. I am still waiting for polling, and things like voter registration and voter activism in the key swing states. Harris was always going to excite a large portion of Dems that were always going to vote Democrat. Evidence of that doesn’t equal more electoral votes. An electoral vote loss is still a possibility. Look what had happened to the political careers of the VP candidates who lost. Shapiro, Beshear and others are strong future 2028 and beyond candidates. Kelly, however, I don’t think has Presidential ambitions of his own. A loss just means he’ll go back to serving in the best way he can. He answers a concern I had, which is how to stop the GOP and Trump effectively taking 3 strong Democrats off the board in one move, if the change of the ticket doesn’t equal electoral votes.

I really like Pete and I think his time is coming. But it’s not now. That said, I would LOVE to see him debate Vance. I saw a clip of Pete on Maher and he absolutely murdered Vance. 😁🍿

I want either Shapiro or Kelly. 

I am not sure of the Arizona procedures to replace Kelly. It may have been posted but I forget, if so.

So very hard to let this go...  The whit, humor, fast thinking, intelligence, common sense et al!!


youtu.be/uxBM1MJEFEs?si=rGwJXrwIU2zRrzn1

I strongly disagree with this.  While I don't think it is the only (or even the number one issue) of this election, I do think that foreign policy matters.  I want us to continue to support Ukraine and give them what they need to keep their country.  I also think that we should stay in NATO.  And I also don't think that Biden has been firm enough with Israel.  That won't affect my vote in the election, but it might have in a primary if there were different candidates with different stances on those issues. However, I do think it is shortsighted for people to say that they won't vote for Biden (or Harris, I suppose) because of what Israel is doing in Gaza.  There are other issues here that we need to tend to and Trump would not be any better for the Palestinians than Biden has been.

The criticism is that Shapiro is pro-Israel. Maybe before you criticize him or criticize how people vote, you should figure out where he stands on issues.

There is criticism of Harris for being pro-palestine, so maybe the criticisms will cancel each other out, if Harris and Shapiro are on the ticket?  In my opinion, I don't think the criticism of Harris is founded based on her comments about the campus protests.


www.nytimes.com/2024/05/11/us/politics/josh-shapiro-pennsylvania.html?unlocked_article_code=1.9E0.XnUb.wpbJNmcIQ3zD&smid=url-share

But Mr. Shapiro has been direct.

Asked if he considered himself a Zionist, he said that he did. When Iran attacked Israel last month, he wrote on social media that Pennsylvania “stands with Israel.”

When the University of Pennsylvania’s president struggled before Congress to directly answer whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated the school’s rules, Mr. Shapiro said she had failed to show “moral clarity.” (She later resigned.) When opponents of the Gaza war picketed an Israeli-style restaurant in Philadelphia known for its falafel and tahini shakes, Mr. Shapiro called the demonstration antisemitic and showed up for lunch.

And as university officials have struggled to define where free speech ends and hate speech begins, a tension upending the final weeks of the school year, Mr. Shapiro has issued stern warnings about their responsibility to protect students from discrimination. The issue hits close to home: On Friday, police cleared an encampment of pro-Palestinian demonstrators off the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Shapiro had said it was “past time” for Penn to do so.

In a new survey, Mr. Shapiro, a former state attorney general, had a job approval rating of 64 percent, with just 19 percent of Pennsylvanians saying they disapproved.

He has long emphasized bipartisanship and prioritized nonideological issues like rapidly reopening a stretch of Interstate 95 after a collapse. And his own religious observance has helped him connect with people of other faiths in a state where Jews are estimated to make up about 3 percent of the electorate.


jewishinsider.com/2023/12/josh-shapiro-hamas-israel-joe-biden/

Since taking office earlier this year, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has focused more on state policy than on foreign affairs.

But since an antisemitic incident at a kosher Israeli restaurant in Philadelphia earlier this month brought the Israel-Hamas war to his home turf, the Democrat has become increasingly outspoken about the war in Gaza. Last week, the popular swing-state governor offered his most detailed comments yet on the war that was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel.

“Israel not only has a right to defend itself, I think Israel has a responsibility to combat Hamas head-on and to defeat Hamas,” Shapiro said at a Dec. 13 virtual event hosted by the Jewish Democratic Council of America. He began his remarks with a caveat: “I’m a state actor, not a federal actor. I don’t get a vote in the Congress in terms of what happens. I do have strong feelings.”

I think Harris is only slightly to the left of Biden in terms of Israel-Palestinian conflict.

www.reuters.com/world/us/tougher-tone-israel-steady-nato-how-harris-foreign-policy-could-look-2024-07-21/

Although as vice president she has mostly echoed Biden in firmly backing Israel's right to defend itself after Hamas militants carried out a deadly cross-border raid on Oct. 7, she has at times stepped out slightly ahead of the president in criticizing Israel's military approach.

In March, she bluntly stated that Israel was not doing enough to ease a "humanitarian catastrophe" during its ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave. Later, she did not rule out "consequences" for Israel if it launched a full-scale invasion of refugee-packed Rafah in southern Gaza.

Such language has raised the possibility that Harris, as president, might take at least a stronger rhetorical line with Israel than Biden, analysts say.


This is another criticism of her regarding her comments on campus protests from Bret Stephen (I disagree with him 95% of the time but he is more tolerable than Fox)

www.nytimes.com/2024/07/21/opinion/kamala-harris-joe-biden-drops-out.html

Her notes of sympathy for the campus anti-Israel protesters don’t sit well with a lot of voters — emphatically including me.



I think this is his criticism of what Harris said about campus protestors but I don't see anything wrong with her statement. Also, I think the protests could be more accurately describes as Gaza supporters. I think he frames his entire statement with a falsehood or spin

www.thenation.com/article/politics/kamala-harris-interview-profile-excerpt/

The young people who have mobilized against the destruction of Gaza are unlikely to be mollified by these answers. What does she say to them?

“They are showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza. There are things some of the protesters are saying that I absolutely reject, so I don’t mean to wholesale endorse their points. But we have to navigate it. I understand the emotion behind it.”

Just wanted to add to this.  I agree with Jeffries.  The Republicans know their candidate, policies and project 2025 are widely unpopular.  They're trying anything to take the focus off that.  No transcript, but it's a short clip



Jeffries


Hakeem Jeffries @repjeffries
Extreme MAGA Republicans are having a complete and total meltdown.

We are going to have enough trouble getting a woman elected president.  I don't think adding a gay man (as smart as he is) with not a whole lot of experience (Sec of the DOT and mayor of a small city)is going to help the ticket.

I think Andy Beshear would be a good pick.  

I like what I've seen from him on the nightly talking heads shows.  That he's from a large swing state is helpful.

I don't want to sacrifice any senators--we're going to need them. 

I think Pete would be too much to combine with the things some "centrist-leaning" voters on the right already feel they'll be overlooking to vote for Kamala. We'll vex them by showing she knows how to get things done.