A Kamala Harris-Gretchen Whitmer ticket could help Democrats avoid a landslide

The Spectator ^ | 07/10/2024 | Ben Domenech

[SeekAndFind]

The mood among Washington Democrats is grim. Understanding that Joe Biden is headed toward defeat, they’ve also come to the conclusion that there’s nothing they can do about it — that unless Biden willingly steps aside, their side is doomed to failure. Three senators — including Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown, fighting to hold on in competitive elections this fall — said this out loud to their colleagues behind closed doors. The third, Michael Bennet of Colorado, was willing to say it publicly on CNN, even invoking the prospect of a “landslide” that results in…

The mood among Washington Democrats is grim. Understanding that Joe Biden is headed toward defeat, they’ve also come to the conclusion that there’s nothing they can do about it — that unless Biden willingly steps aside, their side is doomed to failure. Three senators — including Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown, fighting to hold on in competitive elections this fall — said this out loud to their colleagues behind closed doors. The third, Michael Bennet of Colorado, was willing to say it publicly on CNN, even invoking the prospect of a “landslide” that results in Republicans winning the Senate and the House. Even Nancy Pelosi seemed skeptical of Biden’s prospects on Morning Joe, where she said, “It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run. We’re all encouraging him to make that decision. Because time is running short.”

The Biden White House’s frame of this situation is that it is “Washington elites” who are pushing him out. In fact, the opposite is true — as numerous commentators have pointed out, the DC elites are late to come to this conclusion. It’s just that, prior to the debate, virtually none of the state activists or leaders were willing to raise the voice of concern lest they be labeled a traitor to the cause of “defending democracy” or somesuch. As one Democratic state party chair admitted to NBC: “I wish I was more brave.”

Now, after nearly two weeks of this story dominating all news, even with Democrat officials publicly voicing opposition, even with the heights of media like the New York Times calling for Biden to step aside, Washington Democrats think they’re trapped with Joe: destined to lose, with no way out of their predicament.

That’s the vibes talking, because this just isn’t the case. It’s also totally at odds with the lesson they and the media spent teaching their voting base for the past several years — that this is a win-at-all-costs election about whether democracy survives or not. If you really believe that fanciful argument, you should be ready to pull out all the stops, including forcing Joe Biden out, in order to win.

Nate Silver writes at length about this in his latest newsletter, and he makes three key points that shouldn’t escape notice. First, Joe Biden was already tracking toward losing this election before the debate debacle. Gaslighting from the likes of Stephen Colbert aside, it’s one of the reasons Biden’s team demanded such an early debate, to achieve a reset. Second, that nothing the Biden White House has done since the debate to make attempts to clean things up has worked, not with the media, not with donors and not with voters. And third, there is no legal requirement for delegates to the Democratic convention to cast their votes for Biden — in fact, they can invoke the “conscience clause” of their party bylaws to oppose Biden. This doesn’t mean that they will do it, or even need to — the point is, they can conceivably make that threat. If Biden wants to go nuclear, they can, too.

There’s another point I’d add to this, which should be obvious to any observer. We’re only beginning to see the fallout from this debate and the following rolling disaster show up in the polling data in swing states across the country. (And not even swing states — the lead headline in Politico today is that Biden could be in trouble in New York.) Those numbers are going to keep rolling in, and they’re likely to get worse — not just because the Biden campaign has no functional strategy for getting back on their feet, but because we’ll almost assuredly see a convention bounce from the RNC next week on top of it.

So what’s the alternative for Democrats? The fantastical suggestions of a convention blitz of competition between candidates isn’t realistic. There is only one alternative: pushing Biden aside for Kamala Harris. Beyond avoiding a host of legal and fundraising complications, she now polls better than Biden against Donald Trump. And for all the concerns about her foibles, delegates and party leaders can make the case that whether Biden really wanted to be a transitional president or not, he was going to be if he achieved re-election. No one thought that he would make it another four years, so cut out the farce and vote for the person who was going to be president by the end of the term anyway.

Democrats were already running behind in 2024 before Joe fell apart. The aim at this point should be to erase the concerns of a landslide election and to protect their hold on the Senate. Achieving this with Harris is at this point much more realistic than achieving it with Biden.

There’s one more step to consider. It wasn’t lost on many of Biden’s allies that perhaps his worst answer to any question on debate night was to a softball question about the issue that has dominated and motivated Democratic wins over the past two years — abortion. As someone who was no rabid pro-abortion advocate until it became necessary for his political career, Joe’s just not comfortable talking about the issue.

Donald Trump wants to make the 2024 election about the economy and immigration, and all his finalists for his vice presidential pick look to be men. If Democrats want to change the issue set for this election to abortion and guns and diversity, if they want to hold on to suburban women and compete in the blue wall states again, then a Kamala Harris-Gretchen Whitmer ticket could achieve just that. It might not be enough to beat Trump, but it could avoid the landslide that Democrats fear today.

[SaveFerris]

I hope he doesn’t ever accidentally spill BBQ sauce on his arm just before he goes to sleep

We may never see him again

[toddausauras]

Couple of skank hos.

[Paladin2]

“...unless Mrs. Bill wants to try...”

Mrs. Bill is salivating to get the 2024 shot to get her evil butt spanked yet again.

[clearcarbon]

"Wasn’t Whitmer one of the most draconian of the lockdown tyrants?"

The covid queen.

[pghbjugop]

No one is forcing him to resign, just drop put of the race.He can be convinced to drop out of the race.

[jz638]

Judges in several states, in response to suits by state Attorneys General, governors and Secretaries of State, Kamala's name will be enjoined from being placed on any ballot, as she is ineligible to be President, per the Constitutional natural born citizen requirements for that office

She is the sitting vice president of the united states and no lawsuit will ever be heard on this matter. You got a better thance of getting Joe Biden pregnant than you do disqualifying Harris on a question of citizenship.

[Reno89519]

She and her mom where deported when she was 4, she group up and went to college in Canada. Both parents were illegal or of questionable status. Her NBC status is debatable. Getting standing in court is a different matter.

[j.havenfarm]

She was. Then the people of her state rewarded her by reelecting her

[dpetty121263]

You guys forget that many more Liberal women than Conservative men..and they tend to vote.

[JayGalt]

And that is a good thing. Picking a woman or a particular ethic group person is cynical pandering, aka anathema.
Merit is king.

[rx]

Done extraordinarily well in your state lotto, have you? Moonlight as a psychic palm reader, do you?

The empty suit at least had a falsified, fraudulently-attested-to Certificate of Live Birth by Hawaii’s then-Health Department Registrar—it would appear—and a supposedly valid original, source Long Form Birth Certificate, handed off in April of 2011 to the White House Counsel’s protegee by Hawaii’s then-Health Department Director. If those had been valid, they ostensibly would have show Barry Whatsisnaym to be a natural born citizen. But, since no court has considered the merits of that case, no one should trust any information shown on those (invalid, as they were both belatedly amended) certificates to reflect any reliable facts at all.

Neither do those establish any reliable precedent toward informing the Amerjcan electorate about valid, Constitutional natural born citizen qualifications, nor do they do anything other than increase the likelihood that a court would consider the merits of Harriss’s particulars on that score.

Neither of Harris’s parents were citizens at Kamala s birth. Virtually no scholar on the issue claims that an anchor baby without any further connection should be considered a natural born citizen.

[Mr. Rabbit]

Two of the must shrill unlikable IQ 50 HR harpy types in this country? LOL!

[right way right]

All they do between now and the election will just lead to what they consider justifiable cheating.

“Trump and MAGA is just too evil, they must be stopped”

We need to demonstrate the willingness to do whatever it takes to discourage them from that action.

Be ready to do that even if we don’t know what to do quite yet.

Be a poll watcher, what ever it takes.

[kiryandil]

Kammy and Shinyface have both ingested a LOT of man essence...

[Peter ODonnell]

<<< Kamala Harris-Gretchen Whitmer ticket could help Democrats avoid a landslide >>>

Possibly, but it cannot help me avoid a long, painful episode of serial vomiting.

[woodpusher]

Kamala's name will be enjoined from being placed on any ballot, as she is ineligible to be President, per the Constitutional natural born citizen requirements for that office.

There is no such requirement beyond being born a citizen. Harris was born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof. Case closed.

Neither will the non-existent requirement affect potential candidates Marco Rubio, Vivek Ramaswamy, or Nikki Haley.

Just as it did not affect President Chester Arthur.

[desertsolitaire]

Yes. I live in Michigan. Governor “Shinyface” is not beloved here. I don’t see her adding anything to Dems chances in the Fall.

[Bullish]

Okay, and ice cream for everyone would buy a lot of votes too.

Imbeciles.

[Bullish]

Wasn’t Whitmer one of the most draconian of the lockdown tyrants?

Yup, got a lot of vulnerable senior citizens killed too... Practically on purpose.

[spincaster]

hahahahahahahahahaha cough, cough, hahahahahahahahahahah