It’s literally projection because that is what they do. Why is McCarthy no longer Speaker of the House?
They can’t imagine someone having a “big boy meeting” with advisors and coming to the conclusion on what is best for the country and election.
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I think it is important to note that what really matters in enthusiasm from independent voters, not Democratic enthusiasm. Trump is the GOP nominee, the vast majority of Democrats are locked in no matter who the candidate it.
I think Newsom or Shapiro would be a better candidate. They’re both good at campaigning, which has historically been a week spot for Harris.
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It seems entirely possible that if Biden had decided not to run for reelection in the first place, that some other person would have emerged as the most popular through the primaries. But at this point in the game the Democrats don’t have the luxury of that kind of drawn out and often brutal process. Harris is the person who Dems have been comfortable enough having a heartbeat away from the presidency, so it’s hard to imagine inside-the-party-opposition that isn’t just gamesmanship.
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What we are seeing so far (teeny, tiny sample size, granted) indicates she could be tailor-made for bringing Il Douche down. Not just defeating him, but destroying him and his movement. Humiliation by a woman of color would (IMHO) end him. I am here for it.
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I agnostically pray your vision becomes reality.
Edit: At the same time I do fear such an event (even though definitely the best possible outcome) would have the effect of making the the collective racism- and sexism-fueled lunacy of the American right an even deeper and nastier pus-filled wound in our body politic.
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The mainstream, which is generally right for the most part, is really annoyed she’s running. CNN feels like they are taking it personally for some reason.
However, my family and extended family - who despite being naturalized immigrants had a solid 1/4 who planned to vote for Trump despite us saying he’d deport them in a hot second (yes, ladder pullers) - are all on board for Kamala. The women in my family especially. Holy nuts are they excited. It’s hard to state how excited they were about a woman President of Mexico, even if she is just a dilluted version of her predecessor, but seeing that happen to their new, adopted country? I think they might go campaign.
I hear media outlets complaining but actual people, ones you can talk to, seem pretty happy about this candidate. If she can maintain the weekend’s enthusiasm, it could be a Reagan-esque rout.
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This piece is packed with still more encouraging insights and info:
Maybe not. As Phillips writes:
although far too many in the media proceed from the premise that large swaths of the electorate are up for grabs each election cycle and susceptible to switching their political allegiances from one party to the other, the actual data starkly contradicts that belief.
The gold standard measure of voter behavior is the American National Election Studies (Anes), “a joint collaboration between the University of Michigan and Stanford University” that analyzes voter behavior over several decades. The Anes has found a clear and undeniable trend of swing voters virtually disappearing from the populace. In 2020, just 5.6% of voters fell into that category – down from 13% in 2008.
And even more encouraging, a somewhat macabre bit of stats that I hadn’t thought about before:
most people in this country typically choose the Democratic nominee for president over the Republican nominee time and time again. With the sole exception of 2004, in every presidential election since 1992, the Democratic nominee has won the popular vote (Biden bested Donald Trump by 7m votes in 2020).
Those trends have only continued during the four years since the 2020 election. Since 2020, 16 million young people have become eligible to vote, and 12 million people, most of them older, have died. Biden beat Trump by 30 points among young people, according to the exit polls, and he lost among the oldest voters (52% for Trump, 47% for Biden). So the fundamental composition of our nation’s electorate is more progressive, more diverse and more favorable to Democrats right now than it was in 2020.
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Idk. Even doomsday cults don’t instantly disappear after the prophesied doomsday fails to come to pass: they just move the goal posts and continue on. It’s only after a continuous series of failed predictions that their followers become disillusioned enough to leave (or they actually enact the doomsday themselves, a la Heaven’s Gate).
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I don’t know much about Shapiro but Newsom has plenty of flaws, and I’m not convinced that he’d have a huge amount of appeal to independents. Anyway, he very quickly announced that he wouldn’t seek to run so it’s a moot point.
Harris’ earlier challenges with campaigning in the 2020 primary are largely separate from what she’ll be facing in this general election. She’ll have a great team and a lot of resources this time around, and she’ll be able to focus on brutal attacks against her opponent in a way that you can’t do in a primary.
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Is that rhyming or free verse? 
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Newsom isn’t especially popular in California, so I am not so sure how popular he would be on the national stage. Fortunately we hopefully won’t even have to worry about that for 4 (or 8) more years.
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A lot of the pundits didn’t even bother to have somebody in mind whom they preferred over Biden.
Now, it appears that even those who did have someone in mind do not seem to have bothered to check if their preferred candidate actually intended or even wanted to run.
The whole argument is moot. There may be some better candidate out there, but is there a better candidate who actually wants to run?
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The same happened with Brexit. Old voters who gave Leave its majority have died and their place in the electorate has been taken by young people who would have voted Remain.
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It was fortuitous that the heavy hitters (Newsom, Mayor Pete, Gretchen, etc) threw their support behind Kamala almost immediately - thus suffocating the conversation by the old establishment.
They don’t have a candidate anywhere close to the national profile of those folks - so the matter becomes more about who’s going to complete the ticket.
I think you need someone to contrast Kamala to offset the inevitable attacks (ie experience, location). Someone like Mark Kelly perhaps. I even saw a post recommending Mitt Romney - which is of course ludicrous- but would be hilarious IMO.
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Mitt Romney was Aaron Sorkin’s idea, and he retracted it within a few hours.
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Yeah, he’s definitely got a mixed record lately on some of his policy and governance decisions, plus a ton of skeletons in his closet when it comes to his private life. Do we really need another white guy candidate who can be credibly accused of sexual impropriety, or at the very least a lot of bad decisions on who he’s dated in the past?
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Care to share which poll(s) that was? Because the worst polls post-debate/post-shooting were still dead even and some showed Biden picking up a few points, while others showed Biden ahead of any alternatives vs. T****. So if you’re going to make that claim, back it up with numbers, please.
Meanwhile, here’s the perspective from someone who had an inside view. Do you have a source that can refute AOC?
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Yeah, he wrote that before Biden announced he was dropping out. As soon as Biden sent that tweet, Sorkin very quickly put out his retraction. Which tells me he was never serious about it. He was just pretending he was writing a story arc for a West Wing reboot.
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Um, hard disagree here. I not only personally prefer a black woman with the DC experience in the current administration that Harris has, I also don’t think another smooth white guy would generate even half the enthusiasm and excitement that Harris has.
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The GOP is fully embracing their role as the party of unfettered criminality.
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