As President Joe Biden, in a selfless heroic act, steps down from being the democrat party presidential nominee, the democrat party’s infrastructure can be seen as quickly coalescing behind the President’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris in becoming their standard bearer to win the presidency in November 2024. This enthusiasm is palpable as she’s already garnered enough pledged delegates to be the presumed presidential nominee, over $81 million dollars in donations and thousands lining up to volunteer.
I had been worried about some in the donor class and other power players who’ve been pushing for an open convention, that they would continue maneuvering against her being the one to replace POTUS Joe Biden as the democrat party’s US presidential nominee. But it looks like there’s so much grass roots excitement in favor of VP Harris, that these voices will be muted. There’s no reason for there to be any further rancor in the ranks, if those lobbying for an open convention, listen to the millions of democrats who backed the Biden-Harris ticket in the 2024 primary elections, despite being fully aware of the president’s age.
I’m expecting that the GOP MAGA propaganda machine gun that has been firing off lies, falsehoods, doctored videos, ugly conspiracy type rumors, made-up failures, etc., against the democrat President Joe Biden, like they did with President Obama and Hillary Clinton, will work overtime to paint Vice President Kamala Harris in an even harsher light. They’ve already been describing her as a DEI hire and dangerously liberal.
As per excerpts from a Tom Nichols July 21st article in the Atlantic, “Of course, the Republicans will go into culture-war overdrive. They will say that as a Californian, she is too liberal. They will say that as a former prosecutor, she is too conservative. They will say that she is too female and too Black. (Well, they won’t say those last two out loud, but get ready for a fusillade of dog whistles that will be amped up to the point that they could shatter granite.)”
“Indeed, the MAGA Republicans are already griping about a Democratic Party “coup,” as if they have serious concerns about democracy in any political party, including their own. But Biden’s decision reflected a determination to put the fate of his country ahead of his personal vanity, a choice Trump is inherently incapable of making. ”
“After today the difference between the Democrats and the Republicans could not be clearer. His decision to make way for a younger candidate reaffirmed that his party is not about one man. Trump, meanwhile, continues to bellow gibberish at his rallies, raving like the emotionally unstable, would-be dictator that he is.”
Still, this time, democrats and political operators had better be ready with a game plan to fight back, so that none of the GOP MAGA concocted narratives take hold against VP Harris.
See: Trump allies launch attacks on Harris in battleground states/ Politico
My problem with changing out nominees because of POTUS Biden’s age issues was that I still don’t believe that him lagging in polls behind the GOP MAGA ex-president for several months had anything to do with his recent poor debate performance or his age but with a majority of swing state voters listing their worsening financial wellbeing under the Biden administration, as a top concern.
Voters blame President Biden as being at fault for the rising inflation rates post pandemic, harming their sense of financial security. It’s taken almost 3 1/2 years to get the inflation rate down to 3% from a high of 9% in mid 2022.
Democrats need to counter the above storyline with facts about what POTUS Biden has done to fix the post-pandemic economy, what he plans to do for them in the future, and to show how the GOP MAGA plans as depicted in Project 2025 will make their financial angsts, much worse. As for immigration, VP Harris just has to remind voters that a strong bipartisan plan was developed to address immigration in 2023/ 2024, but Trump nixed its passage because he wanted to use it as a campaign issue.
The good news is that VP Kamala Harris is an excellent explainer of how women’s access to legal abortions as part of healthcare effects the family budget, and how the GOP MAGAs Project 2025 blueprint detailing how conservatives plan to govern in the future will cost average families, anywhere from $2,000-$3,000 dollars annually at the start.
See: Harris blasts Trump for Project 2025, defends Biden in Las Vegas / USA Today…
Abortion Rights Advocates See Harris as an Ideal Messenger/ Mother Jones
Numerous recent polls have shown that while Vice President Kamala Harris has polled better than other Democrats commonly floated as replacement candidates to POTUS Biden, her results are still lagging behind the GOP MAGA ex-president but within the margin for error.
See: Here’s How Kamala Harris Performs In Polls Against Trump – Forbes
Majority of Democrats think Kamala Harris would make a good president AP-NORC poll shows
As per the July 21, 2024 VOX report by Christian Paz, “Does Kamala Harris give Democrats a better chance to win?:”
Excerpts:
“What the data says:”
“What we can say from head-to-head polling of Harris is that the general trend has gotten better for her. A year ago she was underperforming Biden in head-to-head polling against Trump in a variety of surveys. Closer to the debate and right after, she began to perform about evenly. And more recently, a few polls comparing Biden and Harris against Trump in battleground states and nationally have shown Harris even with Biden or slightly ahead of him.”
“The first sign of this change came from CNN’s first post-debate poll, finding the vice president trailing Trump by 2 percentage points (within the margin of error) while Biden trailed by 6 points. And in FiveThirtyEight’s polls-only post-debate comparison of Harris and Biden vs. Trump, Harris performs slightly better than the president in (some) battleground states.“
“Recent polling from Pennsylvania and Virginia also shows more positive signs for the vice president: New York Times/Siena College polls this month show that while Harris still trails Trump by 1 point in Pennsylvania, that’s a smaller gap than the 3 points that put Trump ahead of Biden there. Both of these results are within the polling’s margin of error, making the race in the state essentially tied. In Virginia, meanwhile, Harris’s lead over Trump is 2 points larger than the lead Biden has over the former president.”
“And a post-assassination attempt national poll from Reuters/Ipsos shows a statistically tied presidential contest for either Biden or Harris against Trump.”
“Under the hood, however, Harris backers can find an additional data point in their column: 69 percent of respondents think Biden is too old; Harris doesn’t face that concern. And Biden is more unpopular than Harris, something that is consistently true.”
“What the campaign trail shows: Harris backers can point to the vice president’s performance on the road this year and argue that she has evolved as a politician since her presidential run in 2019, and especially since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 — when she became the White House’s go-to surrogate and messenger on reproductive rights.”
“She has dominated that issue, both in official visits to states where abortion and reproductive rights have been under threat, and also during campaign swings this year that have seen her become more willing to talk about the personal experiences that pushed her to become a sex crimes prosecutor and be able to connect with voters in a way Biden can’t.”
“At the same time, she has been playing up that past as a prosecutor — something she was not able to do during her last national campaign against fellow Democrats. “Prosecuting the case against Donald Trump” is now a go-to part of her stump speeches, both in talking about his and his party’s record on abortion and in talking about Trump’s convictions and indictments.”
“At the top of the ticket, she would be able to zero in on this approach against an unpopular Republican candidate.”
Gronda Morin 