Former Vice President and presumptive Democrat nominee 77-year-old Joe Biden did the inevitable, picking 55-year-old former San Francisco DA, former Calif. Atty. Gen. and U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as VP. Of all Joe’s picks, Kamala really had no competition, with no disrespect for the other named so-called front-runners. While there are front-runners and front-runners, Kamala was a lap ahead of her rivals, honed in the nation’s most populous state as a rising star in the Democrat Party, battle tested as a 2020 presidential candidate, giving Joe more than he bargained for when she took out her claws in the first Democrat primary debate in Miami June 27, 2019, in what seems like an eternity ago. Kamala unceremoniously ended her White House bid Dec. 3, 2019, paving the way for what was inevitable: Her pick as Joe’s 2020 running mate. Hats off to Joe’s campaign for creating drama.
Whether admitted to or not, there was no real drama to Biden’s pick. Picking Kamala was a no brainer when compared with 55-year-old former National Security Director Susan Rice, who was reported as Joe’s No. 2 pick. Rice, who worked with Biden during his eight years with Obama, thought she was a shoe-in when former Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), who led the vetting team, criticized Kamala for not apologizing for blindsiding Joe in the first debate. Dodd’s comment was clearly intended to throw off the press, when Harris was always Biden’s first pick. House Black Caucus leader 66-year-old Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) thought she was high up on Biden’s list, as did 71-year-old Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), both weren’t even close. Neither was 50-year-old Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms nor 48-year-old Trump critic, Michigan Gov. Grethen Whitmer.
` Biden floated other candidates like 48-year-old former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacy Abrams, 52-year-old Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Il.), 63-year-old Rep. Val Demings (D-Fl.) and 60-year-old New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, all chosen to placate various groups, showing that Joe was open to a long list of qualified candidates. But when the dust settles, and other candidates realize they were never really in the running, there could be some blowback to picking Kamala. If being honest, any of Biden’s other picks were widow dressing, serving as a distraction to Joe’s final pick. None of the other candidates were ever really considered, while Joe’s Campaign Manager George Schultz and Communication Director Kamau Mandela Marshall played the game. Biden knew that Kamala had all the right stuff for a running mate, tough, charismatic, experienced, mediagenic, ready for prime time.
Fallout from Biden’s choice won’t show itself on the surface, while the Democrat Party tries to digest the news. But putting his fairly long list of possible running mates through the ringer, other African American hopefuls won’t be happy with Joe’s pick. While considered a “person of color,” Kamala has great difficulty playing African American, with her East Indian mother and Jamaican-born father. With all the racial unrest since the murder of 45-year-old George Floyd May 25, Kamala is the least black of any of Biden’s choices, including the white choices of Warren and Grishom. When a group of 100 prominent African Americans wrote to Joe yesterday, they said he would not win the election without picking an African American. Kamala Harris is not African American and will not satisfy the pro-Black Lives Matter crowd looking for a black running mate.
Describing Kamala as a “person of color” also doesn’t match Kamala’s own identity, who married Jewish Atty. Douglas Emhoff Aug. 24, 2014 in Santa Barbara, raising his two children, Cole, 24 and Ella, 19 who affectionately call her “Momala.” “They are my endless source of love and pure joy,” Kamala said about her stepchildren. But for those expecting a Black Lives Matter sympathizer, Kamala is not their first choice. While the media gins up Joe’s pick, it’s disingenuous to call Kamala “the first Black women to be named to a national political ticket by a major party,” said Yahoo’s senior writer Dylan Stableford. Kamala is less African American than 59-year-old former President Barack Obama, another “person of color,” but who married African American Michelle Robinson Oct. 3, 1992, spending much of their 28-year marriage attending Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Chicago Trinity Church of Christ.
Biden picked Kamala months ago because she was the most qualified possible running mate, fitting his history as a moderate Democrat. No matter how much Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) push Joe to the left, picking Kamala tells left-wing Democrats that Biden’s moving his campaign to the center. Apart from politics, Kamala is a seasoned prosecutor and politician, camera-ready with prime time appeal, in many ways more mediagenic than Joe. Unlike any of Joe’s other possible picks, Kamala adds pizzazz to the ticket, certainly eclipsing the media appeal for 74-year-old President Donald Trump’s VP Mike Pence When Pence hits the debate stage with Kamala, she’ll give him a run for his money, no shrinking violet. Trump won’t have an easy time going after Kamala, like he would have with Susan Rice. Trump knows with Kamala comes an instant media attraction.
