Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has chosen Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) as his running mate, elevating a former presidential candidate whose most electric campaign performance came when she criticized his record on school integration during a debate.
Harris will be the first Black woman and first Asian American to run for vice president, representing a historic choice at a moment when the country is grappling with its racial past and future. …
Harris, 55, is the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants.
(The Washington Post, August 11, 2020)
No doubt you’ve seen pundits all over TV in recent days speculating about who Biden will pick as his VP running mate. In fact, some of their speculation was so authoritative, you’d be forgiven for thinking they actually knew what they were talking about.
But reflect for just a minute on how we got here. Because you’ll see that, for all of 2019, most of the pundits now hailing Biden for picking Harris were telling us that Beto O’Rourke, Pete Buttigieg, or Elizabeth “I have a plan for that” Warren would be the nominee picking this running mate.
Then, when primary voting began earlier this year, you’ll see that those same pundits practically anointed Bernie Sanders, the other grey-haired old, white man, as the nominee. In fact, the pundits had done such a convincing job of counting him out for dead that Biden not only looked but sounded like Lazarus when he won the South Carolina Primary on February 28:
‘Just days ago, the press and the pundits had declared his candidacy dead. Now, thanks to all of you — the heart of the Democratic Party — we just won and we’ve won big because of you, and we are very much alive,’ an energized Biden said at event with supporters in Columbia, S.C.
(NPR, February 29, 2020)
The rest, as we say, is history.
But bear that background in mind when you see pundits on TV spewing rank speculation masquerading as informed commentary. And don’t buy their CYA bullsh*t about this ticket being obvious. Because you’d be hard-pressed to find a single one among them who can actually cite speculation that proved as prescient as this from “Biden-Harris 2020: That’s the Ticket!” January 14, 2019:
________
Joe Biden is easily the most qualified American to be president of the United States. Moreover, to recover from this Trump presidency, we will need to inaugurate a president with the experience and character to restore competence to and respect for the office of the leader of the free world. …
I hasten to note that, but for his nightmare presidency, I would have picked Kamala Harris to head a ticket.
________
Not that I’m bragging, mind you. (hehehe)
But seriously, given the historic nature of this VP pick, I feel obliged to mark it for the record. Not to mention that it also augers well that the first female president of the United States now will very likely be this Black woman, Kamala Harris!
That said, like every other pundit, even The Washington Post seemed to think Biden would hold a grudge because of the way Harris called him out on busing. Except that this is the same Biden who, during the 2008 campaign, called Obama exceptionally clean and articulate … for a Black guy.
The point is that Biden made clear his intent to emulate Obama in choosing a running mate. Therefore, it reflected typical lazy, herd-like thinking that so many pundits thought Biden would hold such a grudge.
Granted, Trump’s goose was cooked no matter who Democrats ended up electing as their presidential nominee. But I reasoned way back in January 2019 that, a Biden-Harris ticket would be so formidable, it was inevitable. Indeed, Biden’s rendezvous with the presidency is now so self-evident that even a dotard like Trump must realize it …
Finally, Trump is already telegraphing his intent to convince Latinx voters that Biden is a socialist. Specifically, that a vote for Biden is a vote to turn America into the kind of socialist dystopia they and their families fled in Latin America.
But, in typical Orwellian fashion, Trump is turning truth on its head. After all, it is he who is not only aping dictators like Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, but also turning America into a Russian-style dictatorship.
Which means that the Latinx voters he’s wooing with this rhetoric should beware that supporting him would be tantamount to fleeing from the frying pan into the fire.
[Note: Harris describes herself as a “proud Black woman.” Moreover, there’s no denying that, if she were just an ordinary BLM protester getting arrested for assaulting a police officer, no Caucasian, Indian, or Asian in America would be describing her as a Black Asian American or an anodyne woman of color. And surely nobody in India would be claiming her as one of their own.
So let’s not get her racial identity all twisted. She’s a proud Black-American woman. Just call her that!]
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* This commentary was originally published yesterday, Tuesday, August 11 at 5:21 p.m.