{"id":14481,"date":"2024-08-22T18:49:25","date_gmt":"2024-08-22T18:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=14481"},"modified":"2024-08-22T18:49:26","modified_gmt":"2024-08-22T18:49:26","slug":"harris-isnt-her-partys-best-candidate-biden-was-still-right-to-endorse-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=14481","title":{"rendered":"Harris isn\u2019t her party\u2019s best candidate. Biden was still right to endorse her."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Democratic delegates are largely volunteers who speak for no one beyond the primary voters<\/a> in their areas. In this context, a contested convention could be chaotic, and its nominee lacking in democratic legitimacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be sure, anointing Harris is not especially democratic either. She was not elected by primary voters, any more than any other non-Biden Democrat. But the US electorate did vote to make her the president\u2019s heir apparent, and this gives her a source of legitimacy that any other selection would lack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, and more importantly, failing to coalesce behind a nominee today would have left Democrats without a standard-bearer for a month. This would inhibit fundraising, at a time when the Trump-Vance ticket is taking in serious cash<\/a>. And it would mean ceding swing-state airwaves to the Republican message \u2014 or else, running exclusively negative advertising \u2014 for the next four weeks. This is especially risky in a context where Democrats face the challenge of introducing a new nominee to the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Biden\u2019s default replacement, having been elected to fill in for him in the event of his death or disability, Harris was uniquely capable of becoming her party\u2019s consensus nominee in the absence of a protracted process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, Harris would have been highly likely to win an open convention, anyway. Before Biden dropped out, South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn \u2014 a highly influential member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) \u2014 let it be known that he would favor Harris were Biden to drop out.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“although Harris has weaknesses, she is not devoid of political gifts. At 59, she is young by the standards of American politics. She is an able speaker, whose recent appearances have brimmed with more vitality and coherence than either Biden or Trump have mustered in years. Her recent remarks debunking the GOP\u2019s claims of being the party of \u201cunity\u201d were especially effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris does have a negative approval rating. But it is nevertheless better than Biden\u2019s<\/a>. And the public\u2019s disapproval of her is less strongly held. As the political consultant Sarah Longwell has reported,<\/a> voters in focus groups tend to have a negative impression of Harris \u2014 but it is just that, an impression, rather than a deep-seated evaluation. They do not know much about her and are aware of that fact.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/362033\/biden-drop-out-endorse-harris-open-convention\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Democratic delegates are largely volunteers who speak for no one beyond the primary voters in their areas. In this context, a contested convention could be chaotic, and its nominee lacking in democratic legitimacy.
\nTo be sure, anointing Harris is not especially democratic either. She was not elected by primary voters, any more than any other non-Biden Democrat. But the US electorate did vote to make her the president\u2019s heir apparent, and this gives her a source of legitimacy that any other selection would lack.<\/p>\n

Second, and more importantly, failing to coalesce behind a nominee today would have left Democrats without a standard-bearer for a month. This would inhibit fundraising, at a time when the Trump-Vance ticket is taking in serious cash. And it would mean ceding swing-state airwaves to the Republican message \u2014 or else, running exclusively negative advertising \u2014 for the next four weeks. This is especially risky in a context where Democrats face the challenge of introducing a new nominee to the country.<\/p>\n

As Biden\u2019s default replacement, having been elected to fill in for him in the event of his death or disability, Harris was uniquely capable of becoming her party\u2019s consensus nominee in the absence of a protracted process.<\/p>\n

Finally, Harris would have been highly likely to win an open convention, anyway. Before Biden dropped out, South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn \u2014 a highly influential member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) \u2014 let it be known that he would favor Harris were Biden to drop out.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“although Harris has weaknesses, she is not devoid of political gifts. At 59, she is young by the standards of American politics. She is an able speaker, whose recent appearances have brimmed with more vitality and coherence than either Biden or Trump have mustered in years. Her recent remarks debunking the GOP\u2019s claims of being the party of \u201cunity\u201d were especially effective.<\/p>\n

Harris does have a negative approval rating. But it is nevertheless better than Biden\u2019s. And the public\u2019s disapproval of her is less strongly held. As the political consultant Sarah Longwell has reported, voters in focus groups tend to have a negative impression of Harris \u2014 but it is just that, an impression, rather than a deep-seated evaluation. They do not know much about her and are aware of that fact.”<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/362033\/biden-drop-out-endorse-harris-open-convention<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[375,585,372,198,780,966,222,373],"class_list":["post-14481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-biden","tag-campaign","tag-election","tag-elections","tag-joe-biden","tag-kamala-harris","tag-president","tag-presidential"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14482,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14481\/revisions\/14482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}