Kaufman: Team Biden picks worst available option

She was so unlikable to Democrat primary voters that she went from frontrunner to dropout in about 120 days. 

AJ Kaufman

Four months after he secured the Democrat nomination and more than three months since naming his selection committee, Joe Biden finally informed America who his running mate — and potentially the person who’ll lead the country come late January — is.

Kamala Harris?!

Other than an immediate Trump ad and official statement, I didn’t listen to analyses because I’ve written twice on the subject. My fears are realized. Team Biden chose the absolute worst and most dangerous option available. This is very telling on their judgment. 

Harris ran a catastrophic presidential campaign. She had the environment set for her, yet was intellectually lazy, weak under pressure, flip-flopped and struggled to explain herself.

Inexplicably reliant on progressive Twitter for policies, the sheltered Californian completely misread America. Why would a year later be different? She was so unlikable to Democrat primary voters that she went from frontrunner to dropout in about 120 days. 

Harris is discourteous to people far more accomplished than she, has authoritarian tendencies, and was guilty of using her office to crush political opponents. Even Democrats are skeptical the unaccomplished first-term senator can set aside her own ego and ambitions for loyalty.

Allah Pundit opined that Harris will “start running for president on day one, no one seems terribly excited about her, and badly botched her handling of Medicare for All on the trail.”

Harris has also been criticized for her prosecutorial record, to which her vacuous responses aren’t sufficient. If she lies about justice reform, what else will she lie about? She has no core beliefs.

Earlier this month Bill O’Reilly flatly said he’d “disqualify Kamala Harris, because she does not believe in due process or innocent until proven guilty.”

Guy Benson tweeted this afternoon,Her performance during the Kavanaugh circus stood out as particularly demagogic, cynical and abysmal.”

Though Biden’s options were underwhelming — since he’s hemmed in by his promise to choose an individual with a cervix — others were superior to Harris, who seems to crave power, not policy changes. 

Karen Bass has leadership background and is considered affable and unassuming. Former Gov. Ed Rendell said Bass was a safe choice while Harris was not, claiming, “Kamala can rub some people the wrong way.”

Susan Rice was promoted as someone “whose preparation puts her in a different league from anyone else in the running.”

The former UN ambassador/national security advisor worked with Biden for eight years. Rice has extensive national security background that would’ve benefited a nominee with egregious foreign policy instincts.  She could have helped Biden’s presidency be a “restoration,” after four years of purported chaos. 

Keisha Bottoms was a Biden surrogate for more than a year. Right after Harris’ pernicious busing rant last summer, Bottoms endorsed the former VP, stressing the need for “a president who doesn’t have to walk in the door and figure out where the light switch is.” The Atlanta mayor stumped for Biden when media wrote him off after New Hampshire. That is the epitome of loyalty. Unlike many mayors, Bottoms rose to the moment when riots began in her city with an unscripted and stern lecture to looters. Biden apparently didn’t want a loyal executive over a smug backbencher who believes he molests women and scoffs at the Constitution.

Val Demings overcame obstacles to be the first college graduate in her family and served in law enforcement three decades, including as police chief.  The second-term congresswoman hails from a crucial swing state while Harris is from one-party California. 

As Democrats refuse to acknowledge America’s cities are being  torched by ignorant anarchists, she could’ve resonated with blue-collar voters who drifted away from the party.

One wonders how much control Biden — an empty vessel of the maximalist left — had over his pick. Numerous activist outfits insisted with unanimity he choose a “woman of color.” 

“She the People” — a group effectively supporting racial and gender segregation — demanded in a memo that the septuagenarian “reach out to women of color,” particularly in battleground states. Well, so long as you’re a Democrat. I doubt Mia Love, Candace Owens or Condoleezza Rice are welcome.

Polls don’t suggest Biden is losing these groups, so why abide by a foolish commitment to assuage identitarians, rather than choose someone who accentuates your candidacy?  

We’ve heard Biden “pines for a partner who could be to him what he was to Obama: a friend and confidant who subordinated his political interests to those of his boss.” 

Harris is clearly the opposite.

It’s rare for a VP choice to influence many voters. Six decades ago arguably was the last time, when Texan Lyndon Johnson likely helped New England patrician John F. Kennedy carry the Lone Star State in a controversial election.

Will Harris? It’s farcical to think so.

 

A.J. Kaufman

A.J. Kaufman is an Alpha News columnist. His work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Florida Sun-Sentinel, Indianapolis Star, Israel National News, Orange County Register, St. Cloud Times, Star-Tribune, and across AIM Media Midwest and the Internet. Kaufman previously worked as a school teacher and military historian.