Thread by @gregolear

Let’s talk about why Joe Biden should pick Kamala Harris to be the next vice president of these United States.

[THREAD]

1/ The actuarial chances that the VP will ascend to the White House in the next four years are much higher than usual. Historically, the VP has to be someone who could take over as Chief Executive if the unthinkable happened.

2/ In 2020, thanks to the coronavirus, and Trump's bungling of the response, there is a not-insignificant chance that the VP might have to take over AS THE CANDIDATE…maybe even BEFORE Election Day.

3/ Thus, the usual metrics—Electoral College math, ticket balance, so-and-so is from the South, and so on—must be cast aside. Joe cannot pick a middling pol like Tim Kaine, a tyro like Sarah Palin, a polarizing figure like Mike Pence.

4/ Joe has to choose someone who everyone knows, and likes (or, rather, doesn’t hate), and trusts to do the job. Someone who will energize the Democratic base but not alienate swing voters.

5/ So: national profile, high Q rating, rock-solid bona fides, can step in Day One and run the country. Only one candidate meets all of those criteria: Kamala Harris.

6/ Kamala is a flashier candidate than any of the remaining choices, which means more excitement, and, therefore, more turnout. During the campaign last year, she drew enthusiastic crowds wherever she went.

7/ In Senate hearings, Kamala systematically destroyed Jeff Sessions, Brett Kavanaugh, and Bill Barr—three of the Trump Administration’s more reviled villains.

8/ As the VP candidate, she would be the "attack dog"; ask Barr, Kavanaugh, and Sessions if she’s good at that.

Actually, Joe doesn’t have to; he has first-hand knowledge of her skill in this area.

9/ Remember when Kamala kneecapped Biden in the first debate? Confused Democrats reacted in either horror (“That was so mean!”) or jubilation (“Hell yeah! A Democrat is actually going on the offensive!”) at this unanticipated demonstration of badassery.

10/ The Democratic Party has been the GOP’s piñata for so long, its rank and file don’t know what it looks like when one of their own picks up the baseball bat and has at it.

Kamala brings that, and we NEED it.

11/ In the debates, Harris consistently brought the subject back to Trump. Kamala will keep the focus on the president, making the election a referendum on Trump—what Rick Wilson has long insisted is the best plan for victory.

12/ And then there is Russia, our enemy, who brought us Trump by their election f—kery. We cannot “reset” with Putin. We have to hold him & his mobster cronies (there and here) accountable.

13/ The two candidates in the Democratic primary that Russia bothered to aggressively go after—that is, that Moscow viewed as a threat to its well-being—were, you guessed it, Joe Biden & Kamala Harris.

14/ I wrote a poem about it:

“Kamala’s a cop”
Is a Russian op.

[That one won’t work anymore, BTW. You can’t be a cop AND want to defund the police lol]

#BidenHarris is the ticket best equipped to take on Trump, Putin, Mogilevich, and the transnational crime syndicate—those enemies of progress, of fairness, of truth, justice, and the American way. Make it so, Joe!

[END]

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore. U.S. Senator Kamala Harris speaking with attendees at the 2019 National Forum on Wages and Working People hosted by the Center for the American Progress Action Fund and the SEIU at the Enclave in Las Vegas, Nevada.