Archive: Opinions

The politics and pandemonium, the panic and punditry of American presidential elections has fascinated me since 1968. When I stayed up quite late on two summer nights, listening on radio to the two nominating conventions in that tumultuous year. I had already participated in a high school straw campaign in my junior year representing Eugene McCarthy. Later in my senior year, I hustled votes among my classmates for Eldridge Cleaver. You can note in those two choices an element of the rebel in me that still resonates in my libertarian soul. Okay, call me an equal opportunity bomb thrower even then.

So, no surprise, I am watching with fascination what is happening politically in this year of pandemic events and people that no one in Hollywood or Hell could have dreamed up. I'm sure I'll be returning again to election politics as we approach Election Day, and I'll try to keep it to one topic at a time. In the meantime, we can hope that millions of mail-in ballots are not phased by rain, sleet, snow, wind, or the current regime of a postmaster general who resembles, strangely, Mr. Potter in the movie, 'It's a Wonderful Life'.

The Vice Presidential pick of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris is my starting point. The original intent of the writers of the constitution was not the way it has evolved these 200-some years. The top vote getter of the electors was intended to be president and the man who secured the next number of ballots would be vice president. Heck, they argued for two days about how to address the Chief Executive.

Once Washington retired to Mount Vernon, a la Cincinnatus, the hell of parties and factions began, and eventually candidates chose their running mates, a 19th century horse racing term, by the way, and the people began thinking they were actually voting for a presidential ticket. We didn't need Twitter to spread this information back then.

A little history here: you may or may not know that that Lincoln chose Andrew Johnson as his running mate in 1864 for the express reason that Johnson was a Democrat from a border state. This was one of the first really blatant efforts to influence the vote by a vice-presidential pick. History has called this an unfortunate choice, maybe the only real mistake Lincoln ever made politically, as Johnson proved to be a disaster for America's reconstruction, though a boon for the Tennessee bourbon industry.

In any case, the VP choice has often led to an angst and a gnashing of teeth by political operatives over the post civil war years, including Mark Hanna, who was moaning about Teddy Roosevelt, "Now that cowboy is in the White House" after McKinley was assassinated.

So on to the politics and political wisdom of Joe Biden's pick of Kamala Harris. I first would like to point out that I am, if you please to believe it, totally neutral on the major candidates for president this year. My antipathy to Trump's actions as the nation's 'military leader and diplomat extraordinaire' is well documented in this column. And my respect for Biden went out the window way back in 1988, when he was caught plagiarizing a speech by Neil Kinnock of the British parliament.

Okay. Kamala Harris. I will venture to say that Biden considers himself a foreign policy expert, and with his Senate experience, as well as being reportedly the last man in the room with Barack Obama when policy decisions were made, he is a strong candidate in the area of foreign policy. He is also perceived as an old and steady hand, though some are going to question the 'steady' part as well as his mental acuity, as if we have anybody with mental acuity running this year. And while I'm at that trough, why is mental acuity only an issue if a candidate is over 70 years old? Agism indeed.

As I said, Biden doesn't want another foreign policy hand in the oval office to compete with him. So my favorite, Susan Rice, was out. So would anybody was military expertise and experience such as Lieutenant Colonel Tammy Duckworth.

The domestic political issues actually seem to be the dominant factor in 2020, and more than the statement, "it's the economy, stupid". Biden and the Democrats know that the reality of economics and this pandemic is too volatile, and blame for unemployment woes can be equally and broadly shared. So when we say domestic issues, we obligingly look at race, police, social unrest and division, and a critical divide that has been exacerbated by technology as well as bitterness fermenting since 2016. 2016? I sense this divide going back to the election of 1992, as well as the election of 2000 and congressional love of the eroding status quo.

In any case, Biden stated his pick would be a woman and he had some pretty good people to pick from, both candidates and non candidates. Let's be honest. It just made sense both politically and ethically to choose a woman of color and there he had good choices as well. Harris has a strong background in law and enforcement, though those two concepts have a decidedly left coast tint, in her interpretation. The old idea of gaining electoral votes with a VP pick has often been ignored. Note, for instance, Obama's pick of Biden with Delaware only offering three electoral votes. California is almost assuredly, a democratic plum of electoral votes anyway, but a little insurance can't hurt with Harris's pick, and her experience as prosecutor and state attorney general will burnish a feeling among democratic voters of law and order without the 1968 Nixonian hint of racism.

There's also been a 20th century tradition of picking a VP running mate, who is viewed as a 'attack dog'. A presidential candidate is still viewed, pre Trump that is, as above it all, but the gloves can come off when the VP candidate speaks up. Remember Lloyd Bentson's acid comment to Dan Quayle in the VP debate? "Mr. Quail you are no John Kennedy!" I can still hear the hoots from the audience on that one. Look for Harris to come out swinging, as she did in that early debate with Biden, when she slammed him for his stand on busing in the seventies. A Pence and Harris debate could be the political equivalent of the 'Thrilla in Manila'.

Money? Always the key isn't it? Harris is a proven moneymaker, a pro when it comes to raising political moola in a state begging to be plumbed of every dollar available by both parties. Trump's campaign is a tough opponent in fundraising and Harris will be a strong draw to the monied operations in the richest state in the Union.

And in another instance of Biden's choosing well Harris, if elected Vice President, will already be well versed in running a large organization and keeping strong egos focused on organizational goals. Expect Biden's put Harris in charge of a couple of task forces, as well as give direction to a cabinet that may consist of outsized egos like Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, assuming Massachusetts and New Jersey can maintain Democratic senators by appointment and the outside chance that Republicans lose the Senate, which is not impossible this year.

And lastly, it's impossible to ignore the fact that black voters stayed at home in droves in 2016, possibly one of the dominant factors in Hillary Clinton's Electoral College loss. Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan have a huge number of black voters who are motivated to vote this year due to disgust with Trump and right wing rumblings. This can be the key in those three swing States who barely went Republican in 2016. Watch those States as well. If they are tight and have outsized mail-in ballots. A court challenge could happen unless blacks vote in force and leave no doubt about who wins in those three key states.

And given the choice between pandering to far left the voters opposed to central/moderate voters, Biden needs the moderate black vote, not the under 30 middle class white vote -- millennials, if you will -- whose turnout numbers are historically abysmally low, and cannot be counted on for swing state bulwark balloting.

Harris's downside? She is known as headstrong and was accused by some in her organization in phrases like "treating her staff so poorly" and "the same unforced errors over and over". Ironically, the Washington Post in February said she was "unable to provide a clear message". The same newspaper just last week said she was "vibrant and energetic". Well, newspapers don't have to be as consistent as candidates, right?

All in all, Biden has probably made a good choice and the campaign promises to be down and dirty, ugly, and close. I'd be looking for some humor, but that's a silly hope these days, isn't it? Peggy Noonan, a former Reagan speech writer said, "this is going to be interesting". Indeed.

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Late summer reading suggestions for you history lovers: I have discovered a gentleman by the name of Richard Ketchum, of whom David McCullough opined: "history at its best. No novelist could create characters more memorable". The two tomes I'm busy reading are 'Divided Loyalties, How the American Revolution Came to New York' and 'The Winter Soldiers. The Battles for Trenton and Princeton'. Ketchum is a master storyteller and has facts and anecdotes that he has woven into an historical web that's really second to none when it comes to revolutionary war history. I love you to find a copy, pick it up and soak Ketchum up.

Take care of each other. And thanks for listening.