Bailing and Failing

With Joe Biden’s dropping from the presidential campaign, the winners are complainers, poor succession planners, and the Trump campaign. The time to have not selected Joe was back at the beginning of the process to name a candidate for 2024. Old people are good people, experienced and wise. But they do not necessarily have the stamina to last through the terrific strains and effort of both a campaign and an administration of 4 years. Joe has done very well so far, but as a candidate he was flawed, not by him, but a political party that refuses to plan an orderly succession of leadership for the party and the nation.

The same is true for republicans, but they have yet to learn this lesson. One day they will. Hopefully it will be this campaign. After all, Trump is past 78 and aging badly. His temperament is out of control, his memory is faulty, he doesn’t understand complex matters of government and international relations, and he simply cannot tell the truth. And yet, they made the whole election about the age of Joe. And the Democrats didn’t even try to counter it.

Instead, they gave up and forced Joe to quit the race. The replacement? It is Kamala Harris. She is our Vice President and worthy of the position. Politically, however, she may prove vulnerable. After all, the electorate failed on Hillary, a masterful candidate of the day. So, a woman for President? Sure, I say, but the nation does not agree. Be honest. More than half the voters do not yet feel comfortable electing a woman for the position. I’m comfortable with it, perhaps you as well; but others not so much.

Kamala is also African American. Let’s see, a black and a woman. No, this will not do in our current climate of political malfeasance. It doesn’t matter to me whether the candidate is black, white, Hispanic or Asian. It doesn’t matter if he/she is a male or female. For that matter, I don’t care if the candidate were Gay. But this is not about me. It is about the American voter. They are not ready to support a female, black or gay at this time. They already did the black candidate thing with Obama and it is too soon to repeat skin color at this point. It is just not a good time at this moment.

So, bailing on Joe is tantamount to not winning the campaign for a Democrat candidate for President. That’s the bottom line, I think. I hope I’m wrong, but the election is less than 107 days from today. How do you run a successful campaign for a newly unveiled candidate? A lot of doubt about that.

July 24, 2024

 

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