Komm, Kamala, Komm and Save the Nation!

[Stavros]

Even though you asked Mr. Fanti, I'll answer your question.

I'm comfortable with the idea of a woman being President of the United States. I voted for Hillary in 2016. On a side note, I'm also comfortable with a woman being Mayor of NYC. I voted for Nicole Malliotakis (who is a Republican) in the 2017 mayoral election. Even though I'm comfortable with woman governor, I voted against Kathy Hochul in 2022.

Having said all that, I think the problem this time around is that I'm not really comfortable with Kamala Harris as a candidate and I have a feeling that a lot a people feel that way or this election wouldn't be so close.

I guess Harris will take New York so it makes no difference there who you vote for. But if you lived in a swing State, would you vote tactically?

[blackchubby38]

Because you don't like what she's been saying, or because you're not sure what she really stands for?

Was there any practical alternative, given Biden dropped out so late?

Its more about I don't know what she really stands for or what she actually did to deserve to be the hyphenated part of a presidential administration.

To be fair, I also think she picked a weak individual as her running mate.

Finally and this maybe for superficial reasons, I'm not fan of the campaign slogan, "Another Way Forward". It has "Great Leap Forward" connotations to it.

There were probably better candidates. But I think this opinion piece may explain why none of them step forward.

Did political correctness and backroom dealing doom the Democratic ticket from the start?

http://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/...rom-the-start/

[blackchubby38]

I guess Harris will take New York so it makes no difference there who you vote for. But if you lived in a swing State, would you vote tactically?

I would. But lets be honest about something, I tactically voted in 2020 and I think the same can be said about many other voters. We didn't vote for Biden, we were voting against Trump. There is a difference between the two. A difference that many in the media and Democrats still haven't realized 4 years later.

[Stavros]

I would. But lets be honest about something, I tactically voted in 2020 and I think the same can be said about many other voters. We didn't vote for Biden, we were voting against Trump. There is a difference between the two. A difference that many in the media and Democrats still haven't realized 4 years later.

I understand the first part of your point, but four years later Trump is even more extreme, unhinged and threatening than he was first time round in 2016, isn't that scary enough when you factor in the people he is likely to bring into his administration, with the rider that they might engineer him out of office as soon as they can to impose their diet of Christian Nationalism on the people regardless as to whether or not they or you want it?

Re your link to thehill article-

a) the irony is that Agnew was forced to resign because he was guilty of tax evasion, whereas these days being a convicted criminal is a plus for Republicans, who have no morals, no shame, no guilt. The route used to be local politics-state politics-national politics, whereas now it seems to be the From the Court House to the White House (with apologies to Jesse Jackson).

b) I agree that 'machine politics' was part of what got Harris into the VP position, it has been part of Democrat politics since the days of Mayer Daley maybe even before, but on what grounds would Harris have resigned if there were no health problems, legal issues and so on? It is unrealistic for thehill to put this into the mix.

c) when these decisions were made, Biden and his team may have assumed Trump would not be the candidate in 2024 either because of his legal problems, one or more of which in theory have jail time attached to a guilty verdict (though I doubt he will ever get that kind of sentence); or that he would not get the candidacy.

Perhaps what people have not realized, or accepted, is that a hard core of American voters don't care if their President is liar and a coward, a crook and a con-man and that he and everyone knows it and doesn't care, either about him, or the consequences. Maybe this is not the end of the USA, but as Churchill once put it, it may be 'the beginning of the end'.

Compare this: the difference between Brexit and Trump is that Brexit has had a devastating financial impact
-as part of the 'divorce' settlement with the EU,
"The Treasury’s latest estimate is that the net cost of the settlement to the UK will be £30.2 billion. £23.8 billion of this had been paid as of December 2023."
Brexit: the financial settlement - a summary - House of Commons Library

Another survey argues the London economy has shrunk by more than £30 billion, plus this

"Independent report by Cambridge Econometrics, commissioned by City Hall, shows London has 290,000 fewer jobs than if Brexit had not taken place, with half the total two million job losses nationwide coming in the financial services and construction sectors"
New report reveals UK economy is almost £140billion smaller because of Brexit | London City Hall

The potential divorce of some States from the Union, and I think Trump will promote this, even more so if he loses, will cost the US substantially more than Brexit has cost the UK, while we still struggle with the divisions and bitterness of it all, while the consequences for the US are even more dire, with a knock-on effect in Ukraine and the Middle East.

The worst case scenario may not be another world war as in 1939-45, but multiple civil wars (and millions made homeless) with the US resembling the narco-states of Central and Southern America with the cartels and crooks in charge, ie Musk and the other Oligarchs kneeling at the feet of His Imperial Majesty.

And again, who cares about that?

[filghy2]

Having said all that, I think the problem this time around is that I'm not really comfortable with Kamala Harris as a candidate and I have a feeling that a lot a people feel that way or this election wouldn't be so close.

There were probably better candidates. But I think this opinion piece may explain why none of them step forward.

Did political correctness and backroom dealing doom the Democratic ticket from the start?

Maybe someone else could do a little better, but I find it hard to believe that there's some alternative candidate who could be winning easily. Democrat powerbrokers were ruthless enough to push Biden out when they thought he couldn't win. If there was a clearly better option would they have passed it up just because of political correctness or internal politics?

There seem to be two main things affecting swinging voters in this election, who are generally people who don't pay much attention to politics.

(a) They are unhappy with how things have gone over the past 4 years and, in contrast, have a relatively rosy view of Trump's term (at least until the pandemic came along).

(b) They tend to discount Trump's wild threats as mostly just rhetoric and assume that he won't follow through or that more sensible Republicans will stop him (as occured in the first term).

I think any Democrat candidate would struggle to cut through in these circumstances. If Republicans had nominated someone relatively normal they would probably be coasting to an easy victory.

As I recall, you didn't like any of the candidates in 2020 apart from Biden, and you obviously soured on him. You do seem to prefer theoretical Democrat candidates to actual ones.

[MrFanti]

Even though you asked Mr. Fanti, I'll answer your question.

I didn't see Stavros question, but here's my 2 cents.

I don't give a rats @ss what the gender of POTUS is.
Example, I was for Hillary Clinton OVER Barack Obama.

(Not all of us vote for a certain candidate solely because they are Black....)

[blackchubby38]

Maybe someone else could do a little better, but I find it hard to believe that there's some alternative candidate who could be winning easily. Democrat powerbrokers were ruthless enough to push Biden out when they thought he couldn't win. If there was a clearly better option would they have passed it up just because of political correctness or internal politics?

There seem to be two main things affecting swinging voters in this election, who are generally people who don't pay much attention to politics.

(a) They are unhappy with how things have gone over the past 4 years and, in contrast, have a relatively rosy view of Trump's term (at least until the pandemic came along).

(b) They tend to discount Trump's wild threats as mostly just rhetoric and assume that he won't follow through or that more sensible Republicans will stop him (as occured in the first term).

I think any Democrat candidate would struggle to cut through in these circumstances. If Republicans had nominated someone relatively normal they would probably be coasting to an easy victory.

As I recall, you didn't like any of the candidates in 2020 apart from Biden, and you obviously soured on him. You do seem to prefer theoretical Democrat candidates to actual ones.

I didn't have an issue with Pete Buttigieg. Also, I haven't really soured on Biden, since I wasn't 100% on him in the first place. I did think he should have stayed in the race though.

Here is something else to take into consideration. When I first registered to vote back in 1992, I did so as an Independent. But I have voted Democrat in every Presidential election that I have participated in since then. Although I just recently registered as Democrat so I can start voting in primaries.

So it doesn't really matter if I supposedly prefer theoretical Democratic candidates to actual ones. The important thing is that I actually show up on election day and vote. Even if the candidate is a flawed one.

[filghy2]

Also, I haven't really soured on Biden, since I wasn't 100% on him in the first place. I did think he should have stayed in the race though.

That's hard to reconcile with your previous comments

[filghy2]

Here is something else to take into consideration. When I first registered to vote back in 1992, I did so as an Independent. But I have voted Democrat in every Presidential election that I have participated in since then. Although I just recently registered as Democrat so I can start voting in primaries.

So what does it actually mean in practice that you register as an Independent? Does it matter only for whether you can vote in primaries?

[blackchubby38]

That's hard to reconcile with your previous comments

Here is a post that I made back on 03-13-2024.

"I also don't think its healthy for one's psyche. Whether it be an individual's or the nation's. I mean let's put this in perspective. Now that the primary process is indeed over after two rounds, that means both Biden and Trump will be running a general election campaign for the next 6 months.

So my thinking is going to be this. I'm going to put the 2024 Election out of mind as much as humanly possible, show up on Election day, vote for Biden, and hope he is doesn't expire in office. Or after 90 days, he has a change of heart and resigns from office."

I also never explicitly said he should drop out of the race after the debate performance. Now, should he have decided to be one term President. That's a different story. Here is a post that I made in June.

"Their only best option now is to pray and hope Biden doesn't shit his pan..., I mean the bed come November.

In a perfect scenario, Biden would have pledged to be one term President back in 2020, therefore allowing Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, and anybody else who would have been interested to compete in the primaries.

Instead, the Democrats were so concerned about Trump being reelected, that they convinced themselves that despite Biden's obvious flaws, he was the only one who would beat Trump again. But the one thing that they, the media, and many Democratic voters have not realized (or they have and just don't want to admit it) is that if it wasn't for the pandemic, there is a very good chance Trump would have won back in 2020.

Even when you take that into consideration, there was still time to do something about it by people convincing Biden that he accomplished what he set out to do. He realized his goal of becoming President, he beat Trump, and he got the country back on track post pandemic*. Now it was time for him to hand the reigns over to someone else and let them be the Democratic nominee. It would allow him to concentrate on the running the country during a pivotal election year. But they didn’t do that.

There was still time to do something though. Maybe if more people would have the balls to do what Doug Jones (I made a mistake, it was Dean Phillips) did and challenge Biden during the primaries, it could have made a difference. Instead, the guy was dismissed, ridiculed and called a “Putin Puppet” and the Democrats rallied around Biden and declared, “He is our guy”.

So, here we are now and barring some unforeseen circumstances, the Democrats are stuck with Biden. Because even if many of them wanted to change donkeys in midstream, they couldn’t do so without possibly causing a civil war in the Democratic Party. As evident by this statement:

California delegate says Black women will 'blow the party up' if Dems pick a 'White man over Kamala Harris'


http://www.foxnews.com/media/califor...-kamala-harris

In conclusion, we just to have to hope that Biden’s staff does a better job at prepping him before the next debate and that he doesn’t have jet lag. Oh and that there aren't any October surprises."

*-If you don’t count things like immigration and inflation.

Any other comments that I made, were in response to what other people were saying once it became clear the Democrats wanted to Biden to drop out.