Biden vs. Trump

[_Icarus]

I'm guessing it will be Harris

[_EAllusion]

I'm very put off by the centrist Democrats who want Harris because she's a centrist Democrat claiming that they're all about racial representation now and that's their reason. It's tokenism masquerading as being woke as cover to get another Democrat just like them on the ticket. Also, the idea that Ms. brag about jailing poor mothers of truant kids has just the right resume to address police reform is teeth-grittingly obnoxious.

[_EAllusion]

I'd also bet on Harris, but think Warren is still a distinct possibility. Warren is so much better it's not even funny, and given that the stakes are a little higher than normal, this feels like a second primary.

[_Chap]

Perhaps Harris or Warren are likely (why?) but I cannot help feeling that in terms of election winning Biden might want to try for someone with less baggage and more minority impact.

[_EAllusion]

Warren is the most popular candidate in the running among minorities in general and blacks specifically. Some of that is name recognition and some of that is she's the one with bona fides on substantive reform related to racial justice. "Black people want a black person" is lazy punditry that isn't really born out by any evidence among any plausible candidate.

[_EAllusion]

Biden - the person at the top of the ticket - was by far the most popular Democratic candidate among blacks. Some of that is the close association with Obama and some of that is the fact that Biden is in the exact sweet spot of black Democratic politics in terms of ideological positioning. In terms of appealing to black voters, Democrats already got their person.

Blacks really isn't the demographic that needs to be shored up here. It's young people. To the extent Biden has any weakness among blacks, it's in younger black voter enthusiasm, but he has that exact same problem among all races. That's where Biden is shockingly soft for a Democrat. Biden is suffering from a lack of enthusiasm in general, but it's stark among younger voters (basically anyone under 45 years old) how little Biden is someone people are jazzed to vote for. He's perceived as a broadly acceptable alternative to Trump. For low-information swing voters, who the VP candidate is just isn't going to make any meaningful difference, but you can hit groups at the margins. You know which candidate in the running to be VP who is by far the most popular among young people and tends to generate a lot of progressive enthusiasm? Warren. It's Warren. Sanders is the only other comparison, and there's zero chance he's VP due to his age and the promise it will be a female.

[_Some Schmo]

Do you worry about Warren's age, EA?

I know women have a historically longer life expectancy, but still... she just turned 71.

(By the way, I'd like to see Warren be the pick as well. Just curious what you think about her age given the conversation).

[_EAllusion]

Do you worry about Warren's age, EAllusion?

Yes. There's tradeoffs here. She's slightly under the cusp of what I think of as too old for a Presidential candidate, so it's not great that she would be the backup plan. It's a more than acceptable risk given the alternatives in my opinion. It's a shame the Democratic bench for people like Warren is so thin.

[_Icarus]

I would much prefer Warren over any of the candidates. But there is a strong expectation that he picks a woman of color, and if he doesn't then my fear is that it could backfire. We'll get the usual "See I told you he was just an establishment Demo who doesn't care about real change" etc.

Right now we need to beat Trump soundly and I just don't want to risk any kind of fallout over his Veep pick.

[_DoubtingThomas]

The war killed thousands of US soldiers, Biden refuses to take responsibility.

Stress is probably killing more Americans than the coronavirus and Biden works for corporations.

Look this over and tell me how many Americans died in Iraq. https://www.defense.gov/casualty.pdf

Then tell me how many Americans died from COVID-19 in the last 4 months.

Things would have been better under Hillary, but we don't know by how much. California is seeing a rise in Coronavirus cases.

Millions don't have the time for a healthy lifestyle (healthy food, exercise, enough sleep) because corporations force them to work a lot. Corporations make people have a really stressful life. The heart attacks are going up among young people.

Diabetes and heart attacks are a bigger health crisis than Coronavirus. Joe Biden is a corporate politician and he won't do anything to help American workers.