Who failed to position Kamala Harris for success? George Floyd!

Can Kamala Harris become unburdened from what has been?

The Babylon Bee suggests that the timing is right.

In contrast, a social media friend in Japan writes about a piece in Slate,

Was reading this for a little perspective from the left, finding myself amazed and bemused at the semantic gap.

The Slate piece is linked below in case you wish to analyze it, but beware that an AI assistant is offered for your guidance. Which reminds me that certain people have suggested that "deep fakes" could help even out some of Joe Biden's presentations, even though "cheap fakes" are obviously evil.

Slate is not happy: It’s Kamala Harris’ Moment. But Biden May Have Screwed That Up Too. From July 1.

There are some interesting excuses for and harumphs about the debate and its aftermath, then this piece gets down to issues affecting Kamala:

Joe Biden was old when he ran for president. He and his team should have spent the past four years road testing surrogates and grooming potential successors. Instead, they’ve sidelined their vice president and failed to place the spotlight on any of the Democratic Party’s many bright, shining potential stars. Now the very predictable has happened: The oldest-ever American president is showing his age, voters are reasonably wondering whether he will be up to the extremely demanding tasks of governing until he’s 86—86!—and there is no obvious Plan B.

Under normal circumstances, Plan B would be the vice president, and a small handful of commentators are already voicing support for Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket. The reasons are obvious enough: She is the vice president, after all; she is by most accounts a perfectly competent if not particularly compelling leader; and skipping over her has the potential to anger and alienate core Democratic constituencies (Black voters, female voters).

But Harris is also unpopular. . .

What follows seems rather convoluted to me. Kamala's unpopularity is not her fault. It's all due to the burdens of what has been in past political history, the failures of political operatives around her, plus bigotry of various types, all working together against her.

Then:

But she really suffered from running for president in 2020. That year was in many ways a cultural blip, and one of its most significant irregularities was the brief turn against policing and prosecution. In any other election year, including probably this one, a tough-on-crime stance is a benefit to politicians, especially those with national aspirations. But 2020 was a year of mass protests against police violence. Progressive prosecutors won high-profile elections, and although no police forces were actually defunded, the slogan “Defund the Police” became a progressive rallying cry. Even many Republicans seemed amenable to criminal justice reform. “Kamala is a cop” became a pointed and effective attack line because there was a major and long-brewing national backlash against cops. Career prosecutors were not the moment’s rising stars.

Kamala's career woes were really started by George Floyd!

She had done all the right things to move up the political ladder, and then George Floyd changed the narrative!

She tried to make up for her image as a tough cop in this new environment by setting up that bail fund with her progressive friends for protesters arrested in George Floyd protests. People arrested for other crimes also got bailed out after the pool of arrested protesters ran out (as long as the arrestees fit certain racial criteria). Somehow, that didn't do the trick for her. The Slate piece didn't mention the bail fund. Or Tulsi Gabbard.

Anyway, Kamala's primary campaign in 2020 didn't go so well.

California Nightmares

It has always bothered me that The Party sent Gavin Newsom to escort Kamala Harris out of the primaries when she was sinking into disaster, before she was chosen as Biden's running mate.

Lloyd Billingsley at Powerline yesterday:

Harris and Newsom’s Brown Connection

With waxworks effigy Joe Biden in post-debate meltdown, Steve spots a Kamala zeitgeist, starring Harris as Joe’s successor. In this high concept, the younger Kamala, 59, has the advantage over the older Trump, 78, and only Kamala can inherit the Biden-Harris $250 million campaign warchest.

And Newsom is making some moves to position himself for the nationals stage, too.

In her new book, Newsom Unleashed: The Progressive Lust for Unbridled Power, Ellie Gardey Holmes notes that Newsom and Gordon Getty helped elect Willie Brown mayor of San Francisco. Brown then appointed Newsom to the city’s Parking and Traffic Commission, followed by a promotion to the Board of Supervisors. “Newsom entered office entirely indebted to Willie Brown,” and locals referred to him as “an appendage of Willie Brown.” The powerful Democrat also had a thing for Kamala Harris, 30 years his junior.

Brown appointed Harris to lucrative sinecures and backed his main squeeze in runs for district attorney of San Francisco, attorney general of California, and everything beyond. So now contending for president are a former appendage of Willie Brown and a person experienced with Willie Brown’s appendage. .

YIPES

It now seems so long ago that the press was confident of Biden's ability to beat Trump in the debate.

There is something wrong when the narrative can change so fast, with no adequate recognition of the part the press played in the big surprise of Biden's debate performance.

Independence Day Weekend

There is a surprising amount of content up at Powerline for a holiday weekend, including a new Week in Pictures, Orange Revolution Edition.

Looks like America is undergoing it’s own Orange Revolution. It is said that nothing rhymes with orange, but in the make-it-up world of Karine Jean-Pierre what rhymes with orange is “Joe Biden is the kindest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known. Also the smartest and most energetic. In fact he ran a marathon before breakfast this morning. That’s why his face looked so orange in his latest appearance. It had nothing to do with Trump. Or the debate. What debate? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have nothing to add.”

But there was another revolution which we are celebrating this weekend. There are quotes from Abraham Lincoln and Calvin Coolidge on the Eternal Meaning of Independence Day.

And from someone not even an American:

America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence; perhaps the only piece of practical politics that is also theoretical politics and also great literature.

— G. K. Chesterton (@GKCdaily) July 4, 2024

Do you have a favorite Independence Day quote?

Here is a craft created by a relative for her grandkids. A bit of Revolutionationary War history:

Music

Dancing with General Washington

Don't give up before 1:20:

Hope you have something nice planned for this holiday weekend.

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Threads from the past two weeks below. Thanks to Misanthropic Humanitarian for filling in last week. Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on past threads. But don't try it anyway.

June 22, When you're a leftist, how do you choose?

June 29, Misanthropic Humanitarian: Dear Mrs. Jill Biden

posted by K.T. at 11:02 AM

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