The Democratic Party has a number of very impressive politicians and potential candidates within its ranks. That said, most Republicans, some Democrats and arguably millions of Americans don’t believe Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are two of them.
It didn’t have to be this way. The Democratic National Committee as well as the Democratic powerbrokers behind the scenes could have engineered a much stronger and much more electable ticket. They simply chose not to. Why? In part, because they were afraid of the optics and the potential blowback.
I wrote on this site multiple times over the past 18 months that President Biden would not be the Democratic nominee come November 2024 — something that seemed painfully obvious to those not in the tank for Biden or the Democratic machine. Behind the scenes, quite a few people undoubtably agreed with that assessment. But for Democrats, it was a reality littered with political tripwires.
One of the main tripwires was that, for political and survival reasons, they didn’t want to give any oxygen to the Republicans or Trump staff pushing that same scenario. Better to deny the obvious for as long as possible, so as not to give Team Trump an issue to exploit.
Arguably, the next major tripwire was that many Democrats — as well as many in the liberal media — truly did not feel Harris was up to the task of stepping in for Biden. They surely remembered 2019, during the 2020 Democratic primary, when no one voted for Harris. She had to drop out of the race before the Iowa caucus. She did so because her campaign, which started off with a great deal of buzz and media attention, flopped with an embarrassing thud.
She was the first one out. The former mayor of South Bend, Ind. outlasted her. That’s not a confidence booster for Democrats behind the scenes this summer as they pondered whether to push Biden out of the race.
There were several options to create a ticket that did not include Biden, Harris or Walz. But to do so, all roads would have to go through Harris herself.
One of the most obvious options would have been to ask or convince Harris to resign, and then replace her with someone like California Gov. Gavin Newsom or another proven vote-getter. If that swap were successful, Biden and the Democrats could have gotten even more creative. After swearing in Newsom as vice president, Biden could have then resigned himself a month or two later, making Newsom the sitting president with the power of the Oval Office behind him.
This form of political musical chairs does have some precedent in the Nixon White House. On Oct. 10, 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned. Next, under the process mandated by the 25th Amendment, Nixon replaced Agnew with Rep. Gerald Ford (R-Mich.). Then, after Nixon resigned and Ford became president in 1974, Ford hand-picked former New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller to be his vice president. Whiplash, anyone?
But again, to pull off something that creative — and potentially desperately needed, if one wanted to hold on to the White House in 2024 — Democrats would have to travel on the road leading right up to Harris’s office. For understandable reasons centered around political correctness and the potential fallout from such a switch, no one on the Democratic side seemed anxious to ask Harris to step aside, let alone try to convince her.
Of course, prior to her selection, then-Democratic nominee Biden had made it clear that he was only going to pick a woman and quite possibly a woman of color. Enter the slippery slope of filling positions via “identity politics.” In this case, Harris became not only the first female vice president, but the first vice president of color.
Understandably and quite rightfully, that infused millions of women and people of color with pride and hope. But the flipside of that American “first” is that Harris was all but untouchable, unless she herself decided that she might not be up to the job of president. Which she obviously did not.
The next opportunity came at the Democratic National Convention in August. The Democratic National Committee could have opened the nominating process — as some Democrats encouraged — to nominate the most qualified candidate in the most open and above-board manner. They could have Unfortunately, for Democrats seeking that option, the powerbrokers behind the scenes — likely including former President Barack Obama and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi — slammed the door on that option with the elevation of Harris.
So here we are. “Identity politics” picked Harris. Backroom insiders then “convinced” Biden to withdraw from the race. Next, Harris and her backers used identity politics to select Walz as her running mate.
Is Harris-Walz the “dream ticket” most Democrats hoped would lead them to victory? Doubtful. Could a stronger ticket have been created? Yes.
But we will never know. That said, because the Democrats may have outsmarted themselves; there are mounting signs that Trump is about to cruise to victory.
Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official.
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