Joe Biden, Senator from Citibank (oops, DELAWARE), to Run for President

I didn’t bring up Texas, but Biden’s performance with Latino voters matters nationwide.

for whatever they're worth, current polls show Texas to be in play: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/texas/

I'm sorry I brought it up, but Milo's willingness to sit out the election because he lives in a red state, as though he can't do anything to help change that fact, just really irks me.

I can’t actually do anything to change that. Like my recycling isn’t going to solve climate change.

People with power and money can do something to change that, and a popular groundswell of support for a candidate or ideology could do that - but they punted on the latter.

News: Sen. @amyklobuchar has officially been asked by @JoeBiden to undergo vetting to be considered for his VP, sources tell @CBSNews.

— Bo Erickson CBS (@BoKnowsNews) May 21, 2020

this would be utterly insane, how does this help them at all

Like my recycling isn’t going to solve climate change.

so why care about any state or national political issue?

i think we may have solved our problem folks. there is actually no reason to be here

if your efforts don't make a difference when you're down, then they don't make a difference when you're up either

Yes, but not because my personal consumption choice has any actual impact on the world.

Which is a good analogy for voting for Biden. If you it makes you feel better to vote for creepy Joe, go for it, but don’t lecture someone for not doing so as if they’re responsible for him losing and as if there are no good reasons for someone to not vote for him.

this would be utterly insane, how does this help them at all

yess you love to see it

Nothing against Amy Klobuchar personally, but that strikes me as Tim Kaine all over again: I'm going to win, just pick someone who's not going to alienate anyone, no sudden movements.

i suspect the thinking is that the need to secure upper Midwest EVs is greater than the need to win great margins in New England, or to not lose the south as badly

one of more than a dozen candidates, reportedly.

(Warren offers no net gain regionally speaking, because Cambridge, MA is not in danger of turning red. ditto Harris because California will be blue in any case. Nominating Abrams will not turn Georgia blue. But Biden urgently needs Minnewisconchigan, and Klob may help there. I would rather the calculus be focused on something other than regional checkbooks but it is so totally not up to me.)

Biden urgently needs Minnewisconchigan, and Klob may help there

I need to see numbers on this. Is she actually popular? I know political journalists like her, but do actual human beings from her state/region?

Minn has a Dem gov who would pick Klobbo's replacement, MA has a Republican gov

Tammy Baldwin would help a lot more, not sure if she's willing

idk I think Senate calculus has to factor in somehow, and that's why I like Abrams. Dems can't afford to give up a single seat.

yeah picking Warren might not have brought the heat that would outweigh losing her seat to a republican. But gaaaaah this ticket is just the Fucking Pits. good luck, dorks.

xps Klobuchar was re-elected with over 60% of the vote in 2018, and seems to draw support across party lines.

Not a fan, at all (MN voter), but I expect that drives some of the starry eyes for her from pundits (and VP vetters).

honestly didn’t know they could manage less inspiring than Clinton/ Kaine but I’ll be damned if they didn’t reach for the brass ring here

I think Harris or Warren would have advantages that far outweigh the chance that Klobuchar might have some electoral influence. (Don't know Abrams that well.) If you could guarantee Minnesota and Wisconsin, sure. But outside an obvious case like LBJ in 1960, has a VP pick since then helped carry a crucial state?

But the senate problem is a good point.

Guys, it's not a done deal yet. Lots of VP candidates undergo vetting.

Someone leaked this scuttlebutt to keep ILX in a tizzy imo

we don't need help w that

No?

My impression this was a cool, even-handed place to kick it.

I mean we don't need new stimuli to be in a tizzy!

Presumably Klobuchar's camp leaked this, imagining that it would give her an advantage over other candidates being vetted.

Remember when Klobuchar was talking about the big tent including pro-lifers? Cool cool.

they hate abortion AND trump

she's going to throw a 3-hole punch at joe biden's head and he will die and she will claim it was an accident

Klobuchar's NARAL rating is 100%. Cool cool.

if ilx fails to mobilise milo then trump's victory is our fault imo

Should Descendants reunite, there's always an album called Milo Goes to Mobilize to record.

That’s their Iraq War album

I think the VP pick this time needs to address two things above all else: 1) help get out the kind of turnout there was in 2008/12; 2) if Biden were to win, there's a possibility he wouldn't survive one term (sorry to be morbid)--they always ceremonially pretend that ready-to-step-in is a big consideration, but this time I think it actually should be.

Trump himself takes care of the first to a large degree, but I wouldn't count on him taking care of all of it. I doubt Biden contributes much, and I can't see Klobuchar contributing anything; Harris and Warren, sometimes in the same way and sometimes in different ways, do. (I'd rather have Harris, but Warren probably has an edge there.) Abrams does too, but based on the little I know about her, she seems awfully inexperienced, even in comparison to 2008 Obama. (Trump not a useful comparison point there...he's not useful for any kind of positive comparison.)

Has a campaign logo ever gone with beige before?

xp there is no electoral advantage to choosing Harris but she could help bring in California donors, and he's going to need money

Wasn't the main advantage of Biden's candidacy supposed to be his appeal to working class white voters in the Midwest/Pennsylvania? Not sure what Klobuchar adds to that

Harris, theoretically, boosts turnout with black voters, which is way more than you can say of Klob/Warren/etc..

Shoring up the ‘kids these days’ old white vote is a Kaine 2.0 movie.

Move.

Nothing against Amy Klobuchar personally, but that strikes me as Tim Kaine all over again: I'm going to win, just pick someone who's not going to alienate anyone, no sudden movements.

Tim Kaine was very alienating, at least to me! I can at least respect Klobuchar's hustle as a legislator

I definitely concede that Harris or Warren bring zero electoral benefit; I just doubt Kobuchar does either. I can't see her motivating potential fence-sitting Biden voters, even in Minnesota (someone there can speak to that), to get out and vote--I have to believe the issues they'd have with Biden would far outweigh that. (Klobuchar would even exacerbate some of those issues.) I can see Harris or Warren motivating enough potential fence-sitting Biden voters--across the country--to take a deep breath, close their eyes, and vote, enough to maybe make a difference.

Too bad Tim Kaine’s cool son is ineligible.

A real May-December ticket.

I definitely concede that Harris or Warren bring zero electoral benefit

Warren would be a better campaigner than any of the other options, and taken more seriously in that role than she was by many folks who disregarded her in the primary.

I agree with this.

When was the last time a running mate helped win a state that a nominee couldn't win on his own? JFK and LBJ? The geography argument feels like an artifact of the mid-20th century.

— Karen Tumulty (@ktumulty) May 21, 2020

Kennedy did worse in '60 than Stevenson did four years earlier, though.