Will Harris choose Shapiro?
I am heartily sick of writing about Kamala Harris or even thinking about her. Likewise with the 2024 election as a whole.
I sometimes believe that some combination of rigging and fraud moots everything I might say about the candidates anyway. I sometimes think well, perhaps not.
I didn’t want Trump to run again; he has too much baggage. But I plan to vote for him. However, I don’t fool myself into thinking the press and the left/Democrats wouldn’t have tried to destroy anyone on the right who might have run instead of Trump. We can see, for example, what they’re doing to Vance. But we also saw what they did to Romney, one of the most moderate of Republicans.
Contrast that to how they suddenly find themselves entranced with Harris. It reminds me of nothing so much as those old-time movies in which the eyeglassed secretary finally takes off those glasses and voila! Turns out she’s irresistible.
The MSM will cooperate fully in making Harris into something wonderful in many voters’ eyes. They may be low information voters who haven’t paid any attention to what Kamala has or hasn’t done as VP or earlier, and the press will make sure that only the right is discussing those negatives. And of course, Kamala would be the first female president as well as the first black female president. So she’s demographically even better than Obama, in a way.
The point Trump made the other day, that Harris is far more Indian than black, doesn’t matter with most people. She is at least part black, and that may be good enough – with the full cooperation of the media.
Also, the Democrats will make sure she isn’t too exposed, just as with Biden in 2020. They never would have swapped Biden out for Harris if Joe’s mask hadn’t dropped for all to see, but that’s what happened and now they are determined to keep Kamala’s mask on until Election Day.
So what of Harris’ running mate? Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania, makes some sense because the Democrats need Pennsylvania. But Shapiro has a big negative in terms of this particular race by this particular Democrat Party: he’s Jewish. He also has gone on record with some pro-Israel remarks – in particular, something he wrote long ago at the age of 21:
“Palestinians will not coexist peacefully,” Shapiro wrote in the piece. “They do not have the capabilities to establish their own homeland and make it successful even with the aid of Israel and the United States. They are too battle-minded to be able to establish a peaceful homeland of their own.”
Shapiro’s spokesperson, Manuel Bonder, told Newsweek that the decades-old comments are not indicative of what Shapiro believes today. He said the governor supports a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Half of the Democrats are pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel, and anti-Jewish, and even that waffling by Shapiro would probably not be enough for them to approve of him. But would it matter? Would the costs of a Shapiro as VP candidate be greater than the benefits? That’s the calculus Harris and her advisors must weigh. She may end up avoiding the problem by choosing someone else, but it must be tempting to go with Shapiro because he would almost certainly deliver Pennsylvania.
The choice of Shapiro, who is what passes for a moderate Democrat these days, would also be a signal from Harris that she is moving to the center – or, more correctly, pretending to move to the center. But there are other “moderate” Democrats who aren’t Jewish, and they probably would be safer bets.
Searching for a “moderate” Democrat these days is likely to prove very tiring.
there’s his dubious criminal prosecutions, theres the sexual harrassment charges against his aid, there his insistence that camp counselors push gender reassignment,
Doesn’t matter who she picks for a running mate in much the same way it didn’t matter who was running in the primaries.
Whoever is behind all of this doesn’t care about votes at all.
Saving Our Democracy is a matter of how many ballots they have.
All the Kool Kids are on board.
If they know what’s good for them.
Mr. Governor, how do the events of October 7 indicate that Palestinians 1) are no longer “too battle-minded” and 2) support a two-state solution?
Just wondering.
At this stage I believe Democrats will say anything that they think will get them elected, regardless of how that violates their core beliefs.
What boggles my mind is how openly and unapologetically Harris and the Democrats are simply LYING. Border Czar? What Border Czar, never happened! She’s a Prosecutor, a Cop, those tweets about bailing out rioters in 2020 are just far-right lies!! And more and more. Maybe it was always like this and we just couldn’t see it as clearly. But it makes me tired, and it makes me wonder, is this reality, or are we all joint characters, trapped in some author’s dystopian novel?
Mrs+Whatsit (5:41 pm) asks, “is this reality, or are we all joint characters, trapped in some author’s dystopian novel?”
Please forgive me, Mrs Whatsit . . . just couldn’t help this one . . .
“Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality.
Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see.”
— [from Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”]
I am giving up on the good old USA, where a sack of crap like Harris can be their party’s presidential nominee without one ballot, one single vote, cast in her favor. “Democrat”, my ass.
@Mrs Whatsit:Maybe it was always like this and we just couldn’t see it as clearly.
I lean to this. There are two major differences, both due to the Internet: in those days you could not fact-check the mainstream media, and the news cycle was much slower, and I think both are why we had a harder time picking up on it. But some folks did know back in 2002:
The Internet also creates a sort of Eternal Now where it’s like everyone forgets everything that happened more than two weeks ago. For a topic on another thread I was looking for any articles in 2020 dealing with a person in the news now in 2024. And what the search engines give you, even if you use the custom range tool, is references from 2024. Because the 2024 issue is hot, only 2024 links show up.
I think Teddy Roosevelt was the last Republican not to get “Borked” by the Democrats. I don’t know what they might have tried to use on Harding or Coolidge, but Hoover got the blame for the Great Depression, even though he was a progressive.
The Nazi slurs began with the 1940 election. They labeled Eisenhower as lazy, even though they had wanted him on their ticket in 1952. Nixon was “Tricky Dick,” and we all know what they used on Ford, Reagan, Bush 41, and Bush 43.
What most people fail to realize is that Trump, who is under constant, unrelenting attack from the left, is probably to the left of Bill Clinton in many respects. That tells you how far out on the kook fringe the Democratic party is today.
Quick, without Googling, who was Hillary Clinton’s running mate in 2016?
I couldn’t remember to save my life. Had to look it up.
Mike Plaiss:
I got it right without looking it up. But of course, as a blogger, I would hope I pay attention.
But if your point is that VP selections are often forgettable, I agree.
“I sometimes believe that some combination of rigging and fraud moots everything I might say about the candidates anyway.”
Indeed.
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/08/02/appeals-court-paves-the-way-for-illegals-to-steal-election-in-arizona-n4931300
on what issue is trump to the left of clinton, he was another trojan horse, that implemented as many of cloward and piven’s economic and cultural strategies,admittedly it was more subtle, chinese water torture rather than firehose,
people care so little about this country and it’s posterity, I have to conclude, and it pains me as an immigrant to this country, how everything my parents fled from the Caribbean isle, they want to jam down our throats, because you don’t like Orange Man, you want
to lose your electrical grid, your right to self defense, your freedom of speech,
Assuming Harris chooses Shapiro, that certainly puts Pennsyvania in the Democrats’ column. Even before Shapiro, I think it was going that way.
Assuming that the polls are, taken together, somewhat accurate, then Pennsyvania makes it a close election, according to the polls. (Both RealClear Politics and 270towin have electoral college maps.)
But the polls are just a starting point. Given the pandemic’s electoral reforms, the Democrats’ methods of vote collection and counting causes us to greatly underestimate the Party’s ability to win close elections. As a rule of thumb, I’ll say a close election is one in which the polls indicate a less than 5% margin for the Republican candidate. With that in mind, if I go back to the electoral college maps, it looks like an easy win for Harris. I’d guess that she ends up with just over 300 electoral votes.
“What most people fail to realize is that Trump, who is under constant, unrelenting attack from the left, is probably to the left of Bill Clinton in many respects. That tells you how far out on the kook fringe the Democratic party is today.” -Sgt. Joe Friday
To be competitive the Republican party has had to adjust. Trump has reshaped the party in ways the GOPe hates– but better distinguishes the party from the Left/Dems. Whether or not Vance can continue the movement to firmly America First/MAGA will depend on how effective Trump is when re-elected.
While Trump has made inroads into shaping the Congress more to an America First/MAGA mold remains to be seen. He will likely have a large minority of GOPe still working against him, which will hinder his de-Leftification of the bureaucracy.
As to Neo’s question– I don’t think so. More likely Mark Kelly.
@miguel:because you don’t like Orange Man, you want
to lose your electrical grid, your right to self defense, your freedom of speech
The people you’re talking about (the remnant left at Patterico being an excellent example) don’t think this is going to happen. It’s not that they want those things at all. If anything, they think Trump is more likely to make that happen.
Everyone’s watching a different movie, as the fella said. And that’s the challenge in reaching them.
Niketas:
Miguel is talking to and of Bauxite (CC TM).
Not merely him there are others who seem to have missed the plot
He locked me out of the blog for challenging his fever dreams btw it eas in fine company though
@miguel:He locked me out of the blog for challenging his fever dreams btw it eas in fine company though
Sir, to be banned by Patterico after November 2016 is badge of honor and I would shake your hand. Used to be some good stuff there but now ’tis all bile and tumbleweeds, and the same dozen people from way back when.
Not nearly as bad as what happened at LGF though. I didn’t know it at the time, but I learned from that experience that some people who go to a blog go there because they like being a follower of the blogger; it’s like they joined a cult but the leader of it doesn’t know it’s a cult. (I’m guessing Charles Johnson has figured it out by now, but Patterico doesn’t seem to have.) And they’ll go wherever that guy goes, no matter how different it is from what went before.
besides shipwrecked crew, that punched holes in some of the crazier notions, there was steve back when he was in better shape, there was a doctor that I recall, there was colonel haiku who is now at althouse most everybody else lost their minds, there was one other that the peanut gallery hounded off the blog,
Over at Conservative Treehouse there is this headline to a post:
Oh Dear, Philly Mayor Mayor Cherelle Parker Accidentally Posts Video Celebrating Kamala Choosing PA Governor Josh Shapiro as VP
Real or just a feeler to see the reaction by the Hamas wing of the party? Leaves Harris with plausible deniability.
I live in a state that borders Florida and the local tv market crosses the state line. So if you watch local tv you see commercials aimed at Florida. Watching a bit of Olympics this morning, I saw a Kamala Kommercial. It was quite impressive in a sick way, in the same way a car commercial might make you think you could attain a sort of transcendence by buying that car. All squid ink and a few lies, of course. Full of Honest Working People Working who will benefit from her benevolence, etc., but including a promise for a national abortion-permission law. Made me sick but probably effective on the susceptible.
I think she wants Mark Kelly, for his hatred of guns in the public’s hands.
I’m sure one of the Sunday a.m. folx will ask candidate Shapiro,
“Tell us all the ways that the Palestinians have shown that they are now able to peacefully establish a successful national homeland.”
ETA, and not completely related:
It’s well known that Harris has a Jewish husband and Jewish stepchildren. If she also gets a Jewish running mate, there will be space lasers everywhere, right?
Cicero:
I find this all so almost predictable. I do not have any faith in this country. Between the deficit, debt, lack of culture, no morality at all and the triumph of “where’s mine” it seems like an immense and useless waste of time. I have put much more effort into my faith and my expanding Eastern Orthodox Church. The Church demands much but the rewards are infinite.
Late to the Party. But seems backlash has caused the Harris/Biden Presidency to backtrack on deal with KSM. So, he may still walk The Green Mile
I think she wants Mark Kelly, for his hatred of guns in the public’s hands.
SCOTTtheBADGER:
According to the rumor mill, Kelly was Obama’s pick to replace Biden, but Biden gave O. the finger by endorsing Kamala immediately.
Now the Dems are stuck with Kamala unless she flames out.
The Democrats want an unarmed populace, and I am sure there is a reason. Probably a frightening one.
Richard F Cook…if I may…
Eastern Orthodox?
Outstanding!
Was that a “from somewhere to there” or a “from nowhere to there” journey?
Blessings however you were moved.
John Guilfoyle
Always has been a somewhere to there. I have been Agnostic, Atheist, Anglican, Episcopalian, Methodist and, finally finding home, EO — Bulgarian Orthodox Church in America. Our Patriarch NEOPHYTE recently reposed and now we have had elected Patriarch DANIL. I hope he is as much as a fighter as Neophyte.
He supposedly has dual Israeli citizenship. Can you be President and be a dual citizen of another country?
That won’t sell Dearborn.
Checkers; om:
No, he’s not an Israeli citizen. See this .
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13703933/Kamala-Harris-Doug-Emhoff-cheated-nanny-Najen-Nayler.html
Well, that’s ugly, Miguel, although it doesn’t directly affect Harris, since she met Emhoff four years after the cheating and three years after the divorce. Still, an unpleasant story.
West TX Crude, 10:19 p.m., Emhoff is Jewish, although apparently not observant. His first wife is not Jewish, and her children do not consider themselves Jewish.
A meme: Maduro is quoted ranting that Musk will attack Venezuela with his missiles. But Venezuela will triumph!
Musk’s reply: “Do you have space lasers? Because I do.”
ah yes, Maduro is like a bus driver, was put in charge of the country in Bananas, a dangerously delusional figure, unlike the Speaker Sr Cabello, who is the head of the largest cartel, and security chief of sorts, who really runs the country,
Emhoff got the story of Hanukkah all mixed up. So yeah, probably not observant….
Richard F Cook…
Many thanks. I deeply respect the Orthodox part of the family of disciples.
I’m likely to join you one day.
Abundant blessings!
The Bee hits it out of the park.
https://babylonbee.com/news/drunken-kamala-mistakenly-picks-wrong-shapiro-for-vp
At publishing time, Harris had reportedly asked Shapiro if he “could, like, talk way slower.”
AesopFan:
Me too! 🙂
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