Thank you, Bob. I would get behind Kamala if she runs. I am a fan of hers. I like her style. I have a number of friends who think she is a little cold and hasn't done much. I address their concern for her demeanor as the result of being a woman of Asian/ African descent she had to be stronger than anyone around her just get noticed let alone respected. I told them I thought that is a strength of hers. It is evident in the video you shared. She was direct, intentional, and focused in her questioning of Bill Barr. And, she is not afraid to call out BS when it is coming her way. Those are qualities of a leader. As to what she has accomplished - she had a rocky start, but I think her actions as VP were more harshly viewed than the actions of any of the white men who preceded her. She gets the blame for the immigration problem, but that is the responsibility of Congress, not the administration whose only power in that area is using Executive Orders that republicans view as an overreach. She has taken on the Supreme Court's rulings in the Dobbs case in appearances to large crowds of young people across the country and last week the Court has given her an even bigger opportunity to make some powerful connections across the country. I think she is a smart, talented woman who would make a very good chief executive.
Kamala’s smile and laughter are genuine!! People will get to see more of that when she is given a chance to lay out her vision for continuing the good work that has begun.
Not so fast on VP Harris. Move faster on changing national strategy and messagin. Before I point out some differences, I want to commend writers like Josiah who offer constructive criticism and comments.
VP Harris has yet to demonstrate growth in her leadership skills and expertise on issues ranging from immigration to Ukraine . She had 3 1/2 years as VP and previous experience as a Senator and AG. However, her strengths seem limited to articulating social issues. The Queen (“King”) wears no clothes. Her uneven appearances are evidence of not growing with the job.
As Bob wrote: "Switching will give us a candidate who can hammer away at Trump's corruption, bigotry, misogyny, racism, fascism, nepotism, ignorance, idiocy, and mental decline (which Biden lacks the capacity or willingness to do), a candidate better able to sound the alarm about the plight of reproductive rights and the danger of the current Supreme Court."
The Democrats won't succeed if they focus only on social issues; they need to address more immediate concerns. I have yet to read of Harris’s accomplishments or powerful speaking on economic issues, immigration, and international issues.
The Democrats won't succeed with Harris or anyone else if they keep the same team responsible for political missteps in debate preparation, poor messaging over 3+ years, and constant failure to predict and respond to Trump. Trump was prepared and focused on his messaging (despite its falsehoods) and his team was strategic. Look at how quickly national Republicans spoke in unison after the verdict (Reynolds issued her press statement 11 minutes after the verdict), contrasted with the silence of anti-MAGA voices. During the debate, it seemed the preparation team was playing checkers to Trump's chess.
Harris has yet to prove she can be the top of the ticke. For the good of the country (as is often said about Biden), Harris should be approached with two options: stay on the ticket as VP and improve her image in the coming weeks, or be replaced by another woman or person of color. Biden's replacement could also be another woman or POC, reducing the need for a specific VP candidate. If the goal of the “never Biden” side is to make a change to defeat Trump, that standard should apply to a Biden replacement. Harris falls short.
To only focus on whether Biden should say or go, it's easy to make a binary choice. However, progressives and Democrats have yet to demonstrate the ability to plan for the next steps, predict Republican actions, or plan for contingencies. Replacing Biden with Harris without a change in strategy and messaging would be a mistake.
With these criticisms in mind, I am also not confident that an open convention would be successful at coalescing people and unifying opposition to Trump. In the past days since the debate, here have been opportunities to unify around issues, messaging, and need to support down-ballot issues, or specifically respond to the Trump Court, or Project 2025. D’s did not have a contingency plan for a national response to the Trump court on immunity or the accelerating extreme views of Project 2025 (calling for a second revolution), I do not trust this same team of D and progressive leaders to organize a convention.
Changing national support team, including consultants should be in the works. I want national leaders and strategies which predict Republican actions and plan for contingencies, rather than only playing defense or being defensive. Replacing Biden with Harris without a change in strategy and messaging would be a mistake.
Really important points Ralph. So, so important to change strategy and messaging. You would think they would have it figured out by now. Messaging should always be about values first then policy. Any thoughts on strategy? Once again, I appreciate your knowledge and wisdom. Thanks.
I agree with you completely. President Biden must frame a decision along the lines of “retirement.” His choosing retirement would be a well earned capping of an accomplishment filled career. History would judge him superbly well, particularly for his volunteering and succeeding in blocking the worst and most vile of all Presidents. But also, his would stand the test of time as probably the highest level of accomplishment for the American people in any single term. He must realize and bring his own mind to regarding it not as failure (a lost election would surely end his career in a sad state of failure) but as the wisdom of knowing how and when to go out on top.
As much as I might find excitement in someone new, Vice President Harris would also surely be the smartest, most expeditious, and most unifying Presidential candidate. Let newness excitement be for the Vice President. Sane Republican strategists greatly fear this scenario.
In the Iowa statehouse my area is represented by a loyal Reynolds Republican apparatchik. It seemed puzzlingly bizarre for an entire issue of his weekly emails to be a calm insisting that turning away from President Biden by Democrats would be an improper ignoring of the will of their voters. Coming from someone who is seldom calm or reasoned in his disparagement and vilification of President Biden, it was momentarily baffling. Then I realized, of course, it was almost certainly a copy and paste transmission from a Republican Party which is convinced that their greatest and perhaps only chance of victory lies in running against President Biden.
I agree with everything Mr. Leonard wrote, with a caveat: I'm uncertain how Kamala Harris would fare in Iowa, as Kim Reynolds' opponent, Deidre DeJear, was thoruougly drubbed even though she was, by far, the most qualified candidate. I hadn't realized how , dare I say it, racist, Iowa has become.
And it all comes back to Iowa Democratic leadership. Are they doing what is best for Iowans, or are they doing what is best for the party? The Democrats in Iowa suffer from the same “illness” as the Republicans: politicians who have been in service way too long and don’t want to give up their power; to the detriment of Iowans. We need politicians who not only speak out, but are not afraid to raise their voice (literally) and tell things as they are. Al Gore and our present party leadership in the legislature suffer from the same problem: monotone and elitist presentation of the facts. Come on!! Raise your voice and call a spade a spade!!
I realize the thread is old now, shouldn’t the topic be altered to whether President should remain in office, rather than remain a candidate? I fear his resistance and defiance is a real detriment to his performance as Commander in Chief. How on earth can we have him in charge when he says he needs reminders to get more sleep, etc.? Same issue I have/had with Trump---unsafe at the wheel, unsafe with the power to wipe out humanity. Doesn’t anyone feel deceived and disgusted that his condition has been kept under wraps?
Maybe. The interview with ABC didn't help him. Factual errors and arrogance. "Only God," can make him leave the race. And that if he loses to Trump he will be OK because he knows he did his best? Give me a break. And the media didn't do its job telling us how poorly he is doing. The sad thing is Republicans have been telling us this for a long time. I thought it was spin. And since they lie about everything, I figured that they were lying about this. I was wrong.
NYT has reported that the quote “goodest” was changed. The resulting sentence is even more confusing. I learned that the White House uses stenographers. Imagine trying to accurately transcribe what some of our Presidents say!!
Your arguments are persuasive, Bob. And I would like to underline how they help the Dems reclaim the idea of patriotism. I'm sick to my bones of hearing Republicans talk as if they own patriotism, despite so much evidence to the contrary.
Once again you have provided some information that had not been available to me as I had no idea that his physical condition had weakened that much. Apparently the media has over stressed his ability to meet with a number of people. I absolutely agree that Kamala would be a great replacement. She will also give Trump the opportunity to display his disrespect for women, especially one who is not "pure white."
I think I (we) are a growing number of writers heading this direction. I know people high up in the party will read this, and I hope they see us as a growing wave of people against Biden staying in office. Hopefully soon to be a tsunami...
Biden was here in Madison today, and while he looked (relatively) better than he did at the debate, nothing he said & nothing in the way he carried himself has changed my mind. Stepping aside now would be the honorable thing to do.
Thank you for the update on Matt Fidel. We got to know each other in Story County working for Cory Booker. Mr. Fidel is going places. Dozens of us hoped he would be our future son-in-law. I wish him all the best.
Agree Harris is the likeliest successor candidate but not the strongest. Too closely linked to Biden’s progressive capitulations (student debt, infrastructure spending, etc.) and so beating Trump would still be a reach. More likely a Whitmer, Klobuchar, etc that would fulfill the majority (75%) voters’ wish for an alternative to both Biden and Trump. An open convention could provide one.
Should have said "inflation", an unintended but inevitable consequence of over-spending by the government, typified by the infrastructure bill and prior bills under both recent administrations.
Thanks for this, Robert. Full disclosure, I have always been a fan of the VP. She is articulate, capable, intelligent, and carries built-in strengths of actual leadership, police reform strategies, in addition to her other policy goals. I believe it is time for President Harris.
Bob after reading your comments, I would say that at this late stage in the current election cycle, I agree with your assessment. I am not at all sure if Joe Biden will be influenced by outside pressures except perhaps if the donor monies continue to dry up. He honestly believes that he is the best candidate to defeat Trump again. At present, the polls suggest otherwise.
I think we are truly facing a revolution of upresidented magnitude that was put before us by both parties, neither of whom have a real interest in doing the right thing for the country. Everything currently is about money, and finding excuses to support things that will make rich people richer at almost every level of government. There are no real conservatives with any intent on making government work well based on reasonable concepts that will make it happen, instead we are faced with people hell-bent on destroying any sort of cooperative effort to make government work well and effectively. Dealing with the office of President, the choices the voter must make are ones' we had little choice about in the first place.The Republican caucus gave us someone who can't simply tell the truth about anything and now is a convicted felon, while the Democrats gave us a chpice of a deathering old man who had twice been rejected for the job previously, and only because deals were struck to insure Sanders wouldn't be the noninee! Sanders is still in top form, where "slow Joe" keeps reminding us we should have had better choices than Hillary or Biden. Certainly there are Republicans who feel the same about Trump, but can't bring themselves to vote for Biden either! My concience says no one intends to fix the problem with someone better on either side and voting for a third party might be rather hopeless, but at least it is an honest attempt to show my contempt for the entire process that once was considered "Democratic". Now that the derailment appears to be near complete, and the cars are now piling up , we all can expect the worst from here on out for those on the bottom, which most of us will find ourselves, assuming we survive at all!
Thank you, Bob. I would get behind Kamala if she runs. I am a fan of hers. I like her style. I have a number of friends who think she is a little cold and hasn't done much. I address their concern for her demeanor as the result of being a woman of Asian/ African descent she had to be stronger than anyone around her just get noticed let alone respected. I told them I thought that is a strength of hers. It is evident in the video you shared. She was direct, intentional, and focused in her questioning of Bill Barr. And, she is not afraid to call out BS when it is coming her way. Those are qualities of a leader. As to what she has accomplished - she had a rocky start, but I think her actions as VP were more harshly viewed than the actions of any of the white men who preceded her. She gets the blame for the immigration problem, but that is the responsibility of Congress, not the administration whose only power in that area is using Executive Orders that republicans view as an overreach. She has taken on the Supreme Court's rulings in the Dobbs case in appearances to large crowds of young people across the country and last week the Court has given her an even bigger opportunity to make some powerful connections across the country. I think she is a smart, talented woman who would make a very good chief executive.
I have heard others say she is cold, but she was very warm and welcoming every time I saw her. And excellent points on what she is doing now.
Kamala’s smile and laughter are genuine!! People will get to see more of that when she is given a chance to lay out her vision for continuing the good work that has begun.
Well said, Kathi!
Not so fast on VP Harris. Move faster on changing national strategy and messagin. Before I point out some differences, I want to commend writers like Josiah who offer constructive criticism and comments.
VP Harris has yet to demonstrate growth in her leadership skills and expertise on issues ranging from immigration to Ukraine . She had 3 1/2 years as VP and previous experience as a Senator and AG. However, her strengths seem limited to articulating social issues. The Queen (“King”) wears no clothes. Her uneven appearances are evidence of not growing with the job.
As Bob wrote: "Switching will give us a candidate who can hammer away at Trump's corruption, bigotry, misogyny, racism, fascism, nepotism, ignorance, idiocy, and mental decline (which Biden lacks the capacity or willingness to do), a candidate better able to sound the alarm about the plight of reproductive rights and the danger of the current Supreme Court."
The Democrats won't succeed if they focus only on social issues; they need to address more immediate concerns. I have yet to read of Harris’s accomplishments or powerful speaking on economic issues, immigration, and international issues.
The Democrats won't succeed with Harris or anyone else if they keep the same team responsible for political missteps in debate preparation, poor messaging over 3+ years, and constant failure to predict and respond to Trump. Trump was prepared and focused on his messaging (despite its falsehoods) and his team was strategic. Look at how quickly national Republicans spoke in unison after the verdict (Reynolds issued her press statement 11 minutes after the verdict), contrasted with the silence of anti-MAGA voices. During the debate, it seemed the preparation team was playing checkers to Trump's chess.
Harris has yet to prove she can be the top of the ticke. For the good of the country (as is often said about Biden), Harris should be approached with two options: stay on the ticket as VP and improve her image in the coming weeks, or be replaced by another woman or person of color. Biden's replacement could also be another woman or POC, reducing the need for a specific VP candidate. If the goal of the “never Biden” side is to make a change to defeat Trump, that standard should apply to a Biden replacement. Harris falls short.
To only focus on whether Biden should say or go, it's easy to make a binary choice. However, progressives and Democrats have yet to demonstrate the ability to plan for the next steps, predict Republican actions, or plan for contingencies. Replacing Biden with Harris without a change in strategy and messaging would be a mistake.
With these criticisms in mind, I am also not confident that an open convention would be successful at coalescing people and unifying opposition to Trump. In the past days since the debate, here have been opportunities to unify around issues, messaging, and need to support down-ballot issues, or specifically respond to the Trump Court, or Project 2025. D’s did not have a contingency plan for a national response to the Trump court on immunity or the accelerating extreme views of Project 2025 (calling for a second revolution), I do not trust this same team of D and progressive leaders to organize a convention.
Changing national support team, including consultants should be in the works. I want national leaders and strategies which predict Republican actions and plan for contingencies, rather than only playing defense or being defensive. Replacing Biden with Harris without a change in strategy and messaging would be a mistake.
Really important points Ralph. So, so important to change strategy and messaging. You would think they would have it figured out by now. Messaging should always be about values first then policy. Any thoughts on strategy? Once again, I appreciate your knowledge and wisdom. Thanks.
In five minutes, I received 5 comments on what is my strategy. I just posted my strategy on my Because We are all in this Together substack.
Here is the link to Ralph's important ideas. https://ralphrosenberg.substack.com/p/3-dissents-and-4-constructive-solutions/comments
I agree with you completely. President Biden must frame a decision along the lines of “retirement.” His choosing retirement would be a well earned capping of an accomplishment filled career. History would judge him superbly well, particularly for his volunteering and succeeding in blocking the worst and most vile of all Presidents. But also, his would stand the test of time as probably the highest level of accomplishment for the American people in any single term. He must realize and bring his own mind to regarding it not as failure (a lost election would surely end his career in a sad state of failure) but as the wisdom of knowing how and when to go out on top.
As much as I might find excitement in someone new, Vice President Harris would also surely be the smartest, most expeditious, and most unifying Presidential candidate. Let newness excitement be for the Vice President. Sane Republican strategists greatly fear this scenario.
In the Iowa statehouse my area is represented by a loyal Reynolds Republican apparatchik. It seemed puzzlingly bizarre for an entire issue of his weekly emails to be a calm insisting that turning away from President Biden by Democrats would be an improper ignoring of the will of their voters. Coming from someone who is seldom calm or reasoned in his disparagement and vilification of President Biden, it was momentarily baffling. Then I realized, of course, it was almost certainly a copy and paste transmission from a Republican Party which is convinced that their greatest and perhaps only chance of victory lies in running against President Biden.
I agree with everything Mr. Leonard wrote, with a caveat: I'm uncertain how Kamala Harris would fare in Iowa, as Kim Reynolds' opponent, Deidre DeJear, was thoruougly drubbed even though she was, by far, the most qualified candidate. I hadn't realized how , dare I say it, racist, Iowa has become.
Good point. And sadly, many of the leaders of the Democratic party in Iowa didn't get behind Deidre.
And it all comes back to Iowa Democratic leadership. Are they doing what is best for Iowans, or are they doing what is best for the party? The Democrats in Iowa suffer from the same “illness” as the Republicans: politicians who have been in service way too long and don’t want to give up their power; to the detriment of Iowans. We need politicians who not only speak out, but are not afraid to raise their voice (literally) and tell things as they are. Al Gore and our present party leadership in the legislature suffer from the same problem: monotone and elitist presentation of the facts. Come on!! Raise your voice and call a spade a spade!!
I realize the thread is old now, shouldn’t the topic be altered to whether President should remain in office, rather than remain a candidate? I fear his resistance and defiance is a real detriment to his performance as Commander in Chief. How on earth can we have him in charge when he says he needs reminders to get more sleep, etc.? Same issue I have/had with Trump---unsafe at the wheel, unsafe with the power to wipe out humanity. Doesn’t anyone feel deceived and disgusted that his condition has been kept under wraps?
Maybe. The interview with ABC didn't help him. Factual errors and arrogance. "Only God," can make him leave the race. And that if he loses to Trump he will be OK because he knows he did his best? Give me a break. And the media didn't do its job telling us how poorly he is doing. The sad thing is Republicans have been telling us this for a long time. I thought it was spin. And since they lie about everything, I figured that they were lying about this. I was wrong.
And he’s quoted as saying “goodest” rather than “best”--Maybe he has always used that word. I don’t know. But it struck me as odd....
I’m angry at the coverup by all those around the President. And very concerned by his defiance. Maybe even his wife can’t convince him....
He is not thinking clearly. It’s not a matter of being unable to come up with words.
I still think it will be Harris. One more slip up and more representatives will call for him to withdraw.
NYT has reported that the quote “goodest” was changed. The resulting sentence is even more confusing. I learned that the White House uses stenographers. Imagine trying to accurately transcribe what some of our Presidents say!!
Your arguments are persuasive, Bob. And I would like to underline how they help the Dems reclaim the idea of patriotism. I'm sick to my bones of hearing Republicans talk as if they own patriotism, despite so much evidence to the contrary.
Yes, it's revolting. Trump is a traitor as are his enablers.
Great article. It is time for a change
Once again you have provided some information that had not been available to me as I had no idea that his physical condition had weakened that much. Apparently the media has over stressed his ability to meet with a number of people. I absolutely agree that Kamala would be a great replacement. She will also give Trump the opportunity to display his disrespect for women, especially one who is not "pure white."
Thanks for the interview of Harris during an earlier campaign. Very informative and inspiring.
And thanks for putting this piece together so rapidly.
Hope the President’s aides read this ASAP before his next interview.....
I think I (we) are a growing number of writers heading this direction. I know people high up in the party will read this, and I hope they see us as a growing wave of people against Biden staying in office. Hopefully soon to be a tsunami...
Biden was here in Madison today, and while he looked (relatively) better than he did at the debate, nothing he said & nothing in the way he carried himself has changed my mind. Stepping aside now would be the honorable thing to do.
Thank you for the update on Matt Fidel. We got to know each other in Story County working for Cory Booker. Mr. Fidel is going places. Dozens of us hoped he would be our future son-in-law. I wish him all the best.
So, so tru!
Agree Harris is the likeliest successor candidate but not the strongest. Too closely linked to Biden’s progressive capitulations (student debt, infrastructure spending, etc.) and so beating Trump would still be a reach. More likely a Whitmer, Klobuchar, etc that would fulfill the majority (75%) voters’ wish for an alternative to both Biden and Trump. An open convention could provide one.
I agree student debt has been a mixed bag. But infrastructure spending? That's a major victory. Thanks, Bob
Should have said "inflation", an unintended but inevitable consequence of over-spending by the government, typified by the infrastructure bill and prior bills under both recent administrations.
I've been called a "fiscal Reaganite".
Sure, but I don't think so. You are more fiscally responsible. Reagan took the deficit from 70 billion to 175 billion. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/jul/29/tweets/republican-presidents-democrats-contribute-deficit/
Thanks for this, Robert. Full disclosure, I have always been a fan of the VP. She is articulate, capable, intelligent, and carries built-in strengths of actual leadership, police reform strategies, in addition to her other policy goals. I believe it is time for President Harris.
Bob after reading your comments, I would say that at this late stage in the current election cycle, I agree with your assessment. I am not at all sure if Joe Biden will be influenced by outside pressures except perhaps if the donor monies continue to dry up. He honestly believes that he is the best candidate to defeat Trump again. At present, the polls suggest otherwise.
Thanks for the clip of her interrogating Bill Barr. I hadn't seen her in action before. She was formidable!
Watching her in the Senate is what first drew me to her.
This would be a win win for all.
I think we are truly facing a revolution of upresidented magnitude that was put before us by both parties, neither of whom have a real interest in doing the right thing for the country. Everything currently is about money, and finding excuses to support things that will make rich people richer at almost every level of government. There are no real conservatives with any intent on making government work well based on reasonable concepts that will make it happen, instead we are faced with people hell-bent on destroying any sort of cooperative effort to make government work well and effectively. Dealing with the office of President, the choices the voter must make are ones' we had little choice about in the first place.The Republican caucus gave us someone who can't simply tell the truth about anything and now is a convicted felon, while the Democrats gave us a chpice of a deathering old man who had twice been rejected for the job previously, and only because deals were struck to insure Sanders wouldn't be the noninee! Sanders is still in top form, where "slow Joe" keeps reminding us we should have had better choices than Hillary or Biden. Certainly there are Republicans who feel the same about Trump, but can't bring themselves to vote for Biden either! My concience says no one intends to fix the problem with someone better on either side and voting for a third party might be rather hopeless, but at least it is an honest attempt to show my contempt for the entire process that once was considered "Democratic". Now that the derailment appears to be near complete, and the cars are now piling up , we all can expect the worst from here on out for those on the bottom, which most of us will find ourselves, assuming we survive at all!