I facetiously posted a couple weeks ago about the possibility that Bidenâs campaign was an op to hype people up for Harris. I donât think thatâs true, but the dynamic is there. The drama around Bidenâs age raises the salience of basic qualifications, then you swoop in and replace too-old Biden with normal-candidate-shaped person Harris.
I think Biden also tripped himself up with his desire to be recognized for his policy achievements. Contra conventional wisdom around here, people donât reward you for achievements, and they have a much shorter memory for the upside of every trade off you make than for the downside. Very particularly, there are lots of moderate-to-conservative voters who think Trump is awful, but who are also turned off by the idea of a transformative liberal president. Part of the reason the abortion issue works so well is that itâs Trump making big radical changes.
Without a real primary to fight, Harris definitely has the luxury to just ignore the base and not make any grandiose promises she has to walk back now. She can just focus on whatever helps her win.
He has this little president side hustle still though
Jesus. 
Iâm not deluded enough to think that the electorate as a whole feels this way, but I personally miss having kitschy nice things in politics like this. Bushâs welcome note to Clinton, McCain cutting that birther woman off in the town hall, Jimmy Carterâs entire existence.
I actually said âWhoaâ out loud at this one.
I mean they made up all the shit about Biden being some Dr. Evil super villain when heâs really just a sleepy old geezer who loves ice cream, but surely theyâll see the error of their ways and not just make up a ton of racist and sexist conspiratorial shit about Kamala and really dig into her policy positions.
That Tweet is a little premature!
Right.
People who were buying âLetâs Go Brandonâ gear will just find their reason to not vote for Kamala. Those people are already gone.
My parents and in-laws have changed from being somewhat Trumpy to âI just wish both candidates werenât so oldâ during this cycle. I have no doubts that theyâll find another reason to not vote for Kamala and pull the lever for Trump, but those people arenât the ones weâre trying to convert.
Thanks for the jinx
I would say 95% of people in this situation are going to buy into the âsheâs just a DEI candidate, she didnât earn it, they just gave it to herâ narrative. I would guess that is what the right will consolidate around to keep their base and âbase adjacentâ people in line.
If a black man becoming president sent the bigots lawnmowers into orbit, I would pay admission to see their heads literally explode when tRUmp loses to a black woman.
One time, dealer.
God, yesterday felt remarkably good. Iâm optimistic.
Anyway, whatever Pritzker was thinking about, he seems to be done thinking about it.
I think that was fake from the start
Perhaps, but he was slower than most relevant Dems to do this. If your profile is high enough then silence alone says, or at least hints at, something. So I tend to think he was at least taking a minute to assess his options before realizing that those options were thoroughly cooked.
(I acknowledge that itâs absurd that an endorsement less than 24 hours after the spot opens up could qualify as meaningful âsilence,â but itâs 2024.)
The infotainment space loves drama. Both the mainstream news networks and the social media commentariat would like someone to oppose Kamala because that gives them an easy thing to generate clickable content.
Arenât her parents communist foreigners?
So sheâs KGB.
