Kamala / Walz 2024

Definitely a better starting point for any politician.

Sheā€™s ostensibly driven to make political change. she has run a successful political campaign. Well, two really, she had the gubernatorial election stolen. After that, she started a PAC dedicated to improving the strength of our democratic systems and by all accounts it is doing good work.

ok Iā€™m sold

Sheā€™s raised millions of dollars to reduce voter suppression and is actively creating infrastructure across the country to increase and protect voting rights. A picture of her in a cape isnā€™t the rebuttal you seem to think it is. Thatā€™s some serious basement-keyboard-warrior shit.

I guess a more relevant point is, even if she completely lacks principles, so what? As it has been pointed out numerous times, nearly every politician who has accomplished anything major in the way of advancing civil rights or other humanist causes has been contemptible in one way or another. FDR, LBJ, hell, MLK was a womanizer evidently. Lincoln was a racist. Bernie Sanders voted against background checks and liability for gun manufacturers. Who fucking cares? The world is messy, not everyone shares your particular views on what is right and ethical and we live in a diverse society and our political system reflects that, and even if it wasnā€™t so poorly designed, it still wouldnā€™t give rise to super-principled politicians. It takes compromise to get shit done in our system.

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Sure. But in that case your best bet is someone like FDR or LBJ, who were actually extremely accomplished politicians. Instead the media keeps trying to make things like unemployed dreamboat Beeto Oā€™Rourke and unemployed (judging by that photo, superhero???) Stacey Abrams happen. Itā€™s not going to happen!

Abrams is a state rep who lost a governors race in a closer than expected contest where there was likely rampant voter fraud from Kemp. The next cycle thereā€™s an open winnable senate seat in Georgia and she declines to run. Instead, she joins the board of the Center for American Progress and starts a PAC. Earlier this year she campaigned with Mike Bloomberg after he gave her PAC 5 million dollars. A few weeks ago she joined the board of Bidenā€™s super PAC.

She has no accomplishments, and no history to suggest that she would govern in a progressive way. She has no national profile but decided against running for a very winnable senate seat in her home state to instead spend a few years running for VP. She works for Neera Tanden and has campaigned with Bloomberg and Biden.

What is it that we like about this person besides the fact that Biden is an old white guy and sheā€™s a young black woman?

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Stacey is pretty suspect right now. She took Bloomberg money to make sure we never have a Native American Vice President.

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Damn is she really crushed Winona LaDuke Iā€™m sad, she should be the president.

Ok, but this is a different critique than just a naked attack on her character based on essentially nothing.

I donā€™t know that accomplishments in the political realm in the way that you seem to be implying really matters all that much. Barak Obama hadnā€™t accomplished much prior to his Presidency. He won a senate seat, but in a very liberal state. Iā€™d say Abrams losing* the way she did in fucking Georgia is on par with that. And, despite his flaws, Barak Obama is going to go down as one of the best Presidents we have had, certainly from an ethics perspective (note, Iā€™m making a relative comparison there). And I canā€™t help but think that by the time Stacy Abrams put in the time accomplishing enough things for you to be satisfied that sheā€™s sufficiently accomplished, at that point she would be irredeemably compromised by ā€œthe establishment.ā€ I mean, she already is for some of you. Youā€™re pretty much setting expectations that appear to be shifting and wonā€™t ever be met.

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All of this. She would likely be a US Senator next year but instead she wanted to try to gun for VP and take Bloomberg money. Iā€™m sure sheā€™s getting kickbacks or whatever as part of that.

Ok, this is actually an argument.

The money Bloomberg donated went to Fair Fight to be used to fight voter suppression, right? If thatā€™s the case, who cares?

Your point about her declining to run for the Senate is well-taken. I forgot about that, and itā€™s pretty disappointing.

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I have no idea what Fair Fight actually does or how they use their money. Maybe in 4-8 years if she can point to some actual accomplishments or at least fights that theyā€™ve been on the right side of, then we can talk.

I am inherently suspicious of an organization that seems to have no expenditures besides administrative costs and funneling money to the Democratic Party, and who also got 5 million dollars from Mike Bloomberg this year. Weā€™ll see.

Barack*.

I know itā€™s not your intention, but when you misspell his name more than once in the same post it makes it look like how right wingers intentionally misspell names or emphasize his middle name as an attempted slur of sorts.

As for Abrams, her not running for the Senate seat was a pretty infuriating misstep. Her taking Bloomberg money and jumping on board with him then Biden makes it certainly seem like sheā€™s not a progressive. There are certainly better VP options.

Also, I did not interpret that Abrams/Biden clip to be nearly as bad as it is being made out to be. It would have been a weird way for Biden to announce her as VP, and what he said didnā€™t remove her from the running in any way.

Fair enough.

The misspelling wasnā€™t intentional. I just suck at spelling, so when Iā€™m writing casually, I usually make a lot of mistakes.

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Basically this. If you turn down a winnable senate contest to do something like this, then you REALLY need some bullet points on that resumƩ item before anyone can seriously consider you for something like the VP slot of the oldest presidential candidate in history.

ā€œsheā€™s ambitiousā€ is a cheap shot. Every politician is ambitious, I donā€™t really care about that.

But yeah, it should raise a red flag the way the eDems and cable news are trying so hard to make her a thing despite her extremely limited resume. Her claim to fame is that she had a governorship stolen from her, and then Schumer hand-picks her to give a SOTU response? Sheā€™s happy to cozy up to Bloomberg, thatā€™s a big warning sign. Now thereā€™s this completely artificial push to get her on a presidential ticket. Itā€™s clear that sheā€™s ready to play ball for the establishment and moneyed interests and the DNC is grooming her to be the next Nancy Pelosi.

On the one hand, I would prefer someone with more experience in the event that Biden dies. On the other hand, thereā€™s some chance that she ends up being a stealth progressive who is more to the left than we imagine, while a VP who is more known quantity is much more likely to be a confirmed centrist, so she has more upside than an establishment pick.

Sheā€™s in no way perfect, but is she better than the who Biden would pick if she were not an option?

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She is electoral suicide.

So is Biden, maybe it cancels out

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