Well, the VP slot is a good resume builder if it allows you to become POTUS via succession, without the need to face those pesky voters and actually win an election.

in the same vein that libs siezed on every cough Trump got to suggest he would die, or would be impeached and pass it along to Pence, i find the narrative that Biden will die to be silly. He has healthcare to keep him in decent health for decades unless he gets some crazy advanced disease. Shit they pulled trump through covid in like a week without issue. KH taking the backdoor into the oval office imo is wasted breath. She was brought on for inclusion as a woman of color.

I was not talking about Biden dying, I was primarly thinking about Biden stepping down and passing the baton to Harris.

Say Biden does not want to run for reelection due to his age and declining strength - wouldn't it make a lot of sense for him to step down at some point in 2023 or in early 2024, so that Harris can go into the general election as the incumbent and use all the advantages that come with it?

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Aug 5 2021 10:08am

no, it doesnt make any sense. because the advantages of incumbency are related to the person having won already and earned the office, as well as a record of service while in office they can directly say they pushed for.

its one of the silly things in US politics, the vice presidency in practice is largely ceremonial, they're a hype man, but we also hold VP records against them for some silly reason(Pence/Biden, etc). Cheney is one of the few VPs ever that can have a legislative and executorial record actually attached to him.

Harris would be running on the reputation of being handed the presidency, meanwhile facing any Biden scandals as a part of the "regime", meanwhile not being able to cite victories because people will be quick to attribute those to Biden due to her not earning her spot.

that would be a terrible mistake for the DNC.

This post was edited by thesnipa on Aug 5 2021 10:57am

yeah things are so polarized and shift so quickly now that being VP is not the stepping stone it used to be.

come to think of it, hasn’t been that way for some time. Bush Senior is the last one who won directly after his term as VP. Gore lost, Quayle didnt even get the nod, Mondale got landslided, Nixon lost then won 8 years later. LBJ and Truman dont really count since the President died in office when they were VP. To get a VP other than Bush Senior who won the Presidency immediately after his VP term we have to go back to Martin Van Buuren!!

Cheney's fault imo. he changed the position from the "learning to be potus" as it was known to secret scary mastermind. Pence was accused of influencing Trump to make crazy religious policy, Harris now will be criticized as if she's spoonfeeding Biden CRT. Biden mostly avoided this by being the likeable jokester that he is, he let Obama take the L's and was there with sunglasses on to look cool and shoot crowd members thumbs ups when they took W's.

That and he has the privilege of buddies from across the aisle in the legislature like Cocaine Mitch and Lindsay "breakthrough" Graham when he needs a vouch. His service record is a double edged sword, had to dodge bullets in primaries over 1970s stuff, gives him centrist appeal due to maybe being able to work with senate, and as he's seen it all told all he was a return to normalcy (read: status quo 90s-2000s politics).

And he's an old white dude, so he doesn't personally symbolize liberal indentity politics the way Obama, Hillary or Kamala do. To be fair to Obama, he didn't personally play up the historic nature of his presidency, he let others do it. By contrast, Hillary and Kamala explicitly tried to score woke points as an electoral strategy.

It wouldn't work to go back to a candidate like Reagan. The American right-wing has changed... any candidate who doesn't stoke the anger and resentment of the base has no shot.

There's just a fundamental difference between the left and the right in America. Obama was an aspirational candidate... whereas Trump was the candidate of grievance and anger. Biden's message in 2020 was definitely a positive one. I still believe there's something spiritually dark and dangerous about the direction the right-wing has gone... there's a level of cruelty and vice signaling that I never thought would be acceptable in any major party.

This post was edited by IceMage on Aug 5 2021 12:22pm

yes, Kamala tried, and failed, to symbolize liberal identity politics. she's an Aunt Tom to half of the black community or more and called a snitch openly. Obama by comparison is resoundingly supported.

Obama and Kamala dont beling together in this post. at all.