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In Kamala Harris, a Choice at Once Safe and Energizing
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/11/us/politics/kamala-harris-joe-biden-running-mate.htmlHer selection as Joe Biden’s running mate was conventional by some political standards. But it was historic most of all, and especially sweet for many Black women.
WASHINGTON — In naming Kamala Harris as his running mate, Joseph R. Biden Jr. made a groundbreaking decision, picking a woman of color to be vice president and, possibly, a successor in the White House someday. Yet in some ways, Mr. Biden made a conventional choice: elevating a senator who brings generational and coastal balance to the Democratic ticket and shares his center-left politics at a time of progressive change in the party.
Unlike Barack Obama and George W. Bush, who selected veteran Washington hands as their vice presidents, Mr. Biden, 77, is opting for a time-honored model in which running mates are not just governing partners but political understudies of sorts. Pegged as a rising star for a decade, but with less than four years of experience in the Senate — she was 8 years old when Mr. Biden was first elected to the chamber — Ms. Harris, 55, reflects a traditional archetype in an election year that has been anything but normal.
She is also a thoroughly establishment-friendly figure, as is Mr. Biden: Both have hewed closely to their party’s mainstream for years, shifting left with the times but always with an eye on the broader electorate and higher office. He long said he wanted someone “simpatico” with him and, in Ms. Harris, he found that person, at least when it comes to ideology.
“She’s not of the far left of the party, she’s a former prosecutor,” Janet Napolitano, the former Arizona governor and Homeland Security secretary, said of Ms. Harris. “And when you’re a prosecutor, you have to make some tough calls.”
While it may repel some younger liberals, Ms. Harris’s history as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general may be more asset than liability for more moderate voters, as it has been for Ms. Napolitano and so many women in politics who began their ascent as prosecutors.
That law enforcement pedigree, which Ms. Harris also shares with Mr. Biden’s late son Beau, is only part of the reason he turned to her, though.
WASHINGTON — In naming Kamala Harris as his running mate, Joseph R. Biden Jr. made a groundbreaking decision, picking a woman of color to be vice president and, possibly, a successor in the White House someday. Yet in some ways, Mr. Biden made a conventional choice: elevating a senator who brings generational and coastal balance to the Democratic ticket and shares his center-left politics at a time of progressive change in the party.
Unlike Barack Obama and George W. Bush, who selected veteran Washington hands as their vice presidents, Mr. Biden, 77, is opting for a time-honored model in which running mates are not just governing partners but political understudies of sorts. Pegged as a rising star for a decade, but with less than four years of experience in the Senate — she was 8 years old when Mr. Biden was first elected to the chamber — Ms. Harris, 55, reflects a traditional archetype in an election year that has been anything but normal.
She is also a thoroughly establishment-friendly figure, as is Mr. Biden: Both have hewed closely to their party’s mainstream for years, shifting left with the times but always with an eye on the broader electorate and higher office. He long said he wanted someone “simpatico” with him and, in Ms. Harris, he found that person, at least when it comes to ideology.
“She’s not of the far left of the party, she’s a former prosecutor,” Janet Napolitano, the former Arizona governor and Homeland Security secretary, said of Ms. Harris. “And when you’re a prosecutor, you have to make some tough calls.”
While it may repel some younger liberals, Ms. Harris’s history as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general may be more asset than liability for more moderate voters, as it has been for Ms. Napolitano and so many women in politics who began their ascent as prosecutors.
That law enforcement pedigree, which Ms. Harris also shares with Mr. Biden’s late son Beau, is only part of the reason he turned to her, though.
1 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
closer than the "centrist" I saw reported today.
I hadn't thought of this.. the.. "coastal balance".. 
"..elevating a senator who brings generational and coastal balance to the Democratic ticket and shares his center-left politics at a time of progressive change in the party."