"Kaine brought good and solid credentials. But the difference between a Cory [Booker] and Tim Kaine could’ve closed the enthusiasm gap."

"Looking back on it, it’s fair for people to ask if we should’ve factored enthusiasm more into it."

Said Minyon Moore, a political activist who worked on the VP selection process with the Hillary Clinton campaign, quoted in "Black Leaders Want a Black Woman as Biden’s Running Mate. But Who?/Among black leaders close to Joe Biden, a commitment to selecting a woman is not enough. They have publicly and privately pushed him to select a black woman to fuel black voter enthusiasm" (NYT). The "enthusiasm" she's talking about is the enthusiasm of black voters.

From the Wikipedia article on Minyon Moore:

Minyon Moore graduated from Boston University's Film School with a certificate in digital film-making... Together with Donna Brazile, Leah Daughtry, Tina Flournoy and Yolanda Caraway, Moore is a member of the informal group the "Colored Girls," described by political columnist Matt Bai as "several African-American women who had reached the highest echelons of Democratic politics." Governor Howard Dean, former chair of the DNC, who had one of his dinners with the Colored Girls on the night of the 2014 midterm elections, said their perspective was important. "They’re very rare Washington insiders who understand the rest of the country," Mr. Dean said. "That’s part of what makes them so valuable. These women have not lost their connections with where they came from." In 2018, Moore, Brazile, Daughtry, and Caraway published For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics, a joint memoir and history of their time in politics.

The title of that memoir strongly suggests that their choice of that particular racial term was influenced by the 1970s play, "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf." The playwright, Ntozake Shange, has said that she used that word "so her grandmother would be able to understand it."

Back to the question of picking a running mate. It's hard to believe, in retrospect, that Hillary picked Tim Kaine. It's hard even to remember him. But — for whatever reason — she resisted the pressure to choose an African-American running mate. Perhaps she wanted to go all-out stressing her potential status as the first woman President. What's the good of complicating the diversity messaging with the idea of the first black Vice President when we're succeeding the first black President?

In that light, you can see why Joe Biden is more susceptible to the pressure to pick a black person for his running mate. He's already committed to picking a woman, but there have been women vice presidential candidates twice before, and it's already a step down from last time to have the woman in the secondary position. It's not a very exciting Diversity! celebration. It's just another instance of an old white man — a boring party stalwart — trying to add what he lacks. The only way for Biden to do anything different from what McCain did — and what Mondale did 30 years ago — is to make that woman he's promised to pick a black woman.

So the interesting question is whether Kamala Harris or Stacey Abrams is the better pick. Now that I've posed the question, I think the answer is obvious, but I'll do a poll before I reveal my answer. And I do realize that there's some talk about Michelle Obama. I'm not seeing that as a real possibility, and I want to keep this poll simple:

Assuming Joe Biden decides he must pick a black woman as his running mate, which choice is the smarter choice for him?

Kamala Harris

Stacey Abrams

 

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