June 19, 2020

"America must seize on the moment and I truly believe — as I actually told the VP last night when I called him — that I think this is a moment to put a woman of color on that ticket."

Said Amy Klobuchar, who says she called Biden on Wednesday to tell him she was withdrawing from competition for the VP slot, NBC News reports.

I think we all already knew her chance was blown:
In the immediate aftermath of Floyd’s killing, Klobuchar’s time as chief prosecutor for Hennepin County came back under scrutiny, specifically the lack of prosecutions she pursued in cases of police brutality....

Asked if those questions about her past record on police brutality would have made it harder for her in the role of vice presidential nominee, Klobuchar said Thursday: "I think I could've functioned fine and there's a lot of untruths out there about my record and now is not the time to debate those."
So what I hear in her effort at a high-minded statement is an undercutting of the other women who are in the running. First, Elizabeth Warren — who is not a woman of color except in her memory of younger days when family lore and a desire to identify were enough. Why step on her chances, Amy? Second, all the various black women who are in the running. Amy is ensuring that when one of them is picked, everyone will believe they were picked because of their race.

92 comments:

Expat(ish) said...

I am gonna need more popcorn!

But what do we do if Joe comes out of his basement (slowly?) and sees his shadow?

-XC

Greg Hlatky said...

everyone will believe they were picked because of their race.

There doesn't seem to be much doubt about that, isn't there?

R C Belaire said...

From this point through November, it's all race, all the time. Those of us who simply want to live our lives won't be left alone.

Gahrie said...

Second, all the various black women who are in the running. Amy is ensuring that when one of them is picked, everyone will believe they were picked because of their race.

I thought Biden already did that by declaring he was looking for a female Black VP.

cbuds said...

all the various black women who are in the running. Amy is ensuring that when one of them is picked, everyone will believe they were picked because of their race.

But they will be.

tds said...

"Amy is ensuring that when one of them is picked, everyone will believe they were picked because of their race"

WTF, I love Amy Klobuchar now!

Temujin said...

"...everyone will believe they were picked because of their race."

Well, yeah. That is the giant elephant in the room with the entire concept of affirmative action. And it often promotes the wrong person who is put into that position- whether it be acceptance to law school, DA of Atlanta, or Vice President of the US- which is above their actual experience, knowledge, and capabilities.

Understand, I am NOT saying a black woman cannot be VP. But I AM saying that selecting this person because she (a) has no penis and (b) has darker skin than Amy does, is like buying a car because you like the name of the street the dealer is on. It makes no sense and has zero bearing on the performance of the person who is about to be Veep. (or entering law school, or becoming DA in Atlanta.) So people will see the Stacy Abrams or Kamala Harris effect taking place and think to themselves- affirmative action hire.

It does not help anyone to do this: not the black community, and not our country as a whole. It helps Kamala. No one else.

Michael K said...

Stacey Abrams is available and has the Atlanta example for success.

TheThinMan said...

But Biden, in turn, guaranteed that any woman he picked was because of her sex.

wendybar said...

Bahahahhaha…..Never mind if she can actually DO the job, we just want diversity, as it is the only way Joe can EVER be elected. Losers.

wendybar said...

Why is it that all Progressives see when they look at you, is YOUR color???

Dave Begley said...

It will be Harris; Barack’s choice. Kamala is the female Barack.

And Joe will step down before Labor Day. He can’t debate Trump. It would be a blood bath.

Jamie said...

everyone will believe they were picked because of their race.

My quite progressive daughter, who will be voting for the first time in a presidential election this fall, was utterly disgusted when Biden said he planned to choose a woman of color for his VP, for exactly this reason.

campy said...

"... everyone will believe they were picked because of their race."

And everyone will be right.

JAORE said...

".... when one of them is picked, everyone will believe they were picked because of their race."

Amy has very little to do with that belief.

Even my ultra liberal brother said Biden was a fool to say his VP will have to be a woman.

Events have since herded get-along-Joe into the must be a black woman corner.

(Does ANYONE think a Hispanic woman would be satisfactory to the AA base?)

rhhardin said...

You don't want women in charge of money.

mezzrow said...

It's almost as if she understands that whoever he chooses will be a small footnote in the history book. Stick around, Amy.

Once in love with Amy, always in love with Amy
Ever and ever fascinated by her, sets your heart afire to stay.
Once you're kissed by Amy, tear up your list it's Amy
Ply her with bonbons, poetry, and flowers, moon a million hours away.
You might be quite the fickle-hearted rover so carefree and bold
Who loves a girl and later thinks it over and just quits cold.
But once in love with Amy, always in love with Amy
Ever and ever sweetly you'll romance her, trouble is the answer will be
That Amy would rather stay in love with me.
Always in love with Amy
Ever and ever fascinated by her, sets your heart afire to stay.
Get rid of your list it's Amy
Ply her with bonbons, poetry, and flowers, moon a million hours away.
You might be quite the fickle-hearted rover so carefree and bold
Who loves a girl and later thinks it over and just quits cold.
But once in love with Amy, always in love with Amy
Ever and ever sweetly you'll romance her, trouble is the answer will be
That Amy would rather stay in love with me.

Jersey Fled said...

I must admit that I'm getting bored with all this.

BTW I really do believe that Trump should do an ad with Joe coming out of his basement and seeing his shadow.

And then returning to his basement.

jpg said...

And sex.

traditionalguy said...

You cannot beat Amy klobuchar with BS. She wins those contests. Which means the Dems just gave up on their strongest candidate. Bad Orange Man Trump got lucky again.

Kevin said...

What a halfhearted measure!

A real non-racist would call for Biden to step down so the party could run an all-black ticket.

Laslo Spatula said...

From Wiki:

""If U Seek Amy" (radio-edited as "If U See Amy") is a song recorded by American singer Britney Spears for her sixth studio album, Circus (2008)...

The title, "If U Seek Amy", is a pun, meaning to sound like "F-U-C-K me" when heard in the chorus, "All of the boys and all of the girls are begging to, if you seek Amy." [10] This wordplay was compared to passages of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and James Joyce's Ulysses where characters covertly spell out profanities, songs by Memphis Slim, R. Stevie Moore, April Wine, Poster Children and The Script entitled "If You See Kay,"[11] and the title of Van Halen's 1991 album, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.[12]..."

Klobuchar missed a great campaign t-shirt opportunity.

I am Laslo.

Fernandinande said...

In the immediate aftermath of Floyd’s killing,

He wasn't killed, he died from a heart attack.

bgates said...

everyone will believe they [sic] were picked because of their [sic] race.

You're writing about one woman. Use she/her.

I don't think it goes far enough to say this result is expected. I think it could be celebrated, at least in the rarified atmosphere of a Democratic convention. Imagine the nominee in her acceptance speech saying, "Let me be clear: I was not chosen for this role based on some antiquated, white supremacist notion of 'merit'. I was chosen because I am a woman, and because I am black."

She would get the longest sustained standing ovation in the history of American politics.

Michael said...

Stacy Abrams is a vile racist. She is fatter than Taft. Way fatter. Zero discipline food wise. None. But were she elected maybe she could be on the pancake mix box.

Howard said...

Well, Suh. Amy is if nothing else a DNC team player. She is letting us know that Warren is not the fair-haired girl of the power structure of the Democrat Party. Amy doesn't take a dump without permission. Its funny your reasoning seems so high school gossip shallow fragile. I think you're foray into deplorable anthropology has made you delicate and emotional like the subject you are studying and manipulating.

DanTheMan said...

Don't you people read Supreme Court decisions?
Please stop confusing sex with gender.
Biden could pick a man who identifies as a woman and anybody who claimed she wasn't a real woman would be a hater.

DanTheMan said...

>>In the immediate aftermath of Floyd’s killing,

>He wasn't killed, he died from a heart attack.

So, he just happened to have a heart attack while somebody was kneeling on his neck?
What a coincidence!

Gunner said...

In other news, Stacy Abrams is withdrawing from consideration of being a Victoria Secret model.

Josephbleau said...

We old white guys have our Democrat Pres candidate all locked up, The old white girls haven't got a chance now. We win!

Ignorance is Bliss said...

...as I actually told the VP last night...

She told Pence that?!?

Pence is the VP. Biden gets to retain the title, so he can be referred to as Vice President Biden. But he is not the VP.

ga6 said...

Remember the anonymous sources saying Amy is a nasty, vindictive person? She just proved them correct..

lgv said...

So Klobuchar was doomed for her failure to prosecute the Minneapolis police officer before. What no one on either side spends any time on is the actual event in which she chose not to prosecute. While the officer has rightfully been charged in the death of George Floyd, he was clearly not deserving of any prosecution in his previous altercation. But we can no longer consider that possibility. Any incident in the police officer's past was wrong and should have been prosecuted by definition.

Darrell said...

So, he just happened to have a heart attack while somebody was kneeling on his neck?

They found a fatal dose of fentanyl in his system. If Floyd were planting onion sets he would have still died.

Ralph L said...

Someone mentioned Harris as the choice. I thought Tulsi put a comb in that little girl during the debates.

Mike Sylwester said...

DanTheMan at 7:36 AM
So, he just happened to have a heart attack while somebody was kneeling on his neck? What a coincidence!

The police officer was kneeling on Floyd's neck because Floyd was suffering a heart attack -- atrial fibrillation caused by drugs and emotional stress.

The police officer was minimizing Floyd's physical movements.

There is no coincidence here. Floyd's heart attack caused the police officer to kneel on Floyd's neck. It was a cause-and-effect situation.

Birkel said...

Klobuchar is acknowledging the truth.

But Durbin calls Tim Scott a token.

It is always projection.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

They should run Aunt Jemima on the Democrat ticket to make up for all the racist pancakes we have been eating for the last hundred years.

Any black face will seem to do...why not Aunt Jemima!

DanTheMan said...

>They found a fatal dose of fentanyl in his system. If Floyd were planting onion sets he would have still died.

Even if that is true, it doesn't matter. If you shorten a person's life by 1 second, that's still homicide.

The classic law school example is you shoot someone falling past a skyscraper window. He was going to die when he hit the ground in a few seconds, but you still committed homicide.

Fernandinande said...

So, he just happened to have a heart attack while somebody was kneeling on his neck?

I wrote carelessly. It was actually cardiopulmonary arrest, caused by severe multifocal arteriosclerotic heart disease, high blood pressure, enlarged heart and a multi-drug overdose.

His "can't breathe" complaint, one of the symptoms of cardiac arrest, appeared before he was on the ground:

"While standing outside the car, Mr. Floyd began saying and repeating that he could not breath".

I expect they thought he was lying about not being able to breathe because he had just lied about being claustrophobic.

The police are not charged with killing him, they're charged with keeping him on the ground, rather than taking him to the hospital - read the complaint, linked above.

DanTheMan said...

>>The police officer was kneeling on Floyd's neck because Floyd was suffering a heart attack -- atrial fibrillation caused by drugs and emotional stress.

If you go to the ER with a heart attack, does the doctor pin you to the floor by kneeling on your neck?




Mary Beth said...

Klobuchar also got nice hefty donations from the National FOP. $10k in 2012 and $5k in 2016. It was fine then, but now it means she's insufficiently anti-police.

Kyzer SoSay said...

"family lore and a desire to identify"

family lies and a desire to benefit
_____________________________________

There, I fixed it.

tommyesq said...

Dave Begley said

It will be Harris; Barack’s choice. Kamala is the female Barack.

And Joe will step down before Labor Day. He can’t debate Trump. It would be a blood bath.


Kamala couldn't even beat Joe when he was losing badly to Sanders! In New Hampshire, for example, Biden came in 5th with 8.4% of the democratic vote (24,921 votes) which at the time was thought to doom his campaign. Harris received 104 votes, placing her 14th, behind such luminaries as Tom Steyer, Andrew Yang, Deval Patrick, and Joe Sestak (who???). Hell, there were 4,449 write-ins - "none of the above" received 42 times the votes Harris did!

tommyesq said...

Klobuchar is stepping aside (for a position she was never going to get) and asserting the slot should go to a Black woman in an attempt to white-wash her complicity in the systemic racism of the Minneapolis police department.

MayBee said...

It's tough because Joe is also going to have to run on the idea that his VP is ready to take over from day 1. And that was a problem for Sarah Palin, even though she was a governor. Let's see if Joe can find someone to tick all the boxes and convince voters she can run the country.
Does that leave only Kamala? But nobody voted for her in the primaries, and he's going to carry California anyway.

Mike Sylwester said...

DanTheMan at 8:20 AM
If you go to the ER with a heart attack, does the doctor pin you to the floor by kneeling on your neck?

In January, I myself went to an ER because I was suffering a heart attack -- atrial fibrillation.

I did not fight against the doctors. Therefore, the doctors did not pin me on the floor by kneeling on my neck.

Floyd, however, was fighting, struggling and thrashing around. In order to stop him from doing so, the police officer kneeled on Floyd's neck. The police officer probably prolonged Floyd's life for a while.

Unknown said...

Color is all that matters.

Michael K said...

If you go to the ER with a heart attack, does the doctor pin you to the floor by kneeling on your neck?

I dunno. Is the doctor trying to arrest you and you are resisting ?

DanTheMan said...

>>The police are not charged with killing him,

The charge is murder. They are absolutely positively charged with killing him. His medical condition and the drugs contributed, but Chauvin kneeling on his neck absolutely contributed to his death.



Birkel said...

DanTheMan,
Put on your defense attorney hat.
Apply your reasoning skills to the police defense.

Birkel said...

tommyesq,

I know you are mimicking the Leftist criticism of Klobuchar, but what is this systemic racism?
And what would the solution for it be?

I will not use that stupid lie because to accept the language is the first step in the way to destroying the best system ever devised for and by humans.

gspencer said...

I thought we got our fill of having had an affirmative action president. But, not so for some.

Static Ping said...

At this point, Amy Klobuchar bowing out of the VP race is the same as Trump declining to be the next pope. It wasn't going to happen, but it was nice for you to admit it.

iowan2 said...

lot of untruths out there about my record and now is not the time to debate those."

I must have run across this line a dozen times since the race riots. "now is not the time....insert what ever inconvenient truth rises up to slap the woke across the face.

Like, If Democrats have ruled these metropolises since the 60's, and black democrats have held the mayors offices for the last~20 years. Police chiefs and commissioners are black, captains and sergeants are black, street cops are black. If all of these woke, race conscious leaders haven't even addressed these issues, why does the Federal legislature, with overwhelmingly white leadership, have to take the reins away from black leaders at the local level?

Wince said...

Seems to me Althouse is discriminating against somewhere around half the population who between now and the election might discover that she is a woman.

iowan2 said...

If you go to the ER with a heart attack, does the doctor pin you to the floor by kneeling on your neck?

I haven't seen that done on TV medical shows.

But who knows what Docs would to if you were hopped up on an unknown drug cocktail, and were seeking medical help by passing counterfeit currency. As always, your mileage may vary.

DanTheMan said...

>>DanTheMan,
Put on your defense attorney hat.

I'll keep my patrolman's hat on, thanks. I'm a former police officer. I've arrested quite a few folks who put up a fight.

Remember that Chauvin kept kneeling on his neck for two minutes AFTER they could not find a pulse and he had clearly passed out.

Tom T. said...

It's also a huge vote of no confidence in Biden. She'd want to be on his staff's good side if she thought he was going to win.

Mal said...

Can someone explain how hiring a running mate based on sex and race is not a violation of Title VII?

DanTheMan said...

>>But who knows what Docs would to if you were hopped up on an unknown drug cocktail, and were seeking medical help by passing counterfeit currency.

He passed a fake 20. That's a petty theft misdemeanor charge for the property he got in exchange. The US Secret Service enforces counterfeiting laws, not your local PD.

At least when I was a cop, you couldn't make an arrest for a misdemeanor not committed in your presence (with a few exceptions).

Kai Akker said...

"Pence is the VP. Biden gets to retain the title, so he can be referred to as Vice President Biden. But he is not the VP." [IgnoranceisBliss]

Who's Pence? Biden is still and always the VP in their special world. Other interlopers are a fantasy.

Fernandinande said...

The charge is murder. They are absolutely positively charged with killing him.

Chauvin is charged with murder for arresting Floyd and holding him down when he was unconscious, rather then taking him to the hospital, "without intent to effect the death of any person". (from the statute he was charged under: 609.195a)

They don't claim Floyd was strangled or anything similar to that, or that Chauvin actually killed him: it's right there in black and white legalese.

Two similar examples of being charged with murder without actually killing someone are:

-- victim has a heart attack during a robbery and dies.

-- "Whoever, without intent to cause death, proximately causes the death of a human being by, directly or indirectly, unlawfully selling, giving away, bartering, delivering, exchanging, distributing, or administering a controlled substance classified in Schedule I or II, is guilty of murder in the third degree and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than 25 years or to payment of a fine of not more than $40,000, or both." (This is why people are afraid to take overdosing friends to the hospital: they might be charged with murder).

The second example is from the 2nd part of the statute Chauvin was charged under.

E.g. "Suedel is one of three East Grand Forks women charged with the murder of 26-year-old Jessika Lee Erickson, who died in October after chewing on a fentanyl patch she had purchased to ease her back pain."

They supposedly sold Erickson the fentanyl patch; they're not accused of actually killing her, but they're still charged with murder.

Birkel said...

DanTheMan,
At least you admit a lack of interest in opposing arguments.
That makes life easier.

Ken B said...

If, as you imply in your closing, it is inevitable that a black woman is the choice, then it certainly is because of their race and sex. Otherwise it wouldn’t be inevitable.

Drago said...

Amy asked Biden to select someone other than her.

Biden asked obama to not endorse him.

Yes, these are believable things...LOL

Ken B said...

What weird incentives are being created. Biden is okay, despite being a leading force in three-strikes, a hard line drug warrior, and perhaps a rapist. Harris is okay, despite going to court to defend false convictions. Klobuchar is toast because years ago she trusted a man had learned his lesson.

Ken B said...

Fernandistain : “ The police are not charged with killing him”

Readers should assess Fernandistain's credibility from comments like this. The charge is murder.

gerry said...

Amy is ensuring that when one of them is picked, everyone will believe they were picked because of their race.

This assertion is unnecessary since everyone knows that Biden MUST pick a black woman as for VP. Of course the VP for Biden will be a WOC. This Progressive Democrat politics, which requires racist-identity politics implicitly.

LA_Bob said...

DanTheMan said, "Remember that Chauvin kept kneeling on his neck for two minutes AFTER they could not find a pulse and he had clearly passed out."

Yes, for me this is the single most damning thing for Chauvin. It convinces me he is basically a sociopathic bully who would probably do this to anyone, black, brown, or white.

But, I get concerned that the constant refrain, "Chauvin killed Floyd", in which his attorney (and I'm sure I'd not want to be that person) can credibly claim it's impossible for Chauvin to get a fair trial.

Michael said...

She wasn't going to be chosen, so she might as well pick up some woke points. As for making people think a WOC was chosen because of her color: no one will think otherwise in any case. The only one remotely qualified (excl. Warren) is Sen. Harris, and she has the same "prosecutor problem" as Amy, plus some of her own.

mccullough said...

Klobuchar is positioning herself for 2024 when Trump is term limited.

Yancey Ward said...

I would love to see Democrats choose Abrams, but it won't be her. I look around, and the only candidate that is blackish and wants the job is Kamala Harris, but she was a terrible candidate for the top of the ticket. Biden would probably want Michele Obama, but she clearly doesn't want the job, or she would have run for the top of the ticket.

Biden really hurt himself by promising to choose a female- there just aren't any good choices who are female, black, and a Democrat. Biden would have more good choices if he could choose a male. Biden would probably do himself some real good if he were willing to renege on that promise of a female VP, but I don't think he will do that now. So it is likely to be Harris.

RK said...

...everyone will believe they were picked because of their race.

The sole exception being the person picked.

frenchy said...

He wasn't killed, he died from a heart attack

More precisely, Chavin put his knee on his neck and kept it there until he was dead. And that's also the basis upon which the Floyd family will be made very wealthy.

n.n said...

Skin and sex... diversity politics.

Ice Nine said...

>>Temujin said...
"...everyone will believe they were picked because of their race."

Well, yeah. That is the giant elephant in the room with the entire concept of affirmative action. And it often promotes the wrong person who is put into that position- whether it be acceptance to law school, DA of Atlanta, or Vice President of the US- which is above their actual experience, knowledge, and capabilities.<<

I notice that you stopped at *Vice* President of the US for some reason.

DanTheMan said...

>>DanTheMan,
At least you admit a lack of interest in opposing arguments.
That makes life easier.

Not sure where you are getting that from....

DanTheMan said...

>>They don't claim Floyd was strangled or anything similar to that, or that Chauvin actually killed him: it's right there in black and white legalese.

I understand the charge of 2nd degree murder. The key phrase is "causes the death of a human being".

So, if I understand your position, you're saying Chauvin didn't kill Floyd, but Chauvin caused him to die.

hombre said...

Althouse: “Amy is ensuring that when one of them is picked, everyone will believe they were picked because of their race.”

“... because of their race [and gender].” There, fixed!

Well, shame on Amy. There were at least a half dozen people who believe the selection would be based on merit. Blacks, women, two of the Democrat victim groups who demand that Biden forego alternative considerations and base his selection on competence, particularly given his advanced age. Bwahahahaha!

Maxine Waters for Veep. Now there is a ticket that represents the integrity and the intellect of today’s Democrats. A ticket to be proud of.

Tom T. said...

Yancey, you're overlooking the Oprah option. Somebody check: if she's losing weight again, that might mean she plans to run.

n.n said...

the Oprah option

Didn't she collude with Weinstein to lure actresses to the "casting couch"?

Clyde said...

"Amy is ensuring that when one of them is picked, everyone will believe they were picked because of their race."

And their sex.

walter said...

Camp Howie could whip Abrams into shape.
Let the Boldfinger hair-sniffing auditions begin.
Anyone seen Hunter (the other Biden) lately?

n.n said...

Chauvin didn't kill Floyd, but Chauvin caused him to die

A stressor would be consistent with the available evidence. An approved procedure that is effective, causing negligible or no harm, used to restrain suspects may still fail or contribute to injury and death in rare circumstances. Consider a pregnant woman, her child, individually and together. They should follow due process, discern cause and effect, and adjust procedures accordingly in order to mitigate risk for the suspect and officer. Also, is there any evidence to believe that Chauvin was aware of Floyd's multiple comorbidities and conditions that elevated his risk? That said, who evaluates and approves law enforcement procedures and codes of conduct?

GingerBeer said...

Giving warren the shiv. Didn't know Klobuchar had it in her. Of course "Minnesota Nice" is so 2019.

Paul Doty said...

Sounds like Affirmative Action to me, where you automatically presume they are where they are not because of education, talent, intelligence, or ability, but simply based on race. That's who you want leading the country when Joe forgets how to put on his shoes one morning in March 2021?

cyrus83 said...

Klobuchar isn't saying anything Biden hasn't already telegraphed in his prior statements concerning the VP pick being mostly about optics rather than ability. We already know his VP pick is being selected on the basis of gender, it's not that hard to imagine given where the Democratic party is today that appearances and pandering supersede any considerations about qualifications or competence.

No matter who the pick is, the media will have stories ready to go telling us how excellent the choice is, even if the CV is completely lacking in genuine accomplishment or executive leadership.

phantommut said...

I still think Colin Powell after she comes out as Trans is Biden's best bet.

Morsie said...

Why was she calling Mike Pence who is VP last time I looked?

Stephen St. Onge said...

"Amy is ensuring that when one of them is picked, everyone will believe they were picked because of their race."

Well, that is the main reason why she will be picked. Why pretend otherwise?

John Marzan said...

The reason Biden hasn't selected his VP yet is because they are still hoping the George Floyd BLM thing dies down or gets discredited so kloubuchar will reconsider.