"By the time Biden announced his withdrawal, that Sunday afternoon, a scramble was already under way, largely out of public view. Bakari Sellers, a former South Carolina state representative who helped Harris secure the nomination, told me...
'We weren’t going to do this bullshit that other people were asking for,' he said. In his view, an open convention was a way to 'skip over Kamala.' After Biden’s call, Harris had summoned aides to her house, and a dozen or so people gathered around a table.... In the hours that followed, her team undertook an operation that was less an improvisation than a culmination of years spent cultivating allies.... Harris never had time to change out of her sweats. By the following morning... she had endorsements from a majority of Democrats in Congress, two large unions, and a growing number of state delegations.... David Axelrod, who was the chief strategist for both of Obama’s Presidential campaigns, told me, 'There was an argument that she would be strengthened by a competition, but she showed a mastery of the internal politics, which is one test of a potential candidate. People respond to competence, and that was a very competent operation.' He compared it to a rapid military strike.
'She didn’t get handed this nomination,' he said. 'She took it.'... By gaining the nomination so late, Harris spared herself the obligation of courting the orthodox wing of her party in primaries. But a short run has risks; it left her little time to explain what she believes and what she would do in office... "
Writes Evan Osnos, in
"Kamala Harris’s Hundred-Day Campaign/Three months ago, the Vice-President was fighting for respect in Washington. Can she defy her doubters—and end the Trump era?" (The New Yorker).
Little time to explain what she believes? Little time to arrive at beliefs.
Posts
114 comments:
"...We weren’t going to do this bullshit that other people were asking for..." Competition is for losers, don't ya know?
"By gaining the nomination so quickly … it left her extra time to explain what she believes and what she would do in office... "
Fixed it for them.
Competence at what exactly? Back room politics sans the cigars?
Up until the Biden/Trump debate on June 27, the NYT, WaPo, New Yorker, the whole lot including, I'm sure David Axelrod, told us Joe was sharp as ever, and fit to run, win, and lead.
The debate shot that down. June 28 to July 21 was chaos in the Democratic Party, a story we won't read about until after Kamala loses, and the long knives come out.
From July 22 to today and on, the NYT, WaPo, New Yorker, the whole lot, absolutely including David Axelrod, tell us that Kamala is a sharp leader fit to run, win and expertly govern the country.
Pardon my skepticism.
I'll take things that never happened for 500 Alex.
He compared it to a rapid military strike
Not what i’m looking for in a political candidate, sorry.
Or president
"she showed a mastery of the internal politics, which is one test of a potential candidate"
Da comrade, she's a member in good standing with the Polit Bureau.
she showed a mastery of
Said no one competent, about Kamala ever...
Embraced by the giant robot arms of the Blob, Kamala stuck the landing.
'She didn’t get handed this nomination,' he said. 'She took it.'
No one wanted her. The democrat voters didn't want her, others in Congress didn't want her, apparently even Joe didn't want her. She was involved in (have to say involved as I just don't see her having the smarts to lead this) a coup of the current President (as much as a puppet as he was/is) run by more powerful backroom suits. After the world witnessed irrefutable proof of what a wreck Joe is, the suits needed a controllable replacement FAST and "kneepads" would do what they want done so she was picked.
The "short run" for Heels-Up ends in three weeks.
Reading this… Why you’d think there’s some there, there.
You’d be wrong.
David Axelod, hmm. Where have I seen that name before? Wasn’t he the Democrat strategist who said that the strategy for dealing with the aftermath of Helene in western North Carolina was to fox’s on getting Asheville (basically a blue wart in a sea of dark red) restored but dawdle on getting the rest of those western counties restored to make it as difficult as possible for the people back in the mountains to vote? Why yes, yes he was. And that’s exactly what appears to be happening, isn’t it?
“No one wanted her. The democrat voters didn't want her, others in Congress didn't want her, apparently even Joe didn't want her.”
You couldn’t be more wrong. Biden immediately endorsed her. Democrats in Congress very swiftly endorsed her. Democratic voters wanted her, were thrilled to have her as evidenced by the thousands of thousands of people at her rallies.
100%. IMHO, Kamala has yet to exhibit behaviors that demonstrate 'mastery' of anything. I've been around a few masters in my lifetime. None of them broke into fits of laughter at the mundane. My read of her body language screams deception at every viewing. She isn't convincing at all.
Carville, on the other hand...
@Inga. Nobody voted for her. This is the new Democratic method of “saving democracy,” Soviet Politburo backroom deals. It’s amazing to see somebody embrace this consummate evil. In the past, we determined what “voters wanted” by holding things called “elections” and “primaries.” Remember?
Anyone in Harris’s position would be readying for Joe becoming persona non gratis. She’s known of his difficulties for years. So this was a planned strike, leaving others without a chance to compete. There are rumors people were threatened if they tried to compete with her. So bizarre that she’s adept at seeing the next rung and going for it but having no ability to see that she sucks at the job she already holds and maybe that’s not a great idea.
"...she had endorsements from a majority of Democrats in Congress, two large unions, and a growing number of state delegations..." Voters? Citizens? How obsolete. How Trump-era!
she showed a mastery of the internal politics, which is one test of a potential candidate. People respond to competence, and that was a very competent operation.
Does anyone believe this?
Harris was chosen because she has a vagina and, under the one drop rule, qualifies as black. She’s the DEI candidate.
She fits the suit. That’s why she’s running. The people what have been running things will continue to run things. Better for her to not have beliefs or do any ‘thinking’. It can only hurt the ball club…
She has an army of speech writers and advisors and pollsters. She doesn't need to do anything but learn to read a teleprompter better.
@inga "Biden immediately endorsed her. Democrats in Congress very swiftly endorsed her. Democratic voters wanted her, were thrilled to have her as evidenced by the thousands of thousands of people at her rallies." Holy shit, I want the drugs you are on. NO ONE VOTED FOR HER. Thousands of people at her rallies? What are you smoking. first of all not thousands. Maybe 1 thousand at best. Also it's been shown and proven that she is bussing in paid actors to attend her rallies. What a fool you are.
Biden immediately endorsed her. Democrats in Congress very swiftly endorsed her. Democratic voters wanted her, were thrilled to have her as evidenced by the thousands of thousands of people at her rallies.
This is why Inga in Inga. "We have always been at war with Eastasia."
Many of us are old enough to have actually lived through that time, so long ago, Inga, and remember...
This election is over. No one has told the journalists in New York yet. They'll be the hardest hit.
Lol. People were relieved that they wouldn’t have to lie about Joe anymore, not realizing they’re just swapping one basket case for another one. No one voted for her. No one would have voted for her. She knew no one would vote for her. That’s why she did what she did to steal the nomination mantle. And Pelosi was stuck between a rock and a hard place - she wanted an open process and was caught in Harris’s trap then had to go along with it.
Amazing coincidence how voters decide what the weakness are and, after some marinating, objective media presents a think piece that address those precise issues in favor of the candidate. What are the odds?
Beliefs are things burdened by the past.
Osnos has a future writing cheap adventure novels.
“Little time to explain what she believes? Little time to arrive at beliefs.”
Her values haven’t changed, though, supposedly. Her primary value is upending the current structure of a good chunk of our American life. That unburdening schtick isn’t a nod to an evolutionary change from where we are, it’s a break it down and rebuild it agenda. She thinks we can just start over on all sorts of things, from energy to insurance to immigration to criminal Justice. She actually thinks this way without a clue as to how complex things are and the difficulty in drastically changing course. Plus she has no skills, just whimsy.
“Thousands of people at her rallies? What are you smoking. first of all not thousands. Maybe 1 thousand at best. Also it's been shown and proven that she is bussing in paid actors to attend her rallies. What a fool you are.”
What a loon you are. You are seriously saying Harris never had a rally with more than a thousand people? Paid actors? LOL. Conspiracy theories, lies, disinformation, why are Trump supporters such dupes?
The opportunist thrives on the vague proposal and the vibe. Looks good, feels good, must BE good! That, and the knives silently doing their work in the dark.
This or Trump. This is the choice they have given us. Smile!!
What a bunch of malarkey.
Don't forget the campaign money. Biden Harris had resources others didn't. Would have been tough to let that money be locked up in legal challenges.
"He compared it to a rapid military strike. 'She didn’t get handed this nomination,' he said. 'She took it.'"
So a coup, then.
@Inga. Trump supporters are such dupes that they hold those thingees called “primaries” open to all candidates and choose their candidate by voting. Remember that stuff, Comrade Inga? We didn’t have the Politburo pick our candidate in the back room. Trump was elected in open primaries, dummy.
if Kamala wins ...
we may also see as UK PM [another McD employee] ...
Olukemi Adegoke was born on 2 January 1980 in Wimbledon, London. She is one of three children born to Nigerian Yoruba parents. Her father, Femi Adegoke, was a GP and her mother, Feyi Adegoke, was a professor of physiology. She has a brother and a sister. Badenoch spent her childhood living in Lagos, Nigeria, and in the United States, where her mother lectured. She returned to the UK at the age of 16 to live with a friend of her mother's owing to the deteriorating political and economic situation in Nigeria, which had affected her family. Although a British citizen and born in the UK, during her parliamentary maiden speech Badenoch stated that she was "to all intents and purposes a first-generation immigrant".
Badenoch achieved A Levels from Phoenix College, a further education college in Morden, south London, whilst working at a branch of McDonald's among other jobs. During this time she said she "became working class". Badenoch studied Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Sussex, completing a Master of Engineering (MEng) degree in 2003.
Kamala Harris has successfully executed a coup against a sitting President of the United States, after he won the vast majority of the Democrat Party delegates in state-by-state elections paid for by the American people at a cost of tends of millions of tax dollars.
Not a single shot was fired and not a single conspirator in the successful coup has been arrested.
That is amazing competence.
Stunning and brave.
Bill Clinton: "Cigars?"
Pre-post-mortum is right. The losers need to be identified by the Dems and then ostracized. This story tells me that the Dems aren’t confident in their cheating machine. One thing is for certain and that Bakari is going to be the scapegoat.
The New Yorker is the bellwether. I recall reading the piece that foretold the loss of Hillary for Barack. Same deal here.
Pelosi and others bulldozed the path clear for Harris to ascend, yes? So not sure how much heavy lifting she would have needed to do once Biden accepted his fate. Which, by the way, this story --if I'm Joe Biden and Jill is reading between the lines for me-- would make me believe that my V.P. had been scheming against me for awhile, not just reluctantly stepping up once I faltered because her country needs her and there's no time for anything else.
Next up expect stories about Josh Shapiro and Big Gretch. Both will say suggest they turned down the VP nomination because they didn’t want to get tied to loser Kamala.
Well, we already have the word "prebunk"; why not "pre-postmortem"?
is that samething as vivisection
I was spared most of this trite carp for the last three
This is proof she knew how bad Joe was. You can't marshal troops that fast unless you had some prep. She was ready to go.
This is also an argument for her incompetence. If she wanted it that bad, bad enough to prepare, a better politician would've enacted the 25th before it came to this.
A candidacy produced solely by factional infighting, not by democracy.
The Dems were stuck with Kamala from the get-go. That's why they tried to hide Joe's decline for so long. They had no choice because they made skin color and sex the number one and number two criteria for candidate qualification. "She took it" means Kamala and her faction threatened to accuse anyone who opposed her of racism and sexism. They all knew she had them by the short and curlies. All she had to do was make it clear she was willing to go there if necessary. There was nothing particularly masterful about it. They had created a monster.
The Dems were boxed in from the day Joe Biden said he was going to pick a woman of color for his running mate.
Hoisted by their Fani... petard. Karma-la.
Sorry rehajm: I didn't mean to be replying to you above, just adding to the comment thread.
Long night watching my dreams die in Los Angeles.
I thought she explained what she believes when she was one of the candidates for the party in 2020, and Tulsi Gabbard pretty much shredded her in the party debates. So much so that hardly anyone in the party voted for her and she dropped out quickly. There are dozens of videos and plenty of printed quotes of what she actually believes from that time period and up to her recent coup. And what she really believes is why even the Democrats didn't want her.
"her team undertook an operation [of] cultivating allies"
You can get more with a kind word and the race card than with a kind word alone
If the DNC/Intel cartel will pull this level of shenanigans, lawfaring RFK, Jr. out of the primaries, and handing the nomination to Harris without a single deciding primary, why wouldn’t it rig the 2024 election?
She’s had three and a half years to figure this out. Was she not expecting Joe could keel over at any minute ?
They had created a monster.
That must be why no one tried to force Biden to withdraw earlier. The stress among national Democrats must have been immense, but they'd gotten away with an impaired Biden in 2020. I would like to know who pushed for the early debate, and Trump's thinking in accepting. Imagine the amount of media gaslighting if it had happened in September--yet they've paid no price with the general public for years of it.
Seeing a number of pre-postmortems this am. This fits with the SNL knives coming out for Harris, even if they were kinda dull. Obama stepped in it big time with the brothas and sistas, and now his legacy must be protected at all costs. He positioned Harris for success, and he's going to be very disappointed in her when she loses.
For decades, the two major parties have presented voters with choices of only bad or worse candidates for POTUS, and so they do again this year. In any year in which he is among the choices, Donald Trump will always be not just "worse" but "worst." Intelligent voters are left next month with no option but to vote for the least bad choice: NOT TRUMP.
We used to call this "a smoke filled room."
Trump is anti-war, and anti allowing the government being run by Intel. This alone should command your vote, Cook. Trump is a dream candidate. For a 1968 anti-war leftist. He’s also pro free speech. Trump is probably the best, most qualified candidate of my lifetime. I don’t know how an old lefty like you got your head so far up your ass on this one. Being anti-war and anti-CIA run government used to be the cornerstone of leftist beliefs. What in the hell happened to you? How did you get your head so firmly up your ass?
I don't consider two months or less at a possibly fictional french fry machine, once, as proof that Kamala has ever held a working-class job.
I've never met a child of academics who weren't pampered snobs who filled their summers with fancy overseas trips, desirable internships, or just lazing around. My brothers and I were expected to hold down paying jobs from the age of 13 (babysitting, lawn mowing, then groceries and retail) and throughout college. No summer camps, but lots of educational reading to get ahead. One week a year at a motel on a beach. That's working, though the rich or academically connected kids certainly got way ahead of us, even if they were lazy and stupid. Thank you, mom and dad. Best education I could get, and they could afford. Though a shocking number of those married dads I babysitted for were handsy on the drive home. Must have been a porn theme in the Seventies.
Sweat filled pants?
“Little time to explain what she believes? Little time to arrive at beliefs.”
She ran for president in 2020. She's been vice president for four years. She's had all kinds of time to figure out what she wants to do.
She hasn't had a lot of time to masquerade as a moderate.
Kamala ran to the left of everybody in 2020. And she failed utterly. Didn't make it to the first primary.
So her 2024 campaign has been completely phony. She's had to reject her entire platform. She used Biden's platform as her platform. She didn't even have time to remove his name from it. And she didn't have time to come with ways to distinguish herself from Biden.
She could run to his left, like she did in 2020, but that was a dismal failure. She could try shifting to his right, but that would be even more appalling (and unbelievable). So she's been stuck in Biden's shadow, regurgitating his policies, and stealing a few ideas from Trump. And avoiding the media.
The Kamala we see is a body double, the steely eyed lady who planned the coup is hidden away with her team planning the next move.
Personally, I think the big problem with this scenario is that hardly anybody smokes cigars anymore. No cigars, and the average IQ drops by 10 points.
She was wearing a hoodie and cooking up some collard and mustard greens when she got the call to duty.
"...but she showed a mastery of the internal politics, which is one test of a potential candidate. People respond to competence, and that was a very competent operation.' He compared it to a rapid military strike...."
Now that;s funny, right there. There's a certain tone that comes across when a journalist is writing pure bullsh*t, and knows it, but goes for it anyway. This is one of those times.
I would like to hear the phone call between Joe and Kamala, if there was one.
@Tina Trent I'm sorry you had a rough night and hope it gets better.
@Inga, I would like to see a picture of the Kamala rally showing, beyond doubt, thousands of attendees - please include another one of the parking lot, and the lines waiting to get in.
No core - all puppet.
Well - her core is radical left. She must hide it.
I love that The Cheney's are in bed with Kamala. War machine democrats... all the way, right Robert?
If elected, Trump’s political party will moderate his worst impulses.
If Harris is elected, her party will only exacerbate her worst impulses.
And Daktari Sellers can fuck right off, teh wanker!
This is all bullshit. They COULDN'T skip over Kamalama-ding-dong. They had to stick with their DEI principles and hand it to her for her gender and race.
She is probably the Democrats sacrificial lamb. Others like Dorito Communion Witch Whitmer, and Shapiro have their eyes on 2028. Why jump in now? I don't think either of them wanted the VP not. That's why she picked flamboyant lying pedo Walz.
Only way she wins is absentee voter fraud. WI Democrat Attorney General Josh Kaul is publicly stating he will "protect the election results" and that WI elections are safe and secure. Just like the mRNA vaccine. Total bullshit.
"a mastery of the internal politics"
This is how Dems "save our democracy."
"Little time to explain what she believes? Little time to arrive at beliefs."
Not quite. She has beliefs alright. Straight California prog until the day before yesterday. In fact, it's all she's got. But she can't explain her beliefs just as she can't explain anything else (any evidence to the contrary?). And why try? Explanations can backfire, and few voters demand "explanations." Explanations are overrated. Better to serve as a vacuous vessel for progs and a blank slate for anti-Trump moderate projection. Abortion + TDS = victory.
That's nonsense, Cook. Trump may be personally obnoxious to some people, but, as a candidate, he offers a completely different set of policies from what either party had been offering for many years -- one that (for example) emphasized the interests of American workers over those of Washington, Wall Street, and global elites. The fact that you want the leftist elites to win and thus continue enriching themselves at the expense of average working people hardly makes Trump a bad candidate. If you believe in democracy -- i.e., giving voters a choice -- he's a great candidate.
seen recently: swapping out Biden for Harris is like shitting your pants and changing your shirt
I guess the Dullard likes Kamala. No surprise. Mediocrities tend to cluster.
Probably an Igbo tribe member.
It was Trump's only chance to get Biden on live TV. Good decision.
And he has a track record of delivering what he promised, instead of doing something completely different, and contrary to what he promised.
Precisely! I lived through the transition to Kamala so I remember both reasons she was coronated: 1) She had access to the campaign money Biden had raised, and 2) the dems were afraid they would lose the Black vote if she was passed over. These two topics were discussed multiple times on this very blog. I don't know why her selection is still a mystery to anyone (except maybe Inga, but if it weren't she wouldn't be Inga, would she?)
thrilled to have her as evidenced by the thousands of thousands of people at her rallies.
It has been conclusively proven by cell phone records that her crowds are primarily composed of several thousand shills that are bussed from rally to rally, supplemented by Rent-A-Mob operations in each city who are paid to attend. At her "town hall" last week, the whole thing was staged, with questioners and their questions selected in advance and the answers spooled up on her teleprompter. The Rent-A-Mob folks were told they were not allowed to ask her anything.
Axelrod settled into Rove territory awhile ago. Looking for what was where it used to be.
yes.
Yes, this story is not convincing. Kamala Harris looks so awkward and uncomfortable that it's hard to believe she even wants to be president. When her teleprompter broke and she kept repeating "just 32 more days, 32 days", she didn't look like someone happy to be there. It looked more like she was thinking, thirty two days and this nightmare is over.
That's funny.
Jaydub, no one was surprised it was Kamala Harris, except for you Trumpublicans and Trump himself.
Crowds on Demand
"Intelligent voters are left next month with no option but to vote for the least bad choice: NOT TRUMP."
Stooping to insults now, are we Robert?
"[Trump] offers a completely different set of policies from what either party had been offering for many years -- one that (for example) emphasized the interests of American workers over those of Washington, Wall Street, and global elites. The fact that you want the leftist elites to win and thus continue enriching themselves at the expense of average working people hardly makes Trump a bad candidate."
Cook doesn't believe all the stuff he's been shoveling for years.
Having watched her entire career in California, I can tell you she has no fixed beliefs and is anything but an ideological progressive. As attorney general she cozied up to the police and prison-guard unions, earning her the deep enmity of true progressives. Northern California has huge floods of money sloshing through Democratic politics; like others in the capitalist wing of the party (the Clintons, Pelosi, Biden), Kamala Harris will sell out any principle for the right price.
"Next up expect stories about Josh Shapiro and Big Gretch. Both will say suggest they turned down the VP nomination because they didn’t want to get tied to loser Kamala."
I believe Shapiro DID turn her down. Who picks Walz over Shapiro?
The money and the "black vote" are the obvious reasons. The dullard is just that, dull.
Fuzzy Zoeller got into all kinds of trouble for a crack like that,.
You know who else wore hoods? Just sayin'.
The only endorsement that actually mattered was the one Biden or whoever runs his Twitter account gave that weekend. Without that endorsement, it is all but certain someone else would have been at the top of the ticket right now. I still think that was the plan all along by those that forced Biden out (and I don't believe Harris was part of that effort) but someone threw a wrench into the operation and quickly followed up Biden withdrawal letter with that tweeted endorsement. Would love to know who did that.
The myth making event of the season. "She didn't have time to change out of her sweats"!
The Elites really think everyone not in the club are just child-like rubes.
Agreeing to a Fox interview gives a clue about how dire her internal polls must be signalling. I predict numerous, "but you didn't answer my question Madam VP".
Whitmer straight up declined, on the record.
You couldn’t be more wrong.
Kamala Harris has yet to receive a single, solitary vote during TWO primary campaigns.
Inga babbled: You couldn’t be more wrong. Biden immediately endorsed her
Joe didn't endorse her because he wanted her. Joe endorsed her because he wanted one last "f you" to the people who orchestrated pushing him out of the race
Inga further babbled: What a loon you are. You are seriously saying Harris never had a rally with more than a thousand people? Paid actors? LOL.
1: Please name Harris's best rally, and how many people showed up to it, with links to the documentation you used to support your claim
2: We've repeatedly seen video of buses leaving Harris "rallies" full of the people they brought in. For example: https://loudobbs.com/news/kamala-harris-buses-in-people-from-massachusetts-to-her-new-hampshire-rally-video/
It is reasonable to believe that the bussed in people were paid to attend. If you want to claim otherwise, it's on you to prove that
Fox is where any competent Democratic politician would go to peel off a few votes at the margin; she’s not going to score any more votes by going on MSNBC. But since Kamala is incompetent, I agree it’s a sign of hail-mary desperation.
He compared it to a rapid military strike. 'She didn’t get handed this nomination,' he said. 'She took it.'.
Isn't it amazing how the hapless Democratic party leadership in a single stroke neutralized their talking point of Trump as "a danger to democracy" by the way they overthrew Joltin' Joe Biden, the sitting president, and installed Harris via party fiat, voters be damned.
This has never been done in the history of the modern primary system, with the closest being the election of 1968, where the party installed the sitting VP, Hubert Humphrey, because the leading candidate, Robert Kennedy, had been assassinated.
This switcheroo is yuuuge indictment of just how corrupt and fucked up the Democratic Party leadership is. Historians will be writing on this for decades.
My family did pretty well during the Trump Presidency. That's not the be-all-and-end-all. But it's a start. Biden fumbled badly as Pres. So what is it about Kamala that you think will make things better? What's her record of creating prosperity? Or, failing that, what's her program to create prosperity?
Bakari Sellers said...
"We weren’t going to do this bullshit that other people were asking for."
Damn straight! They had their own bullshit to do.
"I have no idea what he just said, and I don't think he does either. So I have no response."
Classic.
A dull Lardache… she has that Lardache Look.
The She's A Fighter bullshit because in reality she's too weak to handle the Presidency.
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