Kamala Harris: Gov Shapiro wanted to be co-President and borrow artwork from the Smithsonian

Girl bye. You let Dump beat you.

We said this about Shapiro even back in July of 2024.

Harris also said an aide believed Shapiro was "disappointed" with having to remain out of sight as he was transported to his vetting meeting and asked how he might borrow artwork from the Smithsonian to decorate the residence should he move in.

Manuel Bonder, a spokesperson for Shapiro, pushed back in a statement to ABC.

"It's simply ridiculous to suggest that Governor Shapiro was focused on anything other than defeating Donald Trump and protecting Pennsylvania from the chaos we are living through now. The Governor campaigned tirelessly for the Harris-Walz ticket -- and as he has made clear, the conclusion of this process was a deeply personal decision for both him and the Vice President," Bonder said.

[itailc]Biden rattles Harris in predebate phone call[/italic]

Harris details a head-scratching moment for her before her high stakes first -- and only -- debate against Donald Trump. Moments before she walked on stage, she was told that Biden had called for what she assumed was pep talk. He offered her good luck, albeit "with little warmth in his voice," she writes, and assured her she was going to do "fine."

She writes that Biden quickly moved on from the impending debate and asked Harris about a rumor his brother had heard that a few Philadelphia-area "power brokers" were hesitant to support her because she had been bad-mounting him privately. Biden told Harris he didn't believe those rumors but wanted to make her aware -- though she was blindsided as to why, of all times, he would reach out to bring this to her attention mere minutes before this high-pressure moment.

"I couldn't understand why he would call me, right now, and make it all about himself. Distracting me with worry about hostile powerbrokers in the biggest city of the most important swing state."

Harris said her husband, Doug Emhoff, noticed she was angry and disappointed at the call.

[italic]She wanted Buttigieg as running mate and was put off by Shapiro's 'unrealistic expectation'[/italic]

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was Harris' "first choice" for her running mate pick, but she says he would have been ideal if she were "a straight, white man" -- their compounding identities too much a liability for the American voter.

Asked about this by Politico, Buttigieg disagreed.

"I was surprised when I read that. I just believe in giving Americans more credit than that," he said.

She is blowing any slight chance she has of getting the nomination. She sounds like a real housewife.

R4 She know goddam well she will not be that nominee in 28. It be different if she were 40, but she 60. Biden’s symptoms did her one solid in 24.

The more she runs her mouth, the more moderate voters are glad they voted for Trump.

If she keeps this book tour going, Republicans are going to win the mid terms in a landslide

She has no chance of being the nominee in 2028 and she knows it.

No offense to her.

She did a fantastic job with what she was given. People are forgetting. She instantly pulled the polls from down 4-5 points with Biden as the candidate to a real draw. She packed stadiums with cheering crowds. She was energetic, eloquent, and tough. She wiped the fucking floor with Dump in that debate.

It just wasn't enough. She had her shot, and it's time to move on.

Elon rigged the election. The truth will come out one day.

[quote]She has no chance of being the nominee in 2028 and she knows it.

She wants to make sure that with her book she preemptively wounds other 2028 candidates.

Not overly surprised that Shapiro is a putz.

Which will be a blow to all the Shapiro fans constantly trying to praise him as a potential super candidate...based on a not particularly brilliant term as governor of Pennsylvania which is a bit of a shithole state.

Well, it sounds about as messy as we all thought it was.

😮‍💨 election fraud? We’re doing that here now? Trump has brought us all very low.

Bless her for trying. She got dealt a bad hand and did pretty well with it.

I have to ask the question, would Shapiro have pulled that stunt about always "needing to be in the room for every decision," if a man were at the top of the ticket?

I say, no way.

The only reason he even dared to "muse" about that, is because she is a woman, and he thought he could get away with asking the question.

That's totally misogynistic behavior, and it just reminded me about him not properly disciplining a male aide who allegedly harassed a female staffer.

From A.I.:

[quote] The accusation: An employee in the governor's office accused Vereb, then the secretary of legislative affairs, of making inappropriate, lewd, and sexually suggestive comments to her. The harassment reportedly began shortly after the start of Shapiro's administration in January 2023.

[quote] Retaliation and resignation: When the female staffer rebuffed Vereb's advances, she said he retaliated against her, leading her to resign in March 2023.

[quote] Previous conduct: News outlets later reported an unrelated incident from 2018, when Vereb, while working for Shapiro in the Attorney General's office, was accused of threatening and verbally abusing a female child-advocacy worker. Vereb denied the allegations, and a Shapiro spokesperson said the governor was not made aware of the complaint.

[quote] Financial settlement: In October 2023, it was revealed that Shapiro's office had paid $295,000 in a settlement to the female employee who had accused Vereb. The settlement included a non-disclosure agreement that prevented either party from discussing the allegations.

[quote] Vereb's resignation: Vereb abruptly resigned in late September 2023, shortly after details of the settlement became public.

[quote] Criticism of Shapiro's handling: Governor Shapiro has faced criticism from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers for his administration's handling of the matter. Critics questioned why Vereb remained employed for months after the allegations surfaced and pointed to the use of taxpayer funds for the settlement and the non-disclosure agreement.

I can totally see him always second guessing Harris on everything, and then probably leaking all of the information to the press.

Walz was a much better choice.

I remember that shortly after Walz was chosen — or even before — it was leaked that Kamala's meeting with Shapiro had not gone well and that he came off as too big for his britches.

I guess who know who did the leaking!

* - we know who did the leaking

Oh please, r6. The Democrats spent the entire election cycle sucking up to the people you call "moderates" and those idiots still fucked over the country. They didn't vote for Trump because Harris was mean to them.

some more dirt popped out for Shapiro since then

Josh also wanted stocked this mesh underwear because it 'breathed'- and had extra room up front for his endowment.

ZERO. The number of press conferences she had. I only wanted one. To make sure she was actually capable of doing one. I had seen Biden fall apart on live television in his Trump debate after being told by people like Pete and Kamala he was alert and capable. Clearly liars. So far I am voting for Shapiro 2028.

Rejected Book Titles:

"Not my fault. Never my fault. Always someone else's fault."

"I needed more time for voters to find out who I was. People only knew me for years and years.."

"Democracy was at stake and I still lost to Trump."

"How to NOT run a presidential campaign"

He has too many skeletons in his closet, R19.

The guy is toxic. His campaign would be over, before it even began.

Democrats really can’t afford to eat their own. She didn’t need to write a book. She doesn’t need to say anything.

Hillary write a book about her loss. Dems then won the midterms and Presidency. Chill.

“This guy wants to go to the Smithsonian and go shopping like it’s Homegoods!” 🙄

Well, I suppose in a way it's good that she's putting this crap out there now so it doesn't leak during a campaign and I respect she probably feels she was really shit on by the Dem establishment and she isn't wrong....but good lord woman, please stop talking. We're all grappling with bigger issues

Thanks for posting that, R17. I guess we can venture a guess as to who the killer was.

Was that common knowledge in PA? I don't remember it being national news, but it's possible that it was and I missed it.

Once I heard him give a speech, I knew he was a pompous ass. And no, NFW would Shapiro have asked a male candidate if he could be "co-president."

Sadly, due to Trump's influence, sexism is "in" again -- even among Democrats.

[Quote] She was energetic, eloquent, and tough.

She could be eloquent with a prepared speech but not in interviews.

[Quote] She wiped the fucking floor with Dump in that debate.

After 9 years of Trump horrors, who among us could not get up and rant about him. She did that fine as we all do here daily.

What she did not do was make herself available for interviews for a month after being nominated. In her first interview she brought along Walz, which read scared and weak. Then she could not or would not state her views in subsequent interviews.

She leaned heavily on overexposed celebrities of middling intelligence that further dampened any excitement

correction. The over reliance on celebrities at events was off putting to regular Americans.

She really THINKS she will run in 2028 and win the nomination, which is why she is trying to take out all of her possible rivals. This is the signal:

[quote]Despite the responses by Democrats, including some who were invoked in the book, the source close to Harris said she “wrote his book without a single eye on 2028 at all, in terms of her own personal ambition.” “If others are going to take it as a 2028 starting gun, that’s their prerogative," they added.

I live in PA and I don't get the appeal of Shapiro. Never had. I voted for him for governor of course, but I don't share the enthusiasm that some have for his potential presidential run. He appears to have a rather large ego,

[quote]The over reliance on celebrities at events was off putting to regular Americans.

But, but, she had Oprah.......................

A large number of Harris votes were not FOR her, they were anti-Trump; a frog could have gotten those votes.

R19, read R17.

This makes me like her more

[QUOTE] What she did not do was make herself available for interviews for a month after being nominated. In her first interview she brought along Walz, which read scared and weak.

😂 Yeah she was afraid that her weird word salad diatribes would go viral as the GOP blasted the clips across Twitter. We were all fearful of it.

Still she had a much stronger chance with Shapiro than Walz. Maybe having Josh as a “co-president” would’ve actually helped her ass since he was the popular Governor of the most important swing state. Who cares what he wanted? She should’ve been focused on winning. You only had “107 days,” right?

R34 = JD Vance

Harris has no future in politics; perhaps if Newsom wins he will make her attorney general.

[quote] Pennsylvania which is a bit of a shithole state.

Far more than a bit, dear.

I don’t care what you think of Pennsylvania, if the Dems keep losing that state, they will never get back into the White House. Ohio is already a permanent red state now. If Pennsylvania joins them and Michigan starts getting more red as well, we are FUCKED.

Shapiro is a joke. An empty suit full of ego and bluster with a law-and-order vibe that appeals to a certain overrepresented-on-DL type that goes gaga for those theatrics. He would not have out-performed Walz. Harris was screwed from the start with a 3 1/2 month campaign she inherited from a doddering old fool with Lady Macbeth for a wife. Cut the shit!

She needs to stop talking.

[quote]Rejected Book Titles: "Not my fault. Never my fault. Always someone else's fault."

I already trademarked that one.

[quote]She wiped the fucking floor with Dump in that debate. After 9 years of Trump horrors, who among us could not get up and rant about him. She did that fine as we all do here daily.

There is no comparison between venting about him on a message board and debating on national television. Her performance was one of the best compared to all recent debates. Her vice-presidential debate was also quite good. You're ridiculous beyond belief.

Her debate performance was the best I've ever seen and I've seen all of them.

R44 Point missed. It is acknowledged that could stand up and rail on him. She had experience as a prosecutor confronting an opponent to their face.

Having gotchas at a debate does not make up for her inability to set forth an agenda. She lost voters. What she could not do was speak extemporaneously about her own vision.

she had one hundred days

R46 Point absolutely not missed in any single way. You minimized what she accomplished in that debate by saying we all do it every day. The point was clear as day and I called you on the absolute idiocy of it. To cover your embarrassment you claim I didn't catch the point that I clearly caught and then add a completely separate argument that was not in your original post and that I had never commented on one way or the other. Pathetic try.

And her debate was not great because she has a lot of prepared gotchas. There were fewer of those in that debate than in most recent ones.

Sure R48. Debates are all that matters. Let’s scrap all of the pesky interviews and pressers. Screw campaigning as well. If Kamala runs again not knowing where she stands will pair really well with her past failure to have policy positions on her website.

Harris quickly lost momentum by not being clear about which iteration of herself would be leading America.

Was it the hardline prosecutor who progressives thought locked up too many vulnerable young men? Or the one in favor of their taxpayer-funded gender affirming care for prisoners not favored by others.

“Vice President Kamala Harris will accept the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday without having sat for an interview, held a press conference or released many details about her policy priorities in the month since she entered the race.

Why it matters: The initial strategy is part of a larger pattern of Harris being risk-averse, with highly choreographed and scripted“ - AXIOS

R50 Well in Joe Biden’s case, the debate sure as hell was all that mattered.

The only people who show any interest or enthusiasm for her now are a few strongly partisan Democrats who feel she deserves another chance after being "cheated" out of the job. The other 90+% of the electorate? No thanks.

R48. Jesus. Would you continue to try to save yourself by inventing new things I didn't say. All I said was that your dismissive comment on her debate performance was ridiculous. She did something in the debate that was radically different and enormously more difficult than bitching about Trump on the internet. THAT WAS ALL. Whether she offered a vision or how important a debate is are topics I never broached, and you have no idea of my opinion on those matters because I didn't express them in response to your post. Kindly stop inventing things I didn't say. Geez.

I think she has a drinking problem.

We think you have a brain problem.

It is certainly possible that she and her campaign staff limited her interviews and press conferences because they thought she wouldn't perform well in them. However, you do have to take into account the unsatisfactory and high-risk situation Biden put her in. Because her campaign was so short, every single interview or press conference was enormously important. Ordinarily, a candidate is giving at least a year of interviews or press conferences before the election. Any single misstatement or mistakes carries a lot less weight than when you have only about a hundred days to win the election. Any single misstatement would like become THE issues of the campaign in a way that it wouldn't if she had been addressing the public over a long campaign.

[quote] I think she has a drinking problem.

R54 = Lorne Michaels.

There is NO way American voters would select her and Pete

She rode the Biden wave in 2024 as incumbents; the infrastructure, the money. No way can she get that kind of lift again. I hope she knows that.

Ummmm. There was a Biden wave in 2024???? I think you need help.

Biden was toxic to the electorate in 2024. There was no "Biden wave." He was intensely unpopular even among the traditional Democratic base.

We had at least one poster, but likely several, from that time period who would post boastful threads about "Mighty Joe Biden" and his impending polling surge, to much cringing and ridicule. I don't think that delusion ever left some corners of DL. In the real world where votes are actually cast, the feeling was a lot different then and now.

Harris is a horrible politician. Even the dumbest contestant in the Miss Turnip pageant would have done better than her on the View. “I love Joe Biden but I would have done x differently ?” How fucking hard was that to come up?

[quote]The more she runs her mouth, the more moderate voters are glad they voted for Trump.

Fuck moderate voters. They're morons who have not done a goddamned thing for anyone but Trump, and even when/if it eventually sinks into their thick skulls that they might have been very seriously deceived they will still vote for Republicans. Again and again and again. The margin of Trump voters who are bright enough to (one day) realized that they've been used and robbed at the same time is negligible.

[QUOTE] We had at least one poster, but likely several, from that time period who would post boastful threads about "Mighty Joe Biden" and his impending polling surge,

😂 No it was just one poster. Me. I am the Mighty Joe Biden troll.

Be that as it may, once Joe stepped aside and Kamala took over, I was fully behind her.. and I watched her make one boneheaded move after another. Ducking interviews, picking the wrong VP, all of that aside, the one thing she absolutely NEEDED to do was throw Joe under the bus! I made NUMEROUS posts on here saying that.

I don’t know if she was worried about hurting Joe’s feelings or the feelings of his supporters, but she was once again worried about the wrong things. Any other candidate would’ve said “Fuck Joe, I’m trying to win an election.”

No one "moderate" voted for Trump. The people who voted for him are anything but moderate.

Yes, I'm sure they tell you otherwise to your face, and I'm sure they'll tell the poll taker that, but why would you believe them? They voted for TRUMP.

"If there's a Nazi at a table with 10 people talking to him, that's a table with 11 Nazis." -German saying

I don't blame her one bit for not doing news conferences and press interviews in the early days. And she was available and did talk to the press and answer questions on the trail. I saw her do it. Impromptu and there was no word salad. But the fact is, she had a very short time in which to build a campaign organization and campaign for President, and excuse the hell out of Kamala if she didn't make meeting the press her #1 priority.

I would also say that after observing how Joe was bullied, and pilloried by the Press and how every single news broadcast dealt with inflation, hyping illegals and crime, and lying about the fact that Biden deported 4.4 illegals, more than Obama or Trump 1.0. , the press was in Trump's pocket early. You must be senile not to remember how one sided the media was in 2022. 2023, 2024. Truth is t he Press hollered "Wolf!" too many times so when t hey had a legitimate beef with Biden not being capable, it came across as hype. Until his debate.

There was a defiance and a contrarianism in Biden's personality and he dug in and became stubborn about staying in. I have to wonder if the Media had been gentler with him, if he would have been more reflective. But he and his staff had a siege mentality and Kamala paid a high price. I am glad she is being open and honest. I am also aware, after watching her on Maddow, that she is very busy helping to rebuild the party and supporting young "stars" all over the U.S. who are running or have won local offices. A new generation. If she does decide to run I will support her or Pete. Actually I would go with a dog to beat the Republicans.

R66. Correct. The word salad cliche is so tedious. Yes, she did occasionally speak meaninglessly, just as most people who is under daily scrutiny inevitably says some stupid and sometimes mind-boggling things. If you want confirmation that it was pretty infrequent, all you have to do is look at the people who try to argue she is an airhead. They inevitably post the same few minutes of her more than 20-year political career that we are all bored to tears of.

I believe what she says about Shapiro, and yeah, it suggests he has a big male ego and is ambitious, seeing the VP spot as a step toward runningfor president himself one day. I can see why she feels he would be less than supportive as her VP, and therefore she was right to pass on him.

But believing all that, I fail to see why any of this would disqualify him from being considered the Dem presidential camdidate in 2028. So he’s got ambition, so he’s got Big Dick Energy and confidence — and some of you think this is a bad thing?

You can have those masculine qulities without being a toxic asshole. Let’s judge him by the job he is doing as Governor, and judge him as a potential candidate for president when the time comes. Nothing she has written disqualifies him in my eyes.

What has he done as governor, R68? Asking genuinely.

R68, you have to look at people's personalities. I don't think Shapiro has the Temperament to be POTUS. He would be fine in the Senate. He loves the spotlight. Fact is he did well as the AG in terms of the public persona, but he has an air of ambition bordering on desperation. He is a person I would not turn my back on. He is a showman. And as VP he'd have been a disaster. He would have gone off on his own, leaked, made public statements that were inappropriate and attract more negative attention than anyone needed. He doesn't seem like a team player.

[QUOTE] She rode the Biden wave in 2024 as incumbents; the infrastructure, the money. No way can she get that kind of lift again. I hope she knows that.

And I hope YOU know that you’re a fucking idiot. The “Biden wave”? Are you cunt kidding? Were you in a coma last summer?

Saw Newsom on Colbert yesterday and damn he is good. I’m beginning to think he is so good that it more than outweighs the “California” problem. He could crush the debate stage with any of these MAGA thugtards. I dare say he is an even more effective communicator than Pete. He has Pete’s eloquence, but knows how to go on the offensive better.

[quote]There was a defiance and a contrarianism in Biden's personality and he dug in and became stubborn about staying in. I have to wonder if the Media had been gentler with him, if he would have been more reflective.

Biden's always come off as thinking that he's the smartest person in the entire room and he knows better than everyone else. I saw it during the Obama years when he would openly contradict Obama's positions, which I thought was extremely disrespectful, but was chalked up to "Lovable Joe being himself".

The media gave him a HUGE pass for many years, painting a picture of an "Aw Shucks" Jimmy Stewart-Frank Capra character that really didn't exist. Biden's stubbornness and his ego centrism are who he's been. That certainly isn't the fault of the media. I'd say the Obama's and Clinton's got far worse treatment from the press than the Biden's ever did.

It's interesting that the excerpt from the book that isn't really being talked about is Biden calling Harris up before her debate with Trump to argue with her over rumors that she was talking bad about him. Imagine knowing it is her most important, defining moment of her whole run and yet you go out of your way to disrupt it because your feelings are hurt over rumors? Something that you could have easily waited until the next morning to discuss.

That's Biden in a nutshell.

She chose pretty well with Tim Walz. The Fox/MAGA universe were going to try hard, and viciously, to rip apart whomever she chose. It would have been brutal in different ways if it were Shapiro.

We’ve all been over and over the main reasons she lost, and all the polling data says that the voters said it wasn’t Walz. He was supposed to bring his neighboring state Wisconsin over the line for her. He didn’t… but she only lost WI by 0.85%. Much closer than most of the other battleground states.

R73, you're right. I agree. And yes, that phone call before the debate was definitive of Joe. He was thinking of himself. Period. No concerns at all for her. Joe, Jill, and his staff, Donilon and the rest owe Kamala a public apology for how she was treated, undermined and yes, smeared. I was thinking. I read an excerpt of Tapper's book on Biden. Maybe I will get it (used of course) as a companion to Kamala's book. The Dems who are complaining about her book are the establishment Dems not the ones who want to rebuild and reform the party. The OId Guard has no clue how to address the current moment, and sadly, I include Obama with them. He is cautious and calculating and a huge disappointment IMO.

[quote]So he’s got ambition, so he’s got Big Dick Energy and confidence

Oh, pul-eeze, R68! You think that's "big dick" energy? The man's only 5'8", ffs! He's got spoiled brat energy, that's what that is.

And here's another of his lies, documented in the footnotes in Wikipedia: "The [service project] program [he attended in high school] also included service on an Israel Defense Forces base, an experience he described as being "a past volunteer in the Israeli army". According to his spokesperson in 2024, Shapiro was "at no time engaged in any military activities".

R75 That’s why I’m starting to shift to team Newsom. I do think he knows how to address the current moment.

Similar, R77, it's too early for me to have a favorite for the 2028 primary but I'm glad Newsom is a contender. He's been the best of the lot lately.

Newsom trolls Trump then invites Steve Bannon on his podcast.

We can do better.

The “in-on-every meeting” model has been the standard for most Democratic VPs since Mondale. Biden cut Harris out, apparently, even though Obama included him, so she perhaps was offended. Without that kind of access, it’s a terrible job.

There's a difference between clearly differing with Bannon as a guest, and espousing his positions.

I might have given Newsom a break if a) he hadn't married Kimberly Guilfoyle, and b) he'd stop slicking back his greasy hair like a used car salesman (or Don. Jr.).

As it is, I just can't take him seriously.

I wish more politicians would write these frank personal accounts of other politicians.

Tell us who was a lush, who farted all the time, who swiped all the freebies from hotel suites, etc. The federal crimes are a separate story, but tell us more slice-of-life shit about these people.

Harris, like Sarah Palin, far exceeded her realistic capacity in the political arena. Also like Palin, because she had attributes beneficial to those who needed them for personal/professional gain, those people led her to believe she could fly above & beyond her limit. Believing this hype beyond realistic perspective is her downfall. Bottom line is she was a poor VP & a poor candidate for president. Anyone who fails to believe this will ultimately fail to understand how democrats can formidably move forward, up the middle & with momentum. Holding on to the belief that she "should've" won is anti-progressive.

However, I'm also finding the chatter around this book rather interesting & feel like she deserves some defense here. For the past 5 years Harris was championed as the hopeful face of the future of American politics & received endless encouragement when it boldly was not deserved. Now that she's decided to state her side of the story, clearly not towing the expected line, as she did for so long, she's suddenly just a bitter woman with an ax to grind, someone who should just move on. Perhaps some of this current criticism toward her would have served her well before she was encouraged to run with Biden, but it's all too late now. She has a story to tell & I think her criticism of the colleagues & events that surrounded her since 2020 is well-deserved.

[quote]If she keeps this book tour going, Republicans are going to win the mid terms in a landslide

Sure, she's a justifiably bitter bitch, but if that's what makes more people vote for a bunch of pedophile-protectors, then that's a "them" problem, not a "her" problem.

[quote]Harris, like Sarah Palin, far exceeded her realistic capacity in the political arena.

Dear Lord, were you determined to make us consider you an idiot? Any comparison with Palin is a sign of how deeply limited you are intellectually.

You give her far too much credit.

No one cares what losing politicians do after they're washed-up and on a book tour.

[quote] Harris, like Sarah Palin, far exceeded her realistic capacity in the political arena

She’s a two-term attorney general and United States Senator from the largest state and served as Vice President. Is there something about her that makes you compare her to Sarah fucking Palin who was plucked from an inconsequential job she performed poorly and then quit?

You cared enough to post about it though, R87.

I don’t give a shit about giving Newsom a break or nitpicking. I want the person who can channel all the outrage on the left into a battering ram of epic size and shove it all down the fucking faces of the right in this county. Gavin seems like the one who has a clue about how to do that.

[quote]Harris, like Sarah Palin, far exceeded her realistic capacity in the political arena

It is an unfortunate irony that so many of the posts attempting to discredit Harris are oozing with unimaginable stupidity.

AOC or Bust!!

Let me start by saying that Harris is very intelligent, and Palin ... is not. However, I get the comparison in the sense that each believed themselves electable outside their heretofore friendly partisan environments. Neither was a viable national candidate.

Madame Vice President signals the size of the next president's dick, Gavin Newsom.

Harris came very close to winning. This was no Mondale or McGovern. Inflation doomed her.

The bit about artwork from the Smithsonian is concerning. Is there a precedent for this? I would think they would tell the president no if he asked and it was for personal use.

Borrowing art from the Smithsonian is standard operating procedure. They have a ton of stuff in storage.

[quote]Let me start by saying that Harris is very intelligent, and Palin ... is not. However, I get the comparison in the sense that each believed themselves electable outside their heretofore friendly partisan environments. Neither was a viable national candidate.

Well, yes, I guess you can say that about any losing presidential candidate. A person who loses a presidential election (the only national election we have) is by definition not a viable national candidate.

What is weird to most of us is why, because she lost a presidential election in one of the closer losses in history where she won far more than the votes of partisan democrats, that she is comparable to probably the greatest idiot (before Trump) ever to appear on a presidential ticket who had never won a race in contest with more than a few hundred thousand voters. What on earth does Harris have in common with Palin that far bigger presidential losers don't have other than the fact that both Harris and Palin are...?

Gavin Newsom 2028!

I don't think Kamala Harris is capable of doing press conferences. I really don't. And she has never proven me wrong. Trump is an idiot. He says stupid things. But he takes questions from reporters who hate his guts. Kamala will never get my vote.

[quote] A person who loses a presidential election (the only national election we have) is by definition not a viable national candidate.

Not true if the election was close.

Yes, and Trump has never been anything but an unprepared, incompetent idiot at every press conference he has held. Trump has a lock on the idiot voter base. It's very easy to hold a press conference when the only expectation is that you should act like an idiot.

Harris needed to appeal to people who actually expect competence and knowledge. She has those, but any slight misstep in a short campaign was high-risk.

[quote]Not true if the election was close

Okay, well, as acknowledged in my post, it was a close election. Then, even the claim she was not a viable national candidate is invalide.

I don’t give a fuck what anyone says. Elon Musk RIGGED THE ELECTION!

Ok, can we all just agree, no one gets up to the high ranks of politics unless they are either wheeler dealers or they are bought and paid for. Peter Thiel is behind JD Vance. It's all just nasty. U cant get there by being the good guy..u just cant.

[quote]Newsom trolls Trump then invites Steve Bannon on his podcast. We can do better.

That’s where Gavin lost me even though I greatly appreciate the way he throws Trump and MAGOTTS.

She barely stopped short of calling him the k word.

Or, R104, maybe Harris lost?

Sad when people espouse conspiracy theories instead of accepting the truth.

R96 it was a frivolous question to ask. It demonstrated how unserious or disdainful Shapiro was about his interview with the VP. I used to like him because he was scrappy. But now I don't.

[quote]Shapiro is a joke.

It will be funny to see if the last two people standing in the nomination fight in 2028 are Shapiro and AOC, which way will people on DL go.

Pritzker is my guy. Ignore him at your peril.

[quote]R3 Asked about this by Politico, Buttigieg disagreed. "I was surprised when I read that. I just believe in giving Americans more credit than that," he said.

Oh REALLY, Mary??

Detached, white male privilege at its finest. (“Who could possibly have a problem with ME??”)

"[Biden] was intensely unpopular even among the traditional Democratic base"

Yet no one can say exactly why (except FOX News). He ended the pandemic; erased student debt; appointed minorities; passed an infrastructure package; saved Ukraine from annihilation; saved NATO; ran a respectable administration without scandal or leaks; restored our reputation around the world...

People like R113 need to be banished by the party. Unfathomably stupid and unfathomably evil.

F&F. DIAF.

I really wish she would shut up and go the FUCK away.

I don't. I want to hear the real gossip. I wish some fool would write a real tell all about the Trump campaign and how Dear Leader acts day to day.

Biden was a doddering mess, trailing off sentences, getting lost on the way out of a press conference, just generally looking frail and sounding like an elderly relative who needs a lot of support.

R113 completely ignores that, and the glaring fact that he didn't prosecute January 6th or prevent Trump from coming back, running again and winning. Biden couldn't even make it to the finish line.

Biden is a failed one-term President who will be ranked with Buchanan, Bush II and Trump himself as the worst of the bunch.

And while we’re at it

It’s extremely likely Joe Biden sold out his country in order to stay in power.

To Israel.

Biden’s big money Hollywood bunglers Haim Saban, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Casey Wasserman are all Israel-firsters. Katzenberg was going all around Hollywood vouching for Biden’s mental agility. But in the Alex Thompson/Jake Tapper book, Katzenberg claims he, too, was misled by Biden’s inner circle and had no considerable contact with the President. Why would Katzenberg tell such a lie?

Katzenberg et al wanted to ensure a steady stream of arms would be delivered to Israel and it would not become an issue in Democratic primaries. Even as a core constituency, college students, were going apoplectic over Gaza, even as more evidence that a genocide was being committed, Biden did not budge. Because continued support from his bundlers was the thing keeping his candidacy alive.

However, it’s very likely major donors insisted that they would only contribute so far as Biden performed well at a debate arranged before the primary, and he agreed he would step down if he did poorly. And he broke his word. He kept holding out like Hitler in his bunker. And Democrats being polling worse, and worse, and worse. New Jersey, Virginia, Colorado and New Mexico were in play.

Biden did not care. Because the Democrats had embraced the big lie that Biden was a good man. He is not. He is evil. Jill is evil. Hunter is evil. And R113 is the evilest of all.

So -- when are you running for president, R117?

Just curious.

[QUOTE] Pritzker is my guy.

Pritzker is almost as bad as Newsom when it comes to immigrant sanctuary policies (but nobody could take Newsom’s crown). God help us if either one of them gets the Dem nomination. You can’t rebuild the Blue Wall if you’re soft on immigration. The GOP and their Superpac henchmen will have nonstop crime and immigration ads in every swing state. I can hear the scary voiceovers now.

The fact is that Biden did a lot of good things legislatively, especially those first 2 and a half years. But that is when he should have declared victory and walked away. Not as a lame duck, but actually stepped down and allowed Harris to finish his term and run as an incumbent. The fact that he failed to prosecute the planners and the leader of the January 6th Insurrection is something I cannot forgive.

Sarah Palin & Kamala Harris were chosen as running mates for the same reasons, both of them being women, one of them specifically for being a woman of color. Neither one of them were chosen because of their intellectual contributions or political agility. Each woman's inclusion in their respective campaigns was purely for demographics. If you cannot recognize that then you have no business criticing my comment, as I stated that up front. You are the one who's limited, R86.

President Harris was selected as President Biden's running mate because she came in second behind President Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.

Buzzzz! You're both wrong. Or maybe you're both half right. Joe Biden's dead son Beau was a personal friend of Kamala's and worked with her when they were both Attorneys General of their states on some special task force. They became personal friends and she was very supportive and very compassionate when he was ill. He told his father what an outstanding intelligent compassionate person she was. He sang her praises.

Short answer: It was Beau. Beau and Congressman Clyburn.

Never, R119. I have neither the enormous ego nor the thirst for power. And I certainly don't have the money or the elite connections to corporate donors.

I also recognize that I'm too old and not up for the job. Self-awareness is a good trait. You should try it.

What an odd response. Does one need to run for president before one can criticize a president?

Ever heard of "Blue MAGA?" You embody it. Blind worship of a leader and attempts to silence dissent with mockery and disdain are hallmarks of fascism.

I remember the Democrat primary had a huge field of candidates and President Biden was way at the bottom of the nominees until the primary was held in South Carolina.

THE BLACKS STOOD IN LINE FOR HOURS,TO VOTE FOR PRESIDENT BIDEN OVER PRESIDENT HARRIS.

WHY WOULD THE BLACKS CHOOSE TO VOTE FOR AN OLD ASS WHITE DUDE OVER A BLACK WOMAN?

Why are you shouting, looneytunes?

R127 they were pragmatic. By the time of the South Carolina Primary Harris was al ready out of the race. Primaries are partisan. Party activists mobilize the loyalists and turn out the vote. The question was "Who can beat Trump?" Period. Biden was well known. National figure. etc. None of the others were as well known. No one else emerged from that pack to claim the frontrunner position.

Shapiro has BDE to spare. I wouldn't count him out for 2028.

A little loyalty never hurts

R123 Kamala Harris did not come in second in the 2020 Democratic primaries. She dropped out in December 2019 before the Iowa caucus even happened because of poor polling and fundraising struggles. She never made it to the voting stage.

Biden said on stage his Vice President would be a black woman.

Don’t rewrite history.

[quote] President Harris was selected as President Biden's running mate because she came in second behind President Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.

Really?

The book is moot. If Kamala and Nancy and Shrillary hadn’t gotten the knives out after the first debate, we would be enjoying four more years of relative calm and sanity with Mighty Joe’s steady hand steering the ship. Instead we’ve got our current mess, and Harris deserves the lion’s share of the blame. Her blind ambition and complete ineptitude as a presidential candidate gave us four (or some indefinite number) more years of dump & co.

R102 I’m sorry but that’s a lot of bullshit. Her whole campaign was designed to appeal to Democratic idiots - the propaganda ass kissing Oprah interview, Cardi B, Beyonce, etc.

Her team thought hip-hop and flash dances and Oprah would bring out voters.

R123 was being sarcastic, r132

Are you autistic or something?

I personally would not be surprised if Jill had the brakes cut on Joe’s first wife’s car because she knew he would never divorce her because he’s Catholic.

Oddly, that wouldn’t make her the first First Lady to have killed someone with a car.

[quote]Sarah Palin & Kamala Harris were chosen as running mates for the same reasons, both of them being women, one of them specifically for being a woman of color. Neither one of them were chosen because of their intellectual contributions or political agility. Each woman's inclusion in their respective campaigns was purely for demographics. If you cannot recognize that then you have no business criticing my comment, as I stated that up front. You are the one who's limited.

Oh, dear. Now you are outing yourself as being not only mentally limited, but a bigot as well. Yes, of course, I know Biden committed to choosing a black woman. Do you realize how damning it is of your character that you conclude that that automatically makes both of them unqualified? Yes, one of them {Palin) was an idiot, because she was chosen by a man of bad judgment. There were competent women McCain could have chosen. You really admitted in public that the only way Biden could pick a black woman was by choosing someone grossly deficient? You really wanted to say that publicly? Seriously?

Both women should be judged individually. and they don't have any more in common with each other by virtue of being women then Trump and Biden have in common with each other by virtue of being men. Joe Biden was a life-long mediocrity who was chosen by a much more gifted black man solely because he was an old white guy. That's no excuse for lumping Biden with all other mediocre or totally deficient white guys like Trump, GW Bush, etc. Every white man should be judged as an individual, just like every woman.

You should have accepted the original condemnation of your stupidity with grace and left it there.

[QUOTE] I remember the Democrat primary had a huge field of candidates and President Biden was way at the bottom of the nominees until the primary was held in South Carolina.

^^^Stealth MAGA poster.

R127 because Biden sold himself as Obama’s best friend when in actuality he loathed him.

Biden actually thinks very little of black people, which is why he continued to tell the lie about his civil rights participation even after publicly admitting it wasn’t true.

R140. Well, I'm not the person you are responding to, but it is true that Biden was really struggling until South Carolina. I'm glad Biden beat Trump and at the time I thought having an old, white guy gave us the best chance of doing that. We will never know if one of other Democratic candidates could also have used the dissatisfaction with Trump to win and possibly be better situated to win a second term.

[Quote] She chose pretty well with Tim Walz.

Tim Walz was the same kind of pick as Tim, Hillary’s VP choice. The non-threatening, affable dad next door. Playing up Walz being a long-time HS football coach was absurd. Who wants a football coach doing foreign policy?

[Quote] She chose pretty well with Tim Walz.

The GOP seized on Tim Walz allowing minors to be transed in his state without parental consent.

R144. When you post that, you should very explicitly state that that is a total lie. It is true, Republicans did this, but it's important that you note it is a total falsehood. You've shown more about your judgment than Harris's.

Yes r144 that really was the tipping point!

😵‍💫🙄

Tim Walz a horrible choice! A beta that made it on the basis of the word "weird" which he was never allowed to use again! Stop picking beta males! Also Dems please stop nominating women for a period of about four years. I'm already starting to get bad feelings about the race for Gov in NJ.

Anyone remember John Kerry, war hero, who was "Swift-boated?" The guys who smeared Kerry into oblivion, were the strategists running Trump's 2024 operation, top man, Chris La Civita.

There is a difference between fair politics and outright vulgarity. The GOP specializes in the latter. I’ll even grant you that things like “She is for they/them, Trump is for you”:and making fun of Michael Dukakis in the tank are fair politics. But Willie Horton, Swift-Boating, “Her emails!”, “Benghazi!”, “Where is his birth certificate?”, “She made up working at McDonalds!”, “They’re eating your cats and dogs!” etc are decidedly not. That is the GOP and it’s nothing new.

I liked Kamala and proudly voted for her, however, everything about her campaign was contrived and fake. It started with that publicized phone convo with Obama and went downhill from there. For the millionth time, nobody gives a shit about slow-witted celebrities and what they think. Democrats don't seem capable of learning from past mistakes. That 60 million dollar JLo concert for Hillary the night before the 2016 election should have been a very expensive lesson. Sadly, it wasn't.

Harvard has a program to allow students to borrow art from their collections to hang in their dorm room for the semester.

Calling it the “Democrat party” instantly outs you as MAGA.

R142, true yet it was more complicated. Biden was struggling in early 2020 until two simultaneous things, his huge victory in the SC primary and the early March awareness that Covid was going to be an out of control national pandemic. There was an anxious feeling that we needed to bring back the competence of the Obama admin. Biden, with his 8 years as VP amid all that competence, suddenly seemed like what we needed ASAP.

R151 so does almost every other university. Big whoop

"Who wants a football coach doing foreign policy?"

Who wants a convicted felon/rapist/sexual predator/pathological liar/violent, armed insurrectionist doing foreign policy?

On his worst day, Walz would still be more qualified to be VP or President than Trump or Vance.

R156 In fairness, my cat is more qualified to be VP or President than Trump or Vance. Not exactly a high bar to clear.

People don't seem to be as smart about things today as they used to be. They're gullible and easily manipulated. It's like the couple who voted for Trump and the she's crying and angry because her husband got deported. Consequences.