Tag Archives: Kamala Harris

national news

DEI hire? Yeah … they all are!

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The rant we’re hearing now from Republican critics of Vice President Kamala Harris is that she was a “DEI hire” made by President Biden as a form of affirmative action.

What utter nonsense!

What does DEI stand for? Diversity, equity and inclusion. Right-wing educators want to rid public education of DEI references, contending that they are “woke policies” that need to be expunged from public education.

More trash!

Let us ponder vice presidential picks dating back to, oh, 1960. You will learn, as I have learned, that DEI has existed in that process for far longer than anyone case to remember.

John F. Kennedy picked Lyndon Johnson to be vice president because LBJ would help the ticket do well in the South; LBJ also was a master legislator, whereas JFK had little experience. In 1968, Richard Nixon picked Spiro Agnew because Nixon thought he needed help luring the “ethnic voters” to his cause. In 1976, Jimmy Carter selected Walter Mondale to diversify the ticket geographically and because Mondale also had keen legislative instincts.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan tapped George H.W. Bush because of his deep foreign policy experience; Reagan had little of it. Bush then turned in 1988 to Dan Quayle to lure the younger voters of America. In 2000, George W. Bush needed foreign policy help, so he turned to Dick Cheney. In 2008, Barack Obama selected Joe Biden because Biden also had years of foreign policy experience that was lacking in the background of the young presidential hopeful.

Now we have Kamala Harris running for president. GOP critics are accusing her of being a DEI hire. Why? She’s the first Black American, and first American of South Asian descent to serve as VP. Every example I have cited in this blog post is symbolic of a DEI hire in one form or another.

This cheap-shot criticism is pure racist and sexist demagoguery in its most crass form.
national news

Kelly for VP

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Never have I stated my preference for whom a presidential nominee should choose as a running mate … until now, maybe.

I figure it’s a personal choice. I also know that it’s everyone’s business who gets the nod because when we cast our ballots, we do so for the presidential and vice-presidential candidates. Let us never forget that the VP is next in line to the top job in case the president cannot serve.

Vice President Harris has been thrust into the role of Democratic Party presidential frontrunner, courtesy of President Biden’s sudden withdrawal from his re-election campaign. Time is short. Harris must make her choice known no later than Aug. 7.

Chop, chop …. as they say.

So, who should she select? One name surfaced immediately after Joe Biden announced his decision to step down.

Arizona U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly.

Kelly has a been a Democratic star since taking office in 2023. He has disagreed with Biden administration border security policies. By and large, though, he’s been faithful to the party hierarchy.

Kelly is a former astronaut, having flown aboard shuttle missions until NASA grounded the fleet.

And no mention of Kelly can be done without noting that his wife, former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, was grievously wounded in a shooting that thrust her husband immediately into the world of becoming a household name as he rose to speak on his wife’s behalf.

I am grateful beyond measure that Giffords is still with us and has made tremendous progress in regaining her ability to communicate.

I shall be frank. Mark Kelly’s Arizona roots are critical, too. Kamala Harris will need that state if she is to be elected POTUS. Time is not her friend.

2016 election, national news

More unsolicited advice for the VP

Let there be not a hint of doubt that Vice President Kamala Harris is getting loads of unsolicited advice from experts, faux experts and just plain folks who want her to be elected president this fall.

You may count me as one of those folks.

If there is a lesson to be learned about why Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in 2016, one need look no further than to the grievous strategic and tactical errors Clinton made down the stretch.

National polling had Clinton leading Trump by 2 to 3 percentage points; that polling, by the way, turned out to be accurate, as that was the margin of the popular vote victory Hillary scored against Trump.

But ….

She erred in refusing to visit three key battleground states down the stretch: Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — all of which went for Trump on Election Day and sealed his Electoral College victory. Clinton took voters in those states for granted, thinking they were in the bag for her. So, why bother?

Clinton learned the bitterest lesson imaginable. She most certainly should have bothered.

What might be the advice that Vice President Harris receives as the 2024 campaign ramps up? Do not, under any circumstance, take the voters of any state for granted. Harris will have plenty of polling experts in her corner. She’d better heed their advice.

And if that advice tells her to visit certain states that might appear to be too close for comfort, she’d damn well better heed it.

national news

Praise for the unspoken

President Biden today deserves a bouquet for something he didn’t mention in his brief remarks to the nation.

He never mentioned — not a single time — any reference to the difficulty that led to his decision to withdraw his bid for re-election to the nation’s highest office.

I want to offer a hearty congratulations to the president for sticking to his script and for declining to enter the viper’s pit with the critics who continue to insist he has lost his edge, that he no longer is fit to hold the office to which we elected him in 2020.

He surrendered his campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his worthy successor, presuming she wins the election this November. Biden spoke of the high honor he earned by “serving as your president” and said the time has come to “pass the torch” to younger leaders.

Joe Biden will face history’s judgment in due course. I believe historians will treat his time as president with the dignity it deserves. He has been a consequential president with a lengthy list of accomplishments for which he can take credit.

I am proud of him and am proud to have cast my vote for Joe Biden as our commander in chief.

national news

Blog to chart new course

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Now that we have dramatically reset the 2024 presidential campaign — with Vice President Harris taking over from President Biden as the Democrats’ new standard bearer — I want to announce a new strategy for High Plains Blogger as we move toward Election Day.

This blog intends to concentrate more on the new energy that Harris brings to the campaign and less on the blathering and yammering of the GOP nominee, Donald J. Trump.

That doesn’t mean your blogger is going to ignore the idiocy that flies out of Trump’s potty mouth. It means only that I will save my comments for those mutterings the media deem newsworthy.

To be honest, I am more engaged now in this campaign than I was prior to the president’s exit from it. I didn’t want to engage in the silly crap about whether he has dementia … which he doesn’t! But, yes, he has slowed a step or two since 2020. He is 81 years of age. Now that he’s stood down, that leaves Trump as holder of the title of “Oldest Man Ever Nominated for U.S. President.” We’ll need to listen carefully to how the GOP nominee handles himself when the heat gets turned up.

Harris’s ascent to Democratic nominee in waiting was only logical. Biden chose her to be VP because he wanted someone who is able to step in as POTUS. We’re far from that event occurring. However, it makes complete sense that she step in to succeed the president as the party’s nominee, given that he has taken himself out of the game.

I intend to focus this blog on Vice President Harris’s progress as this campaign gets fired up.

national news

Harris moves quickly into top spot

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Well … that didn’t take long, given the notion that some had posited that next month’s Democratic National Convention would devolve into a chaotic floor fight to determine the next presidential nominee.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who inherited the role of 2024 Democratic frontrunner when President Biden dropped out of the race, has enough pledged delegates for her to secure the nomination before they bang the gavel in Chicago.

The hunt is on for a vice-presidential running mate. Harris has named former Attorney General Eric Holder as head of a task force to vet potential nominees, looking for any possible skeletons in their closets that could damage the ticket.

VP Harris is moving with cool dispatch as she secures the nomination. She has earned Joe Biden’s ringing endorsement, declared that she and her husband Doug Emhoff “love Joe and Jill Biden” and is preparing a breakneck schedule of campaign events in “battleground states,” sone of which were thought to be in Donald Trump’s hip pocket.

I don’t know about you, but I am feeling newly invigorated by what I believe is occurring in the race for the White House.

national news, political news

What does Biden’s courage mean?

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Time gives us a chance for reflection, and so just a few hours after hearing gut-wrenching news of President Biden’s decision to bow out of the 2024 presidential race, I want to reflect briefly on what I believe it means.

And not just for the candidate, but for the country he loves.

Every strand of Joe Biden’s being seemed to pull him toward staying in the race. I mean, he ran for the presidency twice before actually winning the 2020 contest. He sought the 1988 Democratic nomination, but got derailed over a plagiarism scandal. He ran again in 2008, but fell to the Barack Obama buzzsaw.

He had a horrible debate performance in mid-June. He vowed to stay in. Democrats bailed on him. The money spigot dried up.

Then this past weekend came the announcement: He would end his candidacy and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination.

Biden likely knew he couldn’t defeat Donald Trump. He stepped aside to let a young, more intellectually agile public servant, VP Harris, make her effort to keep Trump out of the White House.

He said he did it out of love for his country, which he wants to shield from the evil impulses that Trump would deploy if he gets the chance at another presidential term.

Joe Biden served his country honorably for more than 50 years … as a senator, vice president and president. He left his most indelible imprint on our nation by walking away from a fight he knew he couldn’t win.

That’s how you define patriotism.

national news

Now what for Election 2024?

I am pretty sure I will remember where I was when I heard the stunning news of the day, that President Biden had ended his re-election campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor.

It’s a mind-blower to be sure. We now are trudging down a never-before-traveled trail. A sitting president who had his party nomination locked up has tossed it into the crapper because (a) he apparently no longer believes he can win and (b) too many questions remain over whether he has the snap to serve another four years in power.

This was Joe Biden’s call to make. I have said I would support whatever decision he made. Part of me wanted him to stay in the race, but it became untenable as scores of Democratic politicians and big hitters bailed on him.

What about Vice President Harris? She is a known quantity. Now she gets to pick a VP running mate, presuming she wins the Democratic Party nomination later this summer. It would seem to be a no-brainer, given that the delegates chosen to support President Biden were on board with VP Harris as well.

My head is still spinning at this moment. There will be plenty to say about the campaign that is going take shape …. all over again!

***

Oh, just so you know, I was watching a theater production of “Mama Mia!” in Fort Worth when I heard the news … in case you’re interested.

Joe Biden, national news, political news

Does Joe stay … or go?

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My mind has been flip-flopping like a fish out of water on the issue of President Biden’s viability as a presidential candidate in 2024.

I believe I have reached a conclusion on this matter, so I will share it with you right now.

The president needs to step aside. He needs to hand the top spot on the Democratic ticket to Vice President Kamala Harris, who needs then to find a suitable running mate to carry the fight forward against Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.

I will offer only one caveat. If the president stays in, I’ll be with him until hell freezes over. Which ain’t gonna happen.

The foremost issue must be to keep Donald Trump from darkening the Oval Office’s door ever again.

I have been watching many of VP Harris’s speeches over the past few days and to my aging but still perceptive ears, she has found her voice. One hears no quiver in her voice. She is certain on where she stands and she delivers her views with vigor and conviction. The vice president relies heavily on her years as a prosecutor, telling cheering audiences, “Let’s look at the facts.”

When I watch the vice president recite chapter and verse how Trump and Vance are wrong, on, say, women’s reproductive rights, I see a stand-up champion. When she talks about how the GOP talks out of both sides of its mouth on seeking “unity,” I see a fierce fighter.

Sadly, the Joe Biden I grew to admire from his first days in the US Senate — the ferocious and occasionally garrulous advocate he became — no longer exists. Make no mistake, though, on this key point: Joe Biden has been one of the better presidents of the past century and he accomplished plenty during his time in office. He will leave office, whether this coming January or in January 2029, with his head held high.

However … the Democratic Party leadership is bailing on him. The source of the money the party will need to defeat Trump has dried up. President Biden should step aside.

Joe Biden chose well when he picked Kamala Harris to run with him in 2020. It’s her turn now.

national news

VP stands tall

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Kamala Harris made history four years ago when voters elected her as the nation’s first female vice president, the first Black and the first Asian American ever to hold the office.

Yep, she’s a complex individual … with an ethnic diversity that makes heads spin.

President Biden vowed to make her a consequential VPOTUS. While the jury is still out on whether he was faithful to that pledge, there can be no doubt these days about the value she brings to an embattled president. Biden is facing calls to step down from the top of Democratic Party ticket on the basis of his debate performance the other night in Atlanta.

I am one American who is so very torn. I don’t want him to step down, but I would accept his decision to do so if that’s what he decides.

Oh, as for Harris? She stands tall in the wings. Vice President Harris has emerged as the Biden administration’s most effective spokesperson on the issue of women’s reproductive rights. She is taking the fight straight to Donald Trump, who wants his old job back amid threats that he would undo the basic framework of our representative democracy.

The VP is speaking with courage and conviction and is emerging as someone who is (a) defending the president’s stellar record and (b) looks and sounds willing and able to lead a nation that chose her as vice president in 2020.

Kamala Harris might never have imagined being thrust into this role when she said “yes” to Biden’s request to join the ticket. Indeed, as an observer of American politics, I am finding it hard to grasp what might be unfolding in real time.

The drama that is playing itself out is almost too much to imagine … but it is. I am proud of the politician who made history when she joined the winning ticket four years ago.

Keep standing tall, Mme. Vice President.