Sometimes an understudy never gets any plaudits, until they finally get the chance to shine and show their true worth. This might be the case with Harris… or it might not.!
If the Democrats appoint anyone else than her at this stage… they could well lose a lot of votes, simply because kicking her to the kerb, would not only be a real cuntish and unfair thing to do, it would also show the whole of the party in a bad light… Well IMO anyway
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All the U.S presidents have been above the law since 1700s,
If Trump is elected and the 34 convictions he currently has are not overturned on appeal, I suspect the sentencing to be very minor - naughty boy, don’t do it again, maybe a fine, perhaps some future business restriction.
Even then he will probably get the Supreme Court to overturn it, given their recent ruling to pave the way for Presidential immunity from prosecution.
The question in hand is how will other countries treat him, as the visiting President of the United States of America, if he remains a convicted felon?
The answer is they will all roll out the red carpet.
The discussion about visas, and not having a criminal conviction, is a reasonable point, but overlooks the world in which we live. That rule applies to ordinary everyday people!
America’s economy, trade, influence, arms sales, military bases and all the rest of it, carry influence in every corner of the globe. There’s no way any country will put their foot down to block a visit from a future President Trump, over his current convictions. It would be diplomatic and economic suicide, especially when you factor in what a vengeful and mean-spirited person he is.
In addition, we are almost imagining a world where he wants to travel and visit other heads of state. He doesn’t! Or not many. He is America first, through and through.
I don’t like it, because no person should be above the law, but that’s how the hypothetical will play out.
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You can be sure that once elected, all his convictions, charges, court cases etc will magically disappear.
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Keep hearing “we finally beat Medicare”. What was he on about?
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Biden said that in the debate with Trump. He misspoke. The Whitehouse press secretary corrected it afterwards, saying he meant to say we finally beat big pharma [to help protect Medicare].
Biden’s government worked hard to get prescription drug prices down (still ridiculously high compared to the UK) and that helped to protect people on Medicare I.e. people over 65 who have retired, and now have government health insurance.
Spiraling prescription costs eat into a modest fixed pension, so it was a real political battle and Biden did some good work there for the people.
Unfortunatley it will all be overlooked because he is mumbly and old.
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But it’s just the kind of issue that Harris should pick up on. There are clear policy differences where the Dems have an advantage and they should be hammering them home.
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Voices: Anyone thinking of voting for Trump over Kamala Harris should consider this…
So much for unity. At least, in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention (RNC) Donald Trump – or leastways his speechwriters – made some attempt to deliver the improbable “New Trump” promised after the assassination attempt.
He managed to mention Biden personally in one brief passage, albeit absurdly as of the worst presidents in history: “The damage he has done to this country is unthinkable,” he said, “just unthinkable.”
This is an example what psychologists might call transference, because of course it is Trump who has the strongest claim to have been the worst president in history (and now wants another shot at it to scrape new lows and clinch the title forever).
Trump cannot help himself, though – and he was even less classy than usual in the statement he put out after Biden quit. In one short, crass, nasty statement Trump reminded America of why they rejected him in 2020. He says Biden was “not fit” to serve, whereas it is Trump who is the insurrectionist; the man found liable for sexual assault in a civil trial; the convicted felon.
Trump, childish as ever, calls him “crooked Joe”, whereas it is Trump who is permanently in the law courts. He says that Biden only became president because of “lies”, while it is Trump who can’t get through a sentence without uttering some mistrust or hopelessly mutilated fact.
Encased in that assertion, by the way, is the snide but persistent notion still peddled cynically by Trump that the 2020 contest was stolen – baseless, like everything else. Almost needless to say, there aren’t millions of people coming across the border, many spilling out of “prisons, mental institutions” – and there never have been.
In other words, almost everything Trump accuses Biden of, he is guilty of himself – and spectacularly so. What we’ve seen since that bullet nicked his ear is just the same old stuff, albeit now with the added delusional quality of divine intervention.
Trump did indeed tell his delegates at the RNC the other day: “I stand before you … by the grace of almighty God”, which may be true, but coming from Trump, with his dictatorial tendencies, it has as a hint of the “divine right of kings” about it. God moves in mysterious ways.
More than anything, though, what shines through Trump’s characteristically boorish remarks is the sense of child who has just had his favourite toy taken away from him. Trump, JD Vance and the team had been looking forward to a good few months of tormenting Joe Biden and the Democrats about the the president’s failings and supposed lack of mental acuity.
It amounted to an election-winning strategy. They’d not need to mention abortion and women’s reproductive rights, but just point to the last time Biden lost his thread or mixed up a name. They’d not have to admit they’d surrender to Putin, because people would be more concerned about Biden coping in a crisis.
Trump’s refusal to say he’d accept the election result would melt away once it became obvious he’d beat “sleepy Joe” anyway. Well, to borrow another phrase from US presidential history, because of the present president’s statesmanlike decision, Trump won’t have Biden to kick around any more and the focus will now be on Trump’s age, mental acuity and – where he has always been weak – his emotional immaturity and instability, amply evidenced in his recent behaviour.
Americans have long yearned for a choice other than Biden v Trump, again, and now they have been presented with someone who is indeed younger and yer more mature than other of the old bits they’ve been used to. The system, after a fashion, does work.
Whatever else, Kamala Harris does represent a fresh start – and many may feel the time has come for a female president. Harris seems a more attractive personality than Hilary Clinton. Trump has a problem with powerful women and he may well find Harris difficult to deal with in the way that Nancy Pelosi used to send him nuts.
America will soon be faced with a striking personal choice. Trump derides Harris for her cheerful demeanour – “I call her laughing Kamala…she’s nuts” – but who would not prefer that to the scowling mugshot of Donald Trump?
Harris is smiling, optimistic, youthful, articulate, forensic and smart. Trump is the distinct opposite. If Harris does run, then the 2024 contest will remind British audiences, at least, of the clashes between the bombastic Boris Johnson, when he was prime minister – and Keir Starmer, another ex-prosecutor like Harris, who consistently got the better of him and saw him off.
Trump represents the darker side of America. Harris is something brighter and more hopeful. Many Americans will surely want to let the sunshine in at last.
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It’s why Harris works better than anyone else.
It’s effectively a continuous Biden/Harris ticket.
She can sort of ride on that ticket.
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Hillary was subject to a 30 year smear campaign that the media played into with their framing of what issues were deemed important in that campaign.
One of the downsides to this move is Harris doesn’t have much time to put a campaign together. One of the benefits is it gives Trump very little time to negatively characterize her
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Quick peek at horror show ‘X’ - apparently they’re going with the blowjob line of attack.
Quelle surprise.
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I don’t think it’s worth considering too much given the way the party has responded. Anyone who was likely to be interested would have been ready to and so it’s telling that no one else has put their hand up to be the nominee. If there was anyone who was on the fence waiting to see any signs of softness in support for Harris as the assumed choice they will have seen a party respond with surprising speed and unity behind her closing off that avenue.
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Several of them are reviving the birtherism angle (she is not a “natural born citizen” as neither of her parents were citizens when she was born). Some of trying the “you accused of being anti-democratic and now YOU do a coup…hypocrites” argument. Many are doing the “women be bitches. Listen to her laugh, Urgh.” thing.
Some say Trump remade this party, but this is the classic republican playbook.
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In the end though, who actually cares? They are going to call her names and come out with sexist/racist insults, it’s who they are and what they do.
More importantly, what are the substantive issues on which she can hurt Trump and where are her vulnerabilities?
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There was talk of Manchin 
standing.
ps it’s unbelievable that I even know who that dick is.
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Agree. What I’m encouraged by though is how weak the initial response has been. I am encouraged by the lack of rapid response from the Trump team. You would have expected that for a move so telegraphed they would have had a message ready to go that honed in on a perceived weakness and directed their people to echo it, but we’ve heard nothing from them other than complaining about this being unfair and further attacks on Biden. I am also encouraged by how uninspiring the organic criticisms from the right have been. They will hone in on whatever the campaign tells them is a liability, but you would think that if the liabilities are obvious and believable an organic movement would have been able to identify them without direction from the campaign. The fact the online right hasnt come up with anything better than this nonsense is therefore encouraging.
As for her message, she has been very good the last months or so talking about the fall out from the Dobbs decisions and she will continue to hit Trump with that effectively in a way Biden seemingly couldn’t. But then there is also this - the prosecutor vs the criminal.
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Apparently she’s not black enough to be black and not African enough to be African-American and not American enough to be American. Shit’s complicated.
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Yeah, it’s funny though as the Indians here I know don’t care one bit. Indians in America tend to be quite conservative (buy into the Republican hard work-bootstraps story), and I know several whose parents are big Trump-Modi types. I now have heard from 4 who say everyone in their family is responding like “Indians have finally made it” and are desperate to vote for her 
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Sounds familiar. Remember that bloke from Chicago?