Joe Biden’s selection of 55-year-old Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as his running mate poses few, if any, political problems while adding an attractive candidate. More than some of other contenders, her roll out — while there will be natural Trump and Republican criticism — should go rather smoothly.
As both the first Black woman and first Asian woman on a major party national ticket, it’s historic — and likely will energize voters in some key states.
Like Biden, the California lawmaker is not a bold or out of the box thinker. The campaign undoubtedly will contend that after Trump, the country doesn’t want much more out of the box stuff.
The downsides of the choice were that Harris ran a bad —often chaotic — presidential campaign last year, including an unpleasant exchange with Biden. And she doesn’t get the ticket much electorally; her home state is in the bag for Democrats.
If elected, Biden would be the oldest president ever — and as a heartbeat away, Harris is an unknown as a potential Commander-in-Chief.
So were most of the other possibilities.
Her quarrel with Biden last year, over the largely irrelevant issue of school busing, was tame compared to some of the differences between the likes of Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson in 1960 or Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush in 1980. Biden tweeted about Harris’s close relations with his late son, Beau, when both were state attorneys general.
Vice presidential picks can send a message about the nominee, but since Johnson in 1960 have never delivered a state for the ticket.
In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in May there was tremendous pressure to put a Black woman on the ticket. At least four were seriously considered, and it must have been determined that Harris had fewer questions than California Congresswoman Karen Bass or former national security agency head Susan Rice.
A former prosecutor and state attorney general, Harris is a conventional liberal, basically in sync with the former vice president on most matters.
She’s the daughter of immigrants, a mother from India, father from Jamaica, an Asian African American. Even before she was elected attorney general, the late Gwen Ifill called Harris “the female Barack Obama.”
Optics matter in presidential politics, and the Biden-Harris ticket will look good — even if denied that live stage together holding their hands aloft. It’s a cliché, but more than most any other active politician, Harris lights up a room.
She will be a match in any debate against Vice President Pence. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Harris eviscerated Attorney General William Barr and got pretty good marks for her questioning of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Some left-wing Democrats complain about her record as a prosecutor, but that may be a political advantage in a general election.
Harris’s 2019 presidential campaign started with great promise, but she never offered a rationale for her presidency and lost her footing trying to compromise between left wing and mainstream progressive policies on issues like national health care. When thrown off by a question, she faltered when saying “We should have a conversation” about whether convicted rapists and murderers should be able to vote.
Her campaign organization, headed by her sister, a highly respected policy advocate, but relative novice at national politics, floundered. The Biden campaign already has announced most of the staff for his running mate.
Of course, there are others who’ve recovered from a poor presidential quest — most prominent is the man at the top of the Harris ticket.
Al Hunt is the former executive editor of Bloomberg News. He previously served as reporter, bureau chief and Washington editor for the Wall Street Journal. For almost a quarter century he wrote a column on politics for The Wall Street Journal, then the International New York Times and Bloomberg View. He hosts 2020 Politics War Room with James Carville. Follow him on Twitter @AlHuntDC.