There's no Dem in democracy

This marks the third straight presidential election in which the Dem pooh-bahs have had to put their collective finger on the scale to frustrate the democratic process of choosing their party's presidential candidate. They anointed Hillary in 2016 and then booted Bernie (again, and way more blatantly) in a corrupt deal by Black politicians for "representation" in the form of the vice-presidency in 2020. Dressing this up as democracy is going to be a challenge. None of the plausible alternatives to Harris are going to damage their future prospects by fruitlessly challenging her. But some sort of charade seems necessary if Harris, in her own words, is to have even a tenuous claim to "earn and win." Unless Newsom, Whitmer, or another 2028 hopeful opts to be the veep candidate -- tying yourself to this campaign in any way would seem like a foolish strategy for any of them, and besides Harris may not want that kind of competition -- the choice for running mate has to be Josh Shapiro. Pennsylvania Dems are already bemoaning losing him as governor, seemingly forgetting that's only if Harris wins (though whichever governor takes the veep slot won't be doing much governing for a few months). The Dems can't win without Pennsylvania. He would bring some votes, some local organization, and some local money. It will reassure some Jews who see Harris as a potential Palestinian ally, though at the cost of convincing many Palestinian allies that she isn't. But that's the price you pay -- it's hard to pander to both of two constituencies when they are actually fighting a war. Trump is not home free. If the lesson is that old and infirm is disqualifying, that's not good for Trump. His problem remains what it always has been -- his base is loyal, but too small. He leads in polls, but the percentage of undecided or neither is still much larger than it will be in November. Trump doesn't need all of those, but he needs some. They mostly have been thinking (and who wouldn't!) that they didn't like either Trump or Biden. Now Biden is gone, but they still don't like Trump. It isn't hard to imagine the double haters splitting heavily for the new face. hugzu ;-p