From the outside looking, Governor Gavin Newsom announced unofficially that he ran for President on Thursday, March 30, 2023, the day he transferred $ 10 million of his state campaign funds to launch his PAC, campaign for democracy, along with a national tour. Newsom unofficially suspended his campaign a month later, on April 25, the day President Biden announced that he was looking for re -election.
This timeline is important when it comes to talking about Kamala Harris. Newsom, like Harris, has been on the wings for years as part of the next generation of national Democratic leaders, and, like Harris, he was ready for the center of attention when Biden decided to stay.
The title of the next book by Harris, “107 Days”, refers to the amount of time that a campaign had to launch, write a policy, ensure the nomination and collection of funds after Biden withdrew in the summer of 2024. An excerpt from the memories titled “The constant battle” was published this week in the Atlantic. In him, Harris suggests that some of the enemies he was fighting during his time in the White House were Loyal Biden who did not want to see her succeed as a vice president.
It is a fairly scathing criticism given the bets of the 2024 elections. The extract in its entirety is an uncomfortable vision of one of the most chaotic moments of American politics. As expected, there have already been reports of rejection of the former Biden assistants and one is cited by saying: “Nobody wants to listen to your pity party.”
That is why it is important to remember the timeline.
In March 2020, while campaigning in Detroit, Biden, 77, stopped with Harris, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey and the governor of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer and told his party that he looked at himself “as a bridge, not as anything else,” and added: “There is a complete generation of leaders who wears me. Recognizing his age was a concern for voters at that time, the message that Biden sent that day suggested that it was running only for a period.
And then, more than three years later, Biden changed his mind and his message. In doing so, he not only returned to a campaign promise, but prevented the future of his party, such as Newsom, Whitmer, Booker and Harris, to present a case in a normal primary.
That is why the book is called “107 days.” That is the time he gave to his possible successor to win the presidency.
Biden was a tremendous public servant whose leadership took this nation out of a dark time. He was also remarkably old when he ran for president and considered a short time. The first woman to be chosen Vice President did not decided to run for the superior work at the last minute. But Biden returned to his word in 2023 and drained all the energy of his party. It was only after the disastrous debate performance of June 2024 that the whispers within the belt road about their ability to win finally became shouting.
“Joe was already expanding badly on the issue of age, with approximately 75 percent of voters saying that he was too old to be an effective president,” writes Harris. “Then he started drinking water for his blank perceived to Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza.”
That is not slander against Biden; That is the timeline. It may not be what some progressive want to read, but that does not mean that the message or the messenger is wrong.
The legend is James Carville, a key strategist of Bill Clinton's presidential race in 1992, once he went to a white meeting at the headquarters of the campaign in Arkansas and wrote three key messaging points for employees. The cunning and humor of one, “the economy, stupid”, raised it above the other two: “change in front of more of the same” and “do not forget medical care.” Clinton's victory would later cement “the economy, stupid” as one of the most durable political jokes of the Democratic party, which is really too bad.
Because Carville's goal going to the Blanca Board in the first place was not to find a memorable Zinger, it was to remind employees to remain in the course. The opportunities of 2024 of the Democrats were endangered the day Biden changed direction when applying for re -election, not when it was put aside and Harris stopped in the gap.
That does not suggest that his campaign did everything right or have a driver to remain while he did it was totally wrong. But there is much to learn at this time. Democrats are extremely unpopular. Perhaps instead of ruling out the story of the most recent candidate of the party, former Biden assistants and other progressives should take as much information as they can and consider it constructive comments.
In 2020, Biden had a message. In 2023, it was the opposite. I am sure there are things to blame Harris. Losing the 2024 elections is not one of them.
YouTube: @Lzgrandershow
