Joe Biden was not my first choice, but when it was clear he would be the
Democratic party’s nominee, I got 100% behind him, because it was a simple, binary choice between him – a lifelong public servant committed to preserving American democracy – and the
opposite.
Kamala Harris was not my first pick, but now that she’s clearly going to be the nominee, I am 100% behind her for the exact same reasons.
In the 12
times I’ve voted for a president, only one of them was my first choice. Luckily, I got to vote for him twice. And if Harris delivers the way she’s starting her 2024 campaign, I’m
hoping I get the chance to do so again in 2028.
In other words, yes she can.
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The reasons Harris wasn’t my first choice had nothing to do with her
public record, or whether I thought she would be a successful Commander in Chief, defender and protector of the Constitution of the United States, and all the other executive duties associated with
being a great president.
It was because I didn’t feel she was telegenic enough to win the presidency in our modern media age when how you look and sound matter more than what
you say -- and more importantly, what you will actually do.
More recently, I’ve softened on that view, because she has improved her public speaking skills, but still
didn’t consider Harris my first choice, because there were other more telegenic potential candidates.
Based on the first 48 hours of her campaign, Harris has demonstrated incredible
command as well as a sincerity I believe will cut through what should be a transparently insincere, performative opponent.
As gifted a performer as Donald Trump is, I think most
Americans are growing tired of him. And it’s not just because he’s not aging well, re-running old rhetorical episodes of his reality TV-esque show, but because I think most Americans are
just fed up with the BS of it.
Or as J. Walker Smith writes in his Planning & Buying
Insider column this week, Americans want a kinder, more boring form of politics that are based more on fundamentals and less on chaos.
Based on what I’ve seen so far,
Harris is the perfect candidate to deliver on that.
She also has so far demonstrated some important super powers that will be necessary to defeat Trump, and his MAGA-on-steroids
base.
Here are just a few:
First and foremost, she’s the underdog. And if there’s anything
Americans – as well as America’s pack mentality news media – like, it’s rooting for the underdog.
Secondly, people underestimate her, and her startling ability to transition her candidacy – including locking up endorsements from a majority of delegates necessary to win
the nomination – in just 48 hours is proof of that.
She’s earnest, acknowledging the need to prove herself and
“win” the nomination. It’s not being handed to her, she has to earn it.
She’s a pragmatist and her
initial campaign pledge is squarely focused on the most important part of the 2024 election: a binary choice between two diametrically opposed American futures: One, in her own words, that is about the future. And the other, which literally has branded itself around the past
(ie. “Make American Great Again,” or its updated version, because it didn’t get it right the first time: “Make America Great Once Again). What can I say -- the Trump-Vance
campaign isn’t exactly the Tuesday Team.
She’s a fighter. Literally, a former prosecutor who successfully
indicted and tried criminals for many of the same crimes Donald Trump has been indicted, or already prosecuted for. (So this contest literally will be one of a prosector vs. an already convicted
felon. My only question is why that’s even a choice for so many Americans?).
She “eats no for breakfast.”
(Love that quote.)
But the main reason I’m so suddenly keen on Harris’ prospects is because her opponent already has telegraphed his campaign tactics against her, and
she has deftly brushed them off. You know, the “laughing Kamala” schtick, the falling out of coconut trees memes, all those superficial character slights that Trump has routinely -- and
obsessively -- brandished to disarm opponents in the past.
I know many Americans will continue to eat up like so much red meat, but most of us -- to J. Walker Smith’s point --
are simply bored with it. And we’re ready for some substance, not antics.
So for what it’s worth, “Red, White & Blog” is throwing its endorsement to
Kamala Harris.
And while I know that won't exactly turn the tide, and that some initial polling might contradict my logic, I can't wait to see how this campaign escalates. Because as "Mad Blog" columnist Barbara Lippert already noted, Kamala Harris has made 2024's
thrilla a little less vanilla.
I'm not ready to label her a "no drama Kamala," because there will be some hot spots up ahead in this campaign, but I'm pretty sure that's how we'll remember her
presidency. Both terms of it.
And on that note, we’ll leave you with a boring graphical rendering that Harris -- and many people in the ad biz also -- say she loves: A Venn
diagram.