Former Vice President Joe Biden has formed a committee to consider 12 Vice Presidential potential choices, apparently all women, based on his pledge to select a female running mate.
While the list has not been made public, it would seem clear, subject to a surprise of course, that there would be five women at the top of the list.
They would include
Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts
Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota
Senator Kamala Harris of California
Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan
Former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams of Georgia
Harris and Abrams are of minority background, with Harris having both Jamaican and Indian ancestry, so therefore multiracial from African and Asian heritage, while Abrams is African American.
So the question arises as to who would be the best choice to be Vice President, and potentially become the 47th President if Joe Biden is unable to finish his term as the 46th President.
The view of this blogger is that two choices should be eliminated immediately, not because they are not good people, but for other reasons.
The first is Elizabeth Warren, due to her age, only six and a half years younger than Joe Biden, making for the oldest Presidential ticket in American history, not a good idea. Also, the likelihood is that the Democrats could, at least temporarily, lose a Senate seat, with a Republican governor in Massachusetts, able to make an appointment, as occurred in 2009 when Scott Brown was appointed to replace Ted Kennedy, upon his death. The Democrats cannot afford to lose a seat in a state with a Republican Governor.
The second is Stacey Abrams, who simply does not have the experience to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. It is true that the Georgia gubernatorial race of 2018 was corrupt, and that Abrams might have been the person who should have been inaugurated.
But that is theory, not reality, and then there is the issue that if Abrams had now been Governor of Georgia, with the CoronaVirus Pandemic raging, should a governor in the midst of the crisis be running for Vice President, and the answer is no!
This also brings Gretchen Whitmer under question, as she is Governor of a state, Michigan, which has had much more severe problems with the CoronaVirus Pandemic than even Georgia. Should she be taking on the campaign for Vice President when Michigan is in crisis?
She is already highly controversial, with the strong reaction in her state by some against her restrictions and quarantine she has imposed, rightfully, but still highly divisive. She served as Minority Leader of the State Senate, after first serving in the Michigan House, so has a similar background as Abrams, with a major difference being that she was successfully elected Governor in 2018.
Both Abrams and Whitmer lack long range national experience, and one wonders if a Governor is the best fit.
And for the Democrats, the Vice Presidential choice for a Presidential campaign has always been a member of the US Senate, except in 1972 and 1984, and both years, the Democrats lost 49 states!
So we come down to two choices—Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar.
Harris is 56 and Klobuchar is 60, and Harris’s seat in California is safely Democratic, as is Klobuchar’s seat in Minnesota, with both states having Democratic Governors who would appoint a Democrat to the seat, not true in Massachusetts.
The one advantage of Klobuchar is that she is from the Midwest, a battleground area, while California is insured to be Democratic.
Either one would be a fine choice to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency, and possibly become the 47th President of the United States!