Within 48 hours of receiving Biden's endorsement, US voters have donated more than $100-million in new funding to Kamala Harris.
The existing Democrat presidential fund was $96-million, so she more than doubled it in two days.
There is no sign of it stopping. People are excited about Kamala Harris and want to celebrate it.
This is a bit different from Elon Musk donating $35-million every month to Trump. In comparison, the wave of resources from the people is tidal; Musk’s pay-out is a one man stand in favor of the oligarchy. When all is said and done, Musk and his colleagues count for scant votes and poorer support than the Blue Wave.
Incidentally, Tesla sales are cratering as people pull away from a man who supports a lying rapist.
The Democrats are now ahead of Trump’s fundraising, which has evidently reached $128-million. The Orange One is not disclosing exact amounts. Sounds familiar.
Kamala will be running against a Cheeto who speaks in word salads.
She has tremendous strengths as she does so.
By the Democratic Convention, Harris would have picked a running mate and likely received another boost from that.
She has already secured the support of enough Democratic delegates to become her party’s nominee at their conference on August 19. In fact, according to AP News, by Monday night, Harris had the support of 2,400 delegates – much more than the 1,976 she’ll need to win on a first ballot.
The speed with which the Democrats have pulled together behind Harris is bewildering to those critics who were wringing their hands in mock despair over Democratic disarray. Pessimists hate it when things go right.
That same speed of coalition is blowing holes in the Republican campaign as well – more on that tomorrow.
What do people see in her?
The first thing to see is her youth - she is 20 years younger than Trump.
Trump does not look haggard from the stress of the job. During his presidency Trump spend almost a year playing golf. He even managed to fit in 54 days during 2020, while almost 300,000 Americans died that year alone from the pandemic that he denied was happening.
Kamala would make history as the nation’s first Black and South Asian woman to become a major party’s presidential selection. Blacks make up more than 10% of all voters; Asians about 7%; Hispanics about 19%. Darn few of them will vote for Trump. And more are coming…
Non-White voters accounted for more than three-quarters of all of the US population growth since 2000.
Color them all “Kamala”.
And by November, a new batch of more than 16 million Americans will be old enough to vote. Almost half of them will by non-White.
They young voters will be Left wing regardless of race.
More than half of the Republican voters are 50 years or more old. They don’t necessarily need a walker to get to the voting booths, but they are less inclined to vote.
The new voters – in fact, most voters - will demand abortion rights.
In every state where it has been on the ballot, abortion rights have carried the day – to the surprise and dismay of those state Republican leaders who pushed through abortion bans without consulting the people.
Thanks to a decision by the Trump-engineered Supreme Court, the abortion ban will be the single most passionate, driving Cause of the campaign. It has more popular support than any issue since the ban on alcohol that was finally flipped in 1933.
80% of voters favor a repeal of the abortion ban, and the restoration of women’s rights.
There are 161-million voters. In the last election, 60% of them voted – an all-time high (so far). Of those 96 million voters, let us assume that a conservative 65% will vote for Kamala because of her stance on abortion (60 million), one-third more will vote for her because Black-Asian-Hispanic (30 million), and 16 million because they are young. That gives her 106 million.
In the last election Trump got 74 million – and that was his highest point.
Kamala will beat Trump by 32 million votes.
This is a number that even a voting machine fabrication could not cover.
It will, however, exacerbate a White rural/urban divide that will be very serious in the coming election; we will look at that pain in Monday’s article on the book “WHITE RURAL RAGE – The Threat to American Democracy”, by authors Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman.
All Democrats can feel the way the wind is blowing; they are determined to let it fill their sails.
All 50 Democratic Party Chairs immediately endorsed Harris.
As John Hardman notes, Obama, Pelosi, Schumer, Clinton are the big guns on the Democrat side. It is important for Harris to stand up on her own, but having these heavyweights on her side can’t hurt.
Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--herself the Democratic nominee in 2016—instantly tendorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president. “Now is the time to support Kamala Harris and fight with everything we've got to elect her,” the Clintons wrote on X.
Pelosi on Monday gave her much-anticipated endorsement: “It is with immense pride and limitless optimism for our country's future that I endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States. My enthusiastic support for Kamala Harris for President is official, personal and political.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have indicated that they will endorse Harris momentarily.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who ran a presidential campaign of her own in 2020, also issued a statement backing Harris.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom threw his support behind Harris: "Tough. Fearless. Tenacious. With our democracy at stake and our future on the line, no one is better to prosecute the case against Donald Trump's dark vision and guide our country in a healthier direction than America's Vice President,” he posted.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg came through strong: "I will do all that I can to help elect @KamalaHarris the next President of the United States."
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called her "our party's best chance to defeat Donald Trump in November." He is a contender to be a Harris’ VP pick.
Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, who has also been mentioned as a potential running mate for Harris, came through with a strong endorsement: “I'm excited to fully endorse Vice President Harris ... for the next president of the United States. The vice president is smart and strong, which will make her a good president."
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer came out Monday short and sweet: "Let's win this."
Also supporting Harris are Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
Only Barack Obama has not endorsed Harris outright. Obama also did not originally endorse Joe Biden either, favoring Hillary Clinton as his political heir. The Biden staff won’t easily forget the mocking of their campaign during the primary, and revel in having proven the Obama brainiacs wrong.
Sen. Bernie Sanders was also absent from the endorsing circle, as was Cory Booker, D- N.J. Sanders did say however that the nominee "will be Kamala Harris ... I'm 99% sure."
Sen. John Fetterman endorsed Harris right away.
So the fact that she is not a White male may not be as much of a disadvantage as some have thought.
I would say that she is not a “natural” politician in the sense that she is not quite at-ease with her position, but Biden was that way too and he did an exemplary job. The old metrics exist only in order to be shattered with the new approaches.
Her views give her strong voter uplift. She has been a vocal defender of abortion rights. She toured a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota that provides abortion services. It was the first time in U.S. history, according to the White House, that a president or vice president had visited a clinic that provides abortion services. “How dare these elected leaders believe they are in a better position to tell women what they need,” Harris said. “We have to be a nation that trusts women.”
She pledged a wholesale overhaul of the country’s criminal justice system, arguing for marijuana legalization, bail reform and a moratorium on the death penalty.
She was given the title of “border czar” and leaned towards permanent solutions rather than fences. “The problems, of course, did not occur overnight, and the solutions will not be achieved overnight,” Harris said of the border. She announced $5.2 billion in pledges from private companies had been made to prop up Central American communities in an effort to deter illegal entry to the U.S. under her guidance.
On the economy, she fully backed the Inflation Reduction Act, to rebuild infrastructure and invest in clean energy. She is a proponent of forgiving student loans, and giving tax credits to low-income families.
Harris has been a vocal supporter of America’s involvement in Ukraine, announcing new funding for the country and calling US commitment to NATO “ironclad”. She has met with European leaders, including Zelensky, and attended the Peace Summit in Switzerland in June.
Even a coalition of Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley voters pledged to support Harris. A spokesperson said “For Haley voters, all of this puts the Vice President in a sweet spot for them to register their ongoing opposition to [former] President Trump."
According to Jeff Tiedrich, Biden did a masterful job on Donald Trump with the timing of his announcement. It was not, as Jeff points out, a sudden decision. For so many people to have come out so quickly for Kamala shows that he must have spent a lot of time sewing everything up. He made sure that not one word of any this leaked, and then timed the announcement of his decision so that Donny and the Republicans spent the entire convention running against the wrong candidate.
And he released it on Sunday afternoon, when the media could not comment on his looks or delivery; for once, they were in his hands.
It must have felt sweet, to The Master.
Besides, if the Supreme Court is right, Biden has immunity from anything he does while in office, so in theory he could arrest Trump and declare him unfit for office.
Then he could dissolve the Supreme Court.
I’d love to see how they react to that one.
But of course he won’t.
He won’t because he is an honorable man – a quality that his opponent does not understand.
The Cheeto was counting on facing Biden all the way to November. When Biden did the honorable thing and stepped aside, it must have been a jaw-dropping moment in Cheeto Central.
Biden has been a wonderful president, with more accomplishments than any other president since Roosevelt. The economy is going gangbusters, 15 million jobs have been created under the Biden administration, the stock market is at an all-time high, and 401k retirement coffers have increased by an average of $10,000. He deserves every honor he can be given.
Including the honor of respecting his choice of successor.
Kamala Devi Harris is coming through. Devi, by the way, is Sanskrit for “goddess”; it means heavenly, divine or excellent.
She is literally showing the world a new face of America – and confirmed its reputation for dramatic change whenever it is needed.
Full speed ahead.
I remember all the young woman who were crying in 2016 when Trump beat Hillary and crushed their dreams. It's far worse now for them as a result of that defeat. Maybe the greatest advantage which you covered well is her ability to mobilize that defeat of women and turn it into victory. I can't imagine that this time the women of our country will allow it to happen again.
Add in the LGBT vote which is huge as well and the rainbow coalition wave now cresting will be bigger than ever. She should probably pick Mayor Pete but she won't because she already has that group sewed up nice and tight because of her long track record of defending them. It'll be a more moderate straight white male governor of a swing state because the moderate independents are really the end game in winning.
The other beautiful thing is that she was a great prosecutor. What is more poetic than a loyal wife and mother holding a life long philanderer and serial cheater accountable for all of his misdeeds on a stage from which there is no retreat for him. I would not want to be in a seat that hot and Trump will get roasted in some extremely uncomfortable ways over and over that will endear her to females, and males alike. They can see through his disgusting lifelong track record of mistreating women and children of every color at every opportunity.
Allow us to dream of a tsunami of minority interest groups and a whiteout of moderate well educated and independent men and woman, led by young people, uniting to create a blue wave that will once and for all remove the Orange Stain from soiling the bedsheets of this great nation again. We are sick and tired of being force-fed the freak show at the circus on the right every single day of our already too short lives. Let's roll.
Great analysis, Barry. Biden has created “Joe-mentom” by stepping aside early enough to build the support that VP Harris needs to win, and late enough to force the opposition to lock in a truly awful and despicable ticket.
Vote Blue, and I’ll be with you!