The issue of President Biden’s age, unprecedented in American political history, will increasingly rise to the fore as voters focus on the election. The role of the vice president, of course, has never been more relevant.
Four Out Of 10 Vice Presidents Become President
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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Let’s skip everyone before Carter (Nixon/Ford/Watergate/Vietnam was a demarcation point in American politics). So Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Cheney, Obama, Trump, Biden.
Look at the set ups. Reagan’s veep won a single term after Reagan’s two terms. Clinton’s veep, similarly, won, but the Supreme Court took it away from him. The Cheney presidency doesn’t count because Cheney (the nominal veep) chose not to run for a third presidential term. Obama’s veep, Biden, backed out due to his son’s recent death (that and Hillary having purchased the nomination from the dnc).
The overwhelming tendency is for the veep’s try for the Oval Office to be deflected either by internecine conflict, outright tampering, or extremely unusual personal events. This coming election is, frankly, going to be a vote for (or against) the attempt to establish the presidency of Kamala Harris. And I think she will go down in flames, both due to intraparty conflict AND external tampering.
My Lord, are we still doing this re the 2000 election? The one where they counted and Bush won, they counted again, and Bush won, they counted a third time, and Bush won …
I will say this, the Democrats learned their lesson there. Fast forward to 2020, suddenly it takes 10 days to confirm any kind of count and announce any result whatsoever. Funny how that works!
I mention 2000 only as it reinforces my point that the elections where a veep is trying for the top spot are filled with unusual events–much more so than when it’s an incumbent trying for his second term. It remains fact, however, that the Supreme Court stepped in and decided the election. Whether they were right or wrong, they stopped the counting with a ruling that leaves the question: If Bush was gonna win anyway, why stop counting? The Supremes picked a winner. The only person it benefited was soon-to-be president, Dick Cheney.
But we agree, Harris is a train wreck. If they’re gonna get her out of the way, they’ll have to move fast over there at dnc HQ. They have to replace her, get her replacement in place, replace Biden, replacing him with her replacement, and then replace that replacement with another replacement. It’s just like Watergate.
The Supreme Court stepped in because they rightly recognized the tactic was – just keep counting until you get an outcome that says Gore is the winner. That is kind of my point about 2020 – the lesson they learned there is, never, ever let a message get out that your guy lost .. you just tell people, be patient, we’re still counting, hang tight, we’re almost there!
At any rate, I agree Harris has zero chance. I’m rooting for Bernie, because as a wealthy person I’m generally unaffected by who is President, and he would be hilarious.
Biden, Harris, Trump, DeSantis…will be a figurehead for the persons behind the curtains. It’s just a question of whether the great Oz verbally panders to white Christian family men or to women and minorities, while the persons behind the curtains make sure the money keeps flowing their way.
Neither Biden nor Harris is particularly wonderful; in an ordered ranking of the Democratic candidates who were running in 2020, I give both of them a rank somewhere in the low to mid teens. But them or any of the dozen or so that I rank higher are better than any candidate that I am seeing on the Republican side. Yes, I sorely wish that some of that dozen would step into the ring for 2024 but, even if they don’t, count this voter as a Democrat for 2024.