Why is everyone acting as if she’s an heir or something? All delegates to the convention have already been elected. If Biden steps down, they can vote for whoever, and Dem party rules state that the superdelegates can’t jump in until the 2nd vote if no one wins the first.
This is absolutely not true. The DNC can do whatever the fuck they want with presidential campaign money. It’s a donation to a private organization. There’s no contract unless a big donor insists.
That’s an oversimplification. The Biden campaign has around $240 million on hand. If Harris becomes the presidential nominee, her campaign inherits the entire $240 mil.
If another person becomes the nominee, the Biden campaign could refund contributions so they can be sent to the new campaign directly. Otherwise, they are permitted to transfer as much as they want to the DNC.
But the DNC can’t spend the money however they like. They can spend an unlimited amount supporting the new candidate independently (running ads, oppo research, etc), but there is a limit to how much they can spend in coordination with the campaign. For example, if they rent a venue for the candidate, that must be coordinated with the campaign and therefore counts towards coordinated expenditures. The coordinated expenditure limit per presidential cycle is $32.3 million.
And if they want to give directly to the campaign, that is even more limited. A political committee can only give $5,000 dollars per campaign per election cycle. Anything more than that would have to go to some kind of Super PAC which also has limits in what it can do in direct coordination with a campaign (though it gets fuzzier because Super PACs are tantamount to political money laundering in my opinion).
So no, if the DNC gets the money, they can’t just give it to whatever campaign they like. The limitations are not due to any contractual obligation when donating the funds, but rather US political rules on how presidential campaigns are allowed to receive money.
The red tape Super PACs get around concerns how much money can be received. While a presidential campaign can only receive $3,300 from an individual, and a traditional PAC can receive up to $5,000, a Super PAC can receive unlimited donations from both individuals and corporations. That’s the money laundering part - it allows the super rich to put unlimited money toward a political cause even though the system was originally designed to prevent this.
But the official name for Super PACs is “Independent-expenditure-only political committee”. So, while they are allowed to receive unlimited funds, they cannot give it to a campaign or do any spending in coordination with a campaign (though how many Super PACs strictly follow the no coordination rule is hard to quantify).
Essentially, the DNC giving the money to a Super PAC would be similar to if they kept the money and did the independent political expenditures themselves. The difference being that they would lose control over what independent expenditures the money goes towards.
If another person becomes the nominee, the Biden campaign could refund contributions so they can be sent to the new campaign directly.
Hmm.
That’d have to happen extremely quickly. If they don’t have some kind of mechanism already in place for getting approval from the donor, it seems likely to me that they wouldn’t have time to set something up.
The US typically runs fairly long campaigns, the whole election year. Not all countries work like that. IIRC, the UK does a (limited) three month campaign cycle. But even by those standards, this is really short. There are about three-and-a-half months left before the election. They haven’t even selected an alternative, much less had someone spend the money to put together a campaign, much less actually embark on it.
Also, US campaigns are very large compared to most countries. I don’t know what total spending is like this time around, but I remember that when Trump ran against Hillary in 2016, each spent about $1 billion on their campaign. If you have to do that, you’d have to select someone, set up and complete all the fund transfer stuff, pay someone to devise a campaign, and then implement the campaign – and this is on the order of a billion-dollar project – in about a hundred days.
It’s been kind of maddening, seeing the discourse about her electability go from zero to hero. US politics makes no sense outside of corporate and wealthy circles. She is way more electable than Biden.
There are, potentially valid, concerns that her being brown, a prosecutor, and a her makes her less electable than the ancient white man nobody likes. I think people for whom this is a problem were never going to vote dem anyway, but I can see what they perceive the problem is.
So before it was a magazine? Because this is issue 1 and there’s a reason there’s a photo of John Lennon dressed as a soldier in an anti-war film on the front page of its inaugural issue in 1967.
Vice President Kamala Harris tried to buck up the Democratic Party’s biggest donors on Friday, telling about 300 of them that there was little to worry about in President Biden’s campaign.
Ms. Harris spoke to the group at a time of extraordinary turmoil among Democrats, with many hoping that she will replace Mr. Biden as the party’s nominee. But several listeners said they found the meeting overall to be of little value and even, at times, condescending, believing that the message ignored donors’ legitimate concerns about the Biden-led ticket.
Ms. Harris, of course, is in a delicate position: She must demonstrate loyalty to her boss but also be prepared to jump immediately to the top of the Democratic ticket if Mr. Biden were to withdraw.
But several listeners said they found the meeting overall to be of little value and even, at times, condescending…
Yeah no shit. Harris bombed out of the 2020 run before Iowa because that’s just who she is. Got 0 rizz. Biden should have talked Abrams into being VP 4 years ago.
I think there may be some confusion on Flying Squid’s part about who they’re questioning. I believe (and hopefully, I’m reading this correctly) Flying Squid is looking for clarification from Bostonbananarama and you just happened to chime in with a related point? This Crowdstrike B.S. got e’erybody fucked up on no-change Friday.
that was the original statement Flying Squid was replying to before you joined in the thread, Squid just didn’t seem to notice that you’re not the same commenter.
The elections are short, but we’ve known the candidates a long time. De Dluca was elected leader shortly before the election and no one knew who he was and he totally tanked.
Can you show an election where that strategy has worked this late in the game?
To my knowledge the President and vice President haven’t stepped down from a political campaign. However, I can point to a situation in which a vice president took over for an unpopular president and lost. That would be Hubert Humphrey in 1968.
Additionally, just based on logic alone, it is ridiculous to insinuate that it wouldn’t be better to have an unknown candidate than a disliked candidate.
How could it be better to have a candidate that voters do not like, over a candidate that they haven’t come to an opinion on yet?
In 1980, Reagan beat an unpopular incumbent, Carter, by a huge margin. In 1984, Reagan was the incumbent and crushed Walter Mondale. I’m not sure which one is the, “last time we did this” though.
If anything, Reagan shows us that unpopular incumbents do not have a high likelihood of reelection.
As far as backups go, she’s far from the worst. On that note, what would America do if Biden were re-elected and simply stepped down immediately? Would America lament the second term that never was or would they simply say “oh, weird. Whatever.” Or would they celebrate fresher blood finally finding its way into the mix? I know republicans would attempt to block and/or complain about everything, but the reasonables- how would they react?
On that note, what would America do if Biden were re-elected and simply stepped down immediately?
I know republicans would attempt to block and/or complain about everything, but the reasonables- how would they react?
Assuming the Republicans still hold the House, they would ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS!
Sure, President Harris would still be a Democrat and control the Executive branch, but her new VP would be voted in by the House of Representatives. They’d try to put Trump in as VP. Having Trump (even as the junior in the Executive Branch) would give him access and power to spoil President Harris’s agenda.
Alternatively, again assuming Republicans keep the house, they could make Trump the Speaker of the House.
“The Constitution does not explicitly require the speaker to be an incumbent member of the House of Representatives, although every speaker thus far has been, and as a member the speaker also represents their district and retains the right to vote.” source
I hate these two possible scenarios of VP or Speaker.
On that note, what would America do if Biden were re-elected and simply stepped down immediately?
I think a Trump VP is inconceivable - if it came down to that Harris would likely just continuously nominate random democrats and leave the position vacant.
You seem to think the other hasn’t been working towards the same goal for the past 50 years at the best of corporations, just less obvious about it. The current Dems are fiscally conservative, and socially liberal. That’s why all the Republicans fight about is usually social issues, they’re both working towards whatever corporations want done with the money most of the time.
Dude, Biden tried to forgive like $140 billion in student loans and invested like a trillion dollars into infrastructure and energy programs with the IRA
You’re not entirely wrong that the DNC is heavily influenced by wealthy corporations/donors, but c’mon man. Get a grip! You sound ridiculous with that both sides nonsense
She began on a progressive platform with a side of identity politics. She sold out her progressive platform during the campaign to position herself for, then secure the VP nomination.
But, we don’t need specifics to be certain any given US federal politician is absolute trash. They’re all elected on corporate money.
Ideologically, she’s a corporate shill that incarcerated thousands of people for minor posessions and then claimed to be against such policies while never offering any amnesty or apology. Politically I have major disagreeances with both parties platforms. Socially, I think Harris leads to some Republican bullshit scheme.
Also, to everyone that keeps trying to gaslight America. EVERYONE HATES HARRIS, SHE WILL DRIVE AWAY ON THE FENCE VOTERS AND YOUNGER APATHETIC VOTERS.
Ideologically, she’s a corporate shill that incarcerated thousands of people for minor posessions and then claimed to be against such policies while never offering any amnesty or apology. Politically I have major disagreeances with both parties platforms. Socially, I think Harris leads to some Republican bullshit scheme.
Also, to everyone that keeps trying to gaslight America. EVERYONE HATES HARRIS, SHE WILL DRIVE AWAY ON THE FENCE VOTERS AND YOUNGER APATHETIC VOTERS.
I think she’s an awful choice tactically and have little hope for what her administration would do - but I’ll still vote for her if her name is on the ticket.
I mean, we Americans are certainly well-known for our quick critical-thinking skills, our ability to be reasonable and of course our willingness to compromise for the greater good.
Hell, the day before the election is just as good - especially if you don’t actually care about winning and/or enacting critical policies/legislation we need
There are millions of voters who, for reasons I will never understand, are still undecided. At some point, fighting over your candidate doesn’t inspire outsiders as to your party’s vision for governance. You’ll never sell a message of “We’re the party that will defeat fascism!” if half your efforts are spent essentially rehashing the primary. Seriously, the Dems right now look like a low budget version of Spartacus.
Biden, whether through serious belief or the obstinance that comes from advanced age, is not going to step aside. Continuing to publicly fight that, rather than unite behind a single party-wide message, only makes the Dems look weak.
And no, I’m not saying Biden shouldn’t step aside or that he is the best candidate. But party unity is the key to defeating the GOP and if Biden won’t withdraw, we work with that.
They’re all pieces of shit, you don’t come to lead a political party without being one. But we’ve still got to pick which is the least smelly piece of shit of the bunch.