With most of the focus on the coronavirus pandemic, even in polling of late, this little gem might get overlooked. Joe Biden pledged weeks ago that he would select a woman as his running mate, in part to defuse anger among progressive activists that the Democratic presidential primaries had come down to two old white men. At the beginning of the cycle, Democrats fully expected to celebrate diversity and a new start with its presidential ticket, but the two candidates who attracted the most votes in the end were Biden and Bernie Sanders, who between them have nearly 80 years of tenure in the Beltway.
Biden made his pledge to boost enthusiasm for his candidacy. However, today’s Politico/Morning Consult poll shows little enthusiasm for Biden’s pledge. In almost every instance, voters seem less interested in identity politics than they do in selecting a running mate based on experience. That’s true among voters in general:
- Woman: 29% important, 49% unimportant, 21% no opinion
- Person of color: 22/53/24
- Younger: 48/34/18
- Religious: 32/48/19
When it comes to experience, however, voters do care — quite a bit more, in fact:
- Executive experience: 66/17/18
- Legislative experience: 67/15/18
This shows some potential for But what about among Democrats, the constituency that Biden most needs to enthuse with this choice? According to the crosstabs, they won’t be impressed by that pandering either, although gender is the one that gets the best response:
- Woman: 49/39/12
- Person of color: 36/47/17
- Younger: 53/37/10
- Religious: 31/57/12
Once again, Democratic voters are far more focused on job-related qualifications rather than identity politics:
- Executive experience: 79/14/8
- Legislative experience: 81/11/9
Surprised? There’s no reason to be. If Democratic voters were as obsessed with identity politics as Democratic politicians are, Joe Biden wouldn’t have gotten a single delegate in this cycle. Nor would Sanders have won any either, except perhaps to be the first Jewish candidate at the top of a major-party ticket. The fact that the two most viable candidates were both white male septuagenarians should have given Biden a clue that identity-politics games were a dead end.
That’s not to say that Biden can’t find a viable female VP candidate with either executive or legislative experience. Gretchen Whitmer would qualify for the former, Amy Klobuchar the latter, but Whitmer might have more valuable as a Michigander than a female or executive. If Biden hadn’t hemmed himself in with that promise, however, he’d have some room to invite the Democrats’ most high-profile executive onto the ticket — and reap the rewards of his popularity:
Andrew Cuomo publicly says he doesn’t want the job, and Joe Biden has announced that he wants a woman to fill it.
Even against that backdrop, a new effort has emerged among Democratic Party activists and even some prominent governors to persuade the former VP and current Democratic Party presidential nominee to pick the voluble New York governor as his running mate to challenge President Trump in the 2020 election, FOX Business has learned.
Leading the efforts, according to Democratic Party activists, is Ned Lamont, the governor of Connecticut, and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. People close to Biden who spoke to FOX Business on the condition of anonymity described the effort as a long shot. They cite Biden’s public announcement that he would select a woman as his running mate for the low odds of Cuomo joining the ticket.
It seems rather unlikely that Cuomo would give up his current office to become Joe Biden’s second banana, but at least he’d be viable if it weren’t for Biden’s identity-politics games. It makes Biden look less serious as a candidate to be focused on anything other than demonstrated competence in an executive or legislative-leadership role, and a lack of seriousness is already plaguing Team Biden these days.
