When California Senator Kamala Harris dropped out of the primary race, I’ll confess that I was a bit surprised. She’d run a terrible campaign and probably had little hope of winning the nomination because she flip-flopped on so many of her positions, but she’d still gained at least some momentum and was briefly in contention. It just seemed a bit premature for her to leave the race when and how she did.

What she didn’t do at that time was endorse any of her rivals for the nomination. And as the weeks dragged on, she remained mum on the topic. Now, at long last, she’s broken her silence and come out with an endorsement for Uncle Joe. (NY Post)

Sen. Kamala Harris endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for president in a video released on her Twitter account Sunday.

In a posting addressing her supporters, the former Democratic presidential candidate said Biden “has served our country with dignity and we need him now more than ever.”

“I have decided I am with great enthusiasm going to endorse Joe Biden for president of the United States. I believe in Joe,” she said.

That’s a real profile in courage, isn’t it? Waiting around until the race is essentially down to two people with one of them (Biden) currently being seen as the presumptive favorite is similar to going to the Kentucky Derby and trying to place your bet after the horses reach the final stretch. That’s not how the game is played.

Keep in mind that the man who “served our country with dignity” is also the same guy that Harris absolutely shredded in a debate last summer, knocking him for his failed record on busing, race relations and hanging around with segregationists. If you go back and watch the video of those exchanges it probably won’t sound like she thought Joe was the man we need “now more than ever.”

So what’s Harris’ game? That much seems obvious. On the day that she dropped out, I wrote that Harris had just made herself the presumptive favorite in the veepstakes. And we’ve already heard Joe Biden suggest that he would be very interested in selecting a Black woman as his running mate. The peanut gallery has already weighed in on this question and narrowed the field down to either Harris or Stacey Abrams.

So is that where Joe’s thinking is heading right now? And if not, was Harris trying to remind him that she should be the “obvious” choice? If we’re limiting the field to Black females, I couldn’t really argue with the logic. Harris didn’t run a very good national campaign, but unlike Abrams, she at least has some experience in both winning elections and serving in the executive branch of government (as Attorney General of California). Abrams has mostly just become famous for trying to make herself famous.

I won’t be shocked at all if Biden winds up picking a veep based on race and gender rather than experience or skill (assuming he wins the nomination). And at this point, I’d say the same about Sanders, for that matter. But there are certainly more choices out there that could do him more good than either Harris or Abrams. It’s not as if he’s going to need any help carrying California. While she fails the skin color test, Biden might consider giving the nod to Amy Klobuchar as a consolation prize. He very well might need some help getting over the top in Minnesota and she remains quite popular there.