While speculation continues regarding who will wind up with the Republican nomination in 2024, things aren’t exactly settled among the Democrats, either. In only a couple of months, we’ve gone from “of course Joe Biden won’t run again,” to “are they insane? It looks like he’s going to run again!” But the formal announcement is yet to come.
The arguments against another run for Biden are both plentiful and obvious. The country is hobbling along in the midst of a multitude of crises including crime waves, a border invasion, persistent inflation, skyrocketing overdose rates, and a collapse of faith in the federal government. This is all unfolding at the same time that we appear to be edging closer and closer to the possibility of war with Russia or China, if not both. And this is all happening while we have a President (and Commander in Chief) whose approval ratings remain in the toilet and is bogged down in a classified document scandal while his mental acuity is dubious (to put it charitably) on the best of days. Who in their right mind (forget I said that part) would seek another term under those conditions?
But while much of the focus remains on Biden’s plans, there’s another issue simmering in the background that may prove to be nearly as vital. Vice President Kamala Harris has, if anything, even worse approval numbers than Joe Biden. Even the most liberal media outlets have begun reluctantly discussing it. Her list of “accomplishments” during her time in office would fit on the inside of a bite-sized candy wrapper. If something were to happen to Biden – and nobody here is wishing for that – she would be put in charge. Even if Biden manages to win a second term, can he really afford to keep her on the ticket? Some Democratic Analysts recently spoke to Fox News about the possibility that Biden might swap Harris out for someone else. The reviews are mixed at best.
As President Biden lays the groundwork for a long-anticipated re-election decision, some have speculated whether Vice President Kamala Harris will remain on a Biden 2024 ticket. Despite Harris’ unpopularity, the move to replace the vice president would be unprecedented and a long shot, according to Democratic strategists.
“He intends to run, and if he does, I’ll be running with him,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in a CBS interview following the State of the Union, shooting down suggestions from some Democrats that Biden seek an alternative running mate next cycle.
Even the New York Times seemed to turn lukewarm on the vice president last week, headlining an article that Harris is struggling to “define her vice presidency. Even her allies are tired of waiting.”
It’s true that American voters typically don’t choose a president based on their running mate. At least that’s been an assumption during more ordinary times. But these times are far from ordinary. I’m not a doctor so I can’t tell you the odds of Joe Biden departing the White House after a second term under his own power. But those odds are probably low enough to make many people nervous and possibly look a bit more closely at who would replace him.
As far as Biden replacing Harris as his running mate goes, it wouldn’t be quite as “unprecedented” as the lead paragraph in the linked article suggests. Remember that in 1976, Gerald Ford swapped out Nelson Rockefeller on the ticket to run with Bob Dole. Of course, he never actually “ran with” Rockefeller in the first place. And he went on to lose to Jimmy Carter anyway, so we never found out how that might have worked out. But it seems clear that the President gets to pick his own running mate and Biden could run with someone else if he wished to.
It just seems to me that you would have to search long and hard to find very many people who honestly believe in their hearts that Joe Biden is up to the job at this point. And given what a stellar job Kamala Harris has done as our “Border Czar” since 2021, it’s difficult to picture many people calling out longingly for her to have a second term or possibly take over for Joe.
And yet the Biden-Harris team may still have one thing going for them. Who else do the Democrats have on their bench that would promise much in the way of better results? Gavin Newsom? Mayor Pete? Hillary or Michelle Obama? And even if you find someone that seems viable, would any of them dare to formally challenge Biden in the primary? This may turn out to be a case where both Biden and Harris wind up coming out on top by doing nothing and sitting still… much like they both have for the past two years.
