NATIONAL HAMMOCK DAY UPDATES
Yes, They Can Be Awkward, But Once You Get in One, Not Much in Life is Better!
-Wow. Let's just start there.
-When my most recent update was posted, there was zero indication President Biden was poised to leave the race. Every statement from the campaign and the schedule indicated he was going to ride out the controversy, lean on his political instincts and organizations, watch as Democrats who had asked him to step aside start coming back, and basically dare the megabuck donors blackmailing down ballot candidates to not fund them as the convention opened in Chicago. And if one wants to go through my previous Substacks, I have always said that IF Biden were to step down, he needed to do it on his choice - and that, because we elected her (and to avoid suicidal disunity), Kamala Harris would need to be the nominee.
-Let's take a moment to express and feel righteous anger over how many allies abandoned Biden, the rich assholes who in one sense got what they wanted because of their money, and the proved-to-be worthless media who jumped so hard on the BIDEN B OLD stories that cable news outlets in particular have properly hemorrhaged viewers, readers, and the ensuing despair and feeling of dread they all helped create. Even if the analysis was correct and politics ain't beanbag, Biden's record and character did not deserve that.
-At the same time, the move by Biden was everything historians are saying it is: noble, patriotic, and selfless. Biden's record is historic - the most progressive since at least the Lyndon Johnson era - and the country, despite what Trump and the MAGAts sneer, is worlds better than it was four years ago (WE COULDN'T FIND TOILET PAPER FOUR YEARS AGO!). Be angry over the Gaza policies, but his record earned four more years even if his body and emotions started to fray, which his Covid recovery may have played a part in (something real historians can discuss in the future).
-BUT, as yesterday's events played out, we may need to use a more modern word for Biden's decision, its timing, and Harris' clearly-thought-out execution of consolidating the Party within 24 hours: BALLER.
-From Biden's letter announcing his stepping aside to his endorsement of Harris moments later, to the campaign deftly transferring its war chest and infrastructure from Biden/Harris to Harris, to the endorsements that started as a trickle and ended up as a flood towards Harris, to getting all her potential nomination opponents to endorse her, and to the record-smashing fundraising that continues (reports are it is now $60M from the initial endorsement through this morning, with some hopes it could become $100M by the end of the day), it is all but impossible to conceive of a better road map that Harris has seemingly followed flawlessly to make what is a historic and daring pivot weeks before the true campaign season begins.
-Reports indicate Biden and Harris were in constant communication over the last several days as Biden mulled over his choice, and Harris had a list of 200 officials to call at the ready if Biden decided to leave the race if he did. When Biden told Harris, then his staff, then released his letter (reportedly one minute after telling his staff) letting everyone know his decision, Harris literally began her campaign.
-Biden had often reportedly said that to leave the race, a precondition would be for Harris to get the nomination. Given the donor base that wanted him to step aside were starting to discuss the "blitz primary" scheme to choose a nominee that in their view could include Harris but not be exclusive to Harris, the timing and planning allowed Harris and Biden the opportunity to snuff even the possibility of an open convention floor fight - IF she could garner party support quickly enough. This is where Harris' work over the last three years barnstorming state party meetings, universities, and grass roots groups began paying off immediately, as by the end of the day all 50 State parties threw their support behind Harris and began getting commitments from delegates previously committed to Biden (he does not have the power to compel them do so) as Harris immediately pledged to work and win the nomination.
-Public endorsements flew to Harris, with Bill and Hillary Clinton and James Clyburn (whose endorsement of Biden in 2020 was a turning point) being the first, continuing as Senate allies like Patty Murray and Chris Van Hollen and Elizabeth Warren came next, then the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and then Adam Schiff, the CA House member and Senate candidate who was one of the first and most prominent Democrats to ask Biden to step down - a symbolically important moment.
-Then the grass roots took over. Gun control advocate David Hogg was able to raise $500,000 in the first two hours of the announcement for Harris, the Hillary Clinton social media group Pantsuit Nation restarted its networks and got a spike in membership, a PAC dedicated to bringing disaffected Nikki Haley voters to vote for Biden announced they were now working to get those voters to vote for Harris, and a video call to organize Black women for Harris grew to 44,000 participants by the end of the call - and another million raised from the grass roots. The Act Blue site's funds went higher and higher and higher. And as of this morning, Semafor reports that, yes, major Democratic donors were readying opening their checkbooks and Venmo accounts to add to the Harris till - including MAGAGOP heel George Soros!
-At this point, the only Democratic officials who have not formally endorsed as of this writing are the biggest names: Barack Obama, Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi. But with more endorsements this morning, no potential candidate who would have the means to mount a campaign for the nomination (much less the general campaign) on the horizon, the potential for Harris to get enough committed delegates by Wednesday, and a war chest that could exceed $200M - along with reports of people now volunteering for races throughout the country - it is pretty apparent that Kamala Harris will be the new Democratic Presidential nominee.
-So we can talk about her and her race. First, who will be her Veep? Political nerds start with the list of potential opponents like Pete Buttigieg, Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer, but CNN (even though their credibility is in the toilet) floated four names they claim may be on Harris' short list: KY Governor Andy Beshear, NC Governor Roy Cooper, AZ Senator Mark Kelly, and PA Governor Josh Shapiro.
-All four white men have won tough races in blue/purple states, all four are strongly pro-abortion rights and pro-LGBTQI rights, all can step into the role without losing Democratic seats (KY and PA have Dem Lieutenant Governors, AZ has a Democratic governor who can appoint a successor, and NC is term-limited with a strong Democratic candidate against a freakishly awful MAGAt opponent), and all are from swing states or swing areas that will be needed for the win in November.
-Second, one thing many people of a certain age are not aware of, is that Harris has been very active on TikTok with a strong following, and already has two social media-influenced catch phrases showing up as memes for younger and more in-the-know supporters. The first: "You think you dropped out of a coconut tree?"
-The line and subsequent use of coconuts and palm trees symbols of support comes from a story Harris tells about the difference between equality and equity and comes from a story her mother - who was a social activist - told. From Harris: "None of us just live in a silo. Everything is in context. My mother used to - she would give us a hard time sometimes - and she would say to us, 'I don't know what's wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you."
-The second TikTok meme is more recent, coming from her love of Charli XCX's new album "brat." Harris has been praising and using music from the album on her most recent TikTok posts, and when Biden announced he was endorsing Harris, Charli XCX returned the favor with a lime-green post (the album cover color) and the statement "kamala IS brat." (I do not follow TikTok so these come from news reports. Anyone who wants to elaborate on either of these, please do!)
-...I suppose we should also take a browse at the other side of the aisle to see how the GOPMAGA Party is handling the shift. SPOILER ALERT: not well at all.
-Initial reactions to Biden's move were both absurdly comical and head-noddingly hypocritical. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Jay-EE-Zuz!, LA) first claimed that Biden couldn't drop out of the race because undemocracy and claimed he would sue to keep Biden as the candidate - a threat Democratic election super-attorney Marc Elias dismissed as "idiotic." Johnson and others, including Lauren Boebert, then insisted that if Biden was unable to run for President he therefore was unable to continue to be President, either, and should resign the seat - something that is both not true and would allow MAGA shenanigans insofar as the chances of the House allowing a would-be President Harris to have her Vice President installed when an empty Veep seat made Johnson (as House Speaker) to be next in line are miniscule.
-Then there's Trump himself. Trump has been having a day and a half, what with him now officially the oldest Presidential nominee in American history, facing the work and planning of over three and a half years of Sleepy Joe and a week and a half of "taking a bullet for democracy" vanishing in an instant and facing a 59-year old woman of color with a newly energized voter base, and whose desired paring of "Strength v. Weakness" now morphed into "The Prosecutor vs. The Felon," Trump is excessively Trumpy.
-Both last night and this morning, Trump could only continue to lamely attack Biden, first claiming he didn't actually have Covid and then trying on that Trump wit by asking whether Biden even remembered he dropped out of the race, haw haw haw! And, according to a story in the London Telegraph, Trump is demanding Democrats pay Republicans for the monies used by the MAGAGOP to attack Biden, claiming Biden's exit from the race constitutes "FRAUD!"
-The Trump campaign is furious at the events. By waiting until the end of the Republican Convention, Biden and Harris allowed GOPMAGA to waste their time on attacks on a candidate who now won't be the candidate. Worse, they are now saddled with an untelegenic and dislikeable Vice Presidential candidate (J.D. "Butthair" Vance) whose easily-found views about wanting to end legal abortion under all circumstances and ending no-fault divorce so women in abusive marriages stay in those marriages is now juxtaposed against the Democrat who has been the most articulate and forceful leader in defending women's health and women's rights - all with this as the first post-Dobbs election to boot.
-All of that said, for the euphoria and adrenaline over the roll out, make no mistake: this ain't gonna be easy. Harris will be getting the worst of both the racism that Barack Obama had to endure and the misogyny that Hillary Clinton endured. White voters have not always had the backs of candidates of color or women, as we all sadly know - and frankly, that distrust is earned until the voters show otherwise. The GOP has been test-driving some arguments against Harris, from being a "DEI" candidate who slept her way to the top (look for her relationship with former CA Governor Willie Brown to be weaponized and taking the 'welfare queen' attacks upsold into her former prosecutor position) to the 2020 rumblings connected with her being a prosecutor as a wedge into progressive voters (though that may have been diverted - see "The Prosecutor vs. The Felon"), to her choice to not have children as being anti-American - there are even absurd claims that because her parents were immigrants she is, wait for it, NOT A CITIZEN and therefore not able to run! The sleaze is coming, make no mistake.
-You can also bet that the news media, probably a bit thrilled that there was buzz about Biden stepping down but frustrated about the potential of a 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention redux (not going to happen even with potential protests, given that Harris has been much more critical towards Israel about Gaza than Biden as a potential defusing of those), will do what they can to keep the race close, though whether the New York Times will extend their anti-Biden jeremiad against Harris remains to be seen. They desperately need ratings - and the DNC is likely to have boffo numbers as Harris is formally introduced to the country - so watch for them to continue to buffer Trump up despite the fact that he is now the only candidate in the race whose slurry delivery, slumping stance, and dull yet deranged utterings show he is really too old for the job and should probably drop out - but won't because he has to try to stay out of jail and because without him at the top of the ticket, MAGAGOP could have a British electoral extinction event on their hands.
-And, for whatever dexterity Biden and Harris managed with this announcement and the early surge for Kamala, this is still a MASSIVE roll of the dice. Biden just gave away the biggest advantage any campaign can have in an election - incumbency. History is not kind to parties that choose to not back an incumbent. And Trump and his forces do have the skill of bringing people down to their level of mud and muck, even though their entire strategy was blown up by Biden. This little Substack will track things down in its opinionated and snarky way, but I'm with Harris and will admit to feeling a shift in mood from a lingering sense of something being off in the world to making history, righting wrongs, and snuffing one of the most evil forces in American political history. I'm with her and am ready for a battle!
-Besides, Harris got a lovely social media posting/endorsement from Beyonce ... so, is a Beyonce/Charli XCX/Taylor Swift confab for Kamala in the works? One can only hope!
-On this date in 1942, deportations from Warsaw to the Treblinka consecration camp began. On this date in 1991, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was caught. On this date in 1992, Pablo Escobar escaped from a Colombian jail (he would be killed in 1993, womp womp). On this date in 1987, the Soviet Union accepted a ban on intermediate-range nuclear missiles. And on this date in 2011, a terrorist attack on a youth camp in Norway by a right-wing extremist killed 77.
-Debuts on this date: Cleveland, Ohio (1789), the first solo flight around the world (1933), PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1959), MY AIM IS TRUE (1977), MARCH OF THE PENGUINS (2005), a transgender actor cast as a superhero in a television series (Nia Nal as SUPERGIRL, 2018).
-Happy Birthday to Emma Lazarus, Edward Hopper, James Whale, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Alexander Calder, Amy Vanderbilt, Dan Rowan, Bob Dole, The Fabulous Moolah, Orson Bean, Sonny Liston, Oscar de la Renta, Tom Robbins, Louise Fletcher, Alex Trebek, George Clinton, Ron Turcotte, Bobby Sherman, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Sparky Lyle, Danny Glover, Paul Schrader, Albert Brooks, Don Henley, S.E. Hinton, Alan Menken, Lasse Viren, Al Di Meola, Willem Dafoe, Dave Stieb, Keith Sweat, Steve Albini, David Spade, John Leguizamo, Shawn Michaels, Tim Brown, Rhys Ifans, Keyshawn Johnson, Seth Fisher, Rufus Wainwright, Scott Dixon, Selena Gomez, Ezekiel Elliott, and Prince George of Great Britain.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Carl Sandburg, Illinois Jacquet, Estelle Getty, Dennis Farina, and Art Neville.
-Feed the Worms: "George Santos" entered Earth on this date. John Dillinger and failsons Qsay and Uday Hussein bought it on this date.
P.S. I am so freaking excited about Harris!
Joe, I live with an 80-year-old spouse. What I have seen, and interpreted, of Joe Biden is someone who is worn out physically. An 80-year-old cannot sprint the way a younger person can. He got Covid twice probably because his immune system is exhausted. I am happy for him and hope his body feels a relief from the INSANE schedule he would have had to keep for the next 100+ days. Frankly, I am happy for him. He has paid his dues tenfold.