John Gruber posting to Threads:

I feel great about Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. Go back and watch her in Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing. She’s smart, sharp, aggressive, and emotive.

Hillary Clinton the day after the 2016 election:

I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but someday someone will, and hopefully sooner than we might think right now.

If Joe Biden steps aside, Kamala Harris should be the nominee. She was part of the ticket we voted for in the primary. She’s been tested and is ready. Still, it’s Biden’s call. 🇺🇸

@manton If Biden steps aside, Harris is the only real option — it would shatter the party to not have the sitting VP, a woman of colour, as the candidate.

But I think Biden stepping aside would cause chaos, and would give various GOP-run states the opportunity for serious mischief regarding ballot access and other legal challenges.

@michaelgemar I agree. It is not an easy decision. Both paths have risks.

@manton I’d also say that if one thinks Biden shouldn’t run again, presumably he shouldn’t be president *now*, and should resign.

@manton @michaelgemar I’m in the UK so, you know, but this is my thought - she would be fantastic, but it’s a real high risk play.

@dcrooks @manton What’s frustrating to me is that when Biden first picked Harris, the talk was that he would only do a term, in order to defeat Trump with a well-known name, and give Kamala a term to build skills and national profile. Instead, the administration has almost kept her hidden, as if afraid she’d overshadow Biden, and the guy who was reluctant to run the first time is now insisting on running the second.

@michaelgemar @dcrooks I wonder if part of the one-term assumption was that no one thought Trump would actually be the nominee again. I still can hardly believe it. But whatever happened, here we are... Luckily it's July and enough time for pretty much anything, including Biden to recover.

@michaelgemar @manton This seems what’s perplexing to me, in the abstract - I truly don’t understand how there isn’t more development of younger potential in *either* party (def not being both sides here). It’s just basic succession planning.

@manton Only she can be the nominee legally since she was on the ticket on the primary. Anyone else, the Republicans will sue in each state to get that person off the ballot. Also, Biden can only request his delegates to vote for her. It opens the doors to shenanigans and backroom politics that I thought we should avoid.

@manton @michaelgemar That’s a good point - I don’t know if there’s a lesson that the UK election campaign has been limited to 6 weeks, but it does feel like there’s time for things to develop.

The Democrat Convention is in August?

@manton @dcrooks I think the one-term talk was also about Biden’s age, and the age generally of the Dem leadership then (Pelosi, Clinton, Schumer, even Sanders and Warren) — the strong sense seemed to be that experience might be needed to fight off Trump, but that then it was the younger generation’s turn. (As well, Biden was generally ambivalent about running the first time, and didn’t seem like he wanted a long stay.)

@michaelgemar @manton I’ll be rooting for
you in the coming months - meanwhile we have our own decision point over the next 25 hours…

@dcrooks @manton Yours seems likely to have a far better outcome (even though “Labour” seems basically centre-right these days).

@manton This was discussed on the Countdown podcast today. If Biden were to opt out of running for re-election, the thought is he should also resign the presidency, so Harris could be the incumbent, with all the advantages that come from that, and we could all be distracted by the thought of who will be her running mate.

@manton Hey I like that you support Markdown in comments.

@dave I haven't listened, but resigning creates new problems like nominating a new Vice President. It is hard to imagine the House confirming any Democrat, but maybe? Sounds chaotic. 🙂