According to Market Watch, Sen Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass asked and answered the question. is the country ready for an all-woman ticket for the presidency? She suggested, yes, sure, why not?
She mentioned Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California as a possibility. The suggestion was both a bold and confident one, considering Warren’s slippage in the polls and the collapse of Harris’ campaign due to a fervent lack of interest.
The recent polls may suggest that Warren is getting ahead of herself in jumping into the veepstakes. Before choosing her vice president, she has to win the Democratic nomination for the presidency.
The latest controversy that Warren is dealing with is the news that she made almost $2 million doing legal consulting work. The work was legitimate and above board. However, Vox finds that Warren is in trouble for it anyway.
“But given this narrative that keeps popping up that any sign a progressive politician has money is a negative, Warren facing at least some backlash on this front seems inevitable. The situation also highlights what has become a bit of a pattern in Warren’s presidential campaign: she seems to be hypersensitive to public criticism and tends to over-correct in her responses. And those responses sometimes open her up to more criticism, not less.”
In an attempt to change the subject, Warren has rolled out yet another new policy proposals. Gizmodo calls it a “Green New Deal for the Oceans.” Offshore drilling for oil and gas would be out.
Offshore wind farms, growing algae for biofuels, and sustainable fisheries would be in. Warren even has an idea of using kelp and peatlands to sequester CO2, similar to how some people have proposed planting trees on the land for the same purpose.
The New York Times notes that Warren is seeking what it terms a “second act” to try to revive her poll numbers. She is going after Pete Buttigieg, the current front runner in Iowa and New Hampshire and Michael Bloomberg, a made from central casting billionaire enemy of the people.
The revelation of her past corporate work is supposed to highlight her transparency. The new Green New Deal for the Oceans is yet another policy proposal to excite people who care about the environment.
In that context, the proposal for an all-female ticket makes a weird kind of sense. The vast majority of tickets that have run for the presidency since the founding have been all male. Less than a handful have had a man and a woman. The idea of running two women, some pundits suggest, has the virtue of novelty.,
But why Kamala Harris? Usually, a vice presidential running mate has some kind of strength that meshes well with the candidate on top of the ticket. Mike Pence, for example, is the kind of calm, steady politician that contrasted with Donald Trump’s mercurial nature.
However, the question arises, what strengths does Harris potentially bring to a Warren general election campaign. Her ethnic identity comes to mind. Warren, like every other Democrat who is not Joe Biden, has had some problem attracting black voters, But as Mother Jones pointed out, so did Kamala Harris and for a singular reason.
“On Black Twitter, calling out aspects of Harris’s record as a prosecutor wasn’t just about getting one over on a candidate. It was about holding her accountable for her past actions, which include an anti-truancy law that threatened the parents of students who skipped school with criminal charges, and various failures to hold police and prosecutors accountable for misconduct.”
Harris was also very zealous in prosecuting people for drug violations. She has put too many black men in jail for African American voters to fall into line behind her just because of ethnic identity.
Currently, a lot of other both black and women politicians, some of whom are both, are available who do not have Kamala Harris’ baggage.
On the other hand, Warren has also mentioned Joe Biden has a possible running mate. Biden, as mentioned before, does attract African American voters because of his previous association with former President Barack Obama.
However, having already served as vice president once for two terms, Biden may not be able to for another term or two. Besides, Biden comes with his collection of baggage that might disqualify him from a Warren ticket even if he was qualified.
