It would be amazing if Harris, a black woman, beat the shit out of Trump. But how probable is this? I thought Kamala Harris was universally disliked across the board?

It’s less that she’s universally disliked and more that she’s not particularly liked. In her most prominent appearances in the past 4 years, she’s lacked charisma and not taken stances notable enough to distinguish her from the administration. She’s heavily disliked on the left-wing of the Democratic Party for being a DA who laughed about jailing people for drug crimes she herself had committed in the past (possession), and not particularly popular on the right-wing of the Democratic Party because they’re still racist, just LESS racist than Republicans.

She may be the best choice to go with at this junction, but she wouldn’t be my first pick if the field was open. But the field isn’t open, so we make do with what we have.

And to that end, I think Newsom would be the safest choice for a pivot by far.

• white
• male
• heterosexual
• somewhat corporate friendly
• a bit religious, but not too much
• charismatic + GREAT public speaker

Reasoning:

• the first three are simply attributes that make it easier to min/max voter responsiveness in a country that still has a lot of prejudices
• the fourth is so the mega donors don’t just dig in their heels
• the fifth is so the religiouses don’t just dig in their heels
• the sixth is generally a good attribute to have in a serious political contender

We’re trying to stop the fascists from winning. Anything else is (unfortunately, but necessarily) secondary at this point. Pragmatic triage of the situation MUST be the mindset with which the party is evaluating their choices.

Of course, the DNC is neither triaging the situation, nor being pragmatic about the candidate who can actually fucking win and stop the fascists, because from where I’m standing, it looks like Biden hasn’t done a great job at any point in his term of slapping down the Nationalist Christians + MAGA crowd (and friends).