![]() Clyburn has publicly lobbied for an African American to be on the ticket this fall, with the hope of creating another Obama coalition. Many, including Biden, publicly hailed the role of Rep James Clyburn, an influential African American representative and the third ranking Democrat in the House. “ Vice Presidential podium” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY SA 2.0 Mollifying the Kingmaker?ĭuring the Democratic primary race, anything short of victory in South Carolina would have ended Biden’s campaign, but his win there in late February was a real Lazarus moment for the former Vice President. In a Democratic Party that is increasingly concerned with identity politics, it will be difficult for Joe Biden to appoint an African American as both VP and as a Supreme Court Justice. GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s blatant refusal to even consider the Merrick Garland appointment in President Obama’s final year and the ugly hyper partisan fight during the Brett Kavanaugh nomination hearings attests to this. In fact, apart from the presidency, and VP for Joe Biden, the other most important office in the US today is that of a Supreme Court Justice. This is also reinforced by media reports that one of Biden’s longtime friends and Democratic Party power broker, former Nevada Senator, Harry Reid, has encouraged him to appoint a Latina woman as VP. This is because Biden has promised to appoint an administration that “ looks like America”. Although it is not impossible, given the rich mosaic of the Democratic Party, it is questionable that a Biden administration will have both a Black VP, and also in the very likely scenario of needing to appoint a Supreme Court judge, choose another Black woman – as he has stated he would do – for both of these important posts. However, the media may well be ignoring the implications of Biden’s statements on both the Vice Presidency and the Supreme Court. Before saying that he would choose a woman vice President in the CNN debate, he prefaced it by promising to appoint “the first black woman” to the US Supreme Court. This is a strange question, isn’t it? How can a presidential candidate, former VP as experienced as Biden be ignored for a decision that is ultimately his and his alone to make? However, his early announcement of a woman running mate seems to have overshadowed what was clearly a nuanced but important qualification from Biden himself. While these rankings should not be treated at face value since it might be an attempt by various interest groups like donors, the media and the various factions to develop narratives around their preferred candidates, what has been surprising is that Biden clearly nuanced words on his potential running mate have not been clearly dissected. A cursory analysis of these three lists show California Senator Kamala Harris ranked first. ![]() The Washington Post came out with a list of 11 contenders, CNN’s Chris Cilliza provided a list of 10, and Politico came out with its list of 12. ![]() Rankings of Biden’s potential running mates have taken up a great deal of space in the media. ![]() This makes his Vice Presidential (VP) choice the most important in history and with it a scrutiny like no other VP in the past. While he will not say this explicitly to avoid being a lame duck from day one, it is entirely possible that in the event of his victory, he will be a one term president since he has referred to himself as a “ transition candidate”. That is why he has described himself more as a bridge to the future from Trumpism to a new normal before passing the baton to the next Democratic Party generation. While there is little historic evidence that the choice of presidential a running mate can have a major impact on the election, this time it could well be different. While the COVID-19 pandemic that is wrecking the world has put a backburner on what ordinarily be a full throttle campaign in the US, the important question of Biden’s Vice President is still finding space in major newspapers around the world. While California Senator Kamala Harris currently tops many commentators’ lists of contenders, Garikai Chimuka suggests that Joe Biden’s past statement that he will appoint the first Black woman to the US Supreme Court likely means that he will not similarly choose a Black woman to be his Vice President.įormer Vice President Joe Biden effectively became the Democratic Presidential nominee in one of the most important elections in US and world history after Senator Bernie Sanders finally dropped in April. With the 2020 presidential primary now all but over, attention has now turned to who the Democratic nominee – former Vice President Joe Biden – will likely choose to be his running mate.
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