It is a good sign that with his first important decision as a presidential nominee, Joe Biden got it right. Kamala Harris was the best available choice for a few reasons. Obviously, she’s history-making, the first Black woman to be a major-party veep nominee. She’s smart and tough and will probably be an effective attacker of the incumbent. She has charisma, she’s relatively young, and standing up there next to Biden, she lowers his age about five years.
Former Vice President, Joe Biden has made a deliberate, unequivocal statement about African American women in politics. He has emphatically shown he understands the need to depart from the traditional White male candidates who have dominated national politics in America. The pick marks the end of the assumption that African American women are risky, a deviation from “normal.” They can energize critical voters, expand the party, and speak with authenticity to the gravest issues of the day.
As his former rival who sharply criticised him in the Democratic primaries, Ms. Harris emerged as a vocal supporter of Mr. Biden after ending her own campaign and has become a prominent advocate of racial-justice legislation after the death of George Floyd while in police custody in late May.
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Kamala Harris, 55, is the first Black woman and the first person of Indian descent to be nominated for national office by a major party, and only the fourth woman in history to be chosen for one of their presidential tickets. She brings to the race a far more vigorous campaign style than Mr. Biden’s, including a gift for capturing moments of raw political electricity on the debate stage and elsewhere, and a personal identity and family story that many find inspiring.
Mr. Biden announced the selection over text message and in a follow-up email to supporters: “Joe Biden here. Big news: I’ve chosen Kamala Harris as my running mate. Together, with you, we’re going to beat Trump.”
Kamala Harris’s strengths as a running mate are quite real: a solid résumé of electoral success and steadily ascending responsibilities at the local, state, and federal levels. The irony is that the woman considered “too risky” for the presidency is actually the safe choice for VP. A woman has never served as president or Vice-President in the United States. Hillary Clinton was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016. Two women have been nominated as running mates on major party tickets: Democrat Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Republican Sarah Palin in 2008. Their party lost in the general election.
She comes with no surprises. She is versed in foreign policy. She is not running for office for the first time. Perhaps now, Democrats and Republicans alike will understand that raw political talent, brains, and, yes, ambition are what you look for in national leaders.
Now that Biden has made his choice he can delegate the daily barrage of rebukes against his opponent to her. Biden now can rise above the fray, leaving Harris who seems to tie up President Trump in knots like no one else to taunt, fact-check, and condemn their opponent effortlessly. The difference between a charismatic, whip-smart, and media-winning woman and the slow, dull, and laughably sycophantic Vice President Pence will highlight the chasm and bold differnces between these parties.
Secondly, the media will engage in a mad rush to define, dissect, inspect and criticise Kamala Harris likely not for her views or her record, but for her likability, her “team player” quotient, her compatibility with Biden, her physical appearance, her seriousness or lack thereof, and on and on.
Even at a climactic moment for the political inclusion of African American women, with his choice of Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate, Joe Biden may have helped bring more African-Americans to his side on Election Day.
Surveys showed that only 47% of those Black Americans recently planned to vote for Biden, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee. But by picking Harris, a Black running mate, support for Biden jumps to 73% which is a significant increase.
Harris joining up with Biden may have made the Democratic ticket more attractive to African-Americans and this would help boost his image the more since black women, in particular, helped rescue Biden’s campaign earlier this year by delivering a resounding victory in the South Carolina primary, powering him to the Democratic nomination.
As he prepares for the general election, Biden is trying to recreate the multi-racial and cross-generational coalition that twice sent Barack Obama to the White House.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK