Since Roe was overturned, we have seen an erosion of reproductive freedom in states across the country. The decision by the Alabama Supreme Court is only the latest attack – and it’s why we won’t back down from this fight. pic.twitter.com/ofuqzLRCXG — Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) February 23, 2024 I don’t know how far …
Saturday Morning Open Thread: Vice-President Harris Is Our GiftPost + Comments (122)
Despite her near-flawless performance over the past year or so, do not expect the media to send out any “Kamala comeback” stories, let alone mea culpas for their excessively negative evaluation that she would handicap Biden. The media seems bent on artificially leveling the playing field rather than providing substantive coverage of Biden and Harris’s record and probing the egregious defects in their opponent. (Sure, Trump’s a crazy insurrectionist, an indicted criminal and a fascist, but Biden is old and has Harris!)
That said, her work as the tip of the campaign’s spear on critical issues such as abortion and her fiery prosecution of the case against Trump will be gauged by her reception internationally and at home with voters critical to the Biden-Harris victory. So far, she is hitting her marks.
.@KamalaHarris in Michigan, about the Alabama IVF decision:
“‘Who’s to blame?’ … When you look at the fact that the previous president of the United States was clear in his intention to hand pick 3 Supreme Court justices who would overturn the protections of Roe v Wade& he did”
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) February 22, 2024
And Eugene Robinson — “Why Vice President Harris is prepared to step in as commander in chief” [gift link]:
With the exception of Dick Cheney (who made wars), vice presidents don’t typically get to make foreign policy. But I can’t think of any vice president who has become steeped in international affairs more quickly and more thoroughly than Kamala Harris.
That was a blank spot in Harris’s résumé when Joe Biden chose her as his running mate nearly four years ago. Her career as San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general and U.S. senator did not include any meaningful experience in foreign policy. That has completely changed — and it’s making her a stronger asset to the Biden-Harris 2024 ticket.
Last week, Harris represented the nation for the third consecutive year at the annual Munich Security Conference. Attendees have told me that the first time she went, in February 2022, she was tentative. It was like learning to swim by being tossed into the deep end: Russian tanks and troops were massing at the borders of Ukraine. Harris met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the first time at that gathering, which concluded just four days before Russia’s invasion. Harris told me later that year that she had wondered whether she’d ever see Zelensky again.
This year in Munich, Harris held a joint news conference with Zelensky and crowed that “Kyiv stands free and strong.” In her address at the conference, she offered a strong, erudite defense of U.S. global engagement and emphasized the vital importance of the NATO alliance. Harris was no longer a newcomer; she was comfortable among the assembled world leaders, many of whom she now knows personally…
Given Biden’s decades of experience as a senator and as vice president under Barack Obama, there is no doubt about who has the final say in this administration when it comes to foreign policy. But there should also be no doubt that Harris, whenever called upon, is capable of stepping in…
… 83 percent of Republicans — the voters Haley is desperately trying to attract — view the vice president unfavorably, according to a YouGov poll last week.
The flip side, however, is that the rank-and-file voters of Harris’s party like her very much: In that same YouGov poll, 86 percent of Democrats viewed Harris favorably. That suggests the campaign’s strategy of having her fly around the country, trying to energize the Democratic faithful about issues such as abortion and voting rights, is good politics.
And Biden has practiced good government as well, by creating space for Harris to gain the exposure and experience she would need if — perish the thought — he were no longer able to serve and she suddenly became commander in chief…
.@VP Kamala Harris on the Alabama IVF ruling:
“On the one hand, the proponents are saying that an individual doesn't have a right to end an unwanted pregnancy, and on the other hand, the individual does not have a right to start a family.” pic.twitter.com/57tzf93jvM
— Reshad Hudson (@ReshadHudson) February 22, 2024
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Biden-Harris campaign statement on the Alabama Supreme Court ruling made possible by Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/HwSXEbILsd
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) February 22, 2024