Kamala Harris has launched her campaign for the White House, after President Joe Biden stepped aside Sunday under pressure from party leaders.

The vice president has Biden’s endorsement, and is unchallenged as yet for the Democratic nomination, which will be formally decided at the Aug. 19 convention in Chicago.

“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” Harris said in a statement. “I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party—and unite our nation—to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda. We have 107 days until Election Day. Together, we will fight. And together, we will win.”

In her statement, the vice president paid tribute to Biden’s “extraordinary leadership,” saying he had achieved more in one term than many presidents do in two.

  • Kroxx@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    I don’t like Harris, mainly because of her time as a prosecutor. I’m also not going to lie, I was having a really really hard time grappling with voting for Biden, I was begrudgingly willing to before the debate but when I watched it I was so outraged. I genuinely feel like his administration has been deceitful with his condition for a while. I’m not saying I wasn’t going to vote for Biden, I understand the stakes, but I kept watching his interviews trying to get any genuine motivation for Biden. All I saw was a stubborn old man who refused to even acknowledge reality.

    I’ve been following Biden news and this week I was convinced that he would drop out and so I wondered who would replace him. Harris immediately came to mind. Now as I said I don’t care for Harris but before Biden announced this today I personally decided I would be willing to support Harris.

    She isn’t ancient, I believe she’s more progressive, and I think she will be good in the debates. She isn’t my 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th pick, but I have far fewer hangups voting for Harris compared to Biden, and of course over Trump.

    She isn’t the best candidate in terms of absolute popularity, but when you factor in funding logistics and the fact that I think many good Dems picks would want to run in '28 when the timing isn’t fucked, I think Harris is the most realistic pick. I’ll happily take her compared to Biden.

    • elbucho@lemmy.world
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      You know what? I felt the same way before today. But I’ve been thinking about it a lot since the announcement, and the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that Harris is the best possible presidential candidate.

      Like you, I don’t think she’d make the best president. Hell, she wasn’t even in my top 10. I’d have vastly preferred someone like Hakeem Jeffries. But here’s the thing: the person best suited for the office of president isn’t necessarily the best person to run for president.

      Harris has all of the advantages Biden had: she can run on this administration’s record, since it was her administration too. Every positive talking point about the stuff that Biden’s done for the country can equally apply to Harris. Additionally, she gets his entire war chest, and with the president’s blessing today, she’s likely going to have 100% party support as well. To make matters even better, she doesn’t have any of the flaws he sported: she’s young, she’s sharp, she’s great in debates, and because she’s the antithesis of Biden in all of these respects, all of the criticisms pointed at Biden (which could also 100% be applied to Trump) will now all be applied to Trump and Trump alone.

      Lastly, I think that now is the most favorable moment in our country’s history for a non-white, non-male person to become president. She’s got the built-in support of everybody who dreads another Trump presidency. A significant number of people who would vote for Biden but not Harris due to sexism or racism will be rethinking that position when the opposition is Donald Trump. Also, something like 40% of people in the US just simply don’t vote. Biden would never appeal to those people, but a black / asian woman who has succeeded in a mostly male dominated field could be very inspirational to a large number of otherwise apathetic non-voters.

      I honestly think that Harris being endorsed for President is just an unalloyed good. I don’t see any realistic downsides, and an incredible number of upsides. It actually has me excited, which is a feeling I haven’t felt since 2008.

      • Olhonestjim@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Don’t forget that the fascists will push away moderates everywhere because they have no idea how racist and sexist they are, nor how to hide it, because it’s their entire platform.

      • HiddenLife@lemmy.world
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        I don’t know where all this “I don’t like Harris” stuff comes from. Considering the presidents we’ve had lately, hahaha… if she won, it would be amazing. I’m sure there are better people in the world, but they don’t even get close to the White House. We have to be realistic. She’s a great pick considering current political realities.

        • elbucho@lemmy.world
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          Oh for sure. Don’t get me wrong; she’s not my ideal president, but she’d still probably be in the top 5 presidents we’ve ever had. That’s not necessarily making a judgment about her without seeing her performance first, it’s more of a statement about how bad most US presidents are. Still, I have high hopes for a Harris presidency. I think she’ll do a great job. She’s just not my #1 draft pick.

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        Agreed with all that! But I have one caveat.

        the most favorable moment in our country’s history for a non-white, non-male person to become president

        Look, I cried tears of joy when Obama won. I mean that literally. But guess when the conservative hate machine got dialed to 11?

        Some will say it started earlier, but I disagree. Back then I occasionally listened to Limbaugh and Hannity on the radio while running errands at work. They actually had some sane takes now and again. Wasn’t very political, but I had my ear to the ground. The entire machine, especially Fox News, went so far off the rails in response to a black President, I simply couldn’t listen to any of them, not for a second.

        Conservative brains take time to assimilate new social conditions, gotta chip away at 'em. I’m already hearing the, “Fuck them!” replies, but that doesn’t change the fact that these people exist and vote. And they’re going to get more and more violent.

        Look at LGBT rights. We got them to begrudgingly accept gay marriage. Fresh off that victory, liberals asked for more and more acceptance. Too much, too fast, they went full-on berserk. Now I feel gay rights are perhaps worse than before.

        Scared to see what a double-whammy of a black woman does to their brains. I used to laugh about conservatives choking on their outrage, same with Christians. “Ha! Losing ain’t ya!” But now it isn’t so funny. They’re in a corner and lashing out. What next?

        • elbucho@lemmy.world
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          All, or at least the vast majority, of those people you’re talking about are already Trump voters. They’re going to continue backing Trump no matter who the Democratic party picks. They saw a black guy get elected president, and that radicalized them. They aren’t coming back. Pandering to the imaginary demographic of racists who will surely see the light if we elect the right candidate is simply a losing proposition.

          Will there be right wing violence in response to a Harris presidency? Of course there will be. Is there right wing violence now? Of course there is. I understand that you’re tired of hearing the “fuck them” replies, but seriously: fuck them. They are a cancer on this nation. Holding back on doing something good just because you’re afraid that the fucking awful people you share a country with will do something awful just means that you never make any progress.

        • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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          Too much, too fast, they went full-on berserk.

          Raises a conundrum I struggle with:

          No one should have to wait for rights, true.

          yet

          Idiots vote, true.

          How should we act if we know fighting for certain rights means fascists have an easier time in elections?

          Should we…:

          A. Be publicly on the right side of history at risk of losing an election to the detriment of all.

          B. Be publicly on the right side of a human rights issue in order to win, then try to privately backchannel to make up for the sin.

          (Perhaps a false binary here, so ready to be corrected.)

          Idealist in me says fight at all costs, maybe it’ll work out. Pragmatist in me says “win the damn election & backchannel the heck out of your term.” Feel guilty either way.

      • Eccitaze@yiffit.net
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        I’m personally a little nervous about Harris–I remember the 2020 primary where her only notable accomplishments were accusing Biden of being racist over opposition to federal busing policies, and then flaming out shortly after and shuttering her campaign two months before the first caucus and polling single digits in California. Admittedly, she doesn’t have the same headwinds now that she had in 2020–she doesn’t have to differentiate herself from over a dozen other candidates and she won’t struggle to raise money–but she also made some unforced errors (e.g. coming out for total elimination of private insurance before revealing a plan that included private plans, or admitting her own policy on busing was essentially identical to Biden’s).

        Hopefully, she’ll run a much tighter campaign now since she’ll inherit Biden’s staff and can focus solely on attacking Trump, but I do have some concerns.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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      As to that 2028 topic…If Harris wins, it pushes all of them all the way back to 2032. Many of those hopefulf may like their odds right now, as opposed to 8 years later, unless those same people are confident Harris will lose against Trump.

    • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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      when you factor in funding logistics

      This is an incredibly important point. Unless rich donors said they’d fully make up the current campaign war chest for the new candidate, there would be a significant funding issue. Being able to use the existing funds is extremely important.

    • callouscomic@lemm.ee
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      She wasn’t anyone’s top 4 even in 2020. Netween what they did before Super Tuesday then, and now this, this isn’t democracy. This is DNC controlling what happens to prevent something like Bernie. People aren’t getting choice and primaries are pointless.

      • LustyArgonian@lemmy.world
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        The only way you’ll get a candidate that aligns with 100% of your personal beliefs, is if you run for office yourself

        That being said, I’d love a real leftwing candidate

        • ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world
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          And sometimes you have to run on or embrace the ideals of someone else just to get elected. Unfortunate.

        • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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          Both candidates are right wing so it’s not really “BOtH sIdEs.” People on the left would like some representation for once.

          • PunnyName@lemmy.world
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            What policies have the right and left regularly agreed upon? What bills put forth have unanimous votes?

            • Steve@communick.news
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              I think your conflating Right and Left with Republican and Democrat.
              They aren’t the same thing.

              Both parties have been pro-corporate oligopoly. The Republicans, just more so.
              Both parties have been catering to the same class of big corporate donors. The Republicans, just more so.
              Both parties have been pro-military-industrial-complex. The Republicans, just more so.
              Both parties have been pro-Israli genocide. The Republicans, just more so.
              Both parties have shown a little movement toward economic populism. The Democrats, just more so.

              They might not vote together on many bills. Because it would look bad to their respective bases if they did.
              But they’ve both been pushing in similar directions on a number of topics for decades.

              • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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                Fighting universal healthcare. Refusing to revoke Citizens United. Refusing the Right to Repair.

                The Patriot Act. The Iraq War. Enabling The Genocide of Palestine. The continuous decline into corporatocracy.

                All bipartisan efforts.

                You shitlibs genuinely do not understand the conversation happening in front of you. We know you don’t, or you wouldn’t be a shitlib, you’d be a social democrat at worst.

                • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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                  Using the term sHiTliB renders you exempt from discourse. It’s like screaming that you’re unreachable and a huge waste of time

      • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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        Yes, that’s what rational people do, pick the less damaging choice.

        What the FUCK is wrong with you people who actively choose the more damaging choice for lulz?

        • Cuttlefish1111@lemmy.world
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          And that’s how we get pulled further to the right. When did I say I had chosen anyone for the lulz. What the fuck is wrong with you jumping to conclusions?

          • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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            I have yet to meet a forum poster who unironically used the phrase ‘and that’s how we get pulled further to the right’ in response to a reply about not voting for a fucking convicted felon pedophile fascist that wasn’t a fucking fascist themselves.

          • Sc00ter@lemm.ee
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            History has shown what that impact is. Get out and fucking vote

            • Cuttlefish1111@lemmy.world
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              No shit I’m going to vote, when did I say I wasn’t? Everyone here so quick to forget we had two shit choices, now we still have two shit choices.

              • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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                One is rusty shitbox.

                The other is radioactive rusty shitbox that is also on fire.

                If you have a problem choosing, the problem isn’t with the candidates. Even hesitating a moment is a form of mental illness.

    • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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      It’s attitudes exactly like this why American Democrats are center right, and why we have had almost zero meaningful legislation to help the normal people for 40 years.

      If your family survives this coming shitshow of a fasist coup, I hope you beg their forgiveness and tell them your small part in helping start it.

      • Soulg@sh.itjust.works
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        As a normal person, I’ve been helped by legislation both by Biden and Obama. Just because it’s not perfect doesn’t mean it’s not good.

        • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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          SCOTUS, Congress, and POTUS have all, regardless of party have catered to corporate interest over the citizenry an OVERWHELMING amount my entire life, and I remember life before the internet.

          Sure we get a few crumbs, cars for clunkers, a crippled ACA, a constant ‘will they, won’t they’ over college loans.

          Meanwhile Citizens United gave corporations near unlimited influence, the repeal of Glass-Steagall led to the housing collapse in 2008 and the banks were bailed out. Even recently in COVID those most benefitted were the corporations and ultra wealthy who netted a 1.3 FUCKINGTRILLION dollar payday with almost no oversight or pressure to pay back, and we are STILL seeing fraud cases from that show up.

          So was your little 3k ‘gift’ that was meant for relief during A FUCKING PANDEMIC in any way commesurate with the HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS the owner class (who was at no financial risk at any time) got to keep?

          Do you feel all these little crumbs of social support they have doled out in meager and begrudging ways makes up for the fact that no matter what their party, NEARLY EVERY MEMBER of our top seats in government are more concerned about the interests of the wealthy than they are in normal people?

      • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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        why we have had almost zero meaningful legislation to help the normal people for 40 years.

        The Affordable Care Act is why I was able to take a year off work to focus on my mental health after the pandemic crushed it. The Inflation Reduction Act is helping keep the renewable energy company I work for afloat and offering an optimistic future.

        No one expects to end up on government assistance or using FMLA to take a few months off for an illness. We support it on the left because we know it’s the fucking right thing to do.

        It’s all good and fine to criticize programs as useless theoretically when you don’t rely on them. But when you’ve actually experienced them and needed them, your perspective changes heavily.

        Democrats have gotten good shit done for the average person, and I’ve personally benefited from it when I really needed it.

        • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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          Do you think the ACA that passed was the ACA originally intended? Because it wasn’t, and there’s only one party to blame for why.

      • Kroxx@lemm.ee
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        So the DNC gets to make this decision not me. This is a last minute situation that hasn’t happened since the 60s, every ounce of divisiveness will only embolden the “facist coup”. The time is up, whoever they pick we’ve got to unite behind and hopefully rally voters to the booths. Honestly the presidency needs to be D so it can’t veto/ can veto, the VP can tie break, and executive orders. She will hopefully be a beacon to encourage voters to get more D in the senate and house. The house/senate flips and your meaningful legislation point becomes moot. Lastly I have no clue what you are saying in the 2nd paragraph, somehow voting for Harris makes a facist coup? No clue what middle steps are included to achieve that outcome but you must know something I don’t. Regardless I have no worries about my family but I appreciate the concern!

        • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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          You are a fascist propaganda account.

          You will deny it.

          Your sockpuppets will come mock and downvote me, flooding my inbox with harassment until I respond back then you will report that reply, getting me banned and giving you the opportunity to play the aggrieved victim for a while, then you will just go back to posting slightly disconcerting concern trolling to erode morale.

          And the mods, of course, will support you. Because you have ‘the right to play’, and I am of course ‘a bad actor’ for ‘stirring up trouble’ and everyone will breathe a sigh of relief as I am banned and this place becomes more and more enshittified all in the name of ‘People can have their opinion, yo’.

          I’m so fucking tired of this game, but it will never end, because fascists like you have been emboldened by the rising hard right tide and there will never be a normal election for the remainder of my life. If we have elections AT ALL after the next one.

    • pyre@lemmy.world
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      ooooh never thought about that. people dislike that she’s a prosecutor so i don’t know if she should use this at all but it’s still kinda awesome

      • joenforcer@midwest.social
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        The “soft on crime” line is completely broken, though. They can’t use it against her because the response is how she built a career around holding felons like Donald Trump accountable, and nothing else. There is zero comeback.

  • Zachariah@lemmy.world
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    Now we just need to get Trump to step down. Then we can have a less insane election.

    He really should. He has no business running.

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      Even if the assassin had finished the job, his cult would prop his corpse up and wait for him to come back to life.

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        I’m giggling at this and I don’t know why but I’m going to start making this statement as straight faced as possible when I’m told that he should be reelected

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      Now we just need to get Trump to step down. Then we can have a less insane election.

      If that hands the GOP nomination to Vance, then Vance would completely destroy any of the Democrats who the Dem establishment could possibly let run. This was obvious on watching about a minute of Vance’s VP acceptance speech on the news. Dems should be careful what they ask for.

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        As an ohioian, I can assure you no one gives a shit about vance and he stands for nothing. He’s a Muppet who says what he’s told to say

      • TSG_Asmodeus (he, him)@lemmy.world
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        then Vance would completely destroy any of the Democrats who the Dem establishment could possibly let run.

        Well…

        In February, during an episode of Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, Vance said that he cared more about the security of the US southern border than the Russian troop build-up near Ukraine. “I gotta be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another,” Vance said.

        ““Indigenous Peoples’ Day” is a fake holiday created to sow division. Of course Joe Biden is the first president to pay it any attention.”

        “I am as pro life as anyone, and I want to save as many babies as possible. This is not about moral legitimacy but political reality.”

        “There are dozens of people who protested on J6 who haven’t even been charged with a crime yet are being mistreated in DC prisons. A friend suggested the below link if you’re able to support them.”

        Vance said that Trump should “fire every single mid-level bureaucrat” in the US government and “replace them with our people.” If the courts attempt to stop this, Vance says, Trump should simply ignore the law. “You stand before the country, like Andrew Jackson did, and say the chief justice has made his ruling, now let him enforce it,” he declares. The President Jackson quote is likely apocryphal, but the history is real. Vance is referring to an 1832 case, Worcester v. Georgia, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the US government needed to respect Native legal rights to land ownership. Jackson ignored the ruling, and continued a policy of allowing whites to take what belonged to Natives. The end result was the ethnic cleansing of about 60,000 Natives — an event we now call the Trail of Tears.

        Yeah, Democrats will sure have a tough time with him…

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          Well, maybe you’re right, I had basically never heard of Vance until Trump picked him. But his acceptance speech was written to eat the Democrats’ lunch, since they weren’t willing to eat it themselves. And that stuff you quoted will delight Trump supporters, and maybe not bother too many Democrats.

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            “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler” - JD Vance

            He’s no different from Ted Cruz. Was against Trump, then later supported him. Both of these guys grew a beard after flipping to be huge Trump supporters too.

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        Oh I thought he was a huge liability being absolutely full of baggage. Insane things he’s said, including that trump is America’s Hitler (mind you that’s only insane to cultists)

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      She was a kind, empathetic leader and was great at uniting the country in crisis… multiple times.

      Unfortunately she was distinctly average as a stable environment politician. Wouldn’t want her as PM now but would be great if we could hire her out on call when everything does hit the fan again.

      • TastyWheat@lemmy.world
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        I worked at a Sydney airport shop years ago and she would come through our area from time to time. She was approachable, easy to talk to and despite having big spooky security guys around, was happy to just go shopping and wait for her flight.

        The Fijian PM at the time used to come through, crack jokes, run up a bill and then jokingly ask one of his security guys to buy all the stuff for him. He was a really funny bloke and he made our day.

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      Does the New Zealand system have a restricted 3 month official campaign period the way the UK does? A lot of Kiwi government shares similar structure with the British system.

      The US doesn’t, and normally campaigning spans a substantially longer period of time.

      kagis

      Yeah, this sounds like they do. Three months.

      https://elections.nz/democracy-in-nz/historical-events/2023-general-election/key-dates/

      Friday 14 July

      Regulated period for election advertising expenses begins

      Friday 13 October

      Regulated period ends. All election advertising must end. Signs must be taken down by midnight.

      Saturday 14 October

      Election day.

      https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2023/09/04/how-did-the-us-presidential-campaign-get-to-be-so-long/

      Four hundred and forty-four days prior to the 2024 presidential election, millions of Americans tuned into the first Republican primary debate. If this seems like a long time to contemplate the candidates, it is.

      By comparison, Canadian election campaigns average just 50 days. In France, candidates have just two weeks to campaign, while Japanese law restricts campaigns to a meager 12 days.

      You can argue whether the US should or shouldn’t restrict the campaigning period (though I’m almost certain that doing so would violate the First Amendment and thus require a new constitutional amendment permitting it to put into force).

      But the thing is, Trump doesn’t have that restriction, the American system doesn’t normally expect it, and Harris is going to be trying to run a British-length campaign with no lead time for prep in the American system when her opponent has no such restrictions. She is gonna have to hit the ground running.

      Also, American presidential campaign spending and fundraising is very large compared to the European levels I’ve seen. Dunno what things are like in New Zealand, but I remember that when Hillary ran against Trump in 2016, each campaign spent about a billion dollars.

      EDIT: I don’t know if this is directly comparable, because it sounds like Kiwi rules don’t have parties declare donations under $1,500 (and I don’t know if these aggregate figures include individual contributions that don’t have to be reported individually). I think so, because this is measuring spending, not donations. The Kiwi system is parliamentary rather than presidential and so the race for the executive is the same as the race for the legislature, whereas the spending above is only for the executive race in the US, excludes all legislative campaign spending. And I’m not clear on whether this includes donations to individuals, which apparently can differ from party donations, though the Westminster system is more party-centric than the American one, where candidates need to do a lot more of their fundraising and spending thenselves. But without my digging much more, some Kiwi numbers:

      https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/350220141/labour-spent-1m-more-national-lose-2023-election

      Labour spent $1m more than National to lose the 2023 election

      The ACT Party spent more than National, declaring $2.77m in expenses. NZ First spent $1.51m on a campaign which returned them to Government alongside National and ACT, whereas the Green Party spent $1.33m on a campaign that achieved wins in key electorate seats.

      Also, those are Kiwibucks, not American dollars, so the USD numbers are only something like 60% of that. Accounting for that, if the numbers are comparable, that’d be the largest-spending Kiwi party doing $1.6 million USD across all of their seats compared to the US presidential campaigns alone doing about $1 billion.

      Harris has got to raise some – or all, not sure whether she can get funds from the Biden-Harris campaign warchest – of that in the time remaining, which means that she’s gotta convince people that she is who they want to be president enough to pitch into the war chest so that she can spend that to sell herself to the public. She has to build a campaign, plan to spend the money, and do so to target voters. Not much time to iterate doing that.

      And keep in mind that the first Republican presidential debate mentioned above, 444 days before the election, isn’t when those people started campaigning, and certainly isn’t when they started planning their campaign. It’s just an early milestone in the campaign. Harris is gonna have to pull all of this off in about three and a half months.

      The US presidential election is an awfully large and expensive marketing fight for voter minds.

      EDIT2: One positive sign for her: this person says that she believes that Harris most likely can get access to the funds that the Biden-Harris campaign has, so that’ll help get her some of the way there:

      https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/21/kamala-harris-fundraising-surge.html

      Harris can likely get immediate access to the Biden campaign’s roughly $96 million donation pot, according to Anna Massoglia, an investigations manager at the campaign finance research center, OpenSecrets.

      “The general consensus among most people that I’ve spoken with is that she can use the funding,” Massoglia told CNBC in an interview.

      And she picked up a little more after announcing:

      But it wasn’t just the big donors who responded to Biden’s announcement: The progressive donation platform ActBlue initially said it raised $27.5 million from small-dollar donors in the five hours after Biden endorsed Harris. Later, the company announced it raised over $45 million.

      • HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Lucky for her she also has a significant national and international threat as her opponent. She isn’t an unknown going in to try take 50% - she’s already got all the votes for those who see what Trump is.

        • tal@lemmy.today
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          she isn’t an unknown

          I mean, that’s true. But she’s a not-terribly-high-profile veep. The regular crowd has been campaigning for over a year. Hell, Trump served as President, and he’s got the visibility from that; he started campaigning for Trump-for-President like a decade ago.

          Yeah, okay, Harris ran for Senate and California Attorney General, maybe they can draw some material from those campaigns or something, though running for President and targeting specially the Midwest isn’t quite running to be a senator for California in terms of what material will work best, but they’re gonna have to start getting people to put together a lot of content and to get it out there.

          Harris has no campaign website, no volunteer network, no…like, I’m assuming that she has to be expecting to get at least a substantial chunk of the Biden-Harris campaign infrastructure, and hoping that Biden’s endorsement will result in his volunteers volunteering for her.

          checks

          It looks like Biden’s 2024 campaign website, joebiden.com, just redirects to ActBlue, a Democratic donations website, with a plain text message put up by him. They don’t even have a graphic, campaign logo, anything. Like, they didn’t have all this lined up and ready to go hot, or I expect that it would have redirected to a Harris campaign website.

          looks further

          They haven’t even taken down the old website’s content, just had the main page redirect.

          Well, this is gonna be a historic campaign, win or lose.

      • tal@lemmy.today
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        5 months ago

        Prime Minister of New Zealand. I have a comment on it in response.

      • ours@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        He’s all kumbaya, unity, defender of democracy, and holding hands now.

        What do you mean you don’t trust a duplicitous billionaire politician?

  • MyOpinion@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    Kamala Harris I look forward to you wiping the floor with the Orange Turd.

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      The next debate should be hilarious. Someone with facts and speaking ability vs a windbag lie machine

      • Guy_Fieris_Hair@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Also, she is a cop/lawyer. She’s prolly pretty good at arguing as long as she can handle the big(ger) stage.

        • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          I wonder if she convicted anyone of falsification of business records? It would be interesting if she mentioned that as one of her past accomplishments while on the stage with someone found guilty of 34 counts of that crime.

        • Drunemeton@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Oh I quite think that he’d love to debate her! However his handlers will absolutely go bonkers trying to get him to shut up about it to keep that from happening.

    • Draedron@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      She has less than 4 months and was completely invisible before. She is going to lose hard and this time we can really blame the Dems for betraying Biden this late in the race.

      • LeadersAtWork@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        About 30 seconds ago I felt a little smarter not knowing you exist, yet in so few words you’ve made yourself pretty thoroughly known.

        Four months is plenty of time. Biden will be backing her. The DNC has voting wolves ready to kick their asses. Bernie and AOC both supported Biden and are wise enough to support Harris, and others will follow their example. Back to point #2, and to reaaaally highlight something obscenely important:

        They listened.

        Take that in for a meager second. Now ask yourself if we could get those prideful fucks to back down, and also get an old lifetime politician to step aside in a historical move, do you understand what we could potentially do if we complained half as hard as you do when so much shit isn’t on the line?

        Oh, and give us an alternative that matches three things:

        1. Not invisible
        2. Likely to have larger support
        3. Not old asf

        I think you’ll find 3 to be rather important for a LOT of people right now.

        • AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works
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          I’m saving this to use later, because it’s amazing, thank you, “About 30 seconds ago I felt a little smarter not knowing you exist”

        • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          I prolly agree with you, and you seem to have a good handle on the current political climate (thus an intelligent head on your shoulders), which is why I think it’s worth my time to suggest some introspection w/r/t your first sentence. Thanks for your consideration.

        • Draedron@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          5 months ago

          Lol yeah what are Bernie and AOC supposed to do? Not support anyone and take on the backstabbers on their own? It is too late for any alternative. It was go with Biden who has a chance to win and beat Trump before or just giving Trump the win on the silver platter. Now I just hope Trump is so incompetent that there will be a next election or at least that he doesnt care about the rest of the world and only focusses on the US so at least we are safe. I hope the betraying Dems will realize their mistake and be deeply sorry for it.

      • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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        5 months ago

        Biden was going to lose. Do you really think they’d go through all this if that wasn’t the reality of the situation?

      • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        and was completely invisible before.

        Only if you haven’t been paying attention.

        • Draedron@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          5 months ago

          True, I forgot that a couple times it was talked about what a shit human and worse prosecutor she was.

  • JCreazy@midwest.social
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    5 months ago

    Fuck it, I’ll vote for her if not for the mere fact that I would get a lot of entertainment seeing people complain how our president is a black woman.

  • inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world
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    Didn’t like her in the primaries, still don’t like her now but honestly she’s the best shot Democrats have now. I’m just so pissed off that Democrats and Biden waited this long and now have to scramble like this.

    It’s absolutely infuriating at this level of incompetence.

    • Drunemeton@lemmy.world
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      Read in another thread, and haven’t looked it up yet mind you, but apparently AOC is 1 year too young.

      • lemonmelon@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        AOC is eligible. She would meet the requirements set forth in the Constitution at the time of her inauguration.

        People continue to spread misinformation about her eligibility.

    • RBG@discuss.tchncs.de
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      This is such a quintessential American question. Never in my life have I had to donate my hard earned money to a political candidate, it is such a strange concept to me.

      • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
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        Yeah I was reading the comments in another thread and multiple people were talking about donating money to the democrat candidate

        They’re giving money to politicians? Are they fucking insane?

        Another article I was reading was about how one of their politicians has managed a 700% markup on her investment portfolio in the last decade and nobody was actually calling for this woman to be fucking jailed for insider trading, it was just “Oh yep, they’re corrupt and that’s how it is”

        Then they want to donate money? 😂 Fuck me

        • SSJMarx@lemm.ee
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          It’s been so corrupt for so long that we all just accept it. If we were studying ourselves from the outside, we might conclude that bribery is an openly accepted aspect of the American political system, comparable to how it was in the Roman one.

    • HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world
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      Could turn out she’s a convicted felon, sexual assault allegations may arise, or have conspired to commit treason.

      Hahaha, yeah. Would be hilarious if it wasn’t depressing as fuck.

    • VanillaBean@lemmy.world
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      Doubtful that anyone else could get as much steam as her at this point. And the endorsement from so many have already rolled in, including POTUS. Though she might have to go through the formal nomination process, it’s clear he’s passing the torch to her. They broke the record for donations this year today alone!

    • ashok36@lemmy.world
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      No. Based on the fundraising today, a preference cascade is occurring and she’ll have the entire party behind her by mid week.

  • paddirn@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Wow, so the DNC might actually be interesting to watch this year if another candidate gets any traction.

    • Podunk@lemmy.world
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      Ok. Fine… who would you pick?

      There is a reason for her being the transition cannidate. If you have better, please let the DNC know…

      • SeattleRain@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Well I’d pick one of handful of progressive democrats the Dems have or Bernie but that ain’t happening. I’d at least pick Newsom.

        • Podunk@lemmy.world
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          Ok. But fuck, if you have to have a cop out, waffle house excuse to say newsom, i have a hard time believing you. Newsome is hard for the fact that hes a “hard D” california govenor and you take a good hit in the swing states. Thats a real liability. Thats fair. Stand by it. Say that. “But Bernie” my ass. Bernie doesnt want it now.

          Dont say “oh no” and not have an honest opinion that you arent willing to put your nuts behind. Get on board, or gtfo.

          I swear. As a dem, and ill be honest, what pisses me off the most is that we are our own worst enemy. We waffle and push for a vauge replacement with no game plan, and bitch and moan when the answer given “just isnt quite what we want”.

          We could have had an honest to god game plan a year ago. But we didnt get our shit together. Thats on you, thats on me, and its sure as fuck on the DNC. But we dont have that option now.

          Fucks sake. Rant over. Sorry for being frustrated at a two word post and a half baked response. Fuck.

          • SeattleRain@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Bro what are you on about. Kamala came in dead last in the 2020 primary. She’s has a enormous amounts of baggage like jailing kids and parents for skipping school.

            She’s more right wing that Biden. Why would anyone vote for diet Republican when they can have the real thing.

            • Podunk@lemmy.world
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              Your right. Shes not left enough… might as well vote for trump or skip.

              Seriously though. Are you paying attention? We dont get the perfect candidate now.dont shoot yourself in the foot. You’re already a locked in voter i assume. If trump was 50/50 with biden, what makes you think he loses with us nit picking? Shes right of biden? Guess who is more right from that. Hope for whitmere or aoc as vp if your feathers are that ruffled. Newsom if you really want. But kamala is the ticket and whining about it loses the election.

              • SeattleRain@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                Bro you these moral ransom arguments are not going to work when the things you want people to compromise on are genocide and chattel slavery. It’s Hilary all over again.

            • Log in | Sign up@lemmy.world
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              Ah yes, the supposedly left wing lemmy user who finds the time to write detailed paragraphs about how bad the more left wing candidate is but is suspiciously short and vague on criticism of the more right wing candidate. Here we go again.

  • rambling_lunatic@sh.itjust.works
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    After the debate and especially after the botched assassination attempt, I felt despair and a hopeless sense of certainty that our comrades in the USA would have to endure a Trump presidency and all of us around the world would suffer the consequences.

    I’m genuinely optimistic now. I think Harris can win.

    People who complain about her not being a socialist or how electoralism won’t change the system are missing the point. Those are true things, but the alternative is a fascistic climate change denier with the Sons of Jacob as his cabinet.

    The Americans are standing at a crossroads between an increasingly fragile status quo and tyranny. As much as I hate the status quo, I’m glad that the odds are now smiling far less at tyranny.

    EDIT after the election: Lol