If black voters come to view Kamala Harris as viable, much of their support will migrate to her

[bigtree]

...much like Barack Obama was able to consolidate the majority of their support, so should Kamala Harris on her way to becoming the nation's first black woman nominee for president.

That vote would be buttressed by a proportionate number of women excited by the prospect of the nation's first woman president.

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Kamala will still be standing this time next year.

[JI7]

2. doesn't this mean she would have to do well in iowa ?

[bigtree]

3. I think that's right

...she needs momentum going into SC and Nevada

[kiri]

4. Harris is not a friend of decent justice

She needs to embrace, ney, promote prison reform. She needs to embrace the Innocence Project. She needs to eschew her ludicrous announced position that prosecutors are always right if they gain a conviction. She needs to allow her fellow prosecutors to be tried for knowingly using tainted evidence, racial vendettas, and exonerating cops who planted false evidence. She needs to disembrace her support of the private prison industry.

Sorry: Harris is not a friend of decent justice. Her mindset is always punish, punish, punish.
Look how she fought tooth and nail against innocent men wrongly convicted.

[bigtree]

5. she absolutely is

...and, she stands tall on criminal justice against Joe Biden, for example,

Much of what you wrote is without citation so I'll drop this here:

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[questionseverything]

28. ...

"Consider her record as San Francisco’s district attorney from 2004 to 2011. Ms. Harris was criticized in 2010 for withholding information about a policboratory technician who had been accused of “intentionally sabotaging” her work and stealing drugs from the lab. After a memo surfaced showing that Ms. Harris’s deputies knew about the technician’s wrongdoing and recent conviction, but failed to alert defense lawyers, a judge condemned Ms. Harris’s indifference to the systemic violation of the defendants’ constitutional rights...

...Ms. Harris contested the ruling by arguing that the judge, whose husband was a defense attorney and had spoken publicly about the importance of disclosing evidence, had a conflict of interest. Ms. Harris lost. More than 600 cases handled by the corrupt technician were dismissed...Ms. Harris also championed state legislation under which parents whose children were found to be habitually truant in elementary school could be prosecuted..." In 2014, she declined to take a position on Proposition 47, a ballot initiative approved by voters, that reduced certain low-level felonies to misdemeanors. She laughed that year when a reporter asked if she would support the legalization of marijuana for recreational use. Ms. Harris finally reversed course in 2018, long after public opinion had shifted on the topic.

In 2015, she opposed a bill requiring her office to investigate shootings involving officers. And she refused to support statewide standards regulating the use of body-worn cameras by police officers. For this, she incurred criticism from an array of left-leaning reformers, including Democratic state senators, the A.C.L.U. and San Francisco’s elected public defender. The activist Phelicia Jones, who had supported Ms. Harris for years, asked, “How many more people need to die before she steps in?” ...
The article has more about such issues as the death penalty... reducing penalties for non-violent offenders and wrongful incarceration and closes with a demand for Sen. Harris o break with her past...and apologize. I was quite surprised to read this and although not new is worth reading. I never saw it before.

[oasis]

31. Her supporters will have their hands full defending all of that.nt

[bigtree]

32. none of that is new

...and she's weathered these criticisms of her record as prosecutor through several campaigns now, and hasn't lost one election.

[58Sunliner]

40. Posting tweets as facts?

If KH wanted to really enact change for POC she could have looked no further than a corrupt system, with a corrupt police dept as DA, which she did not, or a corrupt state system. Has never stated as DA or AG a position for decriminalizing weed offenses for anyone. Where did she address law enforcement practices? That is true reform. Her programs weren't reform, they were addressing the symptoms of a terminal illness with a band-aid IMO.

What happened to her programs? The one in SF used hand picked first time non-violent drug offenders, who were given the option of the program or jail time. The one she started in LA-where is that? A study done by the LA law enforcement showed it resulted in reduced severity of recidivist crimes during a 2 year period.

[bigtree]

41. if you take time to view them, you'll find the candidate representing herself on this issue

...quite ably.

[tirebiter]

10. She never, I mean never sought the death penalty when prosecuting

I may be for Biden, but Kamala Harris was my first pick until Joe entered the race. If she passes him up, I’m ok with that. Trump is who I want to see outta here.

[Control-Z]

25. I want them both.

Please?

Pretty please?!!?

[questionseverything]

27. here is the article you were referencing

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287182236

[DownriverDem]

6. What they think?

It's all about winning the Electoral College.

[democratisphere]

8. Kamala Harris is no Barack Obama.

[obnoxiousdrunk]

9. True.

[Skya Rhen]

12. I so love the class, empathy, calmness, fairness, honesty and authenticity that Obama exudes...

[democratisphere]

17. Yes. Like none other!

[Thekaspervote]

29. This!!!

[5starlib]

30. Yes, Obama exuded authenticity and having Michelle didn't hurt. :)

I'll also add that Obama ran in 2007/2008, which was a "normal" time in America. Obama ran for an open seat. This time, we are trying to beat Trump with all we have and the overriding question is not if Kamala can win, it's if she can BEAT Trump. Kamala might can win in a 2008 election year, but in 2020, things are different. We're in a different era with orange face. Our country and democracy is at stake. So you can't compare Harris in 2020 and Obama in 2008. Harris is not running in an open seat with 'normal' political dynamics.

[underthematrix]

11. This is so true. My and my sister have a special name for her that I can't

repeat here.

I don't think anything enrages me and my sister more than people referring to her as the female Obama.

She's not even in the same galaxy.

Of course if she becomes the nominee, I would vote for her. But as African American women, me and my sister hate her for what she did to President Obama's wingman. It's unforgiveable.

[Skya Rhen]

13. x 100,000,000,000

[JI7]

14. nobody is Barack Obama

[democratisphere]

18. Agreed.

[Buzz cook]

16. Obama had certain advantages that Harris and the rest don't

First, Obama was the designated anti-Clinton. This made him attractive to large parts of the media and large parts of the left.

Second, Obama was able to run as a centrist and appeal to the inside the beltway media. Much of his rhetoric echoed the centrist dogma of the villagers.

Third, Clinton did not contest Iowa. This allowed Obama an easy win. The win made him much more attractive to fence sitters.

Finally, Obama was a man running against a woman who was continually attacked by misogynists both in and out of the party.


This time around there is no Clinton around soaking up attacks.

This time Biden has claimed the center so the rest of the field has to claim the left to a greater or lesser degree.

This time there are many candidates not just two powerful ones and also rans. And Biden will vigorouly contest Iowa.

This time the misogyny will not be aimed at the front runner.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

20. It wasn't just misogyny.

I will avoid expressing the details of my disappointment over our former Democratic Presidential nominee, because it will surely cause me to get reported on DU, but surely you can think of some "history" about her in our right-wing media... fair or not.

I wish Elizabeth Warren would've challenged her in 2016 because I think Warren would've won it all.

I think one of the biggest benefits to Barack Obama was that he was relatively unknown to right-wing media until he made his announcement to run for President. Not to mention that he's BRILLIANT (like Warren).

[Buzz cook]

21. As I said

There were advantages to being the designated anti-Clinton. Why that was true is not Jermaine now

[Buckeye_Democrat]

22. Okay.

[Merlot]

26. That's because she's Kamala Harris

She's her own person, not looking to be someone else or VP.

[honest.abe]

33. True but in this situation she may be even better than President Obama.

She is tough as nails and will take it Trump in no uncertain terms. I love Barack Obama but he might hold back where Kamala will go for the juggler. I think that's what we need to beat Trump.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

15. If that happens and she can beat Trump, then great!

She's no Barack Obama, but I'd support her.

[redstateblues]

19. The effect of Her debate gambit has been minimal

[crazytown]

23. Viable equals beating Biden in Iowa

as per 2008.

[jaysunb]

24. Ain't happening nt

[TreasonousBastard]

34. Anybody heard from actual black voters about this?

[bigtree]

36. start with the notion that Biden is attracting support because voters think he can win

...and subtract those votes everytime Kamala Harris convinces a voter that she can win. You don't need to ask anyone to validate that basic logic.

Barack Obama, a relative unknown at this point in his election, was also considered far less 'electable' early in the campaign. 'Electability' is a nebulous and dynamic measure. Shifts in polling, for instance, can move that perception and measure, like when Obama went from 'less electable' to favored. And, at this early point in the election campaign, 'electability IS mostly a result of polling, elevating a candidate, like Joe Biden in what pollsters call a feedback loop.

Alex Seitz-Wald writes about this:

...many argue that perceptions of electability are driven largely by national media coverage, creating what analyst Nate Silver called a "feedback loop" and Washington Post media critic Margaret Sullivan dubbed a "self-perpetuating effect."

Some pundits and voters say one candidate — former Vice President Joe Biden — is the most electable, so they tell pollsters they want Biden, which produces media coverage that reinforces the idea that Biden is most electable, which then filters back down to voters concerned about "electability."

"In the old days, it wouldn't matter, but now the national narrative is seeping into voters' conscious in a way it hasn't before," Murray said. "So their answers when pollsters call is based on the national narrative, which then feeds back into the national narrative."

[TreasonousBastard]

44. I understand feedback loops, but I'm not sure they apply here...

My question is about whether AA voters will gravitate to Harris for specific reasons, rather than crowd dynamics.

I'm not sure there is a good answer any more than there is with any other demographic.

[bigtree]

45. it's hard to tell this far out from the election

...I'd be worried about buyer's remorse setting in come next Jan. with Biden riding the inevitability wave.

I don't agree with the pejorative, 'crowd dynamics.' Representation for black Americans at the highest levels of leadership is still an imperative to getting the attention to their specific needs and concerns, many endemic in their communities, many economic challenges disproportionate to other groups of voters.

Not every candidate is willing to make their concerns paramount to their agenda, but that's what black voters were looking for when they supported Barack Obama, what Kamala Harris is resting much of her appeal on.

[efhmc]

35. This old Feminist's joy for the first woman president was destroyed

by my nation destruction of one of the best candidate for president ever because she happens to have a vagina. We have not come further to overcome our misogyny and I am fearful that we never will.

[SidDithers]

37. Agreed...

She may or may not be the eventual nominee, but to speculate that someone's got the black vote locked up right now isn't correct.

Sid

[NYMinute]

38. If my aunt had a mustache

I'd call her uncle.

What follows "if" has to be within the realm of possibilities. Kamala is no Obama. She is excellent, intelligent and articulate but not Obama.

[bigtree]

39. here's the deal

Last edited Sun Jul 28, 2019, 03:26 PM - Edit history (1)

...the kinds of voters Kamala Harris is attracting is remarkably similar to the Obama coalition which won him two presidential elections.

It's actually closer to his second run, but the diversity of her appeal is similar.

Sen. Harris would need to fully energize the black and Latino vote behind her to replicate his win. She would also have the added advantage of an energized electorate of women who vote more regularly than men.

from the Center for American Progress:

According to the national exit poll, President Obama achieved reelection by carrying 93 percent of African American voters, 71 percent of Latino voters, 73 percent of Asian American voters, and only 39 percent of white voters—

[NYMinute]

42. She is still not Obama

[bigtree]

43. she may be a more attractive candidate to the sets of voters he garnered support from

...give that women vote more dependably than men and in larger numbers, and that the prospect of electing a woman president would almost certainly energize that set of voters in a way Barack could not.

You've devolved into peat-repeat territory, so... nothing more to add.