Shane Goldmacher/NY Times:
5 Takeaways From Kamala Harris’s First Full Day on the Biden Ticket
She is adding sizzle, bringing in lots of cash, carving out an anti-Trump role and seemingly confounding the Republican opposition.
But plopped into the heat of the general election, her lack of ideological definition may prove a net advantage. Her choice won plaudits from both the billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg and Senator Bernie Sanders (who notably praised her on health care).
Republicans tried to foment some frustration but were left with thin gruel among prominent Democrats. The same history-making potential of Ms. Harris’s candidacy that is driving excitement may also help mute the opposition.
Representative Ro Khanna of California, a national co-chair of the 2020 Sanders campaign, had publicly pressed for a more progressive choice but praised the power of Ms. Harris’s story as the “daughter of immigrants,” saying it “really resonated.”
“People feel like it’s breaking barriers,” Mr. Khanna said in an interview. “It represents our multiracial, multiethnic future.”
Robert A George/NY Daily News:
What Kamala can do: The Democrats’ — and America’s — reconciliation moment
If the biracial woman could call out an older white man about his blindness and he can turn around and literally and figuratively embrace her as a partner attempting to rescue America during its worst moment in 100 years, well, that’s a powerful message. Each’s personality balances the other’s: He brings old-school hail-and-well-met Catholic charm; she brings a daughter-of-two-immigrants steely toughness on display in several congressional hearings. (Harris was one of the few to throw Bill Barr off his game in his confirmation hearing; expect that to be revisited if and when Barr drops a pre-election “Obamagate” surprise courtesy of U.S. Attorney for Connecticut John Durham).
Dave A Hopkins/NY Times:
What the Kamala Harris Pick Tells Us About Joe Biden
His choice is a characteristic example of his tendency to row in the direction of the day’s strongest political current
Mr. Biden is best understood not as a member of a particular ideological faction but rather as a prototypical “regular Democrat” who has continually sought to personify the existing mainstream of his party — which explains his choice of Senator Kamala Harris as vice-presidential nominee.
One of the best things about modern political coverage is the accessibility of political scientists without exorbitant paywalls. I mean, we can’t expect them all to blog.
Franklin Foer/Atlantic:
The Good Son
Polished, soft-spoken, and a self-styled moderate, Jared Kushner has become his father-in-law’s most dangerous enabler.
Jared kushner, the second-most-powerful man in the White House, is quite a bit smarter than the most powerful man, his father-in-law, the president. Donald Trump possesses a genius for the jugular, but he evinces few other signs of intelligence. He certainly displays no capacity, or predisposition, to learn. His son-in-law, by contrast, appears to have sufficient analytic acumen to comprehend that the country has been brought to its knees by the coronavirus pandemic. Kushner might not be the brightest public servant in American history—he is a Harvard graduate who is also a leading symbol of college-admissions corruption, and a businessman with a substantial record of failure—but he has shown flashes of effectiveness in his time at the White House. Because he projects a facsimile of capability and because he shows, at irregular intervals, a seemingly genuine interest in governing, he is also an exasperating mystery.
I don’t buy the premise (competent but flawed). Kushner is an ineffective lightweight. And Barr is way more dangerous.
Rich Lowry and Ramesh Ponnuru/NRO:
Why Trump’s Losing
Trump doesn’t lead in the polling on any major issues — even his lead on the economy has slipped away.
He is losing in Florida, a must-win state for Republican presidential candidates for roughly 100 years. He is behind in North Carolina, which successful Republicans have won for the last half century. Arizona and Georgia are battlegrounds, and maybe Texas, too. Biden has been reliably ahead in all the Blue Wall states, in large part by eating into Trump’s lead with whites or reversing it.
So far the polling in the race looks more like Bob Dole against Bill Clinton in 1996, when Dole persistently and substantially trailed, than like Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton in 2016, when Trump was behind but by smaller margins than today (and briefly even ahead).
The standard restrictions apply: There are around three months to go, state-level polling was off in 2016, and Trump doesn’t have to make up much ground to be within plausible range of another Electoral College victory.
NY Times:
Progressives Didn’t Want Harris for V.P. They’re Backing Her Anyway.
Joe Biden’s selection of Kamala Harris reaffirmed progressives’ fears of a Biden administration rooted in establishment politics. But rather than revolt, many snuffed out their criticisms.
But rather than revolt, many progressive activists and elected officials immediately snuffed out their criticisms and instead proclaimed their support, applauding the selection and reiterating that removing President Trump from office was their electoral priority. Even those prone to denouncing Mr. Biden and other moderates largely tried to make peace.
“At the end of the day, this isn’t some democratic decision,” said Evan Weber, the political director for the Sunrise Movement, the climate advocacy group, which endorsed Mr. Sanders in the primary. “This was always going to be a decision that was up to the vice president and a personal one of his.”
