Mike Drop

Mike Pence withdrew as a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, thus ending an accidental political career.  A politician so inept that he lost his first two House bids to an incumbent Democrat, Pence was elected only when the Republican incumbent representing his Indiana district in the House chose not to seek re-election.  Pence's career seemed moribund when he chose to run for a second term as governor of Indiana in 2016 and was seem as likely to lose when Trump selected him as vice presidential his running mate. 

That out of the way, I don't really want to harp on Pence any more because he's gotten enough of a raw deal already.  Yeah, sure, he put his values in a blind trust to support Trump, who was as amoral and blasphemous as Pence was not, but Pence did redeem himself when he refused to try to overturn the 2020 election once it became apparent to him that there was no legal way he could refuse the electoral votes of key states.  Yes, he looked for ways to do it legally, and he even consulted Dan Quayle on the issue, but he did the right thing after he exhausted all of the alternatives.  According to the late Winston Churchill, he's a typical American.

How, you ask, could I be so sympathetic to a right-wing, misogynistic, non-alcoholic-beer-drinking prude like Pence?  Two reasons.  First, Martin O'Malley got subjected to the same ridicule for his presidential run when he ended it in February 2016, and I'm still ticked off about that.  Second, even Martin O'Malley, unpopular as he was with the Democratic base, never had to worry about being hung by his detractors, which is how Pence ended his vice presidential tenure. 

Oh yeah, this isn't going to affect the 2024 Republican presidential primaries.  Even though Pence ostensibly bowed out to encourage other low-performing candidates to do the same and coalesce around one anti-Trump candidate, his support was too miniscule to help any other candidates or change the dynamics of the campaign.  But even if all but one of the candidates not named Donald by their mothers withdraw from the campaign tomorrow and got behind the last person standing in a united front against Trump, it's too late for that.  Trump has a majority of Republican voters in the primary and caucus polls - 59 percent, according to one survey - so even if the anti-Trump Republicans get behind one candidate, they've likely already lost.

Pence's withdrawal from the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, like Will Hurd's before, has further normalized what was once considered an anomaly back in 1987, when Gary Hart and Joe Biden quit their presidential campaigns - the act of presidential candidates ending their campaigns before the start of the primary/caucus voting.  And Hart and Biden quit that early because of scandal.  Mike Pence's only scandals were demonstrating fealty to Trump - and, in the eyes of MAGA Republicans, breaking that fealty when the price of fealty proved to be too high.

Tulsi's Out

Last week, Tulsi Gabbard finally ended her impractical residential campaign.  What was as telling as who didn't get out is who Gabbard endorsed for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination upon her exit.

Gabbard, a darling of the far left, endorsed Joe Biden for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, which is an indication that she understands how crucial it is for her party and her country to unseat Donald Trump.  Even though Bernie Sanders remains resolutely in the 2020 presidential campaign despite the fact that he can't catch up to Biden's delegate count, Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran, knows that now is not the time for a revolutionary, progressive political agenda; that can come later.  She knows in this time of a global pandemic and a need for steady leadership that we have to return to where we were before those two dual infections - COVID-19 and Trumpism - took over.  She's a patriot who put party and country over politics.  Her endorsement of Biden was her way of telling Bernie to take a hint.

In addition to being the last woman, the last person of color, and the last millennial in the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign, Gabbard, a Hawaii congresswoman, is the last candidate from the West.  So, unless Biden gets California's Kamala Harris to be his running mate (not entirely out of the question), the Democratic national ticket will once again have no candidate from the Western states.  Colorado's Gary Hart, the last Democratic presidential candidate from a Western state who had any realistic chance of winning (well, except maybe New Mexico's Bill Richardson), once said in 1987 that the West was the future of America . . . and in terms of Democratic presidential politics, it likely always will be.  Oh, well, maybe Hart, who turned 83 in November 2019, may still live to see a President from west of the Rockies.  Or maybe we can have an Elton John fan in the White House so we can have a President who's from rock of the Westies. ;-)        

She Had a Problem, Guys . . .

Kamala Harris is out the 2020 presidential campaign.  The woman once called the female Barack Obama turned out to be the Hillary Clinton of the West Coast. That is, she ain't gonna be President.

Speaking of Hillary Clinton, the failed 2016 Democratic presidential anointee tweeted a greeting addressed at all Democratic presidential candidates (now down to fifteen, by my count) that didn't mention Harris by name, though the tweet came out moments after her withdrawal.  Hillary told them (and, likely in particular, Harris)  that "fighting for what you believe in is always worth it."

The trouble is that Harris didn't know what she believed. Campaigning in Iowa, she tried to be all things to all people and ended up being nothing to anyone. That is, just like Hillary.  Adding to that fact is that, while Harris may not have communicated what she stood for, she certainly communicated who she was - and people didn't like it. She was constantly sniping at opponents on the campaign trail and in the debates, taking underhanded shots at guys like Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg but also making negative insinuations against others, like when she said she looked forward to a substantial debate with Beto O'Rourke. (Although, I am quick to point out, her subtle suggestion that O'Rourke was an empty suit was certainly spot-on.)  She couldn't even resist a jab at Michael Bloomberg as she withdrew, saying that she wasn't a billionaire    And when she herself was on the receiving end of jabs, she had a problem, guys, with herself, the prosecutor, being prosecuted.

Okay, she did the Democrats a favor by making mince meat out of Tulsi Gabbard.  But heck, we didn't need her to rip Gabbard to shreds. Even Marianne Williamson could have done that.

All of this would have been easy to swallow if not for her overplaying of the identity politics card.  She ran as a black female presidential candidate rather than a presidential candidate who happens to be a black woman, playing up her identity as a black woman not on policy issues but on cultural issues, exalting Bootsy Collins and rap stars to show how cool she was.  That's another reason for me to be happy that she won't be the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee; we don't need and I doubt a lot of people want a hip-hop President.  

The biggest reasons I'm glad that Harris won't be President is actually one having nothing to with politics, identity or otherwise . . . it's her voice.  Her voice is so grating, it - I never thought I'd say this - actually makes me miss Hillary Clinton's laugh. 

Chris Matthews said that Harris is still a rising star and may yet run for President again.  Given the fact that Democratic presidential candidates rarely if ever make a second try at the nomination, that's highly doubtful.  While this campaign cycle has produced many a Reubin Askew, Harris is this year's Alan Cranston - a candidate who rode high early in the polls and dropped out early after crashing.  Cranston, it must be noted, occupied the same Senate seat Harris holds today.

(Oh yeah, this other guy who was running for President dropped out - two weeks ago.   We still don't know who he is.)