Stand In Line

With President Biden's announcement that he's not going to accept the Democratic nomination for President, and his endorsement of Vice President Harris, there's something of a debate over whether the party should simply go with her, or have an open convention and allow other people to make the case that they should be the nominee.

There are plenty of good arguments on both sides of that decision. The argument that I'm hoping doesn't come up is the idea that it's Vice President Harris's "turn" to have a chance at the chief executive role. The idea that Hillary Clinton was owed a shot at the presidency resulted in the Party Unity My Ass movement, otherwise known as PUMA (later taken to stand for People United Means Action) back in 2008, and while George W. Bush had done enough damage to the Republican brand that not even Senator John McCain had any hope of salvaging that election, in a closer contest, one could have imagined the infighting among the Democrats being a factor.

Vice President Harris, while not quite as unpopular as President Biden, is not what one would call a rising star within the Democratic party, and her perceived weakness as a candidate is a large part of what has prompted calls for an open contest. Casting the nomination as something she's entitled to will not satisfy people.

In any event, the Democrats have some work ahead of them. Formal, public, preparations for who would follow President Biden should have started for years ago, as opposed to over the weekend. Anyone who can count knew that the President would be in his early 80s at this point, just as Donald Trump will be four years from now. An open nominating contest is one thing; bickering over who should be the nominee will simply waste time that the Democrats really can't afford to not make full use of. Leaving aside any talk of entitlement to the nomination will help speed things along.