Last night the Kamala Harris , a former DA and Attorney General went back to work….
In a skill full Q & A she showed her skills as a lawyer….
She was able one occasion to ry to nail her personal history with racism to Joe Biden’s work as a lawmaker when Harris was a kid…(Biden owns the Black vote right now)
It WAS dramatic TV and the media took it hook, line and sinker….
For the next few weeks we’ll see if changes things….
Biden is current ahead of the Democratic field AND Donald Trump in the polls…
Kamala Harris is behind Biden everywhere….
Including in her home state of California …..
Thursday night, two California Democrats went after Joe Biden: Eric Swalwell, a little-known, 38-year-old congressman, and Senator Kamala Harris, long seen as a major challenger who had been left frustrated on the sidelines as first, Pete Buttigieg and then Elizabeth Warren surged.
Swalwell failed in his bold and unexpected attempt. And Harris—whose deftly executed attack on Biden’s civil-rights record dominated the soundbite wars—left the former vice president rocked, but still standing.
Early in the debate, Swalwell recalled Biden coming before the California Democratic convention during his first presidential bid in 1987 and declaring, “It’s time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans.” Swalwell did not mention in the debate that John Kennedy coined that line, but hopefully at the time he first used it, Biden (who later had his own plagiarism problems) credited JFK’s Inaugural Address.
Biden batted away Swalwell’s generational attack by saying fiercely, “I am still holding onto that torch.” And then moments later, the 76-year-old Biden got an unexpected assist from Bernie Sanders, 77. Trying to break into the conversation, Sanders could be heard shouting over a multi-candidate din, “As part of Joe’s generation….”
There were other moments in the debate when this odd-couple generational alliance between two septuagenarians transcended their obvious ideological differences. Late in the evening, when all the candidates were asked to name the first world leader they would contact to repair Donald Trump’s geopolitical wreckage, both Biden (who said NATO) and Sanders (the United Nations) pointed to 1940s institutions as the bulwark of American foreign policy.
Harris’s obviously premeditated assault was aimed at one of the blots on Biden’s long record in public life: his 1970s opposition to busing. She found her opening when spiritual guru Marianne Williamson—of all people—came out firmly in favor of reparations for slavery.
The California senator—the only African American on the Thursday night debate stage—began by talking in general terms about racial justice when she suddenly turned to Biden and said, “I’m going to now direct this to Vice President Biden. I do not believe you are a racist and I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground.”
Harris then flicked at Biden’s recent comments about collaborating in the Senate on legislation with arch-segregationists like Mississippi’s James Eastland before adding (and you could almost imagine the shiv in her hands), “You also worked with them to oppose busing.”
There was a brief TV image of Biden—looking profoundly sad with his lips tightly closed—as Harris made the issue personal: “There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.”
Biden tried to explain himself several ways—and merely illustrated the adage, “In politics, if you’re explaining, you’re losing.” Ultimately, he took refuge in a technical argument that, while true, was far from inspirational: “I did not oppose busing in America. What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education.”
The truth, which is very hard to express in a 2019 context, is that Biden probably believed he would have been a one-term Delaware senator had he embraced federally mandated cross-district busing in the 1970s. NBC’s Steve Kornacki posted on Twittera 1974 poll of Delaware voters that showed that three-quarters of the electorate opposed busing to achieve racial balance.
There is nothing that political pundits and armchair pollsters at home love as much as a flash of emotional drama in the midst of a presidential debate. And that is why everyone in the world watching American TV—whether they are in Ulan Bator, Ukraine, or Utah—will see an endless reel of Harris confronting Biden.
The danger, though, lies in over-hyping the lasting significance of this (cliché alert) viral moment more than seven months before the Iowa caucuses. While a strong performance throughout the evening will undoubtedly boost Harris’s fundraising and maybe her poll ratings, Biden still left the stage in his accustomed place as the candidate of Obama era continuity.
Were it not for Harris, Colorado Senator Michael Bennet—a late entry into the presidential race—might have gotten more attention from a solid performance as he tried to stake out his credentials as a leading moderate in the field….
image…CNN.Com
Joe Biden IS gonna have to respond to the issue of race past and present in a more direct manner …
I wouldn’t be surprised if like with Booker?
He call’s Harris…
Biden pushback is out….
it appears black leaders still support Biden,….
But?
want him to acknowledge the changes in race policy from back in the day to now….
I thought Biden’s Response on the busing question was incredibly poor. He said something like “I did not oppose busing. I opposed busing by the Dept. Of Education”. Not sure exactly what that meant – that this should be a local decision and not a federal decision? Biden had to know that question was coming, and to be so unprepared for it when he spent so much time preparing for the debate was a little disturbing.
At other times, Biden came across as overly rehearsed, or as trying to portray anger, when he really wasn’t feeling it. Swalwell, hickenlooper, williamson and Biden were the debate losers in my opinion.
Biden may still recover, but I’m not sure he has the ability to do so.
Joe Biden has been strongly against forced busing for school integration on the federal level…. back in the day he got support from segregationists in fighting the laws mandating it…..
Harris KNEW this and baited him…
Biden does NOT apologize for things he has done in the past under different times…
That stance puts him in a untenable position
If he says he’s sorry?
he gets beat up
if he doesn’t ?
he gets beat up…
Harris is former prolocutor
Biden walked into trap
she kept it personal because she KNOWS Biden has been Obama’s VP. and actually has. strong civil rights record….
Harris made a point of NOT saying Joe Biden Is a racist….
all that is meaningless
Biden is the leader
she got him flat footed and he continues to
not be clever enough to understand the media is jubilant over the horse race thing…
for now?
Biden Holds His black support mostly
it is apparent what Harris did and Biden still leads in the polls
but Harris is 20 years younger and much more hungry
she is also about to run into a political buzz saw…..
Wait…
i Thought Buttigieg illustrated how to respond to those types of question. No appology, but acknowledging that in retrospect, he could see that his actions caused pain, and if he could do it again, he would have…
I don’t think that being against busing in the 70s was racist; I was against busing in the 70s. At the time I genuinely felt it was an overly expensive and inefficient solution to a social problem. A more practical solution seemed to be to spend $ to fix black schools. But Biden has to do a better job at explaining his vote. He failed in his response.
in fact busing was fought by blacks after a while because of displacement and same uneasiness Harris threw at Biden…
I agree with u that Joe Niden needs to do a better job…
His handlers don’t want gaffs from him so they keep him tightly held…
it’s not gonna help him if he’s rusty and not up on his game…
He will STILL lead in the polls
this isn’t the first bump he’s hit…
;
Remember also….
Harris is a bit of a lefty…
let’s see how that plays also…
in looking at the Maine pool?
Harris maybe helping Warren over Sandes?
You remain in stunning denial in what the Democratic Party is. i don’t see Harris as less liberal than Sanders or Warren.
Me either….
I do not think a left will win the nomination…
It’s NOT where the parties voters are even if the media wants it to be.…
Biden can’t keep having performances like that if he wants to be the Democratic nominee. And I think even you know that – whether you admit it or not.
Biden is not a racist, but you don’t do things like talk about how you got along with Stennis and Talmadge. As Democrats, we wouldn’t be tolerant of Republicans running for President who talked about their work with segregationists. Except for Corey, We all want a strong Democratic nominee. Will Biden be better at this a year from now? I hope so – because he still might become our nominee. But the reality is that a year from now, he will be just a year older. Does anyone think Trump will be better a year from now, or just a year older?
I agree he HAS to o better….
He looked a bit lost in the debate….
Amen DSD on the history lesson….
I will post this later today….
Harris was sincere in her past, but disegenious in hanging it on Biden who had to work thru the past with what he had…
Let me fix that link (James can delete the original once this fixed version posts):
I’m a little taken aback, although I shouldn’t be surprised or shocked, at what looks like a chasm in political and historical knowledge.
Those of us growing up in the 1950’s and 1960’s (even those like me who were staunch advocates of civil rights) recognized the political realities of the time. Before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, (1) it was nearly impossible for a non-segregationist to win the almost lily-white electorate in any if about a dozen former slave states. And it was extremely difficult in border states such as Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee *, so consequently (2) dealing with segregationists was an everyday political reality for both Northern & Western Democrats and for Republicans, just as upholding segregation (at least nominally) was a necessity for any Southern politician who did get elected.
Only a rare bipartisan coalition of Republicans with Northern & Western Democrats was able to pass the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 & 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
But ever since the 1870’s much of the GOP had abandoned the black citizen freed by Lincoln and protected during Reconstruction in a (usually-vain) attempt to woo Southern white voters. So both the Republicans and the non-Southern Democrats found it easier to coalesce on a particular issue with the huge segregationist bloc in Congress (about a quarter to a third of its total membership) than with the other Northern party. After 1938, the so-called Conservative Coalition of Dixiecrats and Republicans blocked or tore up much of the New Deal and Fair Deal.
* Some illustrative details: (a) the only Republican to win election to a Senate seat south of Kentucky before 1964 was John Tower of Texas in the early 1960’s. In 1964, he was one of only 6 Republicans to vote against the Civil Rights Act. Interestingly the only deep-Southern vote for the Act came from Tower’s fellow-Senator from Texas, Ralph Yarborough who survived a Republican challenge from George H. W. Bush in 1964, but lost the 1970 Democratic primary to the more-conservative Lloyd Bentsen (who in turn defeated a second try by GHW Bush). (b) Someone said this week in relation to the Harris/Biden interchange that the scholarly Sen. J. William Fulbright (D-Ark.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, asked the Johnson Administration if his vote might be necessary to pass the Civil Rights Act. Their reply was that his vote was more valuable in another matter (and implicitly, that he shouldn’t imperil his political career with an unneeded vote on Civil Rights). Like every other Southern Senator outside Texas and Tennessee, and nearly every other Southern Representative, Fulbright had signed the Southern Manifesto of 1956. (LBJ of Texas and Tennessee Senators Al Gore, Sr, and Estes Kefauver, who was seeking the 1956 Democratic presidential nomination, were the only Southern Senators who declined to sign the Manifesto.)
Biden is being pilloried now for purely political reasons in my view over this entire issue.
Anyone ,with a modicum of political knowledge, well understands that throughout most of the latter half of the Twentieth Century working with southern segregationists was necessary to getting anything done in the Congress.
There is whole lot of hypocrisy at work here.
I get that.Hypocrisy and politics go hand in hand
Agreed Jack…
DSD got it right….
Harris IS Smart and Sly…
And Still in the second tier unless she jumps ahead of Warren and Sanders
Rev. Jessie Jackson spoke to Biden yesterday and reminded him of how some blacks would see segregation no matter what theses days…
Again…
Few ,of any,Black leaders have abandon Biden
They want him to get his act together…
Jackson famously held hands with George Wallace.
True, Wallace was in his last days and was penitent about his past ,but I have little doubt that if Jackson was running for something that act would be used against him by an opponent.
If you get the impression that I don’t care for this tactic being employed by Bidens opponents.You would be right.
I understand it politically but do I think it is valid criticism?
No I don’t.
Personal aside about Jesse Jackson–Two weeks ago when I was in Chicago my girlfriend booked is a spa day at a Russian bath house/spa. Apparently I walked right past Jesse Jackson without realizing that’s who it was. As we were sitting at the bar after our massages the owner pointed out Jesse’s bodyguard and said he was downstairs at the time. Apparently he pops in there a few times a year and his picture was on the wall.
When I think of Jackson I still picture the young man in his 40s running for President, but he is now in his late 70s.
He Still is big?
I ran across him back in the day when he was running for President…
I agree Jack.
Jackson once ran for President….
I whole heartily agree that Harris is a opportunist….Biden’s response made it worst…
I completely agree Jack, this was a unfair political hit by Harris and some of the others running for President.
But, it was child’s play given what he will face from the Republicans (aka as Trumpanzies) if Biden becomes the nominee.
However, Biden told his story the wrong way in my opinion. He could have referenced his point by simply saying I was able to work with people that I deeply disagreed with on other issues to find common ground on issues important to the Nation.
The fact that Jesse Jackson supposedly gave Biden the “cold shoulder” yesterday is laughable. I don’t have a lot of respect for Jackson going all the way back to the assassination of Dr. King when he made the rounds of the talk shows in Chicago still wearing the bloody shirt from holding King’s body after he was shot. Don Rose, who was Jackson’s media guy at that point is someone I knew very well, and Rose bragged about making Jackson wear to shirt to the interviews to heighten Jackson’s status in the movement at the time. Rose was very proud of that, I found it disgusting.
Jackson also moved to DC when I first lived there to help “save the City” in our darkest Marion Barry days and quietly left several years later without any measurable accomplishments. The only thing I saw him do was workout at the gym.
I know Democrats feel it’s necessary to go to the Rainbow Coalition to kiss the ring, but I always thought the group was simply a front for Jackson’s personal financial needs.
But back to Biden, he should have known that line of attack was coming and he did absolutely nothing to deflect what was about to come. People have public records and people evolve. The focus on things that happened 30, 40, or even 50 years ago seem to be of extreme interest to some of the people here (especially when it comes to me). But I am more interested in what people have done lately in their careers.
Of course Biden isn’t racist, and Trump most certainly is a racist. But the busing issue was there for Harris to grab, and she did it with style, and she put Biden on the defensive. To me that was Joe’s problem and one he needs to fix. But to call Harris an opportunist is ridiculous. This is politics not bean bag.
So Jack complains about the hypocracy? Does this mean Republican voters should be justified in defending Lyndsey Graham’s effusive praise of Trump as you are willing to justify Biden’s more extensive effusive praise of Stennis? If that is how you feel, then you really can’t complain about Lyndsey Graham. I genuinely don’t see how my side is being hypocritical.
I still haven’t heard anyone claim Biden is a racist, and I don’t even think any of the candidates have even implied that. The complaint is how ineffective he is responding. To use Jack’s words, no one with a “modicum of political knowledge” could possibly admit he has handled this well, and he had plenty of time to prepare a response. Most People are going to be very forgiving of things said or done decades ago, but if he can’t explain them, then that is a big, big problem. We need a nominee who can deflect these comments, and not exacerbate them. I really don’t think it should be that difficult. Frankly, I’m a little surprised you don’t see that. Biden is a good guy. He is not a racist; he has been a strong advocate for civil right throughout his career. he served the country well, and he would be a poor nominee and only a mediocre president. He would be an an enormous improvement over Trump, but that is not good enough.
In very James like fashion you criticize me for something I didn’t say.
I wasn’t getting into whether Biden “handled it well.”
I’m just speaking about the issue itself.Indeed, I did a post the other day about all the “liberals” including Bobby Kennedy ,a patron saint of American liberalism,who worked with segregationists .You said that was a”fair point.”
Further what “side” are you on that I’m not?Im a Democrat.I will support the Democratic nominee.I was simply stating the reality of political life in the Twentieth Century..
You seem to be into the “gotcha” zone.Well Biden should of done this, should have done that.Maybe so.Im simply stating I don’t care for that line of attack although I do understand it politically as I said.
I will state once again that if you’re going to carry this to it’s logical conclusion?Every Democratic politician from that era could be criticized and no I don’t see anything to gain in the larger picture from it.
The vast majority of criticism that Biden has faced has to do with his current response and not what he said decades ago. So when you complained that Biden is being pilloried I just assumed you were complaining about the #1 reason he is being pilloried. I have honestly heard only minor criticism of him in working with segregationists. I previously indicated at least twice that Biden’s segregation comments from decades ago did not offend me. I am concerned though with HOW he defended those comments, and I honestly don’t understand why you see me as hypocritical. yes, I do think, for example, that his frequent praise of Stennis was over the top. And I don’t see how you can disagree with that.
As far as what “side” I am on, i tend to vote Democratic for most positions (always have voted for the Democrat for the presidency) and I always try to be objective – whether I succeed or not is a different question.
I’ll stay away for awhile since obviously what I have been saying is not being understood and/or valued, and I just don’t feel like arguing over this in personal terms. Later.
I didn’t criticize you personally.
As to your claim that Biden didn’t handle his response properly, I specifically said,”maybe so.”
I have no personal criticism of you so your choice to stay away for awhile is yours alone and is not based on anything I said other than we disagree somewhat on this issue and you apparently misunderstood my position or what I meant.
Trump on Harris vs Biden debate tussle….
Sen. Kamala Harris “received too much credit” for her attack on Joe Biden at Thursday night’s Democratic presidential debate, President Donald Trump said Saturday.
“I think she was given too much credit for what she did. It wasn’t that outstanding,” Trump said at a news conference in Osaka, Japan, where he was attending the G-20 summit of the world’s largest economies. “I think probably he was hit harder than he should have been hit.”..
Politico….
Warren joins Harris on her throw down against Biden…
Sen. Elizabeth Warren reiterated her support for federal busing programs the night after Sen. Kamala Harris confronted former Vice President Joe Biden over his past opposition to federal intervention on the issue.
“I’m already on record on busing and using busing as a way to help communities that are diversifying,” the Democratic presidential candidate told reporters Friday following a raucous rally in Chicago with about 3,600 people, hundreds waving placards imprinted with “Warren has a plan for that!”….
Politico…
The hypocrisy you reference Zreebs regarding Ms. Lindsay is rather more current than something that happened in the mid-70s. Lindsay said Trump was totally unqualified to be President, but now golfs with him and spends his Sunday afternoons defending the “Great White Hope” on Meet the Press.
I am a Democrat, and will support the Democratic nominee because I want this cancerous piece of shit out of the White House and the Party that enables him in a minority in both Chambers of Congress.
I am not sure people truly understand how fragile our Democracy has become over the last three years. Trump is now making jokes with Putin about stealing the 2020 election.
Everything else pales in comparison.
Of course I will support Biden if he is the nominee.
I also agree that our democracy is far more fragile than people think.
Never doubted it for a moment Zreebs.
You are a patriotic American, and will put your vote where it will do the most good to correct this problem our Democracy is suffering under at the moment.
Thanks Keith
Harris said out loud she did NOT think Joe Biden was a racist….
48 hours afterwards we are pointing out why the debate mistake was HOW Joe Biden let Harris get over on him…
Not about racism which is what Harris tried to hang on Biden n order to peal off black voters
As expected….
Harris & Co. reportedly began gaming out their ‘gotcha’ moment against Joe Biden months ago…
post forthcoming…
Last night PBS showed a very interesting interview by House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) on Firing Line with Margaret Hoover.
I can’t yet find a printed transcript, but this link to KCTS. has s a .video of the whole half-hour.
Clyburn has endorsed no specific one of the 25 Democratic candidates and won’t say if he will before a clear Democratic nominee emerges. Twenty-two of those 25 candidates showed up for Jim Clyburn’s World-Famous Fish Fry in South Carolina last weekend.
But he pointed out that as a South Carolina representative who wanted to do something he had to work with both of his state’s Senators: Ernest Fritz Hollings (D) (at least nominally segregationist) and with arch-segregationist J. Srom Thurmond (D > States’s Rights 1948 > D > R). He said he was asked to speak at the funerals of both men.
He doesn’t criticize Biden simply for establishing a working relationship with James Eastland or Herman Talmadge. He even said that at the start he’d been skeptical about busising himself, although his wife wasn’t and took very loud objection when he returned home.
Jack would know far, far more about these three South Carolinians than I.
¶ Even liberal-progressive-radical Berkeley, California (where Kamala Harris attended school), didn’t have a smooth transition to integrating her schools in the mid-sixties. Although a pioneer in implementing it without any court orders, there was an incredibly bitter fight, including an attempted rccall of two members of the School Board * who survived by a vote of about 23,000 to 15,000 in October 1964; and the sound and fury (though not the wounds) had barely subsided when I first went to Berkeley in August 1966.
* [I can hardly fault Joe Biden for not knowing this specifically, but his reference to letting the Berkeley City Council, rather than the federal government, implement bussing was technically off base. Such decisions, with their attendant dangers, benefits and drawbacks, were made and are made by the Berkeley Unified School District, whose Board is elected independently of the Mayor or Council and empowered to set its own budget and collect its own taxes.]