Her edge would be that no white male could ever constructively criticize her policies without being labeled a racist or sexist.
63
One of the reasons I like Warren is that I know where she stands on anything and everything, in detail. One of the things I know is that she is not a socialist. She has made it quite clear that she believes in capitalism with rules. She supports market competition.
Here is a link to an article in theAtlantic about her vision for a capitalist economy.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/elizabeth-warrens-theory-of-capitalism/568573/
And this, which has nothing to do with politics:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DhDoKnKX0AAjAKU.jpg
99
One cliche I would like to see eliminated from the discussion. “People of color.” It’s essentially racist and patronizing. “LGBTQ” is also a bit overworked. Thank you.
80
Cohen lines up with other NYT columnists in his irrational opposition to a progressive candidate. But Harris?
First, as others have stated, she has a glass jaw exposed by Gabbard in the last debate.
More importantly, her record is beyond sketchy: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/opinion/kamala-harris-criminal-justice.html
67
I agree that Biden is great but will not pull it out.
f Kamala Harris let 150 million Americans keep their health insurance and, Democrats concentrate on the effort of wining, and, stop attacking Obama, maybe there will be a hope of stopping the very powerfull and fast train 0f 2020 re-election.
16
Wow, two "heavy hitters" in the Dem mix are Northeast liberals Warren and Sanders!
Haven't been this excited about prospects for Dems taking back the WH since Kerry and Dukakis were nominated!
37
As an older white male in the Southern United States, and a life-long progressive liberal democrat, I witnessed Brown v Board of Education, the actual Mississippi burning, and Bull Conner. I lived in Alabama during the several Wallace administrations. And, surprisingly, I still have hope for a better nation. Joe Biden is a remarkable man who I strongly admire; however, this is not his time.
I have watched Kamala Harris throughout her time in national office with a degree of awe. Yes, there are legitimate issues with her policy formulations; she is smart enough to recruit the right people (definitely not more of DJTs “best people”). I am also informed on and read the reporting on issues with her tenure as AG for California. If we are going to insist on a perfect candidate, we will get one AND another term for DJT.
Senator Harris is an intelligent fighter with a razor sharp mind and lightening fast analytical capability, clearly on display during the Kavanaugh and Barr hearings. She has my vote right now.
324
Trump has the mental tools to take on Biden. He can handle a fight with another white Christian male. He fought with them all his life. We have already seen how Trump's interaction with intelligent black females is quite dysfunctional. He does not have the emotional strength to manage a powerful African-American woman that steps up to take his White House. He would psychologically melt down like an old Soviet era nuclear reactor.
Also, this election will hinge on the turnout of the African-American female vote. They will turn out for both Biden and Harris but the advantage goes to Harris.
I like them both but Harris has the edge against Trump due to the meltdown factor.
381
@Jimmy J.
Harris can shred Trump into a million pieces.
71
But we already have California! We need New York, Florida and the rust belt. Harris will not get that for us.
59
Mr. Cohen, your assessment of Trump and his movement in our country is spot on. Purging the White House him, his family, and other cronies is essential. However, there is a more pervasive and confusing evil in the United States. That the once-respected Republican Party decided to play possum and let Trump trash the essence of our country is confusing and deeply disturbing. We know now that those Americans do not have our back. So, even if Kamala Harris does not become our next president, I look forward to seeing her skewer her do-nothing counterparts in the Senate for years to come.
38
Roger, three or four years from now when you and I are being shipped to a "training session" at a place called Camp Cheney, run for profit by the Blackwater Group, maybe we can discuss why Americans didn't take the threat of autocratic rule more seriously. You at least can see the threat.
44
Harris is from California, a dirty word in the Red states. Red state hatred of everything California is as pervasive as Red state hatred of Hillary Clinton--it's another term for "socialism" as far as they are concerned.
Trump would slay her in the Electoral College, based on that fact alone.
32
GIVE TRUMP ENOUGH ROPE AND HE WILL HANG HIMSELF
Baiting him into focusing on his narrowing base of ill-informed, Fox-bubble bigots -- which he does naturally -- will spur his tendencies toward self-destruction.
His supporters should be labelled "Trumpists" and identified with all the morally outrageous and un-American behavior he flaunts.
The successful Democratic candidate will repeatedly ask, "Who do you trust to..." on every issue.
21
The Democratic nominating process is working this time. In 2016 it was rigged in favor of Hillary, who essentially let the party down. When she lost, she didn’t even bother to show up to thank her tearful supporters. That’s how little she thought she owed to them. This time it’s quite different. Harris would like to proclaim her inevitability, but the handwriting is already on the wall. She’s a liar. We don’t need another one.
30
It's time to resurrect the trope of "speaking truth to power."
5
She does it for me too, probably because I expect here to zig-zag her way to a position just a tad left of Obama.
6
I'm going to get bombed out for writing this, but Trump made the Crooked Hillary label so ingrained in our lexicon. That mixed with his patriarchal misogyny has so polluted our country that electing a woman POTUS seems hopeless right now. We need to play it as safe as possible. Just saying.
As far as the debates are concerned, get rid of a live audience!
All it does is create a cheerleading atmosphere for the candidate who got the most supporters to fill up the arena.
21
Harris would destroy Trump in debates and on Twitter.
19
Harris is the living embodiment of the old Groucho Marx quote, "Those are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others."
Harris is intelligent enough, and forceful, but she is mostly demographic allure wrapped in political expediency.
Within hours of her being elected CA senator, Establishment democrats were touting her demographic allure as her ticket to the presidency.
As CA Attorney General, Harris’s office declined to prosecute Steven Mnuchin’s OneWest Bank for foreclosure violations in 2013 after finding over a thousand violations of foreclosure laws by his bank, and expecting to find thousands more. In return, she was the only Democrat who ran on the national level to receive campaign money from him.
Having no convictions that would impede her ambition, she voted yes on her first defense appropriation bill, though it was a huge increase and included $285 billion more than the Pentagon requested. She voted no on the latest defense appropriation bill, realizing that a no vote was appropriate to appear progressive.
Harris is ambitious, not progressive.
We need the courage, integrity and ideas of Bernie Sanders as President to reverse the trajectory of huge income/wealth inequality... making the US stronger, healthier, better educated, and more thriving.
President Bernie Sanders 2020
A Future To Believe In
37
The line of the night, in my opinion, was Sen Gillabrand, "I'm going to Clorox the Oval" office. That is the base line folks are looking for. Trump has brought a new level of foulness to the Oval.
17
She had a bad debate, was not sharp on health care and although capable of zingers like "predators" she actually lost ground according to the most recent Morning Consult Poll. Her attack on Biden, who actually introduced her as a candidate in Cal. was opportunistic and nasty.. Nonetheless, I am willing to wait until she makes it into the final round. So far, not impressed.
53
Bidden is too old limping with fifty years of baggage.Warren doing the far left reach out is dangerously unauthentic.How could she endorse HRC in 2016 against Trump?The indian heritage fiasco is the real Warren .I disagree with some of Sanders's policies but he is a decent person who is not electable.I think Kamala is our best bet.
8
I live overseas so I a don't hear the dinner table and water cooler chat in the US, but reading these comments I get the feeling that Democrats are still looking for the ideal president (doesn't exist) rather than someone, anyone, who can beat Trump. Another five years of Trumpism can only end in war or national disgrace, or both. Let's get real. Trump would beat most of them. I agree with Mr Cohen that Senator Harris would give him a race.
20
I find Harris to be dishonest. As a prosecutor she didn't call for legalization of drugs while she was putting people in jail but now she follows the pack. I find her choice of racial identity troubling also. She is half Asian Indian and a quarter African and a quarter Caucasian. She was raised by her Indian American mother. She doesn't proclaim that she is Asian or mixed race but defines herself as African American. Certainly by Jim Crow standards, she is. But, why not embrace her total ancestry? I think the answer is political. There isn't much of a demand for the message, vote for me, I'm the descendent of a highly educated Indian immigrant. I would prefer that race not be a consideration in this debate but the Democrats have made this all about race. So if it is all about race, be honest about your racial and class origins. Finally she talks about her experience with busing. Busing was meant to give Black children access to White schools and force the equalization of financing for all schools. Harris, the daughter of two highly educated college immigrants, hardly the individual the law was meant to benefit. She doesn't seem to understand that while the law benefited her, she was not the target group the was created for.
67
M r. Cohen your opinion was plausible before the last debate when, after Tulsi Gabbard's takedown of Harris, the latter looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Biden is far from perfect but he has the fewest vulnerabilities and the best chance. You, Mr. Cohen, might not know it but Independents and moderate Democrats like myself are the swing voters. I like Biden. I don't like Warren.
28
Seems like you missed the last debate.
29
This column will not age well.
56
She’s awful- trying to smear Tulsi Gabbard as some kind of Russian sympathizer because she had the gall to call her out on her shabby record. Joe McCarthy was a predator too- what’s the point of being like Trump?
48
The Prosecutorial style of Kamala Harris is repugnant;
She is an attack artist; and belongs in a court setting not
the Oval office....
Kinder or Gentler she is not: Abusive to her colleagues
is what she is...just like the attack dog Donald J. Trump
and we do not need abusive Presidents ever again !!!!
63
This column and some of the others this day or so look like an editorial directive to pick a candidate you like and write something nice about them. Fills space, I guess. Maybe the editorial and op ed folks can check out the Guardian or Atlantic for examples of insightful writing.
29
Did Cohen watch the debates with the sound turned down?
Harris is clueless on HC. She is a word salad looking for a salad bowl to settle in to.
She is not good at taking incoming because prosecutors are never cross examined.
And she plays the race card from the bottom of the deck.
She could not even take on Tulsi Gabbard. How could she ever take on Trump.
Cohen needs to learn the presidency is not a place to be a work in progress.
ESPECIALLY now!
50
She needs to specifically address Gabbard's accusations
21
Mayor Pete anyone? Why not?
27
Nope. It's Biden/Harris
4
No doubt that Trump must go. Kamala Harris? Not gonna happen. Why? 1. Intellignt women don't vote for wishy-washy, calculating Divas like Kamala - who claimed she listened to Tupac - before Tupac ever recorded anything. 2. Most Unintelligent women vote for who their husbands, fathers and guys say to vote for. 3. All
or most white and latino men won't vote for her just because of their race and gender bias. 4. All of Intelligent black men are split - 50/50 - depending on whether they know about her "evidence withholding" that jailed innocent men and women. 5. Unintelligent black men won't vote for "no sassy woman" - regardless of color.
That is what the polls reveal, so far, and she has not been vetted, but, treated with kit gloves by Roger and most writers and pundits scared of her calling on the race card - a card abused too often- and an insult to true civil rights pioneers.
Her self-annointed "civil rights pioneer" claims are fact-less. It is down to Warren, Biden and Bernie. God save us from Trump.
39
Roger Cohen - your article with one idea after another pulled out of the air is nonsensical! You go on and on and on before finally devoting a few sentences to Kamala Harris and her suitability to battling and defeating Trump. Catchy title to your opinion piece, but you made an unconvincing and very sketchy argument for Harris as the Democratic nominee.
Yes, she’s aggressive. Want to see exactly how aggressive? Find a recording of her very nasty rude grilling of Jeff Sessions in his confirmation hearings. That’s all I had to see to realize what a miserable person she really is. She is a walking talking nightmare. Bad enough that she represents my state as a Senator. I don’t want a person like that occupying the White House. Also, she lacks experience in an elected position. One term not yet completed does not make her my choice.
27
If Tulsi Gabbard can body slam her so easily, what will Trump do?
47
Kamala Harris is too much of an opportunistic changeling.
I am not believing a word she says.
All she wants is go to the White House.
Over dead bodies, if necessary.
47
I think Tulsi Gabbard, not Kamala Harris, is the "Obama of this election" that the Democrats have been looking for.
28
We need a Gary Cooper or a (liberal) John Wayne to beat up on this Republican bully. Mano a Mano. That's how to win in the swing states. Biden's the best we got for that job.
11
Kamala Harris? Just plain NO from m y point of view.
36
As someone who donated to Tusi Gabbard , Tusi just passed the threshold of 130k
So she will be in the September debate, look out Karmala, Tusi got your number.
26
Nope; she's wishy washy, and swings back and forth in the middle. If fundamental change is fixing potholes in LA because poor people's tires are damaged by them and then they can't get to work because they can't afford to live in the city, then maybe. Listen to The Daily podcast called "What Does Kamala Harris Stand For? https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/podcasts/the-daily/kamala-harris.html
12
You're own Map of donors and engaged citizens Demonstrates that Bernie Sanders and Warren are leading Middle America .
Get over it corporate America you have sucked the life out of us working people long enough. We will not accept compromise.
Trump 2020 will bring ruin to us all and we are tired of it!
12
Right on, Roger.
1
Kamala Harris is a phony. And dishonest. Her years of so-called”prosecturial” skills have already come under fire with much more to be exposed. Her entire campaign is based on racism, reparations, open borders, and free everything for all. But this is also the agenda for all 2O+ presidential wannabes. Democrats have already lost 2020 election. As insolent and arrogant Juan Castro said...”some of us have learned from past mistakes and others have not.” Yup, Democrats never learn.
23
She put a fatal nail in her coffin with the forced busing comment.
28
As Attorney General in California, this woman locked up poor African American women in jail for months at a time over their kids truancy, and then laughed about it in public.
She has no chance of reversing the historic drop-off in African American turnout from 2016.
36
Who can beat trump,and putin? the american people
4
Tulsi basically destroyed Kamala.
32
Hello - I thought Kamala Harris was pretty negative at the debate the other day - she has a shot if she can turn that around
2
A black woman who wants reparations for slavery, open borders and free medical care for everybody. No doubt she would win the presidency in a landslide victory across America.
15
Lol.. Because of some quote she made about Trump & predators.. Mr. Cohen believes Kamala Harris is the only candidate with the right stuff to be President.??
... Oh man.. that sounds desperate.. and doesn't bode well for Dems.
13
Except, as we all know, Americans do spend a lot of time asking "Where did you come from?"
4
Even a seasoned writer like Cohen falls prey to seeing all of this as a morality play. We are no longer a really serious people but so conditioned to seeing each other in good or evil terms that we cannot find political maturity.
A simple example: The Wall Street Journal confirmed last wee that Trump explicitly excluded Neo Nazi and White Supremacy in his Virginia " good people on both sides". No one else reported it as it was....for it is central to cast people in the basest terms, just for the evident reasons ...avoiding really objective policy discussions.
There is a legitimate debate about health policy and economics. It is complicated and both sides have pluses and minuses. You do not hear that. It is legitimate to discuss the role of national identity and citizenship. It is legitimate to discuss Russia and China in balanced terms re their own spheres of influence ....but no , make it simple and emotional ....
Harris has no real credentials to be a President ..none other than Biden do and he is simply aging rapidly. Attorney General in California...as if that is a job of great consequence...Mayor of South Bend...just quite amazing...you would not pick your heart surgeon the same way...
8
You’ve revealed another problem with the who-can-beat-Trump test.
Trump is the most cowardly of predators. The kind that looks for and lives of scraps. He is a hyena.
7
Biden's most powerful argument is that he is "safe." That's just not good enough. The 2016 election was about change; Clinton lost because not enough people bothered to vote or voted for 3rd party candidates. So......the subtext for both parties was that "change" was the major third party idea in the running.
Trump won because enough people were tired of the whole "political speak" formalization by other candidates into a dance with "same old, same old" but female vs a wild card "I'm so different, I'm not a politician" candidate.
Trump and McConnell have pointed out that our entire smug political system is corrupted, maybe fatally, by outside money (McConnell's long-term goal and Citizens United) and our elected officials of both parties unthinking allegiance to a one-sided "helping business including global businesses" (d*mn the needs of the voters, their constituents--they only matter on election day).
Biden just isn't the one to lead us anywhere but to the not so wonderful recent past.
4
Survey says...X...X...X. No chance.
8
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/opinion/kamala-harris-criminal-justice.html
Harris is a sanctimonious hypocrite and her record of prosecutorial misconduct is disqualifying.
Roger Cohen, how can you possibly justify your support for Harris given her record as documented in the above article?
I don't care for the clichés you use to describe this country compared to Europe, clichés used to tell us why we can't have Medicare for All or other programs so normal in Europe. As one of my two favorite candidates might say, why go to all the trouble to write these columns if it's just to tell us what we really can't do and shouldn't fight for?
20
Lost me with the first paragraph.
9
“Europeans ask where you came from. Americans ask what you can do.”
Patent nonsense.
Who among us doesn’t know, of friends and colleagues, where they grew up and where they went to school? Which politician doesn’t start by describing his family and childhood?
Who asks what you can do? That’s not a personal or cultural question. That’s a business question.
Not that businesses are immune to origin stories. Diplomas from elite universities are prized in part for the doors they open on resumes. And several studies have reproduced the finding that identical Europeans ask where you came from. Americans ask what you can do. Resumes elicit radically different responses depending on the home address or whether the name is “black”.
Kamala Harris’s most famous debate moment wasn’t about what she can do, either. She said, “that little girl was me”.
With such a ridiculous premise, why does the NYT publish the other 750 words? Honesty should compel the Times to rename the Opinion section “Vacuous Opinion”.
21
I’m backing her all the way
2
TULSI Gabbard just revealed to the world. how arrogant, incompetent and unable to spar with Trump Kamela Harris will be.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/08/02/tulsi-gabbard-kamala-harris-criminal-prosecutions-democratic-debate-cpt-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/
Let's consider her as the Dem's BEST candidate: Not senile as Biden, not one trick pony - flip flopping like Harris, not self rightous school teacher attitude of Warren, not painted as socialist thus unelectable as Bernie. Serves in the military, yet is the only viable candidate for peace, listens well, is prepared, will be able to spar with Trump, understands the Trump phenomenon and will be able to reach the disenchanted voters.
12
Kamala Harris?
These are seven rules I learned covering American politics.
Rule #1: Angry right-wingers like angry candidates. The rest of us don’t. She’s neurotically angry; it’s unpleasant.
Rule #2: Sincerity and authenticity can be faked and we’ll vote for it. She doesn’t fake either well. She’s the opposite of authentic. She’s almost a countrapositive.
Rule #3: A candidate needs to look into the camera and tell me she wants my love. The very needy Bill Clinton did it. Hillary didn’t. Desperately needy Donald does it. Marco and Jeb couldn’t. Harris looks into the camera and says, “Vote for me if you know what’s good for you but I don’t really care one whit if you love me because I’m too busy loving myself.”
Rule #4: Have a vision even it was written by somebody else. Harris doesn’t have one and can’t even be bothered to get one.
Rule #5: You need to be larger then yourself. Harris is smaller than herself.
Rule #6: We need to believe you want to be president for us, not for you. Every word Harris speaks (including “hello” and “good morning”) says, “I’m in this for me, you’re an afterthought.”
Rule #7: Have a basic understanding of what Americans feel, even if what they feel is racism and despair, and then tell them you understand what they’re feeling and you’re feeling it, too. Harris doesn’t have a clue.
Sorry, Roger, you’re a smart guy but you have as much of a feel for the common man as your suit jacket does. Being in London doesn’t help. Harris is a loser.
56
Two words. Harris-Buttigieg
3
She flip flops on stage like she flip flops regarding DNA evidence:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/02/opinion/trump-2020-kamala-harris.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
12
Thank you Roger Cohen, and I couldn't agree with you more when it comes to looking at the debates through the single prism of "who can beat Trump" --- because another term with this president would consign this country to the lower depths of moral hell with no escape out.
And with the fires of war now being lit under Iran, China, Russia between his sanctions and the broken nuclear agreements, I dread to think what a future with Donald Trump might mean for this country.
And you're right.
His idea of a "great" America has nothing to do with the America imagined and hard fought for by the Founding Fathers and every wave of immigrants coming to these shores in search of freedom and a better life.
His America is an empty, vain and angry America just like he is -- And it's very white.
No shouts of "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" while holding up the flag in a display of faux patriotism is going to change the fact that Donald Trump is only in it for himself. And it will take a heaping spoonful of reality to bring some Americans around to that realization.
No doubt a Democratic candidate like Ms. Harris, one with a laser-like precision to get to the truth and an encyclopedic knowledge of criminal law would fit the bill.
But will it fit the American voter's?
That remains to be seen.
My problems with Kamala? She has no convictions. I have no clear view f what she stands for. Second, she’s a poll watcher, finger to the wind pol, headline seeker....the worst kind of candidate.
24
Shame on careerist Tulsi Gabbard, who will do anything to gain attention by smearing a rival woman of color in order to hide that she is herself a right-wing phony ready to dance with any dictator that will invite her.
4
If I hear another comment on Tulsa Gabbard I will scream she is a poser and someone who will siphoned votes
7
You've got this one wrong. She is non authentic and light weight. Biden is your only chance. It will take a decent honest person to destroy this dragon.
18
Did Cohen write this after downing a pint of bourbon? Harris is bitter, shrill, rancorous, arrogant, condescending, and strident. She lacks vision, charm, and gravitas. She also slept her way into the California legal class, and then politics. She lacks sharp intellect, and Trump would paint her as a lifelong affirmative action bureaucrat, which is what she is.
Tulsi exposed her for who she really is the other night. That only took a minute.
It's truly amazing how many Democrats don't get it.
32
Just one thing. trxmp would love to run against her, as would the entire right wing christian corporate nationalist apparatus.
1
I have not seen the Democrat who can beat Trump, try as I may.
Sadly, Trump represents the America of 2019.
Money.
Guns.
Racism.
Heartlessness.
The American pursuit of $$$$$$$$$. Who cares about the rest of the world?
Throwing children in cages after taking them out of the arms of their parents.
Getting, oh so cozy with Putin and Kim.
There will be no debates. Trump will not allow them.
Time to consider the "love it or leave it" option.
Will investigate my options to "leave". Welcome suggestions, especially experience with Vancouver/Victoria.
Thank you.
1
Have you not read Prof. Lara Bazelon’s New York Times’ Op-Ed “Kamala Harris Was Not A ‘Progressive Prosecutor’”? Or Nicholas Kristof’s New York Times’ coverage of the Kevin Cooper case?
Harris is no better than Linda Fairstein re: the Central Park (Exonerated) Five.
As a former prosecutor myself, Harris’ defense of knowingly wrongful and/or tainted convictions - for political gain - is disqualifying.
25
The testosterone of nationalism? Is that anything like the estrogen of socialism? Both benighted sexist tropes?
7
If we do not elect Biden, we are DOOMED!
A female is no competitor for the likes of trump, unfortunately, and although women have come a long way, (I clap for each one) I believe that a man would be the better choice.
If there is a god somewhere, I pray he (or she?) will pay attention. Please.
7
Also of these Dems will destroy the economy with their unrealistic spending programs and necessary taxes. Hatred of Trump should not detract from the undeniable fact that he has accomplished a lot despite opposition from Democrats and Pelosi who won't even send the new NAFTA bill to the floor for a vote.
7
My money is on a Biden-Harris team. Biden knows he needs to sharpen up and I believe he will. Harris, also, has some polishing to do. And she will. Together, they are the team that will most likely be able to toss Trump-Pence into the trash bin of history. And that is, first and foremost, what the 2020 election is all about. The rest of the stories are distant seconds. The sooner the Democrats cut to the chase and get the Biden-Harris team front and center in front of the American voting public the better the chance of a victory next year.
3
I couldn’t agree more. As we see tensions between S. Korea and Japan grow, and thinking of Trump’s nationalism speech at the UN last year, a nationalist/fascist/racist movement is stirring here and around the world. And so far, Kamala Harris has shown the best evidence of the strength, wisdom, and hope to counter this alarming trend. I pray God helps us through these difficult and discouraging time. We must resist the path that Trump takes of name calling, falsehoods, fact-twisting, threats and plots, and instead walk on a path of light where we love our neighbors as ourselves.
3
The qualities you ascribe to Harris as necessary to beat Trump also resonate in Pete Buttegieg. His unflappable calm, his ability to speak succinctly and in depth on every issue, military record, and the sheer decency he exudes, would make Trump look like the incompetent, unhinged, hate-filled specimen he is. Buttegieg would easily beat Trump at debate. Although I will campaign for and vote for whichever Democrat is the nominee, Buttegieg and Harris have the best shot at victory.
If Harris is the nominee, she would not make the mistake Clinton made in the debate where she ignored Trump’s hovering behind her as she spoke; Harris would call out that predatory behavior, thus reminding every woman and decent man watching that a vote for Trump is a vote for a sexual predator and misogynist.
7
Well said.
The political gymnastics of the debates is tiring and self-defeating
There are many candidates who i like. But to say one is impressed by the ideas of one in the lower rung is suicide....for our country which will not survive another Trump presidency.
Ideas are of little consequence in this election. What will count is cunning, strength, and veiled anger. A bigger, kinder, slicker bully. I would love to see trump try to stalk harris on stage
This is the coliseum baby. ...BRING ON THE LION! I want to see blood and lots of it!!
3
Trump is good on stage for one reason...he doesn't care about facts. And neither does his party. It is easy to look like a genius when you aren't held to any kind of standards by your own side. On the other hand we Democrats sit in wait to pick apart and parse any word that comes out of our candidates' mouths.
I've listened to commentators all morning talk about who can stand up to Trump on the debate stage. As the primary qualification for the nomination!!
Harris printing up T-shirts ahead of time?
Sanders and Warren claiming...when people understand Medicare for all they are for it if it is framed properly e.g. .. free everything for everyone with just a tiny bit more in taxes? no attempt to explain how we get from where we are now to how we get there and the intermittent chaos and how the loss of one election will reverse everything. And what are we going to tell doctors when we have to cut their income. And the hospitals that will close.
MSM did not do their job in 2016. Repeal and replace on the Democratic side. Just trust them. Sounds totally trumpian.
2
Throwing a life preserver, to a failing campaign that began with opportunistic plot is futile. After the last debate it became clear, that Harris is not what many see as a viable candidate.
Opportunistic cheap shots, will not propel Harris into winning the nomination, much less the White House.
15
She’d be a great candidate if she were running for president of CA or NY. Elsewhere, not so much. Her career as a prosecutor might have made her more acceptable off the coasts, but per the last debate, she tried to run away from her record, now displaying she is just another opportunistic pol - and nobody has even started mentioning Willie Brown on stage yet, innocent or not.
14
If what we need and want is another candidate who is rude and egotistical, self-serving, falsely accusing, then go with Harris.
Really, would fisticuffs enhance us? Harris "goes low," and that's just what we despise about Trump's kind.
18
Powerful article. Excellent. All bullies are the same - "predators"; an underlying damaged / disordered, vulnerable narcissist personality struggling for survival. If Ms Harris understands this and knows how to use it, she can obliterate Trump.
3
Russian meddling gave 2016 election to Trump and Republicans. They want it again in 2020 and chances are they will succeed.
4
Kamala Harris is rude (she never observed the time limits in the debates) and unclear (on her health care project). Personally I don't ever want to hear her speak again - much less to vote for her
23
I've never heard her answer a question without sounding mean and snarky and scolding. I agree with the words she said about predators, 100%. But how she said it just turns me off. I am not sure I can totally identify it. But she seems joyless when she's onstage in the debates. I've seen her laugh in interviews but there is something about her which just turns me off completely.
I'm starting to get very worried that there is nobody in this huge field and in this huge country that can take him down. As Marianne said, he is a 'phenomenon'. A phenomenon of ignorance, racism and all the other dark 'isms'. And what do all these people running do? They attack Obama! They play right into Trump's small hands and big mouth.
Joe Biden's 'hangdog' demeanor really got to me in these debates. I like Pete but he can't get the necessary black vote. Liz can't win. Bernie can't win. No other moderate besides Joe has taken off, like Steve Bullock or Michael Bennet and I don't see either of them taking down Trump. I don't think Kamala can do it, either.
Sherrod Brown should have run. I'm really sorry he decided not to and maybe he should try to jump in now.
16
"She has a former prosecutor’s toughness and the ability to slice through Trump’s self-important bluster."
I disagree. Tulsi Gabbard's questions to Harris during the second debate about Harris' history as a prosecutor in California made Harris look weak. You could see Harris' uneasiness about the questions, about her withholding of exculpatory evidence, about her hypocritical prosecution of marijuana users. Harris didn't even attempt to respond directly to Gabbard's accusations; she simply pivoted to some generalized statements about her role as AG in California. Megan McArdle's column in WAPO about Harris having a "glass jaw" (in response to Gabbard's questioning) is spot on. And while the media wants to portray Harris as having some keen prosecutorial skills as shown during Kavanaugh's hearings, I did not see that at all during the hearings.
She is weak.
13
She needs to quite yelling and waging her finger at people. Its a turn off. I know we focus on the female vote but the male vote counts as well and I always feel like I'm being lectured by her. I voted for her in her senate race when I lived in L.A. but she is leaving a bad taste in my mouth on a national level. I do however agree that Bided (who I like) needs to up his game.
4
I am really tired of people saying "I don't think a woman can beat Trump, or that America won't vote for a woman of color". Get over it people, they voted for Trump. Who would have thought that would ever happen? Harris IS the only one who can stand up to Trump and Harris is the only one that Trump is afraid of. That is what is needed to beat him. That is the only way he's going to go. The Democrats are kidding themselves with all the others. Right now the Democrats look like fools, I only hope they realize how foolish they look, otherwise we are in grave danger of another four years of this misery.
4
Dear Roger,
Before you quote the Declaration, perhaps you should read it. We have unalienable rights, not inalienable rights.
4
The first three paragraphs cut right to the core of what’s wrong with Trump and why the American ideal is so important to ALL of us.
As for the best ticket to actually defeat Trump—because he needs to be defeated decisively, not narrowly—my pick would be a Biden-Harris ticket.
1
Here's something that I'd like to see in a candidate: someone who can make people laugh at the Trump-the-Fool.
Trump is a bully. The best way to take the air out of a bully is to make people laugh at him. Making people hate him just inflates his buffoon -- oops, I meant balloon. Being hated makes one feel more important; being laughed at makes the bully and those around him see how small he really is.
7
Mr. Cohen is a thoughtful person. This is a nuanced essay. It does not relate to our current political process.
There is a stupidity lurking in our presidential campaigns. It’s not the voters (although it’s tough to follow political ideas when you are juggling two-plus jobs). It’s not the candidates (although Trump seems to have or exploit—you choose—the characteristic).
It’s the debates. They consist of micro-statements cut off by the moderators. The format is built as a cage match with everything but the physical one. The audience is part of the spectacle. It’s only a matter of time before audience members will rise from the shadows of ‘90s loudmouth talk shows to zing candidates—egging them to attack more.
It’s the rallies—mostly Trump’s (so far). They feature rants that shower incoherence over the crowd who seize opportunities to debase our politics further. They are tribal—on both sides—with the audiences being fed venom from the candidates and spewing it back in three-word chants.
It’s the tweets. They attack nuance and destroy thought. They reduce even slogans to abbreviations in our race to the linguistic sub-basement. OMG
We face major challenges as a people and as people, but our political structure is geared to the 3-hour news cycle, the latest tweet storm, the inflamed chyron blast, and the practice of hating something by “liking” it.
4
What could we learn from Hillary Clinton's above the fray approach to the 2016 election? It's that a gutter creature the likes of Donald Trump will drag everyone down into the sewage with him.
In Biden, a candidate I like and respect, is see much of the same above the fray tendencies which weakened Clinton. In Kamala Harris, I see very much a candidate who, when dragged down into the sewage by Trump's venal impetuousness, will swing back hard and with ruthless efficiency. I suspect that she'll do so in ways which will expose Trump's petty meanness not just to those who already know about it but reveal it to those who haven't yet caught on.
She, among all the Democrats, is the one who I suspect is the most capable of demonstrating just how small Trump really is. She's learning and has a way to go but she's more than smart enough to learn and do so effectively. Surrounded by the right people and with the right plan of attack, she can and should win.
Perhaps the greatest weakness Trump has is his arrogant, delusional hubris. I think Harris is smart enough and tough enough to see this and learn to use it to her advantage. That's what prosecutors do with the perps the prosecute. It should be no different with Trump, a perp of a monumental scale.
2
I'm flummoxed by this. I wanted to like Kamala Harris. I went eagerly to watch Rachel Maddow interview her when she first came on the scene.
Wow. Was I disappointed. While Ms Maddow gushed, I saw a shallow, actorly woman who seemed to be auditioning for the role of a character in a new television series who had once been AG and was now running for President. But most importantly I didn't like her. She put me off. She had an ick factor. I didn't like her because she read phony. She read self-serving. She read grandstanding.
And she's gone on to prove that to be true. Over and over.
In her first few interviews I tried to count how many times she said, me, I, mine, my, rather than we, our, us... I lost track there were so many.
She is similar to Beto O'Rourke. All hat, no cattle.
You disappoint me Mr. Cohen. I thought better of you.
29
No one gets to this level without some baggage, but she is tough and can go toe to toe with Trump. OTOH Harris is short on policy and would need Warren as VP. Is a ticket with two women any more radical than a ticket with two men?
1
Nothing on Tulsi Gabbard’s takedown of Harris in the second round of debates? Yes, Kamala sent over 1500 people to prison for marijuana offenses, and then goes on various media laughing about her own use.
We knew Harris was a hypocrite with a carefully curated image, and focus group tested positions (even if she can’t get her health care position pinned down), but this makes her look like a real villain.
13
Trump has hurt people his entire life. He enjoys it. Democrats should shout this out every day.
3
I was less than thrilled by Sen. Harris's attacks on Joe Biden in the first debate several weeks ago. Nor do I understand her healthcare plan. Nonetheless, I think she would make a good Vice-President for Biden. While I'm at it, I'm wondering why the Obamas haven't yet endorsed Joe. Is too early to do so, or is something else brewing--like Michelle running for president with Joe as her V-P? Now THAT would be a winning ticket!
2
She flubs on healtchare--four times by my count. That's the Democrats' no. 1 isuue. Every moderate on stage looked like a star when tearing apart her position
8
Kamal Harris is your typical Democrat in my opinion. By that, I mean she doesn't seem to have any strong core beliefs that she consistently espouses. Oh sure, there is the obligatory support for the low hanging fruit of identity politics like LGBT rights, immigration, and reproductive rights. Puppies and unicorns too. Everyone can get on board with these things, but it's the tough issues of how to fix our dysfunctional healthcare system, climate catastrophe barreling towards us and our bloated military budget and regime change wars that we are constantly in and sucking our treasury dry that she seems to need the latest poll to decide where she stands. In other words, she comes across as another politician who will say one thing to get elected and do a different thing once elected. Americans can spot these types a mile away but often need to vote for them as the lesser of two bad choices presented to them by our two-party system We all knew Hillary was a liar and a huge flip flopper but we voted for her anyway to keep Trump out. Harris is certainly no Clinton, thank God, and she does have potential, if she had any core beliefs. The only candidates that I see that has core beliefs and, more importantly, is willing to speak about them AND defend them are Sanders, Warren, and Tulsi Gabbard. These are the candidates that can go into Trump country and fight for what they believe in without pulling any punches and not having one hand tied behind their back by corporate donations.
5
Trump is not a nationalist. He is a egoist who uses American, and the whole world to satisfy what he feels he needs. A sick person.
2
Instead of worrying who can beat Trump, maybe the best way to address all the problems best for most people, don't pander to the left, and definitely don't pander to the fascists. America is about pragmatism and optimism, about inclusion and new beginning, and about empathy without indulgence and individual effects with a common goal --- to strive for a better union
1
One problem with Ms. Harris.
She's as inauthentic as Hillary Clinton.
The vast majority of people (other than her sycophants) see right through her and they don't like it one bit.
Time to make the call to the bullpen and bring in Howard Schultz.
8
I'd rather see Harris as an Attorney General who would prosecute and jail Trump's gang and the bandit corporatists, monopolists, predators, and fraudsters who have been plundering America for the last decades.
4
As a counterpoint to this emotionally fluffy column, I recommend a visit to The Intercept, which has taken a hard-nosed, bird’s eye view of this past week’s democratic debates. It is brilliant because it scrubs off the corporate status quo varnish inherent in the fact that corporate CNN is framing the debate questions.
According to The Intercept, CNN unfairly targeted progressives Warren and Sanders. As a trained journalist, I am sickened by this corporate pandering. And so are Warren and Sanders - who called out the unfairness during the debate. Excellent; they didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.
The corporate media will never punch out of the depressing bag that is the status quo. Anyone who represents corporate interests will not and cannot focus on the entire bio of various centrist candidates.
The Intercept has pointed out that despite her claims to the contrary, Harris has accepted money from Big Pharma. If you want to maintain a 1 percent status quo, then by all means vote for Harris.
I think smart middle class citizens are beginning to see that corporate media interests don’t care that families are struggling to make ends meet: working three jobs, bankrupted by medical bills, and priced out of a college education for their kids, among other struggles.
We own this country! We need to take it back. It’s long past time.
https://theintercept.com/2019/07/30/kamala-harris-big-pharma-donations/
7
Her policies will not persuade.
You are wrong on this.
She is scary for the stuff she supports.
8
This has to be a joke. She’s horrendous. Watching Gabbard shut her down was the best part of my week. Let me guess Tulsi doesn’t fit the presidential look right? That has to be why she’s not receiving the attention she deserves. It’s crazy watching the democrats self sabotage in the era of the progressives. Unfortunately non of them are smart enough to know this will cost them the election.
12
Where can one trail but behind? Trailing is precisely what the so-called president requires. This giant behinder attacks all the time, has no other facility. Lowry is enormously lazy when he rejects America as idea, using highlighted language like Trump’s expressing falsehoods, making lies plainly visible.
I loved your article esp the third paragraph, differ with you on Harris l lean more towards Warren. I believe Warren will work tirelessly to get Corporate money out of DC or she will expose them. We need big ideas and Warren/Buttigieg is the ticket for me.
3
In a debate Harris will be like the high school substitute teacher who can't control the class and Trump will be the class bad boy. He will eat her for lunch. The only one who can go toe-to-toe with Trump in a debate is Biden. He won't treat Trump like he treats the other Democrats
6
Harris had 15 minutes twice with Kavanaugh and Barr. If not for those, most people outside of California wouldn't know who she is. I don't think she is remotely qualified to be president.
16
Kamala Harris will defend any criticism of her by weaponizing her womanhood and race. Criticize her and one, Mr. Trump if she is his opponent, will conveniently be accused of being misogynist or racist. That said, she is very pedantic and comes across as one who looks down on anyone who disagrees with her agenda.
9
It’s comical to watch the Times do all in its power to keep the Dems from nominating Bernie or Warren, the clear stars of last weeks debates, in which Harris was unable to build on her first debate win. Wall St. sees the writing on the wall for their hapless geezer puppet Biden, who makes Bernie look a decade younger, so I guess their second Maginot Line against full-frontal Dem class-war on the rich will have to be Harris, whom they must assume they can massage to the right with their donations. Too bad Harris is not nearly as good a campaigner or debater as Bernie and Warren. And too bad Walk St. Already fixed South Carolina and the other SEC primaries for Biden, and lots of blacks will still vote for him, keeping Harris from recovering from big defeats in Iowa and NH with black victories in the South. As all the Rust Belt exit polls proved in 2016, Bernie would have crushed Trump if he’d been the nominee. Time to let him or Warren drive a stake through his heart this time, whether Wall St. and the corporate MSM like it or not.
6
While pundits are leading the charge, esp via CNN w/ divide-the-dems debate ?s, some have conversely pointed out that a great debater doesn't = the best president nor dictate whom we should chose. I had great hope for Kamala but short term she chose the Machiavellian path to attack Biden on murky points. If she can flip that and find positive energy then maybe she will convince current non-supporters + those she's turned off. Gabbard gave her a taste of why it can backfire to apply different environments and times to future endeavors. We all evolve period and talented people adapt and catalyze to their best for the job at hand, US President in this case.
At least she did not embrace the path of Booker and Castro, of continuous, extremely rude words to Biden. I found their tactics that of boys not men. It's depressing to hear 24/7 -on NPR to cable TV -the repetition of his childish Kool-aid comment. These are serious times; it's not a joke. These short, ugly lines to grab media sound bites shows narcissism, disrespect, and out-of-touch egoism.
I think it is dangerous to say that Biden is too old or loosing faculties because he stumbles on some words. I have seen everyone do this from TV pundits to politicians of all ages. My bigger concern is younger generations, esp "professionals", who do not know how to use the past participle or throw out double negatives. This is basic grammar and guessing it points to one of our biggest problems in the US, poor education.
3
"He is angry, a stranger to happiness, angrier still for not knowing the source of his rage."
Substitute he for she and I think you have Kamala Harris. I know exactly what type of boss he is, and I bet you it is the same with her. They're the type of boss who steals your idea at the 10 am meeting and make it their own by noon. They dress you down, fire people, and can't get over how smart they are, even if they aren't. No thanks!
8
She is just as racially divisive as Trump, using identity politics to further her goal. She will be terrible for the country as a whole... trump 2 except for her base. Don’t do it America.
9
She could win.
2
Roger Cohen just doesn't get it. It's not five more years of Trump that this nation won't be able to withstand. Trump is just a clown show, and he can't, single-handedly, destroy our nation. What this nation can't withstand is a lack of universal access to healthcare. It can't withstand the levels of economic inequality we are experiencing. It can't withstand a ridiculously low minimum wage that a dog couldn't survive on, never mind a human. It can't withstand insane prices and subsequent crushing, life-long student loans for higher education. It can't withstand large numbers of citizens turning away from facts and science. It can't withstand ignorance on the issue of climate change.
Time and again, we hear these pundits saying that America can't have European style "socialism" (with this word being incorrectly used even by supposedly educated people like Mr. Cohen). But nobody ever says why not.
We want a thriving, capitalistic society? Provide every citizen with the basics (healthcare and education) needed in order to spend a lifetime to innovating, buying, spending, creating, and experimenting with arts, sciences, and ideas. No one can do these things when they are crushed by ill-health or inability to even pay for food or car repair.
Meanwhile, the Roger Cohens of the world keep telling us to move to the center--for no other reason, as far as I can tell, other than he doesn't want to pay higher taxes.
5
Trump is not only doing nothing to modify climate change, Trump and Republicans ACCELERATE global warming.
Whichever candidate is elected, she will have to 'hit the ground running' to address global warming.
It is now URGENT, with Greenland ice sheet melting much much faster than expected.
This is expected to cause cooler temperatures in Europe. https://metro.co.uk/2019/08/02/sea-levels-rise-greenland-lost-180-billion-tonnes-ice-last-month-10507580/
The US will be negatively impacted as well.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/01/greeland-ice-melting-four-times-faster-than-thought-raising-sea-level/
You must be joking, Roger. How would you have felt if when your daughter was a little girl you asked her, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and she said, "A prosecutor, Daddy. I want to lock people up." We've had it with the "Lock her up" mentality no matter what its source. Someone who can act tough toward Trump is not enough.
8
Wrong, Roger. She should not be the nominee--way undercooked--and she will not be the nominee, now that her prosecutor persona has been so neatly turned against her. Suppose you stop rooting and start thinking.
10
Hartis would be a great running mate for Betnie or/and Warren would be better
Tulsi Gabbard begs to differ with you & Kamala, Roger.
5
no, not corrupt kamala.
no more corporatist business as usual.
6
Really? There are some grave concerns about her actions as a prosecutor that might cause some Democrats even to vote third party. Harris is weaker on policy than Warren or Sanders. I’m not convinced she could best Trump.
10
I'm a little gobsmacked from learning that Rich Lowry disparaged the notion of America as a lazy cliche. This was essentially the central tenet of the philosophy of the GOP's patron saint, Ronald Reagan. If ever proof was needed that the party of Reagan is dead, replaced the party of Trump (shudder), this is it.
I'm not a fan of Reagan, but I understand his appeal and his place in American mythology. And his optimistic vision of America is of a piece with the emergence of political leaders such as Barack Obama, and perhaps Kamala Harris.
Though Harris is not my preferred Democratic candidate, I've maintained for some time that she is probably the one best suited to beat Trump. She sits at the center of the ideological spectrum of the party, and though her policies are not as crisply defined as, say, Warren's, is committed to the big picture tenets of the Democratic plank (which are broadly popular with the public). And though her history as a prosecutor rankles many in the Dem base, I imagine it's not exactly a liability in the more conservative segments of the country.
Moreover, her identity as a child of immigrants, an African-American, and a woman, would surely energize those demographics. Let's face it, it would be deliciously ironic for a black woman to beat Trump next year.
2
It needs to be said again and again that with the antiquated electoral college determining the winner the election will in fact be decided by the three states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. And the folks in those states who may not be regular readers of Mr Cohen’s op-Ed’s, enjoyable as they are think Joe is a regular guy and like him. That being said we better pray he can keep it together.
7
You are right:"She has a former prosecutor’s toughness and the ability to slice through Trump’s self-important bluster." A prosecutors' first goal is to win! When she elected to attack Biden in the first debate, she proved herself to be a prosecutor. We have a prosecutor in the White House now...need we another. If that's what it takes to beat Trump then expect more of what has become the rule instead of the exception. I think there was a similar story told about The Garden of Eden. We are dealing with the basics here.
2
I have to disagree with you on this one. I voted for Kamala Harris for the senate - to be a senator, not to immediately use it as a springboard for her personal ambition. I think she makes a good senator and a good prosecutor, and maybe - eventually - a good president. But not just yet.
Somebody from middle America will have a much better chance against Trump to win the swing states that will matter in the 2020 election. California will vote for any Democrat left standing. Michigan won't, and someone like Amy Klobuchar will be harder to paint as a "Socialist" than an "elite" lefty from one of the coasts.
6
You could have inserted the names of several Democrats seeking the nomination. The piece thunders with the voice of decency that exalts the words of our founders. Not perfect now. Now perfect ever, but blessed with the freedom and energy to strive. To make that arc of history point in the direction of justice and truth. Trump is a blip in about 250 years. No more. No less.
Thank you.
5
I am surprised by a tendency in comments to see a prospective debate with Trump as the end-all of consideration, as if a "victory" would alter the nation. I think virtually no votes will change. Trump will be false, incoherent, aggressive, and demented. And any democratic candidate will look sane and wise next to him. He's a glorified, entitled toddler. But his fans won't care; he and they will declare him the winner. So what? The election is not going to be decided that way. It's a professional wrestling match for ratings. Our task is rather to put together a ticket for the election that can win THAT. And then govern well. A much more comprehensive challenge than one-liners or debate coaches can meet. And that's our task now.
4
It's tragic that the criterion for choosing a Democratic Presidential nominee comes down to :"Who -Can-Beat-Trump".
While Mr. Cohen may be correct that Kamala Harris might be the most likely to beat Trump, I don't believe that she is the Democratic candidate who would served the United States best as President.
Mr.Cohen wrote :With reluctance, because he is a good and honorable man of great personal courage, I do not believe that Joe Biden has the needed energy, mental agility and nimbleness.
Biden has far more mental agility and nimbleness that does Trump.
Robert Mueller came across as halting and forgetful when under question, while he is hardly lacking in mental agility, and nimbleness.
I believe that Joe Biden would be a better President, than would Kamala Harris, who came across as combative, and lacking in the diplomacy which are needed to be an effective President.
It's a sad day in the United States when the basis for choosing a candidate has been reduced to which candidate is most likely to beat Trump, while it will be a day of mourning if Trump wins.
7
Kamala Harris is the one who could defeat Donald trump, I came to the same conclusion. And I agree with you mr.cohen.
4
I'm still not sold on Harris, but have to say that this succinct description of 45: "President Trump, in the name of making American great again, has trampled on America’s essence. He is angry, a stranger to happiness, angrier still for not knowing the source of his rage. He is less interested in liberty than the cash of his autocratic cronies. As for life, he views it as a selective right, to which the white Christian male has priority access, with women, people of color and the rest of humanity trailing along behind for scraps." is the most succinct profile of his pathological walk on the Earth I've read.
Thank you for the words, and for the thought-provoking opinion!
4
Mr. Cohen, I have long been an admirer of your columns for their insight, sensitivity, and eloquence. On this one, I can't
agree. Harris has certainly shown her prosecutorial skills and her drive to win. Her attack on Biden in the first debate was
apparently pre-planned and too calculating and actually exploitive of the issue she was supposedly raising. That she is/was a friend of Biden's family and has conducted herself twice now primarily as an attack dog does not speak to her character or serve the party. Nor does her seeming lack of a clear vision. We have had enough of that kind of winning. We are talking about a fight for the soul and future of the country, not just a verbal sparring session with Trump.
17
Everything said by everyone in these debates is prepared. It’s about convincing and well-timed delivery.
The Presidency and American politics are now a reality show. Kamala Harris is trained at delivering arguments and upping the drama to defeat opposition.
She’s the candidate for today.
Bernie, Warren, ... have great ideas but would not be able to get anything done without a full Democratic majority in Congress and even then some moderate Dems might balk, Republicans can be expected to block everything. That is not a gamble I’m willing to take. Cohen is one of the most European savvy and minded of the NUT columnists, his candidate choice is therefore surprising but I find well reasoned.
1
Actually...socialism is here and now. SS, Medicare, universal public education K-12, and...the Interstate highways, environmental law (protecting the "commons" of air, water and some land. It is true that point would have to be made clear, but it is not a hopeless turn...).
ANY push for the environment is anti-private property, socialist in essence. No way around it, the little folk versus oligarchs arrogating the commons for their profits.
Then Health Care... the talking point the industry is putting in every flack's mouth is "take away PRIVATE health care". Would it be hard to turn that question? In fact for most folk it is not their PRIVATE care but their bosses deal with some casino whose actual business is betting on loans.
Do folk like "out of network". Or changing doctors to stay "in network". Or having claims denied. Doubt it. I think it is an easy sell that coverage will be better, more comprehensive, and cheaper. The American people can handle the math, then its just a rose by any name...
Who can beat Trump?
Almost anyone. Polls tell us Biden and Sanders are the sure bets. What can lose is complicated broad interconnected plans that invite attack. A "sloganeer" with a general weltanshauung is less easy to land a haymaker on. And given any "debate" with Trump will be a verbal cage fight with him sewing toxic fog; an old "religion" prophet with a bullhorn has a surer shot than any Oxford rules debater.
Biden is likely to be the eventual,default Dem choice.
2
Just a reminder to Senator Harris' abundant detractors, below, that President Obama, who inherited an unimaginable mess and hit the ground scrubbing on Day 1, had the same Senate tenure in November, 2008 that Senator Harris will have had by November, 2020. Both, exceptional rookie senators. He, a community organizer and attorney with some teaching experience; she, the D.A. of a major city and A.G. of our most populous state. Yet so many commenters here insist that Harris hasn't nearly the experience to meet the fouled nest of the Oval.
Like Kamala Harris, Barack Obama was a sharp, young, black attorney who gave an initial great speech, but came to be judged by millions as smug, arrogant, Machiavellian, and overly ambitious -- as Kamala Harris is judged by a hundred comments below. While Obama served two terms as one of the best presidents in our history, Harris' too spicy, snooty, getting-above-her-station character and 'vast inexperience' render Harris nebulously shady, unlikeable, and unelectable.
None of us knows if Kamala Harris would be a good president, but we do know that no-one, not even Joe Biden, has the experience it's going to take to meet Day 1, 2021. And we know that being a good president is far less about experience than about ability to lead and make wise choices on behalf of the office and our nation.
So, how about we let up a bit on the stale-gossip-fueled, uppity-woman-blame-shaming old tired sexism, and stay in the 21st century lane this time around?
6
@Jennifer
Obama will not go down in history as one of the best presidents.
He has the glow and decency, but he lacked in vision and courage.
While campaigning for president, Obama created/allowed the illusion that he was somewhat left of center.
He governed as a safe centrist and did not have the will or the courage to prosecute bankers or those in the government who endorsed and participated in torture, making whatever Trump is accused of, seem paltry.
Obama, not only sold out on the public option, blocked by Democrats who were bought by health insurance companies and big pharma, but Obama could not even use his magical skills as an orator to convince the public of the benefits of the ACA during the 2012 election.
If Harris, with her lack of any core conviction, and relying on ethnic allure and wealthy connections,
wins the primary, it would reveal the Democratic Party to be valueless, visionless and bought by big money.
But Harris is not going to win the primary.
Senator Bernie Sanders has the courage, convictions, integrity, vision and bold ideas that the US needs NOW to become a decent, more thriving society.
President Bernie Sanders 2020
A Future To Believe In
4
@Jennifer, quite a mouthful of detraction for those who disagree with you, there. But no, it's not gossip, not sexist, and not old-fashioned to believe Harris is the wrong person for a place on a democratic ticket. Warren would be preferable to, I believe, nearly all of us. Certainly the comments suggest that. But to your point. It's this kind of truth, just truth, Jennifer, that makes us think Harris is not our choice, nor should she be:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/opinion/kamala-harris-criminal-justice.html
3
After nearly 12 paragraphs of some decent descent Cohen errors and rationalizes his ignorance with his blind axiom that “socialism and America’s essence are incompatible” Really. Well so much for all public services. Goodbye to Social Security. Never mind Medicare and Medicaid. The American socialism examples goes on and on but the author wouldn’t know it. Cause he doesn’t need it’s. But stop! Cohen is writing about his admiration and support for his must-be candidate, Sen. Harris and what she could be.
As Cohen watched the latest debates which rolled on like an emergency PTA election he found religion and saw the light of Harris. “She’s tough, Broadly of the center, She has a former prosecutor’s toughness.” Im scared! Who wants a harassing president. We already have one. America the Incompatible needs civility more than anything today. And where is her Center? Locking-up people? Dementing the records of others while patronizing the decisions of former presidents like Barrack Obama? No one knows her germ. Yet behold her centrist ideas are there and she is still developing.
Accordingly Cohen can help her out of her bind and hypocritical stance as she campaigns for Medicare For All, that Socialism that is incompatible with America.
1
I agree 100% Ms Harris would be a very big problem for Trump. B
She has four things going for her that are his kryptonite: she's black, a female, she's combative and she's very smart.
4
Spot on, Mr Cohen. Thank you.
1
No matter who the democratic nominee is, their opposition is a bottomless pit in donald trump
She lost me when she attacked Biden by ripping President Obama. Than again, ABT (anyone but Trump).
8
“He is angry, a stranger to happiness, angrier still for not knowing the source of his rage.”
And that is because he is mentally ill.
9
Well, thank you for speaking for women . . . but, uh, you're a man, yes? Also, did you see how Tulsi Gabbard eviscerated Harris in the last debate? Her strengths, such as they are, lack mass appeal. Her vulnerabilities are much bigger than you seem to realize.
10
Which leads me to think that the Democrats have blown it again.
1
Kamala Harris is my pick too. The primary goal here is to beat the illegitimate president, and she has the goods to do it.
3
Harris flips positions more often than a seismograph in a Richter 8.0 quake, which is the mark of no real bedrock. No thanks.
8
Slim and none are her chances--but go ahead and pick her Democrats--it will be entertaining.
3
as attorney general of California, she did a poor job. she takes money from corporate Amerika, not even on today's map of who is getting support from most Americans paying attention. GO BERNIE!
3
Mr. Cohen I generally agree with your take on things, but this time I think you're off track.
Ask inhabitants of California what we think of her. The woman who put hundreds of marijuana users in jail, claiming that she smoked pot listening to Snoop Dog while she was in college? She graduated in 1989. Snoop Dog released his first album in 1993. Either she's lying, or she's the worst hypocrite there is.
When I look into Kamala Harris eyes, I see a consummate liar tying it out on the American public.
We already have a president like that. We need someone who *isn't*.
9
This is what is wrong with journalism. I realize you are an opinion columnist, not a journalist, but I am tired of the way pundits try to push candidates they like, often from the liberal coasts. Harris has two years of experience in the Senate and is not that inspiring, the way Barack Obama is. She had an affair with pork barrel Willie Brown that would be scrutinized most likely, although I don't know much about it. Then she became friends with Biden's son, apparently, and yet attacked a nice man like Biden just to call attention to herself. I will vote for just about anyone but Trump but I am tired of the NY media telling me who to choose.
9
We need Tom Steyer.
1
Kamala Harris? No, thanks, not for me.
7
Seriously? Harris was stumbled by - of all people - Gillebrand! She would be destroyed by Trump.
9
Harris is cold and calculating and reveals only one tenth of who she is and what she stands for. When confronted by an unexpected question, she quickly falls to pieces. This is what the arduous process to the nomination does. It reveals the cracks in the surface and the unsoundness of a candidate’s character. Compared to all the other candidates she is the first one to flop and was rightly called out for her mendacity by the most unlikely of candidates Tulsi Gabbard, who saw right through her.
14
Harris may or may not be that person, I'm not convinced yet.
I've been extremely skeptical of Biden's staying power to say the least, but surprisingly his poll numbers seem to be hardening. I thought his demise was inevitable after his catastrophic first debate performance.
I think it's more due to the fact that all of the other plausible candidates have significant flaws and serious questions surrounding their ability to beat Trump as opposed to Biden's supremacy.
Biden is like a security blanket we can return to when we're just not sure. We know he's old and a gaffe machine, but does that stuff even matter anymore? Trump lies 20 times an hour, so I think we can live with a few misstatements from old Joe.
I like Warren's wonkiness, and in a perfect world I'd like her to be the next president, but we need to win this election, badly, and that road keeps leading back to Joe, at least until further notice.
3
@JayK, I'm thinking Biden/Warren for the win. They're both battle-tested and have been though the oppo research mill. Harris' past is a minefield for democrats--Trump prays every day she'll be on the ticket (though his crony Mnunchin donates to Harris for another reason--).
4
Roger Cohen’s column is as insightful as ever. Some of us have been thinking of the unthinkable. A Democratic Presidential ticket with Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren. It would be a formidable team.
2
@Ashis Gupta Trump would cruise home. Swing state independents will decide 2020. Keep that in mind.
3
A candidate doesn't beat anyone -- their supporters do. Trump has one vote. Harris has one vote. But Trump has a base. Where is Harris' base? It's primarily in California, a state no Democrat will lose. Whose base is the most geographically diverse? Bernie Sanders. Whose base is the most economically diverse? Bernie Sanders. Whose base is the most racially diverse? Bernie Sanders. Whose base is the largest? Bernie Sanders. So who does Bruni think should take on Trump? Harris, because she'll "beat" him where it doesn't matter while losing to him where it does.
There are only three candidates that matter in this race: Sanders and his two closest rivals in terms of donors and fundraising: Warren and Buttegeig. If you can't see your way to Sanders, at least support one of those. They're the only three showing strength where it counts.
2
if Bernie's base is so large, then why are his poll numbers so small?
3
Lots of talk here about who will or can debate Trump, as if Trump is going to honor that part of democratic tradition. My prediction is that Trump will do rallies and tweet but will not debate the democratic challenger.
2
Harris looked extremely insecure and not confident in the last debate. She appears to try to use congeniality over substance in her overall demeanor. She does not appear steady in her mental state. She seems insecure about her appearance as well. She does not inspire confidence. She does not appear comfortable with confrontation or with managing complex matters. She did not have command of the facts on health care. This isn't a homecoming celebration. This is tough stuff. She appears too soft for the job. I believe she will crumble against Trump.
9
Kamala Harris is a bright democratic star, but us still very much a work in progress. The path to victory this time does not run through her currently limited base of support. Harris should spend the next four years better thinking through and defining her positions. Perhaps a democratic senate will allow her to craft and pass some defining legislation. Consider this campaign a learning experience, just as first national runs often are for future victors. Obama was a rare exception, while Trump was an electoral freak accident.
4
Not enough Roger. Not nearly enough. Harris will not win. She doesn't have the chops you describe. She doesn't have the world stage presence she/we need. None of the candidates offered up will beat Trump with one exception. The reality--and for just the reasons you just stated in your article--is, for better or worse, "comfort- oriented." Biden has vast experience across many decades of involvement in all aspects of governing and with a good heart at his core. He's white, he's male and despite his age or gaffs, he is EXACTLY what the doctor ordered to assuage the fears and depression most of this country is mired in emotionally right now because of Trump. There are no super heroes up on that stage this time around; no like an Obama, Kennedy, Reagan, etc. The only choice we have right now is Biden as comforter in chief. He's already said he'd run for only one term, which would be perfect. It would allow us all to get our "land legs" back after a stormy four years of riding treacherous swells and dips in our national psyche. After Binden is out, we can look back at what we learned from the Trump years as opposed to a far more temperate Biden years and THEN do a major course correction. Four years of Trump requires an "in between" four years of recovery.
7
In reading the comments on this op-ed I was gratified to see that most of the responders and the readers who recommended the comments disagreed with Roger Cohen, citing Harris's readiness to attack, refusal to respond to criticism, humorlessness, general lack of likability (charisma if you will) and failure to present any coherent plan. By contrast Warren, Sanders and even some of the others are far stronger candidates.
What I found distressing was that several readers who shared my general negative reaction to Harris as a candidate added that an African American woman can't possibly win. That is not and should not be the case and I hate to see fellow responders who otherwise share my strong preference for Warren and Sanders adding what I consider a completely false and unacceptable argument.
4
@Judy, Harris is actually half Indian (mom from India) and half Jamaican. She was not a friend to African Americans in California, to say the least. And they prefer Biden. So if Harris can't win, it's not that she's African American. I think Abrams would have a better chance, actually, were she running.
3
Once she came out for the elimination of private healthcare insurance she lost my vote. I can’t stand Trump but I will vote for him over any Democrat candidate that will eliminate private healthcare. Period. Over. End of story.
5
I am frankly a little weary hearing what mid westerners will and wont support . They like the hard left are just a segment of the Democratic vote . So lets stop pandering to people who may or may not vote for a Democrat , no matter who that candidate is. Clare McKaskill is a perfect example of a very moderate Senator who lost her seat in 2018, the elusive mid westerners voted Republican because Trump stomped for her opponent .
The Democrats would be better served going after the under 35 age group. In 2018 mid terms more of them voted than those over 55. The future of our party lies in the hands of these young people, and they like me will Support Senator Harris when she is our nominee.
1
@Britl, you need to research her. She's to the right of Biden and was cruel to minorities in California. Image is deceiving sometimes, and this is one of those times.
2
As a person who helped elect Sen. Harris to her current position, as well as to her former position, I think I know her track better than most around the country.
I like her very much and she has a drive that is undeniable. However, I must disagree with Mr. Cohen. She will not defeat Trump. Her record as California AG and as San Francisco’s DA once scruntinized properly, will reveal a less glowing picture of her than is currently depicted by the media.
The unfortunate thing about her is that she has ascended to her positions without really being challenged by an opponent and so never had to really crystallize her positions on issues, nor defend her past decisions.
Additionally, I was surprised at the last debate in how condescending she sounds and refused to answer the points Rep. Gabbard made on er record. Her views on healthcare, the economy, and immigration are muddled at best as no one seems to know what she truly believes and they change each time she speaks. I am finding it hard, even as a person of color, to think she is remotely qualified to be President. This may seem harsh, but if we are to defeat Trump, we need a candidate who will be likeable (remember Hillary’s issue)) and generate positive energy as well as have a sound grasp and position on key issues that affect everyday people.
13
Senator Kamala Harris would be an excellent choice for the democratic ticket. Smart as a whip, well educated, strong experience as a prosecutor, district attorney, and senator...and tough as nails. She was wonderful in the debates, and has become more moderate as time has passed - a requirement to knock Trump off.
Senator Amy Klobuchar also has the right stuff to take on Trump. She has a super resume (high school valedictorian; B.A. magna cum laude from Yale; J.D. University of Chicago; private and prosecuting attorney for years; U.S. senator for 12 years). Her stellar work on the Senate's important Judiciary; Agriculture; and Commerce, Science and Transportation Committees shows she can handle legislative minutia while working well with folks on both sides of the aisle to get things done.
Her questions during the Kavanaugh hearing revealed a lot in his non-response responses. Her impassioned statements during the first two debates on health care, immigration and other topics are important reminders that she cares deeply about all of America's citizens. And her midwest creds would help her grab battleground republican states.
Senator Klobuchar's smarts, cool under pressure, and keen abilities to get to the heart of the matter while treating others with respect and fairness seem to be the best antidote to Trump's pugilistic, hit before thinking approach.
Senator Klobuchar would take Trump down. So could Senator Harris. Hopefully one of them will get that opportunity.
3
Harris is dropping like a rock in the polls. The more people see her the less they like her. I hope Californians primary her the next time around. The state should have much better representation.
13
The United States is one of the largest, most complex organizations in the world with 2 million employees, innumerable departments, an unimaginably large budget, assets and property working on behalf of 300 million people. A president needs to demonstrate that they can manage this entity.
So how do we go about identifying our leader. We select them based on their ability to deliver one line zingers at a debate, or come up with soundbites, likeability, how they look, 4 word slogans, the ability to get a crowd to cheer and chant, ego and chutzpah. Running small departments within state government, being mayors of small towns, supervising a small office staff as an elected official , running a successful business or winning cable TV debates as sporting events has nothing to do with running the United States of America.
Mr Cohen, with respect the fact that Kamala Harris is “tough, broadly of the center, has a great American story, is passionate …..and not averse to risk…a former prosecutor and the ability to slice through Trump’s self-important bluster” does not make you qualified to be president. Ditto for most of the other candidates.
Here is a "novel" idea, why not look for someone with some real experience in government and or a proven ability to manage a large bureaucracy say for example…. a governor of a large state.
3
Or Michael Bloomberg.
1
Harris can be easily corrupted by the moneyed elite. She is in it for herself and does not have any higher goals or motivation. Sanders, Warren & Trump are strong people in control of their own minds. I’ll only vote for one of them. Our elections are controlled by the moneyed elites which have destroyed our democracy. Harris is just their current handmaiden.
5
On one hand I've seen an attack dog who seems ready to take charge and then in the next minute I've seen someone who seems to stumble and become unsure when confronted in interviews where shes not following her own prepared script. That makes me nervous. The deer in the headlights look and lack of ability to stop, reflect, center oneself, and respond to an unexpected question...(Or future international showdown?) leaves me wondering if shes ready for the presidency.
8
Harris is able to effect a quavering voice as she proclaims her moral righteousness but she has a cold heart as proven by her prosecutorial record. She is not what America needs right now.
9
@Edward
The quavering voice threw me. It hints of lack of courage and/or conviction. I'm not one to throw stones, but I'm not running either.
1
I share a few common threads with the Senator - also had formative years in Berkeley (survived shootings on its South West side) - Kamala is my grandmother's name, and Gopalan, her mother's maiden name is same as mine.
BUT
I dont think Kamala Harris captures that other essential American trait, of working together as a ONE team towards a great goal. Although not as crudely despicable as Trump, she also trades in the 'Us vs. Them' approach, which, (until Trump v Clinton), has never worked sustainably in American politics.
She should learn from Barack Obama - he was a uniter, not a divider, which is why Americans, even MidWest whites, went for him - he became the first President to win more than 52% of the vote , twice - Not even Reagan, only Eisenhower did that.
9
Elizabeth Warren is the candidate to beat Trump. She is knowledgeable, articulate, and most importantly, tough. trump will not be able to intimidate her, and that is his whole game.
11
Given her passion for civil rights and advocacy’s for ethnic minorities and those who are disenfranchised by systematic discrimination (including the American working class), Kamala Harris represents our nation’s ideals. She speaks fluent opposition to Trump’s white nationalist agenda, a critical voice in the crisis we face as a collective democracy.
These capacities and strengths translate well into a social justice advocacy and community organizing, rebuilding our nation on the interests and welfare of “we the people”. However, her voice is less committal in shutting out corporate interests in our healthcare system and in taking on big banks and corporations that feed dark money into our corrupted and broken democracy. This is the system that sustains people in power like Trump and his cronies to which Warren has a clearer, more passionate agenda to defeat and abolish from our institutions.
2
Mr. Cohen:
A) Little to no chance of being nominated
B) More unlikely to win ithan any of the other potential nominees were that somehow to happen --unless the country suddenly awakes from its fever dream in which case my cat would win.
C) Even most Democrats actively dislike her.
I'm baffled by this column.
20
By definition, the only electable candidates are those who can get elected, not the ones that impress us more with oratory, or that become our favorites. We need women AND black votes. Only one candidate meets this requirement. She’s not my favorite but I will gladly vote for Kamala. Warren as VP would also be a good choice to bring in the more progressive element that may be otherwise turned off. Trump has used techniques that appeal to his base’s primal instincts. They are fanatically oblivious to rational thinking when it comes to voting. Us democrats love to complicate and overthink simple matters. Trump controls his base, democrats prefer to control their own candidates by creating unrealistic and self defeating litmus tests.
2
The idea that we should vote for a black woman because we need black and female votes is really despicable. We should vote for people based on their ideas and the content of their character, not based on their gender and the color of their skin. Did you not learn anything from Martin Luther King?
3
We democrats love to complicate... (Not "Us")
1
Not as strong an endorsement as the headline suggests. Not a complete knock on Warren who is more genuine and will also generate the needed excitement.
6
Sorry, warren will be buried by Trump bashing. Good at ideas, but one on one, she will crumble, Sorry, i will vote for her but she’s not my number 1 choice! harris can stand toe to toe with little ego Trump and have him rating and raving on national TV the likes you haven’t seen yet!
I agree that she's got the potential, and there's a case for a President who isn't locked in on policy. Let's hope she pulls it together. Not there yet.
1
I absolutely loved Kamala Harris, but she seems intent on shooting herself in the foot.
Her statement that she wanted to spend more than $70 billion on historically black colleges, while I personally would support that (versus wall street bail outs and $720B for the military), (and I'm a privileged white male), that's a complete non-starter for many, many millions of Democrat let alone Republican voters. That's such a hard left policy position, policy, that I have had to drop her from my list of contenders as I'm looking for a more centrist Democrat. And to beat Trump, we'll need a Centrist.
It's such a shame because she can't walk that back now, and she'll never win having made that statement. It's a shame because I was looking forward to her prosecutorial prowess in a debate matchup with Trump AND she would've made a very STRONG (in Trump's words) President.
2
Oh yeah let’s spend money to support segregated colleges instead of integrating them into other good colleges. Meanwhile we can have mandatory busing for 10 year olds to integrate neighborhoods.
2
I think the following sentence is wrong: "As for life, he (Trump) views it as a selective right, to which the white Christian male has priority access,"
I don't think Trump cares about this idea, which is straight from "The Camp of the Saints", which I doubt he has read. Evangelist Nationalism is an instrumental tool, that is very easy combined with Trump's sophisticated social networking program to stoke fear and hate. It defines his base and followers, and could attract more voters if can create enough external enemies: the Squad, China Trade Wars, Iran, etc. Trump is defined by low animal cunning, and he's good at it.
The tragedy is that he could have used his talents - humor, persistence, etc. - to bring the country together
All he cares about is winning. And I think you are right, so far, that Kamala Harris is the strongest candidate that can win the 2020 election.
2
Harris does not pass the leadership qualifications for me.
She can attack, she can dismantel, she can destroy.
We may get a lot of pleasure imagining her taking on Trump, bettering him at his bullying tactics but then what?
None of progressive program proposals will get through congress unless we have a candidate who has long coattails to expell senate republicans and who can lead a reformation of government for and by the people.
Our house is supporting Bennet.
8
@Girl with a Curl
Trump is only what shows above ground. McConnell, Graham etc, will hold all the cards.
The candidate must lead the party on all the tickets: local, state and federal. Harris cannot do this.
2
This is NOT a nation of "can do strivers" who came from other places. Our national will cannot be read in the emotions flowing at naturalization ceremonies. For those of us who are rooted here (and you have admitted in many of your columns that you are not, that parts of your heart remain in London, Paris, Rome, and South Africa) naturalized citizens are welcome, and we hope they eventually become as American as we are, but the ceremony doesn't make that happen, nor does a few years living here, especially for those who are really living in a colony of people who all came from the same place they came from.
You wound us, you practically erase us when you deny we have any culture, any history, any common feelings beyond those we share with someone who has just arrived and begun to build a life here.
We are NOT a nation off immigrants. We are a nation that welcomes immigrants. Those are not the same thing.
4
“We are “NOT” a nation off (of) immigrants”, really? You must be a member of one of the First Nation (Canadian term I personally prefer) tribes then. Otherwise your statement and the argument it supports is patently WRONG. We are a nation of immigrants and have been since our founding. We are also a complex mixture of ethnic, religious and racial groups who have maintained an identity within the overall American identity “throughout our history”. There are those who through denial and ego superiority insist that they are the “true Americans” and all else are latecomers and usurpers. The white Anglo Saxon Protestant identity fantasy is belied by a reality both present in our everyday lives and in our pasts. Any honest search of individual and family history shows a mixture of immigrants and citizens. There are few exceptions. The dominate culture of the moment is fluid in America and always has been regardless of your sense of dominance and victimization. You see only your face in the American mirror, there’s many others whose reflection you do not see, but they are present, and always have been.
3
What does someone look and act like when they have "become as American as (you) are"?
What do folks "as American" as you are look like, act like, believe in?
Is it a matter of how long you've been in the U.S.? How long? Generations?
Is it necessary to like apple pie?
I like apple pie. Sometimes. Depends on who makes it...
3
Less impressed with Harris as times goes on.
10
As Biden's Vice President
Saw Sen. Harris last evening at a rally in Denver. Liked what she had to say but not sure she has fleshed out her policy proposals fully. I say Sen. Warren and Sen. Klobachar recently as well and Sen. Warren comes across as a real fighter and very sincere. I came away believing in her which I can't say for Harris or Klobachar. Yet, I will vote for anyone running against Trump so never lose sight of the prize.
5
Maybe. But she's far from a sure thing. More and more it looks to me like Amy K. is the most likely real winner in the group. Reason: she would almost certainly carry most, if not all, the upper Midwest states. I doubt Kamala would. in fact almost certainly would not. Amy K. is far from my favorite candidate, or for that matter, person. Warren is, on both counts. But so what? We must get that maniac out of the White House. To do that means carrying most or all of PA, WI, Ohio, MI, plus MN. Amy K. is our best---only---bet.
6
Kamala Harris is a demagogue; her feigned “hurt” about Biden’s “working with” segregationists was baseless and designed solely for electoral advantage to cut into his popularity with black voters. And, she knew so. A famous quote of Tip O’Neill about Gerald Ford pertains: God has been good to the United States; He gave us Lincoln during the civil war, Roosevelt during the depression and war and Gerald Ford after Watergate. Biden’s decency and steadiness and “Constitutional” heart are virtues needed now. Ford/Biden were poor stage performers both given to preposterous faux pas (remember Ford’s “free Poland” and his tumbling off an airplane). Neither were the sharpest “tacks” in the arena, but both had truth telling persuasive powers. Opposition to Trump isn’t a “truth to power” struggle but a truth and decency battle waged against mendaciousness and venality. Clinton’s own projection of being “dodgy” sunk her as would Harris’ demagoguery. (Cf. Brett Stevens) Bernie/Warren are tiresome wonky scolds. Spartacus of New Jersey is endlessly posing as a wounded warrior and “fellow victim,” a mien studiously avoided by my fellow Chicagoan, Barack Obama, that hopeless reactionary and WINNER! Democrats need to “WakeUp,” not be “Woke Up” about the realties of the American electorate.
12
@Speculator I think you are correct in your analysis. But Biden may have missed his window; he doesn’t just seem a poor stage performer but rather not up to the demands of the job. Who’s your second choice?
3
mine is Bennet, then Amy K.
1
Harris’s first time in front of a national audience (debate #1) and she chooses to stoke racial divisions by criticizing Biden for his views on 1970s busing policies. Shameful. The more I listen to her, the more she seems a racial opportunist. This behavior disqualifies her, in my mind, as a credible candidate. Again, shameful.
20
According to Mr. Cohen the USA is ‘an optimistic country of can-do strivers’. Yeah, tell that to the relatives of the 600.000 Iraki’s that were slaughtered during the 2nd Gulf-war. Or to the victims of the Vietnam war. Or to son of Salvador Allende,and millions of murdered, wouded or exploited human beings. Kill this ‘shining City on a Hill’ cliché Mr. Cohen. It’s a lie. Americans are no better than other people. In fact more evil, due to Americas enormous power and wealth.
2
This actually made me laugh out loud! Comparing president Trump to Kamal Harris is like comparing lightning to a lightning bug - and he will squash her like a bug should she be nominated to run against him.
1
When the Declaration of Independence was contrived they had a narrow view of who was a human being.
1
@M Clement Hall And that was justified.
1
Any candidate who depicts Trump as a “predator” should beat Trump like a drum.
Every contender can say: “The thing about predators you should know, is that they prey on the vulnerable. They prey on those who they do not believe are strong. And the thing you must importantly know, predators are cowards.”
Down with bullies.
2
The chance of beating Trump in 2020 is all a question of turnout. People have made up their mind about Trump, but many people have yet to decide to vote in 2020. Hence, the best Democratic candidate is the one who can inspire America's single biggest party -- the Party of Non-Voters. Trump will get decent number of them to vote for him. White, lower-middle-class, men and women who feel threatened by the ethnic and economic changes in America.
The successful Democrat will be the one who can get the under-25s, African-Americans, Latinos, suburban women, and, importantly, moderate independents to the polls. Losing any one of these constituencies spells disaster for the Democrats. Biden won't get the young; Sanders and Warren won't get the moderate independents; Buttigieg won't get the African-Americans; Booker won't get suburban women. Harris might not be the best candidate over all, but she, perhaps with O'Rourke or Buttigieg on the ticket, has the best shot at getting all these constituencies to show up and vote against Trump.
It's all about turnout, and the polls should focus on that.
3
Kamala Harris is the best candidate to beat Trump because she is a woman and non-white. Mrs. Harris is smart and knows how to hold her own in a dog-fight. She measures-up to what Trump fears the most a smart woman who is not white. He will go ballistic and blind himself in his rage and stupidity if he must run against Kamala. The rest of the candidates don't stand a chance. He will eat them alive.
Kamala has the moxie and courage to show-up Trump for what he is and not afraid to tell him to his face, he is a predator. Predators cannot make things great, they only know how to destroy.
3
@Mike
So we should choose a nominee for POTUS based on the color of their skin?
1
I reached this conclusion after the first debate! She is an outstanding candidate with whom Trump would be a fool to attack with his typical junior high school disparaging nick names!
1
Did Roger Cohen not see the "Detailed Maps of the Donors Powering the 2020 Democratic Campaigns"? Bernie has the most at 746,000 donors spread all around the states. Harris has 277,000 and the only place she predominates is around San Francisco. Elections are a numbers game. Bernie has more numbers than Harris.
2
“Kamala Harris Was Not a ‘Progressive Prosecutor’
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/opinion/kamala-harris-criminal-justice.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
“Time after time, when progressives urged her to embrace criminal justice reforms as a district attorney and then the state’s attorney general, Ms. Harris opposed them or stayed silent. Most troubling, Ms. Harris fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions that had been secured through official misconduct that included evidence tampering, false testimony and the suppression of crucial information by prosecutors.”
“She also defended Johnny Baca’s conviction for murder even though judges found a prosecutor presented false testimony at the trial. She relented only after a video of the oral argument received national attention and embarrassed her office.”
5
Kamala Harris? I certainly hope not!
She's better than Donald Trump, but a hyena would be better than him.
I find her disingenuous. She's changed her tune on too many issues so that now I don't believe she means anything she says. She seems to keep her finger to the wind testing for the right direction. Bluntly, to me she sounds like a phony. Not sincere. Not a person of substance.
Sorry... I know she's was the AG of the State of California, but this is not about just intellect. It's about authenticity, and she ain't it!
7
@Don Shipp, Tulsi should be getting more coverage. Republicans also like her a lot. Wondering why the media isn’t on board..
1
It’s surprising to see readers figure out just now that Kamala Harris is a superficial, self-interested candidate who lacks a deep understanding of the issues. Some have have also commented on her arrogance. This was all on full display during the Kavanaugh hearings, but Democrats were so upset about Kavanaugh’s nomination they refused to see.
6
It's hard to defeat a man who really doesn't care about the job. He thought running for president would help him get the TV show he wanted - never thought he would win. Then he got elected president, so he shrugged and said, "OK, I'll do that show then."
You can't win against someone like that. Kamala Harris, could knock his socks off, and like an old style clown punching bag, he would just bounce right back up.
The only way to defeat him is to ignore him. Focus on the people who are rightly sick of him and his sycophant party. Speak to them and offer them your vision for a better future.
7
To me, Barack Obama was an anomaly. The first black president of the United States (and probably the last).
Your Republican Party has been running against Obama for what? - let's call it the last ten years. They have no platform. No ideas. No real positions - they change from day to day, hour to hour now. Just the same old subterfuge and con artistry they've been peddling since day one. But, all they have to say is "Obama" and somehow, lots of people vote for them. And for Trump.
Now it seems that Kamala Harris is also running against Barack Obama. That's interesting. The Young Turk black woman against one of the most revered, respected, and admired presidents in the world and in US history.
But the bottom line: Your country is not ready for a black president and maybe not for a woman president. She can't win. Can't beat Trump. Especially not a sassy red-hot like her...
1
Sorry to see you arrive at Harris who endorsed locking you up for your children's truancy!
She is just another corporate democrat feathering her own nest, and, thus one that might not receive my vote, certainly not in the primaries.
She let Mnuchin off the hook for his illegal Onewest Bank foreclosures.
For M4A one day and something different the next day.
I prefer to win with Warren Sanders or visa versus.
us army 1969-1971/california jd
2
I loved the first part of ur article about America. I didn’t see a full connection to supporting Harris. I would like to, but that’s up to Harris.
Dear Mr. Cohen
No. It doesn't.
That is all
Please note that my response has as much in depth analysis as your column about "heat" and other unquantifiable nonsense. Next time tell us Kamala is the hope of the world because you got a tingle in your left knee. It'll be as convincing.
4
This is entirely off base. The Democrats have a raft of unqualified candidates at this point, but any of the top 5 could beat Trump in spades. I'm tired of opinion writers affixing some mythical level of achievement to Trump, a second-rate grifter, catastrophically lazy campaigner and a documented racist. Let's get past this notion that only a certain Democratic candidate can defeat this shambling, incoherent administration. Trump won in 2016 because his opponent was the most despised candidate (sorry, it's true) in modern history who believed her own press and had no idea how to actually campaign. I just don't by that it will take some special acumen from the 2020 Democratic candidate to win. After two years of constant insanity coming from the Oval Office, if the Democrats ran a ham sandwich as the candidate, it would win. You think Harris will win? Yeah, alright, that's not much of a stretch. Is this really the best that the Times can come up with?
3
Last month Harris said Trump was a “predator.” She continued: “The thing about predators you should know, is that they prey on the vulnerable. They prey on those who they do not believe are strong. And the thing you must importantly know, predators are cowards.”
As astute of a definition of the most horrible living person I have observed in my 65 years. Thank you Ms. Harris and thank you for writing this Roger.
2
“Nations, like people, may change somewhat, but not in their essential characteristics....”
Which is likely why as soon as Kamala’s record as Attorney General came under question for her racist policies, the entire history was taken offline by California.
Doesn’t fit the campaign narrative.
She’s a real winner alright.
2
It’s moot. Donald Trump will win the next election on the border issue alone. Mark my words.
1
Roger Cohen is a wonderful foreign correspondent, but perhaps he needs to read the San Francisco Chronicle or the Sacramento Bee as they have reported on Kamala Harris as D.A. and A.G. Even a 2018 column by NYT Nick Kristoff highlighted some of the very serious challenges Ms Harris will face if her record in California is scrutinized.
Among those challenges:
-Death row inmate Kevin Cooper - DNA test denied
-Threatening to jail parents for truant children
-Being late to the table in holding banks accountable for the
mortgage crisis, including OneWest owned by Steve Mnuchin
-Being unaware or unconcerned that the head of the Evidence
Lab in San Francisco was using confiscated cocaine
-Being unaware that one of her top staffers was sexually
harassing a subordinate resulting in a large settlement by the
State of California
Sadly, the list goes on......
-
3
Sorry, no. Harris stands for nothing but her own naked ambition, which she proved as a prosecutor to the detriment of the poor and minorities. How can anyone justify keeping a PROVEN innocent man on death row? She stands for nothing: after savaging Biden for his stand on federally mandated busing, she adopted the same position (without apology, soto voce) the next day. Same with healthcare. I will never vote for someone whose image is “finger in the wind.”
6
Will her relationship with a separated but still married Willie Brown come up? Will her later and subsequent appointments to political positions by Willie Brown come up?
9
@hd I'd love to see Trump make an issue of her relationship with a married man! HAHHH!
After nearly 12 paragraphs of some decent descent Cohen errors and rationalizes his ignorance with his blind axiom that “socialism and America’s essence are incompatible” Really. Well so much for all public services. Goodbye to Social Security. Never mind Medicare and Medicaid. The American socialism examples goes on and on but the author wouldn’t know it. Cause he doesn’t need it. Cohen is writing about his admiration and support for his must-be candidate, Sen. Harris and what she could be.
But as Cohen watched the latest debates which rolled on like an emergency PTA election he found religion and saw the light of Harris. “She’s tough, Broadly of the center, She has a former prosecutor’s toughness.” Im scared! Who wants a harassing president. We already have one. America The Incompatible needs civility more than anything today. And where is her Center? Locking-up people? Dementing the records of others while patronizing the decisions of former presidents like Barrack Obama? No one knows her germ. Yet behold her centrist ideas are there and she is still developing.
Accordingly Cohen can help her out of her bind and hypocritical stance as she campaigns for Medicare For All, that Socialism that is incompatible with America’s essence.
2
Nope - Kamala Harris is all bluster and no substance. One story the news media is not yet covering is perhaps the best example of this. As AG of CA she sold out to the big banks in the settlement over the financial crisis - on the backs of middle class tax payers, and to the detriment of the under privileged that suffered the worst. Kamala Harris was ineffective then and she’d be ineffective as POTUS.
4
Too far left.
nope. the ticket is Biden/Harris.
Elevating a priggish prosecutor from California reeks of the same mediocre optimism that led the party to support the unpopular wife of a former president. She will "win" the debates and lose the election.
4
Gosh. The first time I really disagree with you. Not about Trump. About Harris.
Her attack on Biden in the first debate was so contrived it was nauseating. She tried the same trick the second time on gender with Gellibrand in rehearsed lockstep and Biden for once rightly woke up and demolished them both. Then I had listened to ‘The Daily’ in which Harris was interviewed extensively. She stands for nothing other than a desire for the job. Finally Tulsi took her apart on her record and all she could do was stammer. If a homophobic apologist for Assad, Modi and the Russians who is a regular on Fox can dissect you so effectively, she will be sliced meat after the GOP and Trump. Harris got her start via the loving affection of the octogenarian Willie Brown. Better heels up and back to the cushy life in LA. She doesn’t have the mettle or the intellect for this type of show business.
5
You state Biden "is a good and honorable man of great personal courage". I have a different concern about Biden's bumbling debate performance -- it makes him appear more benign than his record would indicate.
My understanding is that Biden not only voted for the Iraq War -- he used his position as Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee to help the Bush Administration pull off its deception over weapons of mass destruction. If he was complicit in a deception that took us into an unjustified, disastrous war, should this not disqualify him from the presidency? There are many articles on this -- here's one:
https://progressive.org/dispatches/the-other-reason-biden-shouldnt-run-Zunes-190402/
2
busing. she is DOA. not gonna happen.
2
Does it? Does it really? She fits the pundit policy platform to a tee, but that isn’t what wins elections.
1
If Tulsi Gabbard is correct and it appears she is, Ms. Harris needs to spend a few more years in Congress so her progress can be watched. She's a fake egotist at this point.
2
Any candidate that endorses reparations, open borders, and free healthcare to illegal immigrants will lose.
4
Too bad Kamala Harris won’t win the nomination.
Kamala Harris is almost as hard to warm to as Hillary Clinton, she's a California liberal and a minority. How exactly does that package flip the Rust Belt states?
4
His conclusion may be correct but this column has less supporting evidence than a fifth grade essay. It’s one sweeping, unsubstantiated claim after another.
1
Harris is ambitious and believes in nothing-Which makes her perfect for the Democratic Establishment and the majority of mainstream pundits like Cohen .
4
Anything for another neo-liberal?
So it would seem. Looks where she gets her money.
2
No, Roger, it doesn’t. No more corporatists please.
1
KH showed a glimpse of debate toughness pouncing on an unready Biden in the first debate. Her weedy health plan in the second debate revealed her shallow creds. Good Senator; Presidential timber, not.
Worse, she has shown far less of the decency Biden displays. Americans are craving relief rom the embarrassing disgrace now in the WH. Not much radical change beyond that.
Mr. Cohen, if you are looking for a solid candidate for President or VP with just as many good plans as KH or Warren, and a truly decent person to boot, with the toughness to go all the way, look no further than Amy Klobuchar.
.
1
Kamala may be tough but she is just another empty caricature.
2
How about finding someone who can out think Trump and have a coherent vision? First she was taking all private healthcare away then when that went south she changed again. It took almost a year for the kinks in Obamacare enrollment to be worked out.So the 180 million people with job sponsored healthcare is going to trust the government to have a seamless transition? Workers gave up pay increases to get quality healthcare plans what about those lost wages? The notion that we need former prosecutors to take on Trump is a stretch. Trump has built a fake image of himself as a tough counter puncher when in reality the only thing tough about Trump is his rhetoric. Strong leaders do not need to fan peoples fear to lead. If you want to beat Trump you don't need someone who can out Trump, Trump. You need someone not selling pie in the sky plans and talking to voters like they were idiots.If we don't keep the house and win the senate all of this is going to be mute.
2
Kamala Harris: Not deep. There is just no "there" there. President Pete.
1
She's not smart enough to beat Trump.
3
"The United States is defined by space and hope."
Yes, and let's never forget the United States made that "space" by exterminating our land's original inhabitants.
2
Yes. And "about space" does not speak well of us. As far as hope, I would change that to machismo.
Mr. Cohen should add that the Founders were still monarchists in their soul. They created a monarchy disguised into a republic. It explains why Trump was elected president. We forgive about anything to a king.
1
I can’t think of a worse way to choose a presidential candidate than the current format of televised debate, which is a cross between speed dating and a circular firing squad. Zingers do not a leader make. If America is ready for some kind of real change — change that faces up to the terrible shortcomings of healthcare, the climate crisis and the daily slaughter of citizens by other heavily armed citizens- I think that Warren and Buttigieg are the most compelling duo. If someone doesn’t loosen the deadly corporate grip on the legislative process, the same circular patterns will persist. Harris doesn’t seem to come close here. She can slice up Kavanaugh and Barr, but the country needs more than a prosecutor.
3
@Geoffrey James
Quoting someone else's post:"The qualities necessary to become president are antithetical to those needed to be an effective president."
@cassandra
Wow. This has to be the 'Oakland' of endorsements - there is no there there. After reading the piece twice, all I got was Trump Bad (no kidding, we all know this), and a brief suggestion that Harris has, for want of a better word, Grit. I came away with no facts, hard or soft. This is also true of Harris's resume. That Harris may talk the talk is not enough. Reading many of the comments/recommend counts here, it is clear that Cohen's piece has served as a catalyst for a Harris love fest, but, again, all anecdotal. There is nothing to indicate a seasoned, capable candidate. And this is the fundemental weakness of Harris's campaign; the lack of substance. She may season up well with time and experience, but, wishful thinking aside, Harris is just not ready for prime time.
4
I said it before. In the first debate Kamala Harris won the battle but lost the war. My worst fear after that debate came true. Instead of reinforcing the Democrats' support for pre-existing condition protections and broadening opportunity, the debate introduced the idea that Democrats would bring back federally mandated busing. That is what dominated media coverage. She would appear to have learned nothing from how the Democrats swept the midterms. It certainly was not on promises of forced busing.
Like Trump, Harris seems to know how to set fires. But what we need is someone who knows how to put them out.
5
Really? A coastal progressive is the key to winning over Obama/Trump voters in Wisconsin and Michigan? While Harris would undoubtedly have a better shot at winning over moderate voters in the Midwest than, say, Warren, if the Democrats were to focus on electability, they would be better to turn to Bullock. Winning election in a northern, Trump state like Montana says a world about his chances of winning back the Midwest. Bullock is positive, moderate, pragmatic--almost the perfect candidate.
2
I prefer Biden, particularly, if he selects a palatable VP, gives notice that he only intends to serve 1 term, and that he will support his VP as his 'successor' as the next term President.
KH might well be a terrific VP choice in that scenario, and would have a leg up on being President next go around.
Perhaps a different approach than in the past, but this might allay concerns about his age and 'allow' voters to have 2 bites at the "Presidential Apple".
Roger, you took the words right out of my mouth, I like Kamala for the reasons that she has a mental toughness that the other's do not.
She would of come across men like Trump during her course of work and have a working knowledge of how to handle them. Men like Trump are often found in Domestic Violence arenas, narcissistic, bullies trying to exhert power and control of other more vulnerable people.
Even though I am from a different country, the impact of Trump has a ripple effect around the world. I watch as our Prime Minister sucks up to Trump, I watch as Pompeo visits our country to shore up support against China and ask for our support in Iran (more potential Aussie lives to be lost to a US action). I watch as the conversation in my own country starts to change from what it has been for generations. I worry how the world has changed since Trump has taken office.
Great write up, thank you.
2
I wish the problem were so simple. As far as I’m concerned we’ve got a real quandary. Biden doesn’t seem to have it anymore. Warren seems to have decided she’s the ideologue we hoped she wasn’t (for me the trade policy was the end), and Harris doesn’t seem to have the substance. Her healthcare plan (as Biden pointed out) doesn’t address any actual problem, and she did a poor job of defending her own record.
It’s a long time until the conventions. We have to hope some of this changes or someone else steps up.
2
People view this election through the lens of the trauma of having seen Trump's dominant ape performance in the last election, grinding his debate opponents into dust. The problem with traumas is that they keep you forever focused on protecting yourself against a repetition, and so eclipse the rest of life.
But we can cut ourselves some slack about that. Given the intense, highly energizing loathing of Trump that is shared passionately by a strong majority of Americans, it's safe to assume that a strong candidate who can stand up to him will have a pretty good chance (barring Russian screwing with those stupid voting machines, which his party seems determined to let happen.)
This leads to the major job of a post-Trump president: reconstruction. He and his corporate cronies have been deliberately dismantling the entire US government structure. This was their plan all alone -- his entire persona serves to distract us from noticing.
We will need an extremely organized, smart, knowledgeable president who has definite, stable plans to repair the damage across a wide array of problems. Only one candidate is clearly able to take that challenge on and can hit the ground running. We need Warren, as well as a strong congressional crew to help her repair the damage that is Trump. We don't need people who are generating policy ideas in a vague, on the fly way, or who are too past their prime to make anything really happen. We may only have one chance at this.
4
What's even more disturbing than Kamala Harris's belief that she's still in a courtroom is that she and the other Democratic contenders didn't bother attacking the elephant in the room--Donald Trump. Kamala Harris just handed Donald Trump another four year presidential term.
1
Against my better judgment I am starting to see Tulsi Gabbard as my favorite of all the debate contestants. Contestants because this is starting to look like a game show. Tulsi seems to be the one candidate who knows who she is. She has some weird positions on some issues like Syria.
Joe's shot was 2016 and Kamala Harris impressed me before she didn't.
Maybe Oprah will jump in and save us all.
3
I applauded Harris' "predator" closing statement, practically jumping out of my chair as she delivered it.
I'm still not sure who I'll vote for in our primary, but she's high on my list. I think she can face #DerangedDonald on the debate stage and take him down.
1
Harris tried to suppress evidence of innocence in two death penalty cases. And was successful until courts forced her to release it. This is one of the most heinous things that prosecutors do, and I’ve often wondered why it is not treated as a crime. How can a prosecutor claim virtue when an innocent defendant dies so that her record can look better? I would never vote for her for any office.
4
Just one little problem with Harris. She has to lie about her record as AG of California. She’s not a progressive and not even a liberal but a die-hard prosecutorial conservative who resents it when DNA evidence disproves her record. “Prosecutor” defines her. She is not the answer to Trump.
3
"Becoming American is a process that involves the inner absorption of the nation’s founding idea." Oh, if only. The bi-directional mixing of cultures has historically made the US a richer and more interesting country. Some current immigrants are loathe to embrace this concept for fear of losing their group identity. It is certainly possible and desirable to have both.
1
Let's see how Harris does with black folks in South Carolina as a test of how she will do nationally with African Americans. It is clear to me that they are he ones who will elect a democratic president if it is to happen. They have to turn out in numbers meeting or exceeding those in 2008 and 2012. At the moment, Biden is the only one who moves this needle sufficiently. Also, I am afraid that too many citizens cannot wrap their heads around a female commander in chief. I think a better solution is a Biden-Harris ticket. Biden has already said he would serve only one term. That would give voters a chance to test drive a Harris administration without having to commit to it right now.
Since all recognized polls show that any one of 6 or 7 Democrats running for nomination is ahead of Trump at this time, isn’t the pertinent question “Who can’t beat Trump?” And those who are hopelessly under water need to take a hike so the one’s with a chance can concentrate on the task at hand.
3
Those tv shows are not debates, maybe they are speed dates?
trump doesn't debate, he performs for his base. In 2016 people passed on sane, sensible, presidential and went with a clown.
I think that there is probably significant buyers remorse from people who rolled the dice. We don't want a cage match, we want a major contrast. We want Joe Biden.
2
What have we gained if we beat Trump with a corporate Democrat? A short respite before the inequality/climate crisis really kicks in. Harris will do next to nothing about anything. Likewise the silver-tongued Mayor Pete.
1
I had high hopes for Kamala but she looks like a poor candidate right now. She's making the classic mistake of trying to please everyone- her healthcare proposal is flat out absurd and a shameless attempt to support both the elimination of AND retention of private insurance. Otoh, her record as a prosecutor is in no way going to turn off the types of moderate Dems the party seems hellbent on catering too- so that's not an issue.
What she needs to do is be HERSELF. Just say what you mean and let the public into your head and heart. After that let the chips fall where they may. If she remains this calculated she will not win the nomination.
3
Even the most cursory analysis of Ms. Harris's performance this week indicate that she is not always truthful, that she triangulates when it comes to her healthcare policy and that she seems to be pandering to voters rather than addressing directly the questions asked.
Beat Trump? I doubt that she can even beat her Democratic running mates. We already have a liar in the White House, we certainly do not need another one.
2
Harris is kind of my second choice for now, but it would be a bitterly disappointing one as it would mean that the country has missed an opportunity to make meaningful change that would last for generations by failing to nominate the one candidate that can be truly transformational, Elizabeth Warren.
Senator Warren is the one who has a coherent vision of how to address the ills that have befallen America over that past several decades. She has the ability to succinctly describe the problems and is clear in the solutions she proposes. Not only that she has a proven track record of getting things done, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau is her brainchild and she brought into reality before she even was a member of Congress. The media seems to gloss over that accomplishment as if it were something run of the mill when, in fact it is virtually unprecedented.
Extreme danger demands a strong, bold response, Senator Warren is the one candidate who has the vision, the empathy and, indeed, the plan to deliver what we need.
3
@Barry F.
I agree with what you wrote, and I also lean Warren #1, Harris #2. But I worry about Warren's "optics". I know that she has serious gravitas, but she looks like a school principal, not a commander-in-chief.
(I just ran into her on the street in Cambridge, MA. My impression was "nice woman", not superstar.)
Wishful thinking. The only ones making any sense are Tulsi and Delaney
There is a ticket that can win
1
Trump’s victory is already assured. You progressives still haven’t figured out what happened last time around. Try spending some time with blue collar Americans. You may achieve understanding. But I doubt.
2
@Dave Smith
You make sense to this progressive.
I support Warren, in part because so many of her economic policies are focused on making things more fair for "people who shower after work'. Of course, I'm concerned that many blue collar folks won't have the time or inclination to understand that.
1
The key issue for democrats —and America— is beating Donald Trump. Nothing else matters. A candidate has to run on a lot more, of course, but at the end of Election Day, nothing else matters.
No matter which Dem gains the White House, Job One for four years will be undoing the damage inflicted on the nation by the Trump “administration.” Sadly, it can’t all be fixed. Federal and Supreme Court judges are in place til they die, but other damage can be repaired, even internationally, but it will take a decade to regain lost trust, even among our allies.
Getting started requires someone who can both beat Trump and begin rebuilding America. Which also requires a change in the senate. Just a few seats is enough, because then McConnell won’t be driving that boat.
The 2020 election will decide what kind of country America will be.
2
I will vote for any democratic. As to Harris, I find her to be a Pol in the classic mode. A scorched earth approach to the debate. She certainly can stand up to the Idiot himself. But that is not my ideal candidate. And there are several to chose from. The debates are not governing. In fact they have little relationship to the skills for governing. So her performance at the debates is of only passing interest to a voter like me. I want broad, kind, thoughtful thinkers. Warren, Sanders, and yes even Biden are better in my view. All can beat Trump. So the real issue is how they will govern. Harris - for many - has a distinct limitation in that category and I fear she will function as an Old style Politician. Not what this voter wants.
2
I think one of our major problems in trying to assess the candidates is the idiocy of being forced to describe a complex policy in one minute. One minute is inadequate to explain, coherently, medical care, immigration reform, crime and justice policy, etc. Then a mere thirty seconds to rebut an attack is ludicrous. I hope that after the winnowing of the field the responses to the panel's questions can be lengthened so the respondents full explanation can be appreciated. I also hope that the panel will allow the candidate to at least complete a sentence before interrupting. Allow the listener to adequately evaluate the candidate which I believe is the purpose of these debates. As for rebuttal of thirty seconds to answer an attack there is barely time to organize one's thoughts to give a cogent response. These "debates" are theater and of little information.
4
A lot of passionate comments here. Can we agree that whoever the eventual candidate is, that we all support and get out the vote?
And to those of us in the safest blue districts—volunteer outside of your area! NYers—try Philly suburbs. Chicagoans, head north (and northeast) of the state line. Californians, NV and AZ need you! Ohioans and Floridians, get to know your neighbors!
3
Sir, PLEASE research the psychology of the conservative brain. You will find the studies consistently find: more fear ridden; more concrete thinking; less tolerance of new things. Trump won because of high level psychological propaganda (Cambridge Analytica) and because of his consistent manipulation of his base. Why does he always refer to Hillary and Obama and "the liberals"? because these are "buzz" words that trigger fear, anger and emotion--then, his base stops being rational. Which candidate will appeal to the independents and conservative brain? Not a female, a non-heterosexual or one with an ethnic background. That leaves Biden. THIS IS SERIOUS. PLEASE RESEARCH THE CONSERVATIVE BRAIN. PLEASE ACT ACCORDINGLY.
1
@richard wells
You make very good points, but I reject your advice. I doubt that the people you describe as conservative could be persuaded to vote for any of the Democrats -- precisely for the reasons that you list.
The Democrats need to focus on everyone else, and to get the anti-Trumpers out to vote.
3
Kamala treats everyone from Kavanaugh to Trump to Biden like the poor black defendants she prosecuted. There is very little in her of the milk of human kindness. So she would make a good AG but not the chief executive. And her backstory will get lots of press and create vulnerabilities should she become the nominee.
3
I don't get it. Is Roger Cohen proposing that America replace an angry Donald Trump with an equally angry Kamala Harris only because she's a Democratic Woman of Color. Harris treats potential voters like criminals that she's determined to prosecute and throw in jail.
Kamala Harris does nothing for me.
6
@sharon5101 Harris May be passionate but she is not angry. That is caricature.
Kamala Harris has offered almost nothing in the way of new ideas or policies, and certainly nothing in the way of presidential presence or character. She may have gained a few points in the polls in the first debate, with her cheap and calculated attacks on Joe Biden's voting record from 30 or 40 years ago... But my guess is her continued scorched Earth strategy has cost her any chance at the nomination.
Most Democratic voters want Trump out of there as their first priority. Her attacks on Joe are hurting those priorities by starting the shameless anti-Biden fracas in the last debate that was gleefully joined by Booker, Castro, Gillibrand and De Blasio... some even willing to throw in Obama's "record of failure"..
Of all the remaining candidates, Harris has dropped from my second choice to my last choice for setting this hostile tone... (followed closely by the other willing participants I mentioned above). And, from what I have heard in first hand conversations and read in both numerous articles and comment sections, people like me occupy the majority of the Democratic Party. We are anti-Trump, not anti-Biden.
The highlight of the last debate was Tulsi Gabbard opening fire on Kamala's record as a state prosecutor... And the stunned looked on Kamala's face, having no preparation. and therefore no canned answer for it. It looked much like her unexpected assault on Joe in the first debate.
Note to Kamala and her desperate cohorts :
As you sow, so shall you reap
7
I think it's pretty sad that we are thinking about our Dem candidates in terms of who can stand up to Trump in a debate. The debates have little relevance in determining a good president. In fact, I always thought Barack Obama was an average debater, at best.
My campaign: Don't debate Trump. He's a pathological liar - why bother? To see who can beat up on each other better?
2
I'm center right, my wife center left. We disagree on a lot of things when it comes to politics. But we both agreed after watching Kamala in the second debate that shes not the best bet for 2020.
3
I was very moved watching Harris announce that she was running for president. But then I thought the first debate attack on Biden-and-bussing was more than a little opportunistic--especially once it became clear that the two of them both support local decisions to use bussing to achieve equal education, but have their doubts about federal intervention. Since then, she has not been able to articulate clearly what she proposes for healthcare, and her record as a California prosecutor raises many questions. I agree that her passion and intelligence would wipe Trump out in any debate--so the question is, is that the main qualification for the Democratic candidate? American racism and misogynism runs deep, however, and that circumscribes the chances for Harris, and even for my preferred candidate, Elizabeth Warren.
1
I disagree about nations having essences, and what ours is if we have one, but that would be an endless discussion. Basically I agree with everything here. I still like Warren, but it's true that she has to introduce a little open space into her positions: it's good to have plans, and hers are excellent, but the real question is what she will do when her plans need to change, and that searching quality is something Warren can learn from Harris. And Harris would be great!
Harris is finished. She embraced political expediency over human decency in her largest government role as California AG. This election is a referendum on the health of the poor and the middle class, whether they will be given the tools to make their lives better. It is astounding that Democrats can't use simple language to argue for substantive change. The debate about the de-commercialization of the healthcare industrial complex could be framed very simply. Voters should view the money they spend on every aspect of healthcare as another tax. In this case a tax that can vary from manageable to catastrophic personal bankruptcy. Voters should know that employers should be good at what they do...not at legally having to provide health insurance and workers compensation. Imagine a United States with no personal bankruptcies due to being sued by healthcare providers. Imagine a United States where businesses can increase wages and put the focus solely back on their business.
4
Please do not decide who will win the election. Quite frankly it is way too early and creates a bias for other candidates. I happen to like Cory Booker, his background is stellar. Everyday there is a focus on a candidate, perhaps it would be better to focus on their backgrounds, accomplishments and style rather than who can win in the polls. I am not fond on many of the democratic candidates and find that the press pushes and predicts, the voters need to research and listen and make their own decisions.
1
Roger, in this (rare) case you are misreading the situation. You are right to look at who can beat Trump, and also about the seriousness of his winning, and about the flaws of Joe Biden. You are wrong to confine yourself to the existing candidates (a common journalistic error), and you are misguided to highlight Kamala Harris--this is not an election for president of California (or Vermont, or Massachusetts). Harris played her three identity-politics cards (race, age, gender) in her first "debate performance." This is exactly what Democrats don't need when they reach a national general election. Imagine what Trump and his cronies will make of her background.
3
Too progressive. Pundits don’t get it. People don’t want full scale progression which is unaffordable and unpopular. Harris exploited an issue like busing which isn’t what voters are thinking about. Her upbringing means nothing in this new age of politics. StRt talking about 2019 not 1959.
2
I believe you did a superb job of characterizing the current situation, but I, personally, cannot see Harris in that role. I am not sure that the perfect democratic candidate exists at this point, so I know compromise is in order.
Unfortunately, I think we have witnessed Harris losing her handle on arguments during the debates and I get the sense that she is not looking at the big picture, rather leaning toward issues of personal interest. I think it's important that the selected individual be someone who speaks in terms of issues that impact the majority of citizens.
With that in mind, I believe that Elizabeth Warren has a pretty strong standing and is unlikely to get knocked down in the match with Trump, but only if she can come around to recognizing that Medicare for All would require a detailed and cautious transition, ensuring the quality and cost of the coverage are high and reasonable and that citizens have an option to remain with private insurance. If she does not make that adjustment, I think Warren will miss out on a lot of the needed support.
It is true... we desperately need to ensure that Trump does not have a 2nd term and yes, toward that end, we will undoubtedly hold out for the candidate who is best able to stay on her/his feet, throughout the match, and not necessarily the perfect candidate.
3
I’ve thought Kamala Harris was the winning candidate from the moment she announced. I think she’ll be able to call Trump out and put him in his place on the debate stage. She’s the one who can provide voters with a different vision of power and show us, in a visceral way, how small and frightened Trump really is. For all the reasons Mr. Cohen outlined, she is the best candidate.
Any of the Democratic contenders would make a decent president. I hope several of them end up in the cabinet of the next Democratic president. But Mr. Cohen is right: the one we need is the one who can defeat Trump, full stop. And the best person for that job is Kamala Harris.
1
Was it the "build a wall" people and the "lock her up" people that gave Trump his margin of victory? I personally don't think so.
It was the voting decision of the "I don't like how he acts, but..." people and the "I wish he would stop tweeting, but..." people that added to Trump's base the numbers that Hillary needed to add to hers.
How will Harris win those particular voters? Confronting Trump with a prosecutorial style that lays bare all his deficiencies as a human being is a waste of time. It will do nothing to sway people who overlooked those obvious deficiencies three years ago in favour of his promise to take down a system that wasn't working for them.
3
Reading the comments by readers of this article I agree with the consensus a woman cannot be elected president of the US.
I wonder why Cory Booker is always overlooked as a possible candidate to defeat Trump!
Trump doesn't know what to do with a strong woman.
Kamala would rip him to shreads on the debate stage.
He'd be on the defensive, every minute, and whatever prepping he will have gotten would go out the window after the first 2 minutes.
The real question is could she defeat him at the ballot box?
America has already elected an African American but we still might have difficulty actually electing a strong woman.
You see, Trump's inadequacies with women run deep with not only his followers but also those on the fence and when they're in the voting booth the truth is revealed. Can the do it?
3
I’m surprised by the outpouring of negativity towards Kamala Harris. Perhaps she’s not wonky enough for the people who write comments about NYT editorials. That hardly matters. Policy nuances are irrelevant in this election. The Democratic candidate will get called a socialist, just like Obama did. And any one of these candidates can dance circles around Trump intellectually. Voters want someone just as strong as Trump and who can stand up for their right to be human. That’s Kamala Harris.
206
@Mitch Wasterlain
After Trump, voters want calm, a sense of normalcy, and a decent, compassionate human being whom they can put a modicum of trust in. Above all they are sick of anger, identity politics, and divisiveness. That is very much NOT Kamala Harris, whose heinous and cruel prosecutorial record alone should disqualify her.
26
@Mitch Wasterlain I'm not sure if you know what a prosecutor is...but it's one of the positions in government that is directly in conflict with standing up for one's right to "be human." As loose of a standard as that is, Kamala hilariously misses the mark. She has a history of crushing the small, albeit in a much more nuanced way than Trump. Not to equate the two morally--Trump is a nightmare human whose only peers are the bloodsucking ghouls who pay to keep him in power--but Kamala does not have the ethical backbone needed in the Democratic party right now. If you haven't looked into her history of turning the other way to the catholic church's child abuse, the downstream effects of her truancy measures, and her lies to the american public about who she takes money from (and sends back just enough times to play the victim), I suggest doing so.
31
I think there is a growing consensus that Harris will be the nominee. At some point the polls will sow that Biden does not have what it takes.
Kamala Harris is a blend of Obama and Hillary and that is just too strong of an attraction for Democrats to resist. Unfortunately she is a diluted version of each of Obama's and Clinton"s strengths.
What is most unfortunate is that "bringing the heat and staring down Trump" is a losing strategy for Democrats. Hilary already demonstrated this. She clearly won every debate against Trump, and people still hated her enough to give Trump a narrow victory. Kamala Harris is unlikely to win if she gets down in the mud with Trump and no Democrat seems to understand or is willing to concede that.
3
@jce
I'm curious. What makes you there is a "growing consensus" the Harris will be the nominee? There is simply no indication of that. She is the only candidate to have dropped in the polls after the last debate. She is in fourth place. She lacks the likability factor, and comes across as mean-spirited and opportunistic. She doesn't know what she stands for--and this is not new. Ask residents of San Francisco and they will tell you they still don't know who she is. But the worst for me is her appalling, cruel, and corrupt prosecutorial record. The consensus is that she's NOT going to get the nom. Not sure where you're getting the impression she is.
3
This is the New York Times editorial page and Roger Cohen is a seasoned observer yet the message I get from this column is that Trump has won. He has reduced our conversation to the level of Middle School or earlier with Presidential candidate qualifications reduced to who is best at “stare downs.” What’s next, “so’s you’re old man”?
Our reality is a tricky balance between acknowledging the role of emotions in our decision making and being reduced to only our emotions. Further, our emotional validity generally leaves no space for the differing emotionality of others. Taken far enough the outcome is disvalidation of others (see Martin Buber), fear, anger, and verbal violence if not worse. E. Warren proudly touts fighting as an overarching strategy rather than understanding. How far will the current vicious cycle go?
1
Someone should ask her about two state boards her then lover, powerful Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, had her appointed to when she was a deputy DA in Alameda County. The jobs were do-nothing sinecures that paid nearly $100,000 a year to attend board meetings.
As SF DA, Harris was forced to dismiss over 1,000 criminal cases because her office in concert with the SFPD routinely withheld exculpatory evidence to defense attorneys as required by Brady v. Maryland. Concerns over the SFPD drug lab that had "Brady implications" were raised with the DA's Office, which failed to respond, leading to dozens of dropped drug convictions.
As DA, Harris chose to prosecute parents of truant children. As State AG, Harris chose not to prosecute Steve Mnuchin, then a Bank CEO, for foreclosure fraud. Mnuchin later was a donor to her Senate run, the only Dem he donated to that election. If she had prosecuted Mnuchin, he'd have copped a plea and never have become Trump's finance chair and Treasury Secretary. Mnuchin gets a pass for kicking people out of their homes but struggling moms risk arrest if their kid skips school.
Then there's Wells Fargo, a client of DLA Piper, a big boy corporate law firm where Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, is a partner. As AG, Harris was blind to Wells Fargo's brazen fraud against 2 million customers. Red flags were ignored by the AG's office. Wells Fargo was later fined $3 billion by the Feds.
Harris mistakes self-righteouness for progressive.
13
Maybe the Americans I meet are Europeans as the first question is always where I come from.
1
I’m not comfortable with politicians and pundits throwing the word predator around as a catch-all metaphor for everything wrong with society. Call people who prey on other people what they are: sociopaths and criminals. Our justice system has failed in protecting us from these types so it falls on us to protect ourselves until matters improve. Voting is beginning to look weak in that regard. Without justice and without true democracy, the ordinary citizen has no choice but to hunker down to ride out the storm. We’re one more economic failure from a total re-shuffle of our ailing system. What that will look like, I have no idea.
1
We basically refuse to talk about inequality. We do not take on the death of democracy by billionaire. We shan't.
We love money, we want to be rich. We have little to say about the common good or civilized life. We don't discuss poverty and desperation. We talk stock market and jobs (but not that these jobs are for wage-slaves, paying 50% of their incomes in rent, maybe to a hedge fund/billionaire).
America: what a waste. Trump jumped in because the working class, the common folks continue to fall. The wealth, property, income and power concentrates. That's the Republican way. And, that's the American way, today.
Democrats should just be good citizens and tell the truth and love this land. We should embrace the world. We should care for our citizens (and yes, if we haven't done that, how do we act like we're so loving of the immigrant?).
The way is clear; but the day is poisoned. That's our challenge.
1
"He is angry, a stranger to happiness, angrier still for not knowing the source of his rage."
Once again, Mr. Cohen has identified the core of what drives Trump so blindly. Whether or not Kamala Harris is the only candidate able to take on Trump remains to be seen. There is no room for error. The frightening, inescapable truth is, "In the end, nothing else matters because another five and a half years of this will drag Americans into an abyss of moral collapse."
1
She exudes tough charm.
2
Agreed, Roger. In the second debate she seemed sometimes confused, flustered, irritated. in other words, human. and that is maybe the trait that will make her an excellent choice for President or Vice President. People in general are sick of slick, swarmy, rehearsed, evangelical, raa raa; the way Booker, for example, came across. People, I think, are searching for someone they can identify with, not someone they can be bamboozled by. She talks like someone genuinely trying to figure things out, not someone with smooth talk and glib answers. Warren, with her incredible intelligence, and Harris, with her empathy and sharp intellect, could make a winning combination, Harris helping steer Warren towards the centre, Warren giving strength to Harris's arguments. Yes, there are other good people standing. But playing the "I'm better than you" game hides the candidates' real abilities. This dog and pony show of debates leads to strange conclusions. One Kool-ade comment, and everyone swoons. That is blatant nonsense. But how to persuade the electorate? There must be another way....
1
Joe Biden is too old to be the Democratic nominee in the 2020 election. His contributions as a Democratic senator and vice president are many as is the baggage he carries from his years of service to the USA. Joe Biden is an elder of the Democratic party and deserves to end his career out of the rough and tumble of 2020 election cycle. Sen. Sanders and Sen Warren need to remain in the Senate as part of the Democratic strategy to take over the Senate in 2020. The Senate would miss Sen.Klobuchar's work to get bills passed. Her strong pragmatic Midwestern voice will be even more important in electing a Democratic Senate. Let moderate voters be comforted by Democratic senators with moderate viewpoints, but the same goals as their fellow Democratic senators.
The governors who are speaking up about their practical experience need to consider taking a role in a Democratic take-over of the Senate--a key to progress after 2020.
Of the remaining candidates Kamala Harris has the youth, the vigor and the resume to be the best contrast with the Republican, aging, unfit Trump. 2020 cannot be an election contest of two old white men yelling talking points at each other. Let Trump spout his racist agenda directly to a high achieving woman of color.
I think you are wrong Roger. She is from a long line of people who are more interested in climbing the ladder than painting the wall.
As a long time Democrat, I have a problem voting for people who ask me to give them their vote to do a job and then well before they have done that job ask me for a promotion.
It is like the young kids who show up at 25 to a job every day for six months on time and expect a promotion just for showing up.
After she did her six years in the Senate, then I would consider her for a step up the ladder.
I would however have to temper any decision to vote for her as President with the comments I have heard from people who worked for her in here in San Francisco. They were not kind words.
I can tell you that the moderate Democrat and moderate Republican "lunch club" of guys/gals that get together every week here in SF don't think much of her. This lunch club is a good approximation of the swing voters in the USA.
Wrong contender to bet on.
1
I just watched the movie “Lincoln”, and was reminded again of the deep respect I grew up with for the thought and humanity behind the United States. What pains me now is how your once mighty country seems to have lost its grasp of all that made it great. I am surprised that the Democrat presidential would-be candidates, and commentators on the debates, seem preoccupied with the race, and do not seem to have talked up the values of justice for all, and the ways in which the greatness of your country is now broken. For example, the treatment of children, separated from their families. The godless and nasty treatment of refugees. The world is missing the once great and principled leadership of the United States. We are living in a time of massive social change. It is more than sad that your country is missing.
Despite the trumpian fear-mongering dystopia of our times, we Americans are an optimistic people. We still believe in the "certain inalienable rights" with which our Constitution endowed us. Our angry president isn't president for life (though he admires Xi and Kim and others who've claimed their presidencies for life). Donald Trump -- at most -- has only one more year to rant and rave and "KAG" (new chant at his rallies, "Keep America Great!"). The insufferable chaos of Trump's moment won't last, Roger Cohen. Our 45th President will be removed from the White House, either by impeachment or our vote.
Do any of the 20 declared Democratic candidates for President -- such as Kamala Harris, whom you posit could beat Trump in 2020 -- have a chance against the Commander in Chief of Social Media? Ms. Harris has called out Donald Trump, telling us "we have a predator in the White House". To beat the Trump Goliath we need either a David or an as-yet unannounced Democratic candidate who will take America by storm (as did Barack Obama from 2007 through 2016). Removing the Predator from our White House is America's job one today.
It's interesting that there are NO republicans with any ideas, who will run for president against trump. The republican party can spend all their time lying about how traitorous the Democratic party is, without having to do anything besides chant whatever Donnie wants them to at their troubling cult rallies. NO republican wants to be president? trump is just too perfect? Very odd.
In 2016, there were 17 republican nominees, only 3 fewer than 2020 Democrats. There will be only one nominee, and I'll vote for whoever that is, full stop.
Im all in with Ms. Harris. Ive been watching her since a trip many years ago to Cali, when there was a piece about her in the SF Chronicle. I then got to listen and watch her sister and campaign advisor Maya at a round table, and was sold that this was one smart and effective family unit.
I just want, hope and long for her to break out of her careful-box and go after Trump, the Repubs for everything that is wrong about how they do their jobs. The Dems are no saints, they make mistakes, but they are trying, and have been for as long as the Repubs have been not trying. Repubs have simply not been making much effort other then to block sensible attempts (a great many of them bipartisan) to move us forward and try to get the nations "systems" to work better for a larger number of people.
In fact, I want the whole of the Dem party to be louder...and PROUDER. And to stop defending themselves against every baseless accusation either Trump or the Repubs make. Just blow it off, and /or flip it back on them! When they label the Dems X or Y, flip it off, and accuse them of not arguing the policy, but name-calling.
And during these debates stop re litigating the past accomplishments of Obama, or any Dem...but run right at Trump! I dont care who has the most nuanced repairs for the ACA, but that you have plans, and are gunning for Trump! And his circus tent of deplorable appointees!
Go after Trump! Not Biden, not Booker, or Warren...but Trump!
Mr. Cohen, Harris still needs to prove herself. Making election decisions based on these suspect debates is too difficult. They have been stymied by poor moderators and frankly, the presence of too many people.
Write this same column in November, 2019 and take another look at the field.
She may be all the things you are looking for, but she definitely need to ripen politically.
Talk to us again later.
1
I’m no longer supporting her after she attacked Biden over some decades old issues. I was hoping for a Biden/Harris ticket - but no more.
1
I totally agree. Kamala Harris has the courage, smarts, dignity and quick wit to expose in no uncertain terms Trump's fraudulent reign. I think she would be an awesome leader of our damaged union. Send her some Benjamins!
Even though there is a fair amount of confusion & nonsense in this column (a unnecessary, broad brush condemnation of "nationalism," a misunderstanding that the "idea of America" is part and parcel of its "nationalism"), the bottom line is good: Democrats need to choose the strongest candidate to take on Trump, and this person may well be Harris. For this, and for nothing else, bravo Mr. Cohen.
I see a lot of comments expressing displeasure with Harris. She’s inexperienced, arrogant, and can’t explain her policy positions. Many of them like Warren. Ok, Warren could explain her policy proposals, but they are just that - proposals.nine of them ever put into action, and proven they could work.
Warren has zero experience running or leading anything. She’s never created a single job, or met a payroll. Her “you didn't build that speech” is proof positive that she doesn’t know how.
Harris, Warren, Bernie, and all the rest, are empty suits. We tried that before with Obama.
Biden, you could say as VP, has some experience, but even that role isn’t the final say on policy. Not to mention, every one of his foreign policy positions were flat out wrong.
We’re in a great economy now, ignited by a brash unapologetic capitalist. I’m making more money now then I ever did, and could leave my job in a second with 10 others clamoring to hire me. In the last year, I’ve bought a bigger house, put in an in-ground pool, and have finally been able to take my family to Atlantis, where they had the time of their lives.
Now you want me to vote for any of these Democrats who will raise taxes and undo this booming economy out of fairness?
They want to take the fruits my labor and hand it to folks who didn’t work as hard as me? Or worse, illegal immigrants?
What happened to the Democrat Party of the working man? They’ve gone off the rails and thrown in with foreigners.
1
I hope Cohen is correct and I will support and vote for anyone who can conceivably beat Trump. But there is a lot of ugliness in America and Trump is expert at manipulating it, which is why I also think it is unlikely anyone will beat him - a thought that is profoundly depressing.
1
I thought her last debate performance totally exposed her.
While the idea of a former prosecutor making the case against Trump is appealing, if you can't be honest about your health proposal to a mostly democratic audience, you're toast.
2
Yes, indeed. And the best line here is “Trump is a stranger to happiness.” They say Trump is “real.” Maybe that emotional frankness is what people respond to and vote for. So let’s give it back - a countervailing image of a happy, optimistic, and hopeful land. But it has to be real. The candidate that can do that can win.
I’ve often thought that if scripted Hillary had flashed a grin at Trump during that debate and said, “Yo, Mr. Trump, you’ve got your spot over there. Stop following me around; you’re creeping me out,” she would be President. I think Harris has that. She has a good laugh. She should use it.
1
I tend to agree. I like her fire. I'm split between Warren & Harris.
Here's a couple tickets.
Warren-Booker
Harris - Buttigieg
1
Kamala Harris is also a great lawyer and prosecutor. Anybody who can lock up 1500 people for marijuana violations in this day and age is really skilled.
2
Kamala Harris did not deny any of the facts brought against her by Gabbard, but just rambled. The interview with Anderson Cooper in which she portrayed herself as a frontrunner has dug her grave even deeper, evincing a lack of touch with reality. Voters could have forgiven her after she was run down by Tutsi Gabbard, but the fact that she was the one who brought up Biden's somehow "racist" past, while she has some dirty laundry of her own, would make it difficult, in my opinion. I do not think that she is the best candidate the democratic party has to offer.
2
Spare me the socialism (care for all) vs can-do (focus on self.) It's not the time of the pioneers or even the wave of immigrants fleeing disaster. The can-do spirit morphed into Wall St. corporatism and the present gig economy (sans a social safety net.)
Gone are those socialist days of strong unions, homeowners, and a civil society. The jobs went to China and the profits went to the 1% who kept them for themselves. Having bought the government they make the laws, or rather do away with any regulations that stand in their way. And branch out to conquer the world.
I'm leery of Kamala Harris. She comes from big tech country, and Elizabeth Warren has convinced me they need reining in. My first choice is Bernie Sanders with his democratic socialism which I hope is the wave of the future. But Liz is also independent of the 1%.
So I respectfully disagree although your columns are always enlightening.
2
I agree that 5 and 1/2 of this will be extremely difficult for anyone on the liberal side, regardless of the shade of gray.
After the debates, everybody is over qualified and that is the problem. Too much brain, too little clarity. They get it. But the majority of regular voters are not paying attention. The message is lost in translation because none of them (except for Bernie Sanders - i am not a fan) can make their message clear. The real goal in the next month for all candidates before next debate is to simplify their message:
1. Health care
2. Supreme court justices
3. Tax fiasco
4. Climate policies
5. Keep the house and win the senate (yes, all candidates should be trying to beat Mitch too)
And repeat, repeat, repeat until people start listening, regardless of race or geographical region.
1
I had hoped Biden would be a moderate who could challenge Trump, but have become discouraged after the debates. He looks, at times, weak and frail. I don't think he can stand up to Trump. Harris is the candidate I most believe can deal with Trump's nonsense and belligerence. Unfortunately, her positions on issues are not always clear or consistent. She needs her staff to flesh out those issues. It appears she has some help on healthcare, but the ten year Medicare phase in makes zero sense. I have my fingers crossed she can get her act together without delay.
Exactly my feeling! Trump won by excitement, not policy, though you have to be able to defend one. On the other hand, people appreciate rationality rather than being shouted at and Pete might be in a better position to win over rust belt Fox viewers.
As a litigator, I recognize there's a certain career prosecutor attitude - entering the courtroom with all the advantages and system on your side yet acknowledging none of it, displaying a condescending attitude of bemused tolerance of the defense at best, sneeringly intolerant and superior when challenged, dismissing any suggestion of the defendant's humanity in the interest of securing conviction. It intentionally condescends and repulses the opposition, to diminish it before the jurors and judge. Harris displays this in her debate performance, under pressure- it's the opposite of warm and genuine, and not really a show of strength - it's courtroom stagecraft and feels like weakness at the core. It's not going to win supporters imho.
4
Important thoughts on a possible "woman president." Roger Cohen presents a somewhat unexpected case convincingly. If Kamala gets the nomination, she gets my vote.
Personal choice for a woman president is Elizabeth Warren. She too could best Trump in their encounters. And she understands a ton of important things.
1
On this one I agree with George Will. Michael Bennet is the only person on that stage capable of being a good president. He just needs to ramp up his theatrics, and he’ll get there.
4
This is a good question and not yet convinced whether any one on the stage can stand up successfully to Trump,China,NK,Iran,Russia and truly enact all the necessary programs and provide a direction for the country that is inclusive for all groups : gender, economic, race,age,employed,party,religion etc.
Harris has the toughness. She can eviscerate Trump with words or with a withering look. That is essential, for going toe to toe with him is a requirement for defeating him. In that sense, I’m with you. She is also photogenic and appears down to earth. Each matters.
As other posters have noted, her policy chops are limited. But, as much as I like Warren, I’m concerned that she’s Hillary 2.0–brilliant but polarizing. It’s telling that Trump has no nickname for Harris.
5
An awful lot of commenters, here and elsewhere, entertain an understandable, but flawed fantasy about their candidate of choice standing toe-to-toe with Trump at the Presidential debates. Why do so many think Trump will actually show up to debate? Indeed, why should he? His base won't hold it against him and they are all he's got. No one should be at all surprised when Trump says he won't debate.
I think it would be smarter to think about a candidate that can both articulate a vision and demonstrate an ability to reach three elusive constituencies: suburban women, 18-30 year olds and Obama-Obama-Trump voters.
4
Harris would be fine if she was a good orator, see the positive things of society, can really talk to the feelings of votes, etc. But, Harris is as distant and cold as Hillary Clinton. And, as over confident as Hillary Clinton. If Harris becomes the nominee, it will be a replay of 2016.
By the way, seeing how nasty she can get in the debates with Democrats, a Harris/Trump debate will be so nasty it may make voters stay home.
3
The idea that anyone will do and that beating Trump is the only thing is a flawed idea. This failed in 2016 when Hillary presented a very un-inspiring campaign, was compromised by corporate/wall street money and was basically advocating for the statue quo with so many Americans hurting.
Harris has a dubious record as AG in CA. She takes money from big money bundlers. She's changed her position on Medicare for All a few times (in real time) and now offers a 10 year roll out. That would mean she'd be out of office when its supposed to begin???
Its ridiculous to say Warren hasn't passed the Commander in Chief test when our sitting President pretended to have bone spurs to get out of the Vietnam War. This didn't disqualify him.
I'm a Sanders supporter and look at Warren as a close second choice. I prefer Sanders because he's been consistent for the last 30 years on universal healthcare, climate change, reducing our military footprint, education, abortion rights, child care, etc. He takes ZERO corporate money. Which is critical for me. It means he's not beholden to big pharma, health insurance companies, wall street, etc.
Warren is doing the say thing now but is hedging about taking big money in a general election.
If the Democratic Party thinks the road to the White House is just saying 'we're not Trump' then prepare for disappointment. Trump promised change. People are still looking for change not a return to Obama's last year in office.
2
I agree that Kamala Harris is the best that the Dems can do. But it won't be good enough.
Harris is Obama but without the hope and without the personal charm. She's certainly for change, but like Hillary, Harris's change is whatever polls best (or least worst) today. As Groucho Marx said, I'm a man of principle, and if you don't like these principles, I can always get other ones.
So, Mr. Cohen, it looks like you're going to have to endure another 4 years of Trump. Or, as Joe Biden put it, in his own more-than-slightly goofy way, 8 more years of Trump.
1
@Ulysses
Harris is NO Obama. Mr. Obama NEVER prosecuted 4 innocent black men and ensured their conviction by withholding clear evidence of their guilt.
In several ways, Ms. Harris is like Ms. Clinton, hypocrite to the core and as you said, blows with the political wind. Ms. Clinton and Ms. Harris clearly do not pay any attention to the real needs of Americans that are not in the 1%. Their bleeding heart concern about ripping children from their parents with deportation orders is all for show. They do not care one wit about newborns being ripped from their mother's breasts because the mom is in prison for a drug possession charge. In fact they believe they are doing the world a favor.
1
Americas essence without some form of socialism is a nation of capitalists who are as willing to ruin and pillage as or more so as they are to engage in honest commerce and employment in society. They will use wealth to pay for military and police protection. But to share economic and social responsibility they would rather leave necessary infrastructure to be paid for by citizens whose economic circumstances are becoming less certain year by year. Neighborhoods are many times more difficult to manage than gated communities and mansions. Wealth survives in any kind of a national political structure so wealth is not committed to protecting our national ideals for freedom and democracy. To this point in our history wealth has never lost its ability to rule and to maintain an elitist position in the United States; but fear of losing that control in recent years has resulted in a ruthless turnabout to put ordinary citizens into economic jeopardy along with lack of control of their own means of survival. Our national ideals are now defined by those who possess wealth not by the citizens who have equal rights under our founding document. "We the people … ." are being deliberately restricted and/or denied the pursuit of happiness that evolves from well balanced economic circumstances. Living in our democracy has become a mean pursuit of survival millions of citizens,
1
I agree with the premise of this article, and I am frankly surprised by the overwhelmingly skeptical responses.
As with Obama, we need a coalition of millennials (and younger), progressive baby boomers, Hispanics, African Americans, and possibly moderate Republicans to beat Trump.
None of the old guard can achieve that coalition. Sen Harris is most likely to do so. And she is fearless; I’ll take passion and courage over ‘coherent policies ‘ every time, but particularly in this fight
5
Sen. Harris would make a deeply flawed candidate with disturbing inconsistencies and failures of judgment in her past. Tulsi Gabbard's mounted a devastating criticism of Harris' record as AG in California, and her evasive responses (during and after the debate) only made matters worse. Harris is neither as intelligent or focused as Warren, nor consistent and progressive as Sanders, nor as likeable as Biden. Moreover, Mr. Cohen, in a street fight with Trump, she would almost surely lose.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I support Gabbard, but would vote for any of the above, including Harris, over the incumbent.
3
Harris is deeply flawed, but Gabbard is not? Explain.
1
@Stuart
In my opinion, in foreign policy Gabbard has the most sensible and peaceable position. She is against wars of regime change that have proved disastrous under both preceding Democratic and Republican administrations. Meeting with Assad does not mean condoning his behaviour. It is dealing with reality. And she speaks with authenticity because of her exemplary military service. On domestic issues -- ranging from the environment, to civil liberties, education, rebuilding infrastructure, immigration, native rights -- she has an excellent record. In the past she has been less than sensitive about LGBTQ rights, but has forthrightly apologized and amended her position. Which of the other Democratic candidates has fewer flaws?
Roger Cohen, who usually is strikingly perceptive, falls flat on this one. He bases his opinion of Harris on what he saw on TV in the first debate and on her performance questioning a SC nominee. Like many others, he equates her prosecutor-like aggressive performances with her chances against Trump in a TV debate with him. That's like betting all your money on a boxer to score a KO in the final round. But there's so much more to being a excellent candidate and she is not. What about all the cases under her direction in CA where basic fairness to defendants is of serious question? They were revealed a few days ago in the Times and I found the revelations deeply distressing. Cohen, like others, is jumping to conclusions about where she stands on national issues when her positions remain yet unclear. Has Cohen lived in the American Midwest, as I have, especially WI, a must-win state? Is he aware of the electoral chances a woman of color has in WI running against Trump, in a state that elected and then reelected Scott Walker? She comes across as an opportunist, not warm or genuine but cunning. That's a turn-off for me and for usually Democratic suburban voters to whom I've talked about her.
6
@blgreenie Ok, let's nominate an old white guy because people in Wisconsin arent ready for a woman of color. Disgusting and it never works anyway. Obama supposedly never had a chance and neither did Trump, look what happened. The type of triangulation you are arguing is always looking backward and thus destined to be wrong. Vote for whomever you want to be President, not the person you think someone in Wisconsin may choose over Trump.
I agree with Cohen.
Having lived in Europe for a long time, I know life quality is much better there for most people.
Americans fool themselves into thinking their private insurance and healthcare is better here, quod non. Warren and Sanders would take America back to a more European model, but only with a full Democratic Congress. Without full support of Congress they’d be lost in partisan battle and Republican refusal to give even an inch.
Kamala Harris is the only candidate I believe would have the audacity to make most of presidential powers, confront obstructionism by the likes of Moscow Mitch.
4
Mr. Cohen is right to point out that America is not like Europe, and that if Democrats veer too far left (as in going with Bernie), we're toast. Ours is an individualistic and religious country--not a continent with a modern history of collective, deeply secular attitudes.
In mass democracies, that indefinable thing called charisma counts far more than ideas or policy proposals. Like all demagogues, Trump has it. Oh, sure, not to people like me. But even many people who say they don't like him, for reasons I don't get, find his vulgar ostentatiousness, cruelty and bluntness appalling. That's what authoritarianism manages to do to people.
Warren unfortunately has a bad voice coupled with a tone that make her seem like a cross between a university professor and a bureaucratic wonk.
This brings me to Biden. True, he seems old and tired and is continually making gaffes. But voters in the middle like and trust him, and find his folksy manner appealing.
Finally, Harris. Despite a weak second debate, people like the way she is and aren't put off by her way of arguing the way they are with so many women who argue.
(The rest of the pack isn't worth discussing because none of them can possibly win a general election.)
In sum, right now I see a Biden-Harris ticket as the best bet to beat Trump.
P.S. Of course even if Democrats settle on a couch and a lamp for a ticket, I'll vote for it.
3
@Emile
I have thought for months that Biden/Harris should be the ticket. However, KH may have burned that bridge.
@Emile I made a terrible typo in my comment: the last line in the second paragraph should read, "appealing," not "appalling." (I wish the Times gave commenters a chance to correct their typos...)
Sorry but no. Kamala Harris is insincere. Speaking of ideas, I don't believe she has any ideas of her own, other than that she wants to be President. In other words, just another professional politician. And I don't like how she capitalized on the "I was that little girl" thing by immediately selling $30 t-shirts with the saying.
4
“...but can he or she bring the heat and the hope to stare Trump down and topple him is all I care about.”
That’s precisely the style of thought that put Trump in office, isn’t it? Rather than treating the election as a sports event I think its (way past) time to put quality of leadership ahead of best-right-hook in selecting our next president, eh? We’re facing genuine national and global existential problems that we’ve never faced in human history. Is Harris really a leader for such times or just another forceful rich politician? That’s the question to be answered.
3
Unfortunately, Harris is not the answer. She is HRC 2.0. As much as it is politically incorrect to put forth, he relationship with Willie Brown and her political ascension is a problematic. Her track record as Attorney General demonstrated political expediency but not conviction. Her liability is low. While Biden is not perfect, he has been resolute in his beliefs. Everytime she speaks, it feels contrived and convenient.
9
@Chris
Nobody on the Blue side cares at all that she dated willie Brown for a couple of months. Nobody.
I am for Biden myself, but let’s not get into the gutter with the Right, shall we?
Quite frankly, I think that you are of the Right yourself, trying to sow discord. Either that, or Russian Intell.
Everyone is talking about Kamala Harris's bad debate. In fact, she has not been steady throughout her campaign and the first debate was the more exceptional moment for her. Whether she believed what she said about Biden was unclear, but it made me uncomfortable to be a Dem, because it showed no better behavior than what we've been treated to the last few years.
I look at a candidate like Andrew Yang who didn't take the bait every time it was offered and wonder why we aren't talking about him more. The CNN folks were literally fascinated by him the post interviews. I'd get behind a voice like his because it doesn't need to take down other people to succeed....don't we have enough of that??
5
Harris will not motivate people to vote who are fed up with politics. Young people and minorities need to show up. Once her record as a prosecutor is made loud and clear, she will not motivate. I used to think the left, though I agree with them, wouldn’t work but these unmotivated voters need someonethey perceive as different and wanting to shake it up
4
I agree with Mr. Cohen’s premises but not his conclusion that Kamala Harris is the best candidate to beat Trump.
Over and over again, analysts conflate aggressive debate performance with electoral success. Harris showed how aggressive she can be on stage, clearly demonstrating her prosecutorial skills, but she came across as disrespectful and divisive.
As a woman I’d love to see a woman become the next president, and I’ve watched Harris and Warren closely. I don’t think they’ll appeal to the swing voters Democrats very much need to win.
Initially my reaction to Biden was supportive but not enthusiastic. After seeing him on the debate stage Wednesday, I now believe he’s got what it takes to lead this country away from the edge of the cliff. His even temper and experience will stabilize the country and restore the confidence of our global partners.
I don’t care if Biden’s not the biggest bully on the debate stage. If Trump is more aggressive than Biden, I don’t see that as a negative for Biden. We’re not trying to appeal to the Republican base.
8
I think you're right. And I think the recent interview on the podcast The Daily (31 July) revealed her as a very crafty strategist who will strive to find ways to empower and enrich the middle class through non-ideological, pragmatic changes such as infrastructure renewal and housing construction.
1
I do not agree with you this time, Mr. Cohen. Ms. Harris is lacking a solid platform-I do not know what her vision is for America. Even if she were articulating a clear vision, Ms. Harris comes across as angry and egotistical. It is not anger and ego that will help you win against Trump, it is fearlessness and putting the country before self. Some of the candidates do seem fearless to me, so we'll see if one of them rises to the top. I hope so because I don't want an angry president, I want a moral and inspiring one.
5
In order to pass the "Can beat Trump Test", Harris will have to be rebranded, refined and polished as a candidate.
It is clear after the other night that she has to make the transition from a second tier candidate to a first tier candidate. The first steps are a better defense of her record and the second is a refinement of her positions.
The attack on Joe showed was simply a shotgun approach staged to focus attention on her. She achieved that and catapulted herself into the top tier.. Now, she has a problem. If she wants to discuss busing seriously and Joe's record on this issue, she has an uphill battle within her own party. The public simply doesn't want to go back. At this point all we have is a photo with her and her t-shirt. Fodder for the Donald. It is not easy being a first tier candidate.
Second, the she has a lot of work to do to refine her positions on key issues. What exactly is her message other than on busing?
It is a long campaign she needs a coherent voice on issues and her own record. The Bernie--Warren this brings a split in the left and an opening for a moderate. She doesn't appear to be organized enough at this point, but there is time.
4
I think all of us can find something about our favorite candidate that makes us believe he or she can successfully take on Trump. All of them would be a better President, that’s for sure. After the first debate I would have picked Harris too. However, I started to listen to poll results that showed Biden having the highest lead over Trump, even in Ohio! Yes, it is early and that can change but until it does I’m going with the candidate most likely to beat Trump. That is all that maters to me.
3
I respectfully disagree. Trump will do anything to win the food fight. That's an academic exercise you seem to think wins the presidency.
Remember a large portion of the American people didn't vote for Hillary because they believed he was for them.
People want health care; rebuild infrastructure; education; a clean environment; good jobs and fair pay. Look at the poles on these issues.
This is what Bernie and Warren talk about. Bernie got a standing ovation on a fox news town hall.
You won't change the minds of the white supremacists or the sycophants or the ones at his rallies but I believe demonstrating policies to help the American people live a fair and prosperous life is what Bernie and Warren explain extremely well.
6
It's an emotional and probably unconscious reaction not to accept a woman using tone the way Harris comes off, to be turned off by it. It is powerful no doubt and would slaughter Trump point for point and she'd win the debates. Arguing is her forte. It would be satisfying to many of us but I am remembering that Hillary actually won all the debates similarly but it did not give her enough of a boost in the end in places where it counts. I don't mean to be fighting the last war nor shy away from attacking the chief attacker, maybe this is what needs to be happening... but the American people, are who they are and I wonder if her style is a winning one. That is not to say that style is all, but she has to show more than that.
1
Harris seemed convoluted about her policy details in the debate. I found myself confronting her "I'm a tough prosecutor" stance with questions about authenticity and feeling unclear about what she wants to stand for. More than that, she seemed to "lose the forest for the trees," multiple times, as Gillibrand pointed out. Those who get caught up in minutiae struggle against bully Trump's large scale emotional gospels. I was impressed with Booker's ability to pull dems out of the mud and regain perspective at the most recent debate. How about Warren-Booker?
3
The issue with Harris for me is that she is a trial attorney, as i used to be. Trial attorneys do not focus on or work toward a sustained long-term vision; they try the case before them, win or lose, move on. Our activity is episodic, not continuous. We make an argument; if it works, great; if not, reframe it, change it. This is what she has done with health care. There is no durable vision in a trial lawyer's approach; this is why in one debate she shined, in the next she faltered. Another term or two in the senate to shift that prosecutorial, case-by-case attitude to one of stable and longstanding policy and she might be good, but not now. Great at going after Trump in the gladiatorial contest of campaigning will not now, I fear, translate to skill at governing.
8
Kamala Harris' conduct toward Biden was unacceptable. To call what she did an "uneven debate performance" is to minimize what it really was--a raising of herself by trying to damage someone else. This is what Trump does.
She is from California, and will not be accepted in the heartland. She can get rabid Democratic votes, but no others.
Please don't ignore Steve Bullock. He has made his way to success, in Trump country, by being tough but not combative.
....and by the way, Harris is not "broadly of the center." She is far leftist.
6
I was floored, positively, by Harris at her announcement moment in Oakland and admire her. But when she questioned Kavanaugh she either did not have a point re 'a law firm and the nominee' or she held back using it. Remembering that moment gives me pause. Sadly we have also learned the true depths of racist and misogynist feelings in our country these past few years and I do not think she can win given these prejudices.
I really believe our country needs the Sanders/Warren policies but I also think that neither of these two passionate and dedicated people can carry enough middle voters to win.
Biden to me is too establishment friendly but maybe the best bet is a Biden/Klobucher ticket to win the White House and the Senate.
We do need radical healthcare reform, we do need to stomp our the massive killing influence that the plutocrats and big business have on our government, we do need to fight climate change, we do need to address the housing, employment, drug and gun crises but first of all we need to win the White House and the Senate.
2
Echoing another comment from Europe, America is divided, but it also has a broken government whereby only big money and self interest drives change, very sad. It looks to me in reaching your conclusion that only Harris possesses the necessary attributes to beat Trump you only looked at the top candidates, which is really too bad since it is still very early in the race. Governor Bullock can and has beaten Trump and his vision for uniting the country and kicking big money out is the only road I see that makes any sense. Let's not be so quick to count him out, give the man a chance to fix our country the right way.
2
I think Kamala is tough but I also think Cory Booker who is a centrist can also take down Trump. He is the same height as Trump so there is no looking down on this former football player and Standford grad. He is nimble with words and like Trump is a master with the media. He knows tough having been the Mayor of Newark, New Jersey. I too grew up in New Jersey very close to where Cory grew up in Harrington Park and I know his remarkable story and how he turned around Newark. We have two contenders to prevent Trump from governming another four years and destroying the soul of our country, our international treaties, and putting into jeopardy the future of our natural resources.
5
As someone mentioned, she doesn’t take criticism well and when she was criticized, you could see in her body language that she wasn’t happy and adapted a bit of an attitude. If she repeats that and is the nominee, Trump will eat her up.
8
Lawrence O'Donnell made a valuable point recently. The skill set for debate as a presidential candidate is not the skill set for governance as a sitting president in office.
What I look for in my candidate for this high office are certain characteristics:
-- intelligence
-- resilience
-- a moral compass
-- humility
-- grace
-- respect for all
In short, none of the characteristics of Mr. Trump.
So, who wins my litmus test? In many ways, I wish we could put the Democratic 20 in a blender and select the best features of all of them, but that is impossible {and would be somewhat hard on all the contenders!).
Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttlegieg, Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar would all have a place in my pantheon.
Secretariat would make a lousy draft horse just as a Budweiser Clydesdale would not even fit in the gate at Churchill Downs.
Watch the debate, yes, but remember the difference between the debate stage and the Oval Office.
3
I disagree with Cohen. Kamala Harris’s should absolutely not be the candidate. She’s has too much baggage in her background, from her relationship with Willie Brown to her poor decisions as attorney general, which many commenters here have already mentioned. No one has said anything about why she’s refused to prosecute Steve Mnuchen, who wasn’t known as the “foreclosure king” for his shady business dealings when he was head of One West Bank. But even if non elected of these thing should matter in the long run, I find her to be somewhat dishonest, self righteous and disingenuous whose policies ware hard to pin down. I’m afraid people may stay home rather than vote for her.
The Times ran an article a couple weeks ago that Sherrod Brown is possibly reconsidering a presidential run after watching the first debates. As much as I love Sanders Andy Warren and like some of the other candidates like Buttigieg and Inslee perhaps the pro labor Midwestern couldn’t really be the one to bring out the vote. I hope he does decide to enter the race.
11
I want to second your vote for Sherrod Brown getting back in the race. Not full of tax or dazzle but strong, sensible, and able to appeal to disaffected white male blue collar workers.
1
To quote your colleague, I too would pay money to see Kamala Harris debate Trump. She can win, if the 18-35 year-olds, the people of color and Latinos come out in force and vote.
I am in my 70s and although I respect Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders for their service to our Country, I think anyone this age no matter how healthy doesn't have the stamina for a job as stressful and 24-7 as that of President. They should step down.
I also don't want to see two old white guys debating each other for President.
2
@Kath As I was reading and agreeing with you, this occurred to me: A photo of a group of us aging Boomers, complete with "Ask me about my grandchildren" tee shirts, and college jerseys with our graduation years visible, and the caption "If you don't want us to decide your future, VOTE!!" Then a bipartisan group with more money than I have could bombard the media used by the 18-45 age groups. The earliest it should appear is October 1, 2020.
@Kath
Young people and the Latinos, alas, NEVER turn out and vote in big numbers. That is one reason why Trump is President. I was working in a Spanish area on Election Day in 16. We had like 10 voters after 6 o clock.
1
The Democrats need to be far more strategic in their selections for the Vice Presidential slot.
A Clinton / Obama ticket could have easily replaced Bush and have then been followed by an Obama led presidency from 2016 with the presumptive future President gaining their experience and electoral credentials ‘on the job’ with Obama.
A Harris / Buttigieg ticket may be the Democrats best bet for 2020 and would appeal to a tremendously diverse range of people.
Although fine people, Sanders and Biden need to step aside in favour of the future, and so does Pelosi. All could help groom next generation leaders.
2
"Who can beat Trump" as the litmus test for the Democratic Presidential Nominee is at once morally bankrupt and politically obtuse.
If another plutocrat demagogue could arise within the Democratic ranks and beat Trump at the polls, would you consider that a win for America? I don't, but that's what your 'Who can beat Trump test" suggests.
If another centrist, moderate, Third Way, Center For American Progress, neoliberal, corporatist DNC/DCCC anointed hack could prevail against Trump at the polls, would you consider that a "win" for America? I don't, but that's what your "Who can beat Trump test" supports.
The reason WHY Trump is President today is because in 2016, after 40 years of Reagan Republicans and Republican Lite Democratic Administrations occupying the White House, America desperately cried out for a TRANSFORMATIONAL Democratic Presidential nominee. One who could take us in a new direction. One who would finally address the needs of the bottom 90% of Americans, the needs of the many, not the few. What did we get instead? Hillary Clinton.
What do we need now, in 2020? A TRANSFORMATIONAL Democratic Presidential nominee. What do you recommend? Kamala Harris. A.k.a. Hillary Clinton Lite. A.k.a. old wine in a new bottle.
Just as Republican Lite Obama begat the election of Donald Trump, so another Republican Lite Democratic presidency shall begat an even WORSE Trump next time around.
Beating Trump isn't enough. Think transformational.
8
Originally I was very excited about Harris' potential. Then came the debates and her angry, oppportunistic, back-looking and back--stabbing attacks on Joe Biden and others turned me off permanently. She refused to answer questions put to her in the second debate while continuing her attacks and showing incredible disrespect for our former Vice President. The debate formats and many questions were awful and a cable network putting them on is ridiculous. The Democratic National Committee, by demanding that a certain amount of money be raised to participate is draining money from the eventual successful candidate who MUST beat trump. How about this for a ticket: Joe Biden and the brilliant mayor of Atlanta. Check her out people. She has endorsed Biden and would be a fabulous VP.
8
The reasoning given for Harris as electable is her experience as a prosecutor and passion on immigrants, blacks, and women.
In regard to her prosecuting days she has offered nothing but apologies and seems likely to continue apologizing. In regard to the others, she and much of the Democratic party simply refuse to acknowledge where the Democrats lost in 2016. It was in the upper midwest, an area where such issues have little resonance. In 2018 Minnesota wobbled. Ohio is no longer a swing state. Five or six Democratic senators have been lost up the Mississippi Valley in just the last 10 years, Heitkamp being only the most recent.
Appeals to the urban are maybe comfortable to make, but the effectiveness is in states the Democrats have already won. Harris could have been a centrist, but erred. She has moved closer to Warren than the writer admits.
6
I would love to know who Roger Cohen picked in 2016 to win. I would suggest all of the paid presidential handicappers give it a rest. Most of the pundits were wrong in 2016 and it is too early in this race to call a winner. Trump looked so strong in 2016 because Hillary was so weak. Put Trump in a debate with someone in his weight class and he loses. Stop calling the race before it really starts. Those who fail to remember are doomed to repeat.
11
Mr. Cohen is correct about Harris and her ability on the debate stage. A few other Democratic Candidates also do well here. But, what if Democrats decide to stop participating in the debates? Is a debate relevant today? Debates may be one of those things that "has taken on a life of it's own" and only exists because "we always have 'em." Our current debate structure amounts to little more than regardless of the question asked, I have a rehearsed canned infomercial, here it is. Can we really learn anything when one is well immersed "in the weeds" of the topic and the other roams around with little knowledge or understanding? Who can forget the interruptions, lies, and stalking around the debate stage in 2016? With so much to recall and explain in the presence of informed voters, reporters, and fact checkers, Trump in fact may simply opt out of the debates simply as another "unconventional choice to muck things up" as he knows he cannot debate let alone coherently explain himself especially against a good debater. Prior to radio, television, and in a world of immediately available information online, podcasts, etc.-why debate? What we need still are actual appearances at NON invited unscreened venues, and first hand accounts about that candidate's conduct, personality, and actions in the real world as a leader. Presidents rarely debate. They inform, explain, and encourage Americans, and in a chaotic world they inspire and challenge others to take the better way.
4
Yeah. For all the verbiage about moderate vs liberal that’s not really the main point here. The 2016 election was about how both parties over the prior 30 years had failed the American middle class. The relentless flow of jobs overseas and wealth upwards to the top 1% had destroyed the credibility of the US political system.
Only Trump saw that, and rose to power on the twisted notion that immigrants and high taxes were the problem.
That brings us to the current state of the Democratic Party. To move ahead, the party has to repudiate its past, as Trump did to the Republicans. What makes this so difficult is Obama. A brilliant guy who also intuited the national dissatisfaction, he ran on a platform of change, but in the end largely failed to deliver, held back not just by the opposition but by his misplaced belief that he could work with them and they would be influenced by reason.
Biden doesn’t get it. It’s not that he’s “moderate”, but that he’s pining for the good old days of bipartisanship. Look who’s on the other side of the aisle now. But he does appeal to minorities, who are not as liberal as many whites believe. Sanders and Warren get the political environment but with regards to the concerns of minorities their messaging falls short.
That leaves Harris. Look at her questioning of the cranks Trump sends to the Senate. She has the opportunity to take Obama’s legacy not as her own, but as a stepping stone to the real change voters pine for.
3
This or that policy, socialist, far left or moderate are not the important distinguishing factors between Harris and the other Democratic candidates. The litmus test is simply "why and how are you going to be able to beat Trump"? The identified policy differences among the candidates are of no consequence and will end up distracting from the only real question that matters at this point - why and how are you going to beat Trump?
2
People vying for election must not only project knowledge about policy but present themselves persuasively. Kamala is strong but I didn't like her attack on Biden about his busing policy because he represented the views of 90 percent of his state all those years ago. Harris would be a formidable challenge to republicans and their cronies and policies as the democratic president but she would be divisive.
5
A lot of people are longing for a President that shows civility and politeness, that strengthens the connections with our allies, that uses diplomacy rather than brinkmanship to deal with our enemies (such as Russia and North Korea). I think Mr. Biden (and not Ms. Harris) is such a person.
8
I can support Harris. I would rest well at night if she were POTUS.
My theoretical political leanings are far left of hers. Warren speaks to my sense of how the country should be restructured. But it ain't gonna happen now. And this is not a time to try to recreate a nation.
It is a time to eliminate a threat to humanity and the planet. Nothing else matters until that happens. We can debate health care strategies and immigration reform in 2021. But now through November 2020, all that matters is removing malignancy.
In the next debate, I would like to see the candidates completely refrain from criticizing their competitors - Harris did not help herself by pecking at Joe.
I want to see candidates talk about the 1000's of lies this president has told. I want to see on display the failures of his "leadership" as they apply to the average workaday American.
I want to hear about priorities and policies that won't send the people of swing states to the dark side. And I want to hear them presented coherently and convincingly (work on this Joe!).
Voter to candidates: those of you who try to stand out by attacking your fellow candidates lose my support. Compete by explaining your plans in general terms - don't go into the weeds.
Do this, gain traction or withdraw. Then campaign for someone else who has the momentum. Lock arms - don't fall into the media show biz trap that moderators set. Leave your super egos at home. Put country over career.
9
AMEN!
Best combinations: Warren/Booker; Biden/ Harris. I like the Western governors but they lack political personalities. I also like many of them as cabinet secretaries.
2
The sooner the nominee emerges the better as far as I am concerned. But taking everything Democrats did in the past and smearing it , trying to make it look like these people were more republican-like than being actual Democrats is a very wrong thing to do. Obamacare was not an end all. It was a transitional policy. Looking at the past through the lenses of the present is an absolute waste of time. Saying Washington and Jefferson were horrible because they did nothing about slavery during their time takes the context of that time out of the equation. We aren't where we are today despite what our ancestors did. We are where we are because of what they did. To think that politicians in the past could have , should have, snapped their fingers and, bingo, slavery solved or crime eliminated or women's rights enacted is incredibly naive. Hindsight is always 20:20. So instead of going rogue on those who did't do the exact right thing 20 or 30 years ago, why not start going after the person who wants us to return to those days and act like the attempts to make things better, however imperfect, never happened at all. Will the candidates of 2050 look upon those of 2020 as being terrible politicians? I don't imagine those today would see it that way.
3
I was just getting ramped up reading this and it ended! Don't stop now, Mr. Cohen, you had me at the third paragraph, when you wrote how Trump is angry and angrier still for not knowing the source of his rage. Your thoughts after that only became more cohesive, your reasoning more sound, your idea that Kamala Harris could trounce Trump more convincing. But you have a whole lot more people than me to convince. Don't stop now.
2
The Democratic Party will have its moment of truth when the Primaries start. This is just a prelude.
The issue at stake is whether to run a true liberal candidate who excites the base such as Warren or a moderate such as Joe Biden, who is perceived to have the best chance to beat Trump in the General Election.
We had a view of this in 2016--the Superdelegates certainly played a role in Hillary's selection over Bernie. The results were a disaster for the party. Let's be clear--losing Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, two states that believed to be in Hillary's column can be attributed to incompetence and complacency on the part of the Clinton campaign. The aura of inevitability should have been a sense of urgency in the days before the election. This was simply a replay of the 2008 primary for her.
The thing is that of all the Democrats running, one gets the sense that only Warren will dot all the i's and cross all of the t's in the fall 2020 campaign. This leads to should she be the candidate or the campaign manager?
1
I don't disagree with the conclusion of this commentary, but I have a bone to pick with the following:
"socialism and America’s essence are incompatible."
Maybe ideally, but not in reality: We have public schools, millions of government jobs, public police and fire departments, county and state library systems, city waterworks and sewer plants, and public-supported highways, to mention a few aspects of our accepted and approved socialism.
Odd how often that is overlooked.
6
Thank you Mr. Cohen, this is a beautifully articulated description of where we are right now, and I agree with the urgency you feel to vote Trump out of office. I think Harris has potential, though she lacks an aspirational vision, which in the end is what people vote for. Take a look at the past Democratic presidents: they all ran on hope, change and promise, not criticism and attacks. I think she’s coming across as mean and strident, which just doesn’t resonate with most American; were weary of that. Also, she consistently describes herself as an executive, someone who weighs practicality—how much it will cost, how long it will take and how many people it will benefit. That’s great, but it’s a job description for a cabinet member, not a leader. She needs to come up with an overriding and compelling reason and narrative for why she can take this country out of it’s abyss and back on a steady course. So far the only ones trying to do that are Biden, Warren and Buttigieg.
2
We have a big challenge: pick a candidate who can beat Trump, who we will ghen want to have as our president. While I can think of strategic reasons why Harris could win against Trump, the idea of Harris as president is not at all interesting to me. We must have a higher standard than the simplistic "anyone but Trump." We got Trump because many people's calculation was "anyone but Hillary." Currently, I see Warren as capable of both beating Trump and being a good-for-America president. But she'll upset the corporatist order; therefore, the Times staff is working overtime these days to convince us to pick an establishment, maintain-the-corporatist-order candidate.
3
Mr. Cohen's reasoning is clear and linear as always, but, in my opinion, he overlooks an important aspect of American society today as I see it from Europe: it is divided. And this division is profound in my opinion. It is not just a division between rich and poor or between liberals and conservatives. It is an anthropological division. In other words, you seem to me to be divided into tribes. And the tribe, if it doesn't have an enemy, cannot characterize itself. More than a single leader of one party and another, you need a government of national unity promoted by the Americans of good will regardless of the party of origin to refound the nation. You cannot go on like this. Be careful. Best regards from Padua (EU)
6
The one thing for certain is Mr. Cohen's conclusion that defeating Trump is the imperative. All else is a distraction.
Medicare for All is a noble dream, but a dream nonetheless. Who believes a Republican Senate would vote for it? Even if Democrats take the Senate, not a single Republican senator would vote in favor. And for the foreseeable future the SCOTUS is radically Republican and would contrive an opinion to declare it unconstitutional.
Other progressive policies would meet the same roadblocks.
Choosing a nominee based solely on their policy agenda is a path to loosing in 2020. Too many moderates would turn away. We need to examine the resumes of the candidates for electability. That's not the same as who would make the best president. If that were the only consideration we would nominate Elizabeth Warren or Buttigieg, because they are smart, knowledgeable, openminded, descent, compassionate and moral people.
However, we need to think strategically. We need to ask who can win? It goes without saying, EVERY Democrat MUST back whichever candidate gets the Democratic nomination. But we must also ask, who can get the support of Independents? Who could get the votes of the few Republicans who see Trump for what he is?
While it could change, at this point in time only Biden checks all those boxes. A Biden-Harris ticket or a Biden-Buttigieg ticket may turn the Trump nightmare into his nightmare.
I would love to see Buttigieg debate Pence.
4
@JABarry
Big whoop, a debate between Mr. All Talk and Mr. Fake Piety.
Mr. Trump is the best president in the last 150 years. He will be re-elected easily. This country has not yet totally lost its mind.
10
I am trying to believe in Harris, but I find her with a chip-on-her-shoulder attitude and a lack of any smile or of the human touch --- not a collegial adversary but a rather bitter prosecutor, she comes across that way to me. She won no points from me by attacking Biden. Booker, on the other hand, didn't offend me when he went after Biden becausehe is personable and sharp but not angry.
Of course I would vote for any Democrat, but my vote in California doesn't matter. Could Harris marshal the male Democrats of the swing states who basically put Trump in office by staying away from Clinton's ballot box? I have no confidence in that.
8
Cohen first states that the ultimate criteria for selecting a candidate is not about being too left or too moderate, but about beating Trump, then writes off Bernie and Warren for being too left. Huh? Ok, Biden doesn't have the energy to stand up to Trump, but to simply say Warren doesn't "pass the critical commander in chief test." without saying what that test is or why she doesn't isn't much of an argument.
4
Not progressive enough for some Democrats, and too progressive for this one. Having never voted Republican in 30 years except once for a city councilman, I feel like I am being pushed into that GOP corner by the extreme liberalism I see on the debate stage. Probably how some GOP folks felt pushed out by extremes from their party in the past two elections.
2
Biden too progressive?
Harris stumbles and stuttered when confronted by Gabbard.
Trump would steam roller right over her. She doesn’t even know her own healthcare plan.
12
The Democrats should understand that the sooner they come up with a presidential Candidate the better. These elections are far too important for cheap shots and debates like Harris vs. Biden. The stakes are simply too high.
2
Remember, Bernie has not debated Trump. We have not seen him in action face to face against Trump. We do know one thing, no one, absolutely no one, even reporters pro and con can knock him off message. Also, he debated extraordinarily well against Hillary. Without Clinton’s “ Super Delegates, “ he would likely have been the nominees and remember pre general election polls showed him with the best chance to beat Trump. He also beat Hillary in states that gave the electoral college to Trump. Roger, you need to look a little deeper before you rush to judgement. The Democratic Debates are more like choosing the next “ American Idol.” You should not get caught up in that genre.
7
@Gordon Hastings : Superb insight ! NYT does not like Bernie Sanders. But what so many of these detractors like to hide is how Bernard Sanders came so close to defeating Hillary Clinton, and the crazy large crowds thronging NY and California in 2016 for him. If far right Trump can win the presidency, so can the far left Sanders.
1
I agree. I believe that there is still enough time for the ground to firm itself under her feet. It is still very early in the game. She seems to possess that mysterious quality that all leaders have, the aura so to speak of being presidential. I would love to see her take it to Trump. You go girl!
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I don't believe either Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris can beat Donald Trump under our current electoral college system. Like it or not (I don't) because of the system, the winner needs to win the moderate swing states in the upper midwest, the west and maybe even the south such as FL or NC. I have lived in Ohio almost my entire life. The upper midwest will respond to the right message -- see Sherrod Brown. Ultimately, Warren and Harris are too liberal. Partly because of this ridiculous debate format, a candidate who can win both in the midwest and California, Amy Klobuchar continues to lag in the poles. She hasn't had the "break out" moment that these staged events look for, but she she is just as smart, focused and tough as the others who have been mentioned. Just look at her questioning of Bret Kavenaugh. Her record in the senate shows she has the qualities to be president, not just a flashy candidate. And, she can win in the midwest, which means she can win the election, which is the most important thing.
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i agree Mark, she is so undervalued I hope she hangs in there so she can get to the next level
K Harris couldn't come close to defeating Trump. The one major point against her, based on the debates, is her "attack" mentality. It clearly shows as she spoke, it was predominately directed against Biden. She never spoke positively, seems she was only interested in attacking her opponents. She being a black woman will also work against her. Unfortunately here in America there is this mentality that if you are a person of color or/and a woman, then society owes you something. Because you have been oppressed for so long, it is a time to be recognized you are right, and those around you are wrong. That doesn't sound positive to me, nor the nation. I think she is going to have a hard time convincing people she is the best person on the stage of contenders.
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Just stop. The one candidate with the most support across the country, as the Times showed just yesterday, is not phony Kamala Harris. It is Bernie Sanders. If anyone else can beat Trump it would be Elizabeth Warren who would do far more than stare Trump down -- she would eviscerate him in any debate. Conservative, neo-liberal Democrats have had their decade and it lead us here. It's time for those who take the rhetoric seriously, who have a record of standing up to power and who have integrity and the right agenda for the time. It's time for Sanders.
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@Al M : History corroborates you. See the 2016 crowds for Sanders , and the same crowds giving him huge numeral support right now but mainstream media will not acknowledge the awesome momentum he has generated.
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After following pretty closely and watching all the debates, I have yet to figure out what Harris really feels and thinks. She seems to be trying to make up policies aimed at pleasing everyone which makes you wonder what she'd do if she were elected. My choices remain Sanders and Warren. In these times with so much at stake we need a president with strong convictions and a progressive agenda who is ready to lead not someone who, while undoubtedly intelligent, seems to be unclear as to what they want.
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I think the last debate likely finished Kamala Harris. She comes across as nasty, opportunistic, and unable to articulate or defend her healthcare proposal. Her prior attack on Biden over his opposition to forced busing (if he was wrong to oppose it decades ago, why isn't she wrong to oppose it today? It's either a good idea and solves school segregation, or it doesn't. Today's schools are very segregated. She has no explanation.) Her record as DA and prosecutor shows little interest in justice and a lot of interest in what will look good on her resume. Going into the debates, she was my top choice. I'm totally disillusioned. Unfortunately for her, being from CA, she is not a VP candidate. That will be Klobuchar, if Biden gets the nomination or Buttigieg if Warren wins it. It's a Biden vs Warren race -- a shame, I'd like a younger candidate.
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I, too, agree with the author. The thought of watching Trump soil himself on the debate stage against Senator Harris makes me feel almost giddy with delight. And like the author, I plan to cast my primary vote for someone who I believe able to beat Trump. But that is only half of the calculus. Equally important is whether or not I think the candidate will be a good president. I believe Senator Harris fills this requirement as well.
That said, I attempted to find more information about her position on the hot-button issues most important to me on Senator Harris's campaign website. I was hoping to find much more detailed information than what was presented during the recent debates. During the debates, health care, for example, was discussed in very broad terms on how much it will cost the american people and who has access, yada yada yada. Thirty-gazillion dollars and universal access for every carbon-based life form within the borders of the US, for this and that coverage was far too abstract a concept for me. But the front page of her web site only gave me a place to tell her campaign where to contact me so they could hit me up for money. I stopped right there.
Note to Senator Harris and ALL the democratic candidates, MAKE IT PERSONAL. Sell the benefits, not the features. Tell me how your policies will affect my life, and the lives of my family, friends, neighbors, and ... Health care is a great starting point. Flesh it all out on your web site. I may even contribute.
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@Lee. Nobody will shred Trump in a debate. He is not Biden and will not hesitate to bring up every piece of dirt, real or imagined in the Harris past. He will talk and walk right over her. Any effort on her part to counter him will make her look shrill and shrewish and even more unlikeable to a lot of us than she already is.
A debate against Trump is not about facts. Trump makes them up as he goes along. He will not hesitate to bring up every imagined piece of dirt and negative in her past. He is not a gentleman.
The debate is a TV game show where the networks will push it as the battle of the stars. . Trump is an Emmy Award winning TV show star. He mowed down a whole lot of Republican hopefuls in 2016. All of them except maybe that HP lady were more qualified to be president than he ever will be. He conned some into thinking that Ted Cruz’s father had something to do with the Kennedy assassination and that Cruz needed to produce a birth certificate. The undecideds loved it. Women were ugly. Jeb was low energy. It stuck.
And then he debated Clinton.
Trump doesn’t have a clue about what to do as President. But he knows how to be a TV star. There is little pressure on him to come out looking like a policy wonk in a debate, He just has to put on a good show for his fans. A lot of mudslinging, fantasy not fact. His comfort zone. .
The ability to take down Trump in a debate is a dream and a poor reason to pick a presidential candidate.
Roger, your op-ed has more of a flavor of a campaign speech than a serious piece of journalism. In speaking generally of Americans you say "They are suspicious of government, inclined to self-reliance." It was more so years ago but this is still true. Harris supports Medicare for all whereas many people do not. I like my health insurance and do not want it phased out whether immediately or in ten years. Think of the hundreds of thousands of insurance company employees who will lose their livelihoods. What will they do, work at Starbucks? There aren't enough of them. Will AOC teach them how to serve drinks? Biden is right - fix Obamacare, don't replace it with Medicare for all. Institute Medicare for all with its paltry payments and watch hospitals and doctors disappear. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Harris is from California, a state that's just as horrid a place to live as NY or NJ, with killer taxes and total mismanagement. Is this what Harris will do to the entire country? I'm a moderate and a centrist, and the Democratic Party has moved way too far to the left to suit me, To me, the only viable and acceptable candidate is Biden. He's got some negatives. I can't argue, but is the only Dem candidate I will vote for. I think he's the only candidate who has a shot at beating Trump and isn't that the primary goal in 2020?
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We need not "choose" our "favorite" now. And Harris is surely in contention.
But that is no excuse to muddy the conversation.
1) It's time to stop distorting what Bernie means when he calls himself a "democratic socialist (DS)." He is using it in contrast to an "agnostic capitalist (AC)." A DS believes that we are a society first, that humans thrive only in a community, and it is our responsibility to care for each other. An AC believes we are individuals in a fight for survival and everything is in the table in order to win. The DSs believe in Medicare, Social Security, a true level playing field, and compassion. The ACs, with their history of slavery, corruption, monopolistic anti-competitive competition, sweat shops, cruelty, and struggle-for-survival no-hold-barred method of smashing others, believe in seizing an advantage, squashing opponents, and never looking back. This is what Bernie is getting at -- he is not against reasonable business activity, reasonable inequality of wealth, and diversity of all sorts -- a strong safety net and a fair shot for all.
And yes, Harris is learning on the campaign trail -- mastering the huge portfolio of a president is a constant learning process. No candidate or president can do without good advisers and aides. They should not be expected to know all that their staffs know -- but they need to learn how to get to the major points and defer to others for the details.
And of course America is a place and an idea: Discuss
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You're fine until you get to your praise of Harris. You may project what you think you see onto her, because she is very much an empty suit. So it's easy to see in her what you want to see.
She's great with a script. When she has prepared, and when what she has prepared for materializes, she shoots like an arrow. But that's not life, and that's not the presidency. You need to be nimble, and you need to be fast on your feet.
I just don't see Harris in that way. She brings a great deal of demographics to her candidacy, but beyond that, there's little there there.
Biden, Pete, Warren, and Booker all give the sense they won't be pushed around. I don't have that sense with Harris or many of the others. Sanders too, I just wish he was less strident. Sometimes you need to cajole, not coax.
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Cohen writes that America is not ready for Sanders's democratic socialism and proceeds with the statement that few people understand the concept.
I don't think he understands it himself. It's not about 'democratic socialism' - the thing that works so well all over Europe is called social democracy. It's easy to understand, really: just your basic capitalism, but with a safety-net and the government keeping an stern eye on those who would bend the rules.
The idea that a person would go bankrupt over medical bills is unthinkable, everywhere from Norway to the UK to the Netherlands and France. Medical insurance is roughly about 120 euros a month across the board, and there's a co-pay for certain treatments. Due to price regulation, medication and hospital care are reasonably priced.
All thanks to that stern government eye, that recognizes something the current US government does not: that a country exists for its people.
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Harris May appear tough, she might throw a knockout punch to trump. But I do not believe in her. I believe Hillary was the right choice for the first woman president. So did most of America.
I will vote for Harris if she wins the nomination because trump will be the other choice. Thanks to the spineless Republican Senate who should have been willing to convict trump a long time ago. I wish Biden were younger, I wish Buttigieg had more experience. Both of these men seem to me to be excellent choices to restore the health of America. Warren and Klobuchar are tough enough, but I am not sold on them as “ready for prime time”.
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@MLE53
Convict Trump of what?
I don’t suppose you could name the crime or misdemeanor?
Kamalas policies and plans waiver with the weather. I fear she will enter the White House and forget all her promises. She feels a little like Hillary for me at this point-- I don't know what her plans really are. And her healthcare plan is convoluted and confusing. I don't think this is her moment. I do think she would do well against Trump in debates. But I dont think she can win.
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I disagree with most of the commentators about Kamala Harris. I watched her first Town Hall in January. I was underwhelmed. She couldn't answer some questions - "I will have to research that." She was unable to answer a question from a farmer (she was in Iowa) and threw out the comment about private insurance as an afterthought (she later backtracked on this). Nothing I have seen since then has changed my mind. When I look at Harris, I see a scared person, afraid to make a decision and trying to please everyone. Apparently, the attack on Biden took weeks to prepare and after she got through flip-flopping on that, ended up accepting Biden's position + adopting forced busing. That position will play very well in the general election. Selling t-shirts was so crass. Does she believe this process is a carnival? I know Bernie does but that is different.
Her performance in the last debate was very poor, especially for a prosecutor. (I did think her performance in the first was also poor. She looked petty and mean and attacked Biden, not because she believed his positions were wrong but to elevate her in the polls.) She didn't know what was in her own medicare-for-all plan, she fumbled and stumbled through the questions and was a general bust. Her medicare-for-all plan is a perfect example. Neither progressive, nor moderate, right in the middle with the hope to please everyone.
She is a poor candidate and will eventually lose enough primaries so she will drop out.
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Speaking to Mr. Cohen's column, the election will be won in only a few states. Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennslyvania, and Florida (probably not Ohio). So basically who appeals to the swing voters and the diverse Democrats? There is your winning candidate. Look around and you will find him or her.
Personally, I think Harris would make a fine candidate and president. The problem is does she play in Peoria? I am skeptical.
In the meantime, the Democrat candidates need to stop beating up themselves and former President Obama. Get to the heart of the matter. What type of country do you want for your children and other family members? Do you have a bright economic present and future? The message has to be simple. See Hope and Change. One can define that anyway one needs to in order to support the candidate.
What the West Coast and the North East see as important is not what the rest of the country necessarily sees as important. Yes, we are a divided country. Whether the elites want to believe it or not, the election will be won on a sense of a better economic future and someone that channels the American spirit of independence and self worth.
News flash to the Democrats. Find a positive candidate with a tag line that Joe and Jill Six Pack can channel their life through. Then you will win the swing states. Nothing else will work.
@Mary. If Harris continues to hack away at Biden they probably won’t love her in Eastern Pa. where the Democratic votes are. Many love Biden here and even though he may not do well in the primaries because of his age they may not like to see him the victim of irrelevant attacks on a debate stage.
We have a late primary and the candidate will probably be selected by the time Pa. votes. So while the rest of the country gets to look into their crystal ball and figure out who can win Pa. the voters here have nothing much to say about it. In 2016 Sanders won the primaries in both Michigan and Wisconsin. I hope the crystal ball is working better this time.
"Forms of socialism work in Europe, and the word is widely misunderstood in America, but socialism and America’s essence are incompatible."
On the surface, this rings true, but Social Security and Medicare have been gleefully embraced. Medicare for all and free college would be equally popular once implemented.
They will be a disaster because the reaction will give the country to the Republicans. The third time may very well be the charm. Simplistic answers that invoke full certainty are most likely wrong and dangerous.
Roger Cohen, thank you for this shout-out to Kamala Harris. I know her; I've followed her since the days she was the DA in San Francisco though her tenure as CA Attorney General and then onto the United States Senate. She is a force to be reckoned with and speaks truth to power. And it is that last point that I will focus. If any women - or man - can stand up to Donald Trump before millions of people, it is she. She will have him blithering and blathering and sweating under those TV spotlights which he knows so well. I have watched her very closely at the debates. Yes, she was on the defensive during the last one. Why? Because she like Joe Biden was a target, a threat to those others who aspire to be president. As you write, she is more moderate than her colleague Elizabeth Warren. She will not scare off our more conservative neighbors in the Midwest. She is a woman of color who has "been there," so to speak. She is smart as a whip, ethical, and has a moral compass. I am 74 years' old. And I am ready for a woman president while I still have my faculties. The time is now. Yes, my choice is Kamala. But, let us face it, Warren is up to the task, too.
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@Kathy Lollock
Thanks, as always, for what you wrote.
I didn’t have the chance to respond to your reply to me yesterday about Kamala Harris and I’d like to here. There are things I respect about her and I could certainly be glad to vote for a ticket with her on it in any position. I also don’t intend to be harsh towards her (or any Democrat).
What Ms. Harris did to Joe Biden in the first debate rubbed me the wrong way. When she was challenged about her own past this week, my hope was not that it would take her down, but that it would show her - everyone, really - to think before casting that first stone.
Here’s hoping that all of the nominees will stop ripping at one another and instead pitch their plans for our future!
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@NM Oh, no problem. Admittedly, I had a hard time watching the debates because I just could not deal with the insults flying back and forth between those who should be allies. And truthfully, I felt bad for Biden, too. I just wish their targets would be Donald Trump instead of each other. I can only speak for myself, but I am so weary, upset, and downright scared of the hateful rhetoric spewing from this administration. I just can not handle anything close to the above from my own Party, too, in which I have so much hope. And by the way, whoever gets the nomination, I will fight like the dickens for.
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@Kathy Lollock I will vote for her to rid us of t, but it will only be a vote for (maybe) the lesser of two evils. Unlike him, she probably won't work to actually destroy the country, with her it will be politics as usual. I haven't yet checked her record in CA, but most of what I hear is not complimentary in any way.
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To beat Trump, you have to weigh in the weak points of the candidate before those of Trump, personality and policies both.
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I do agree that Harris appears tough enough to battle it out onstage with Trump. She can appear and sound obnoxious, which may be what we need to beat him down. But Mr. Cohen, what of the criminal justice issues that were raised by both Gabbard at the debate, and the NYT article on the same? Plus, more frightening, are these just the tip of the iceberg? One thing I know: if someone is found breaking the rules it is never singular, it is always a pattern. What remains to be uncovered about Harris? That is the question to ask before anointing her the nominee.
2
Harris's problem is not that she is insufficiently progressive--she is, in fact, insufficiently progressive for me, but my views are perhaps not squarely in the mainstream. Her problem is that she is unable to convincingly defend any particular policy position all the way through an entire news cycle. This makes her look weak, inauthentic, and triangulating. On the other hand, Warren, Sanders, and Biden (although I am not a Biden supporter) all speak with the courage of true conviction. Perhaps this is why all three are polling ahead of Harris. I suspect that a candidate who truly believes in his her own message may be more significant to the electorate than that message itself.
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@Fred--Take a look a Harris and the aftermath of the first debate. She scored a couple of points with a manufactured remark and a cheap t-shirt.
Aside from the petty showmanship, what is lost is the fact that busing is not a good issue for either her or the Democratic party. So her big moment was ephemeral.
Can she improve? Absolutely. The campaign is the equivalent of a least a few baseball season.
I personally think the party establishment might try to rebrand Harris as moderate if it appears that Warren or Sanders is on the way to the nomination. The establishment appears to think that running a moderate is the best chance to beat Trump. That is an idea that will be tested at the polls in November 2020.
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@Fred. Not so progressive as some think: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/opinion/kamala-harris-criminal-justice.html
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@Fred
Sanders and Warren are too far left and 'threatening' to the undecided in the middle or the disappointed Trump-ets who might be swayed.
The Dems need to attract the middle, energize women and minorities to come out in droves, otherwise Trump will win.
3
I liked Harris fine, but definitely do not think she can beat Trump for at least two reasons: (1) I, regrettably, don’t see this country electing a black woman as President; I have no doubt a male Hillary would have won, and (2) Harris has no “vision” or even coherent story or perspective. I’m not a big fan of labels or silos, but she too undefinable, jumping all around on issues, hard to identify. People don’t like that and don’t feel passionate about someone they can’t quite sum up.
One thing that really turned me off about Harris in both debates is the condescending tone she used in response to everyone, but especially Biden. That was a big turn off to me. You can be forceful and persuasive without being patronizing.
I think if Warren could increase turnout among young voters she could win, and I’d certainly love to see her debate Trump.
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@L. Hoberman Male candidates (excluding Obama) use(d) the same tone every time they or their policies were attacked. Wasn't held against them.
Harris's vision is clear to me. It's FOR THE PEOPLE. Teacher pay increases, an equal pay policy that puts the proof on the employer not the employees, gun control that still allows reasonable and responsible gun ownership, healthcare, criminal justice reform, middle class tax rebates, etc...
When people say that they don't see "this country" electing a black woman, they, themselves, have devalued a candidate based on gender and race.
It negates everything elseyou have to say about this candidate.
Gender and skin pigment have nothing to do with a candidates ability to lead.
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When I asked my daughters in their 20s which candidate has the buzz among their friends, it was, to my surprise, Elizabeth Warren.
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@L. Hoberman
condescending tone...? Oh you mean that FEMALE tone?
21
I have always eargerly looked forward to reading your columns Mr. Cohen, and I can’t think of a time when I have been more disappointed . Kamala Harris by all accounts had a difficult debate the other night. She seemed unsteady, and quite frankly surprised and indignant that she was being challenged so.She then had to come out the following morning and affirm her admiration and support of Barack Obama. Why?
Pete Buttigieg was the steady, strong, focused candidate that night, he took multiple shots at Trump, not President Obama , as the others did. Buttigieg is the one who has displayed the intellect, the depth, and combined with military experience has a unique understanding of the world that this country desperately needs now.
I believe he will be one of the last candidates standing.
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@Richard J Braverman Buttigieg is the most capable when it comes to speaking clearly, conveying thoughtful ideas effectively and sounding reasonable. I do hope he is the last standing. Frankly I think he would govern sensibly and mop the floor with Trump in a debate. In particular I like that he doesn't seem angry. Finally, I'd like Janet Napolitano as his VP.
Harris, in contrast, comes across as having a bit of an attitude and she's all over the place.
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@Richard J Braverman While I like him immensely, it is totally unrealistic to think that Buttigeig is remotely qualified to be President. He simply isn't ready yet.
Like him or not, Buttagieg's political experience is limited to running a medium sized Midwestern City. No congressional or high level governing experience of any sort.
He needs more experience.
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@A Yes, yes, yes! Mop the floor, I love that analogy. And govern sensibly...oh my, yes! He's still not widely known because he's not loud and flashy. But he's moving up, little by little. Give him time, we've still got over a year to go.
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Kamala Harris is kryptonite to Trump in every way, Patronus to Dementor, and could indeed be the best candidate to bring America back to its founding ideals. But her performances in the debates have been worrisome. She seems to be losing herself in the political process, trying to adhere to the game strategies of advisers rather than following her own internal compass.
Go with your gut Kamala. Trust yourself. Be yourself.
3
I got excited about Harris at first, too. I was impressed at the way she skewered Kavanaugh and Barr--in fact, Barr canceled his hearing before the House the next day and I believe it was because Harris made him squirm. In the first debate, I didn't mind her staged ambush of Biden. "Okay, she's a politician, whatev." All the above was a preview how she'd handle Trump. But after the second debate, I find her waffling and insincere. AG, maybe. Really, it's a shame. She had inspired hope.
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@Pamala--The staged ambush (with post debate t-shirt) that you have no problem with is something that Democrats should be concerned with. Busing is not a winning issue for Democrats. The morning after the debate the Republicans will have t-shirts printed "Kamala wants to Bus Your Kids".
The fact is she read her script that night June that was written by a number of people. Her lines were not particularly relevant to the discussion at that point. It wasn't standing up to Biden, it was acting and very poor acting.
The Democratic Party has to figure this one out but let's not confuse ambushing Joe with standing up to Trump
15
@Pamala
"Making people squirm" and 'skewering' is what Donald Trump does every time he opens his mouth. I don't see them as presidential qualities and look forward to more civility, not more squirming. Both Booker and Harris used squirm-worthy words and demeanor during the Kavanaugh hearings. As much as I disliked and disbelieved Kavanaugh, I was more disappointed with the lack of the Dems' professionalism. Harris also comes across as disingenuous; constantly changing her policies and position, depending on who's interviewing her. Her motivation seems more about the position of President than a devotion to an America that works for all people. I'm sorry about that because I wanted to like her.
16
@Pamala So you are giving up on your inspiration after a poorly staged and ridiculously executed debate by the peanut heads at CNN? You should have stronger convictions. Wait until the fat is cut from the debates and keep yourself open. I’m glad your watching and thinking about it though. I wish everyone was.
5
I’m a 29 year old black man who’s a registered nurse and researched Kamala thoroughly. Please understand that I will never vote for her because if I was ever to enter a courtroom where she was a prosecutor then I’d probably be going to jail. She made a career locking up black men who look like me. I really don’t think she’ll be able to convince the majority of black southerners to vote for her. Something rubs me the wrong way about her and I’m sorry I just can’t vote for her.
10
“Something rubs me the wrong way about her,” is exactly what so many people said about Hillary, and now look at us.
1
He begins to make his case for Harris in the last 3 paragraphs. Not a very strong argument.
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I presume this endorsement was written before Ms. Harris's disastrous performance in the second debate - ?
3
The qualities necessary to become president are antithetical to those needed to be an effective president. Until we solve this problem we will lucky to survive as a representative democracy.
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@Cassandra
Astute observation!
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@Cassandra Yes, absolutely right. I've long wondered about this, and have looked at the monarchy in England differently. A system that has a kind of figurehead, and then a separate politics. I would like my functioning President to be separate from the person so many people apparently want to "have a beer with." This system has (hopefully) reached its nadir with our reality show President.
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@Cassandra
Great point! Few understand it...
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Sorry, but if you are going to say that Warren “doesn’t pass the critical commander in chief test” you’re going to have to explain why.
9
Trump is a predatory narcissist in a gadfly’s clothing. All “divide and conquer” and DARVO (deny, attack, reverse victim and oppressor”) all the time.
The Democrat who ousts Trump will be a tough fighter and a hopeful uniter - a pro-growth progressive who leads and heals with decency.
Kamala Harris, Mayor Pete, Jay Inslee, and Steve Bullock all qualify.. Let’s hope America chooses more wisely this time.
5
I've come to disagree:
*Harris is a good debater; ... if the debate comes to her; her preparation; but she faltered badly when challenged; but given that Harris is a good debaters;
*Being a good debater doesn't make you a good president, although it may win you the presidency, as Trump demonstrated; but the downside is worse;
* A president must be a leader to all the people, not a prosecutor, not harsh, but inclusive. Harris doesn't rise to the challenge. She's harsh and narrow.
There are much better on the Democratic team: Sanders, Harris, Biden, Castro, Buttigieg, Booker, Inslee, Hickenlooper, and maybe even O'Rourke show more of the spirit and leadership you want from a president. Harris is toast.
2
I'm thinking: Steve Bullock.
He HAS faced down a Trump tidal wave, and won!
Trump can't bully him on stage - won't work.
Moderate demeanor, moderate policies, from the heartland.
Not an elitist; doesn't come off as a politician.
Someone whom swing voters can get behind.
3
Donald Trump is the supreme bully. devoid of compassion and moral fiber. I like Kamala but don't love her. She would dismantle Trump in a debate and on the campaign trail in some areas in the country. But I don't see the compassion that our country needs. I do see it in several other candidates including Warren, Buttigieg, and Sanders.
Like Trump, there seems to be some bully in Senator Harris. As a country, we need more. We need acceptance and healing.
3
Kamala Harris is in the title and yet only the last three - sorry, two - paragraphs discuss her. The rest of the article is the same recycled material I've read in op-eds ever since November 2016. Come on!
Also, "uneven debate performances"? She folded under Tulsi Gabbard's criticism the other night. Couldn't even correct Joe Biden when he took a jab at her Brady policy scandal. At moments she sounded like she was on verge of tears. 45 would brush her aside like a leaf! There are several Dem candidates I would characterize as "tough" but Harris isn't one of them.
5
Another anyone-but-Sanders article. The bias in the media against Sanders is truly astounding. The mis-directed focus on the absolutely trivial instead of the substance of what he (and Warren) are advocating is becoming more and more obvious. Focusing on the word "socialism" for example is utterly trivial in the context of what he proposes. The argument is essentially: Sanders can't win because socialism. It makes no sense. Focus on the proposals and how they Could work.
Sanders more than Any other candidate makes a liar out of Trump. With Trumps own words and promises. Sanders will depress Trumps turnout and is likely to convert most of the Obama supporters who switched, back away from Trump. Those are the white blue collar voters in three states, sick of establishment democrats that cost Clinton the presidency.
Sanders will generate the largest turnout of young voters and Black voters of any candidate save perhaps Warren. Faced with a choice of Sanders and Trump, Centrist Democrats will support Sanders. They aren't so stupid that they would switch to Trump just because the progressives carried the day. Just as progressives held their collective noses and voted for Clinton.
As an inequality remedy, Medicare for all takes a big step in the right direction. Black voters understand that and will turn out for it.
Then, there's the ending corruption piece. IF you're for corruption raise your hand! Not a lot of takers on that. No corporatists, Harris or otherwise.
5
@trebor :Exactly. Just look around us at America as a whole and see the wide-ranging support Bernard Sanders has. The media bias against him is , as you said, astounding !
You miss the mark this time, Mr. Cohen. Yes, job one is to oust Trump. The second task is to convict and jail him. But we need to go beyond getting him out and locking him up. We need a master rebuilder to take his place. If ever there were presidential material staring us in the face right now it is Warren.
2
Agreed.
Here's the thing.
Trump will never agree to debate Kamala Harris.
He knows she would devour him.
He will say he does not need to: as 'America's best ever and favorite president, American's aren't interested in debates'.
1
Harris does strike me as knowledgeable and strong, and I dare say, would likely pulverize Trump. That said, I do think she needs to polish her policies, and provide more specifics.
I think Trump is a bubonic plague, with the antidote being truth and perseverance.
1
Yes, Harris looks like she could take Trump down. Plus there is no need for her to out-left the progressives. For instance, the incremental approaches to health care are more than sufficient. Taking Trump down requires toughness and decency, proper outrage and steely steadiness, a firm grasp of policy and an equal mastery of how to communicate that policy to all Americans. Other candidates seem to have those things as well, and I have not always thought of them as my top choices (most Democrats apparently are not considering them): Booker, Inslee, Bennet, the not-yet-ready Buttigieg. When Warren fell into line behind Sanders, she made a grave mistake. This is no time to take a risk on idealistic plans that are too easily mocked and demagogued. Klobuchar did not hold Kavanaugh's feet to the fire when his behavior was so inappropriate and histrionic. That said, I believe these debates did more harm than good. The candidates as a group needed a win against CNN and its clickbait and Republican talking point questions. They needed a win against the idiotic debate format that favored the extremists, the loudest angriest voice in the room, the uncivil, the men who interrupt women, the arm wavers.
1
Elizebeth Warren could easily make Trump look like a fool in a debate, and she's got real solutions to America's problems, most especially healthcare. Elizebeth is a better choice, in my opinion.
2
One of Hillary's many flaws was perceived lack of trustworthiness, to a degree that made Trump seem less objectionable. Anyone who watched Tulsi Gabbard make mincemeat of Kamala Harris saw that it was not just that Kamala was caught off guard, but that Tulsi Gabbard pointed out that Kamala Harris has been a hypocrite, an opportunist, and someone who was now misrepresenting herself to the American people. In short, she was Hillary 2.0 for the 2020 election.
12
I totally agree.
She is a tough, smart, original woman.
The fact that she is African-American and a woman can bring Trump's deepest hidden racist and mysogyn feelings above in a verbal debate with her. Then we shall see who Trump really is. Let's hope she becomes the candidate.
KH is tough, As a lawyer myself, I admire her cross skills. She definitely would not back down. However, Tulsi Gabbard torched her Wednesday, Just destroyed her. And Gabbard is no Trump.
I am sticking with Biden.
5
Are you kidding? Did you watch the debates? Harris was my second choice prior to the debates, but her behavior in the two debates deeply disappointed me and completely changed my view about her. She exposed herself a nasty, calculated, manipulated, and ruthless opportunist -- lack of principles and no substance. She did not hesitate to throw disgraceful low belt punch to Biden, but shamefully dismissed Tulsi Gabbard's rightful questions that she is top-tier and Gabbard's is 0 or 1 percent, whatever. If aggression, ruthlessness, dishonesty, and entitlement are what call for a Commander in Chief, we have one in the White House already.
On the other hand, I was very impressed by Tulsi Gabbard. She has many great qualities that Harris is lack of.
5
HARRIS + BUTTIGIEG are the best foils for TRUMP + PENCE in the debates. In office, they will be 1000% better than the curent boneheads. Coalesce around a winning team quickly then focus on gaining control of the Senate and expand control of the house. Only then can the reformation begin.
2
The critics of Trump do not by default belong in the White House. Almost all of us have strong criticisms of him. This is not the only criterion for president.
Decency, respect for others, a deep knowledge of national and international policy, close ties with other world leaders, and a character of empathy and decency are needed in Post-Trump America.
Trump has normalized his daily fight club mentality. But his fight is with more than half of America.
I do not want someone who can fling one-line zingers at someone on a debate stage, whose prosecutions included criminalizing truancy, marijuana, and who has been accused of hiding evidence. These verged on abuse of power.
I do not want anyone who would jeopardize the healthcare of more than 150 million Americans by destroying private insurance.
Joe Biden is trustworthy. His ties with world and political leaders are of long-standing. He knows how to implement legislation. He is the only candidate that could bring in votes from different parts of America including the Midwest, the South, older voters, white and black.
In the wake of Trump chaos, anger, insults, ignorance, greed, potential treason, and destruction, I do not want an ambitious ruthless politician who also shows anger, insults, and has a shallow knowledge of international affairs and wide ranging programs.
I like Joe.
5
I'll come straight out and say it.
Kamala Harris came off as an angry scold in this week's debate. Pointing her finger, perpetually scowling. And throwing dirt at fellow Dems that GOP operatives are lapping up. Nobody wants another scold after Trump.
Warren, Joe and Mayor Pete could make the same arguments but draw people into their worldview, not put them off.
Harris is toast.
8
Well, she appears to be an unprincipled opportunist to me. But if she can beat Trump, I'll take it.
Tulsi Gabbard's attack on Kamala Harris's record as California AG exposed a perhaps fatal flaw. When Harris disingenuously rejected Gabbard's factually accurate assertions about her record, and then dismissed Gabbard as "not a top tier candidate", she revealed a cynicism and arrogance that should raise dispositive red flags about her political character.
6
Cohen doesn't understand America. At best, Americans eschew identity as a means of political power, meaning fairness is giving those who look differently or think differently the benefit of the doubt. At worst....well, we're seeing it.
You can't beat Trump if your strategy is to exploit identity by accusing someone a large number of Democrats agree with of being racist because he opposed busing when 93 percent of blacks opposed it.
Harris, the daughter of highly educated upper middle-class immigrant parents living in California, was not bused because of anything the federal government did or failed to do, but because white, black, and brown communities in her area of California implemented it locally.
Harris spent months planning her attack, with memes, tee shirts, and a publicity campaign ready. Harris used a rhetorical trick in saying she didn't think Biden was a racist, so she could argue he was one.
Biden faltered, in part, because he's decent and was stunned by the accusation. Harris showed she lacked "honesty, decency, dignity, tolerance and civility." Harris could never do it against Trump, who along with the over 60 million Americans who support him, would just laugh.
Harris lost any chance to win the presidency by going after Biden as she did. Trump will bury her with it. You can hear Trump already attacking Harris for going after "poor, sleepy Joe Biden" as a racist. Trump will say that it means Harris thinks every white guy is a racist, and it will work.
5
Those who support DJT in spite of incessant racist, sexist, xenophobic ranting are not those who need to be wooed, they are not going to be swayed.
It is the candidate who can reach the working class in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and Texas and inspire them to believe that capitalism can be repaired, the playing field leveled and their honest labor rewarded that will bring the needed votes.
1
Harris had to resort to her polling numbers to fend off Tulsi Gabbard even though hers are closer to Gabbard's that to the top tier (which is just Joe). She tried to imply Obama's VP is a racist to get attention and sell t shirts, no matter what message that sends to older white voters. Her health plan seems carefully calculated to sound in between Bernie's and Biden's, which means it is probably not designed with working well in practice as the first goal.
None of these will play well in swing states. If she is the nominee she will get my vote, but I will probably hate casting it even more than I hated casting a vote for Clinton.
Lots of people are good at career climbing. This is not what makes a good president. After all, once one is president, one has nowhere more to climb to, and one has to govern for everyone, even the "deplorables" and the people who opposed bussing.
2
I will vote for any person, animal or object that opposes the barbarian, but I like to imagine Harris debating Trump. Remember him lurking ominously behind Hillary? Harris wouldn’t put up with it. I think there’d be a fist fight. I think Harris would win.
1
Sorry, I disagree. Harris will implode. She can't take the heat...doesn't have the right temperament. I'm not sure who can pull this off....that first debate on the 30th had a few possibilities that I hope make it to the Sept debate. But, I've thought from the beginning that Harris is all show...no substance for the WH.
3
I am tired of this debate nonsense. If our nation votes based on sound bites, then we are truly lost.
We need thoughtful solutions to the planetary crisis: if Bangladesh, Micronesia, New Zealand, etc. lose significant or nearly all land mass, the immigration crisis will no longer be a talking point: it will be the greatest humanitarian crisis in world history. Think we have problems now? It will be horrific.
I know the healthcare system is corrupt. I know our educational system is inept.
But the most urgent issue of our time is that we are trashing our planet: the costs of this insolent disregard will be a curse on our children and grandchildren.
We are treating the the upcoming Presidential election as a kind of game show. Trump is the perfect President symbolizing our shallowness and desire for our immediate entertainment.
Folks, we need to talk about the planet. It's time to be thoughtful about our children's future. We need to avoid reactivity when an angry, damaged soul posts inflammatory nonsense on Twitter. Planet health matters most of all: it presents the most potential damage to everything we know and love: a balance of national powers, the balance of nature, clean water, clean air, our food supply. Everything else will be fixed in time, but we're running out of time to fix this.
There is one candidate who has a grasp of this, but he won't be President, because he isn't flamboyant or entertaining. That will be our great loss.
"Kamala Harris has a great American story"
This might make it sound like Harris came from a background of underprivilege. In fact, Harris's father is a Stanford economics professor with mostly white (i.e. slave-owning) Jamaican ancestry, while her mother was a cancer scientist from India.
"Trump is angry, a stranger to happiness, angrier still for not knowing the source of his rage."
Is this really true? In demeanor, Trump - like everyone - sometimes seems angry. But a lot of the time he does not.
What is true is that many of Trump's supporters are angry. You see this in footage of the rallies. And many do not seem to be able to say honestly exactly why they are angry. But that doesn't mean there isn't a reason.
If you have trouble understanding this, a good question to ask yourself is whether any members of your family have benefitted from economic globalization and financial deregulation over the past 25 years. Do any of your family members work in the "taking" sector of the economy rather than the "making" one? If the answer yes, then maybe you just don't want to see why so many people are angry.
To deal with the anger of Trump's supporters is a long-term endeavor to which some honest self-reflection may make a contribution.
This is not to forget that Trump won the white vote at all socioeconomic levels. Surely related to the exemplary performance of the first African-American president and the economic rise of China - eo ipso the relative decline of the USA.
1
Haven't we learned anything? Debates, toughness, etc. don't matter. Facing Trump down is just nonsense. Hillary was supposed to be so tough having more testosterone than most men. Bush and Trump couldn't beat anyone in a debate because they didn't know anything. Well none of those seemed to matter. No one is going to face down Trump because with deception and lies he changes and makes new rules. What did Obama bring to the table? That old fashioned word called hope. In Trump's case his base hopes for a white America just a bit longer but Democrats have to figure out something else to offer. They have to offer an America that is free of fear of the future-fear of the horrors of climate change, fear of being neglected because they are sick and fear of what an America of diversity would look like. There are others fears that most Americans have but we can start with those three and most importantly attempt to include all 98% of Americans.
1
The ticket that will beat Trump is Joe Biden and fill in the VP. Joe is a moral yesterday; the VP selection will be tomorrow's promise.
1
This opinion piece is definitely just the writer's opinion, and a highly questionable one. Harris is not the best choice for a number of reasons, including her sketchy record in office on key issues, her edgy personality that will not sell well to many independent or borderline voters, and her lack of a strong platform with sufficiently progressive and detailed policies. She may be "tough" in some ways, but she's not in command of the issues or likeable enough to win over the voters who must join stalwart Dems to comfortably carry the 2020 election, even against a grotesque monster like Trump.
I'll take a combination of Warren and Booker over Harris and whoever any day. I want transformational, structural change, not middle of the road liberalism that won't bring any major change and will lead to increased polarization, racial divide and income inequality with all that entails. Harris is definitely not the answer.
3
Harris has moved too far to the left and may lose against Trump as a result. If the sole criterion is beating Trump, I'd go for Cory Booker.
1
The very serious people (sorry for the Krugmanism) keep telling me, in an increasingly patronizing way, that all we ought to care about is to beat Trump. I was told that in the last election and voted for HRC. No, nobody has the fantasy precognitive abilities, as of now, to suss out who can beat Trump. I should have stayed with Sanders. This time around I am sending money to Warren and Harris, and I feel great about that.
Roger, this is one worrisome column. Harris has a very low chance of beating Trump. Put the ideas aside. She has charisma, but one that puts off a good fraction of the population. Call it misogyny, call it stereotyping. But as you said, we need to win the election. Why taking this risk?
And her debate performances have been fairly mediocre. She is not an inspiring candidate, she conveys negativity, as so do many democratic candidates.
2
Vague, vague, vague, and still too empty of effort. On the other hand we're all exhausted already by this onslaught of candidacies of minor competencies in major effronteries, and one can see this column's speculations as kicking back after a long night of "what was that all about," and saying, well, "maybe this." If Pelosi were running it would be over in time for dinner.
“Nationalism, self-pitying and aggressive, seeks to change the present in the name of an illusory past in order to create a future vague in all respects except its glory.”
Roger, you first used this evocative sentence in “Why I Am a European Patriot” (January 25, 2019). All pasts are reconstructed, and that Trump slavishly patches together his own select history does not make it illusory but pernicious. This is a history of Andrew Jackson and Andrew Johnson and, more proximately, of Ronald Reagan.
Democrats must weave together their own counterhistory of America that foregrounds the legacy of Abraham Lincoln (Whig become Republican), MLK, FDR, and JFK.
There is no national essence—not even Constitutionally—but a continuous process of nation-building throughout the world. Today, China epitomizes state capitalism. Why not American capitalist socialism?
Biden indeed is showing signs of cognitive decline rather than flashes of fire. But your take on Warren and Sanders suggests your fealty to political boxes, as is the case with so many of your colleagues. As Yang observes, “neither Left nor Right, but forward.”
As for your girl, Harris tentatively responded to critiques of her chimerical healthcare plan, whose basic outlines she did not trouble to summarize. And she had no answer to Gabbard’s devastating critique of her record as California’s Attorney General.
Harris is too opportunistically entrenched in the California Democratic establishment for my taste.
The only one who understands the pulse of the people at this juncture in history is the Harvard kid from the mid-west = Pete Buttigieg! For every subgroup he alienates, there is an unlikely other that will support him.
5
I am a Kamala Harris fan. I wrote Elizabeth Warren off months back because I thought Trump would chew her up and spit her out, but she has been getting stronger and stronger. Castro has been looking more presidential than any of his competitors. And we haven't seen much of Bullock yet, he could be the sleeper. Way too early to pick a winner.
2
I hope everyone reads this piece.
Takes a deep breath. Goes for a walk around the block. Gets a good meal. Reads it again.
Bottom line: Nothing matters other than finding a character who can get more votes than 45.
Ideas, ideals, work of lifetimes, records, policies, position papers, nothing matters other than finding a character that can beat 45. What the populace wants their representatives to do on their behalf. Doesn’t matter.
When history is written the Dems will have to own their share of the blame for our republic, our representative democracy's, hobbling.
The end justified the means.
I hope the DNC is listening.
Going forward, all the metrics to determine who will be in debates may be reduced to one question: Who will you vote for that will beat 45? Just keep winnowing down the top finishers with the most “yes votes” to that one question.
That is how you are conditioning the electorate.
Here is the corollary: Media & other Dems, please stop pointing out the faults of the leading Dems, one of those characters HAS to win.
If Harris has no foreign experience, if she has less national experience than 44, if she flip-flops on her positions, if she mishears a question, ignore; just focus on her “Prosecutor-in-Chief” persona.
And remember this was how Dems lost 2020 and how they are culpable for the next 5 1/2 years of 45.
Any candidate facing Donald Trump will struggle because Trump is a lying con artist. Trump creates the illusion of success. None of the Democratic challengers appear to be skilled flimflam artists.
Think of an oncologist who must tell his patient, “I’m very sorry, but you have cancer. I can do surgery to remove the bulk of the tumor, and then treat you with radiation and chemotherapy. The odds are 50/50 that you will go into remission and be cancer free.” How does that oncologist compete with the quack? The quack will tell the patient, “Don’t worry. You’ll be fine. You don’t need surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy. All you need is my vitamin drink. Thousands of people have been cured with my special drink!”
The quack is lying, but a patient desiring a cure will be very tempted to believe the quack. Trump is also lying. Trump says that Kim has gotten rid of all nuclear weapons when he hasn’t. Trump says that old border fencing in place before he was elected is his border wall. Trump says that his tariffs against China will bring manufacturing back to the U.S. when there is no indication that the trade war is bringing back the manufacturing hubs of the 1950’s. Trump says that pollution is no problem, and the climate is fine.
Trump will stand on stage and lie grandly about his first four years. Whoever faces him must be able to debate with a grandiose charismatic liar. Kamala Harris seems less likely to get flustered, but it sure won’t be easy for any of them.
1
Steve Bullock, with Kamala Harris or Amy Klobuchar as his VP running mate. That is the ticket that can win handily. As always in these recommendations, focus on who can win PA, WI and MI and hold all of the other states that Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine won, maybe add a few more like Arizona or Iowa. But focus on winning PA, WI and MI !!! Bullock is clearly presidential. Harris is not there yet. Klobuchar is there, but lacks the natural charisma.
Great opinion piece, the author clearly appreciates the difficult Biden will have motivating the young, minorities, and progressives to vote. Harris should be taken very seriously as a candidate and it's unlikely she expect to be treated politely or speak politely to the bully in chief.
Energetic or opportunistic? Remains to be seen.
I can’t see Harris winning swing states. Some people look be in fantasy land. Biden has the best chance of winning rust belt swing states.
1
Roger Cohen has fallen for Kamala Harris' contrived "tough prosecutor" act. I see little to recommend her, other than the fact that she can put on an angry, hurt act, like she did with Biden, a man she has praised effusively in the past for his role in the fight for civil rights, now trying to portray him as racist. That is called hypocrisy. She is ambitious, but has trouble deciding what she believes. If you are looking for someone more moderate than Warren or Sanders, there are plenty to choose from besides Biden, including O'Rourke, Inslee, Bennett, Hickenlooper, Bullock. They all deserve much more media attention than they are given. It is truly unfair that the media named a "top tier" a year and a half before the election and never mention anyone else but those five. The NYT fell the "top tier" concept back in the Spring. It is a false construct. For example, I've seen polls in which Buttigieg would be at 5% and O'Rourke at 4%. Buttigieg would be deemed top tier and O'Rourke would never be mentioned.
1
If Senator Harris becomes the Democratic nominee. Trump would be well advised to stay in his corner when she has the floor. Stalking that woman could be dangerous. And I do hope he tries stalking her. Must-see TV. LOL
2
Can we please stipulate, once and for all, that debate performance does not necessarily predict performance as Commander-in-Chief.
1
In a pig’s eye will Kamala Harris beat President Trump who has made our economy great again, has defeated ISIS and remade trade deals for America’s benefit. The petty slings and arrows of an elite press will not alter the opinions of the masses that love and support President Trump.
1
We are OK with social democracies. Socialism just doesn't scare people under 50.
2
Sadly, Mr. Cohen is spot on in his argument regarding nationalism, but I'm wary of his conclusion regarding Ms. Harris.
After observing Ms. Harris's difficulty articulating "the vision thing" (as GWW Bush called it), her struggles with certainty on details of policy, and especially after reading the recent New Yorker article about her, I am very wary of her and her quest to become president.
While she's clearly a smart woman and while she certainly checks the boxes of the zeitgeist, as Mr. Cohen notes, I can't help but wonder if her sense of entitlement and righteousness might greatly exceed her actual substance.
And I think her attack on Biden in the first "debate" was a disingenuous cheap shot, as her subsequent statements proved.
Of course, even if my worst suspicions of her are entirely true, she would be a far better president the current NOTUS (Nightmare of the United States), and should she be the nominee I'll go all out to help her win.
But for now, I'll hope for somebody else.
1
Roger,
Did we watch the same debate? If you think the woman we saw who was like a dear caught in the headlights has a chance of defeating trxmp you are sorely mistaken.
A lot of people don't like nor do they trust Harris. After a slight bump in the polls, her numbers continue to drop. Have you examined her AG record? The truancy parental incarceration issue that disproportionately affected low income families or Jamal Trulove's wrongful conviction and kamala's refusal to review exonerating evidence. What about her back-stabbing Al Franken and Joe Biden in the interests of political expediency.
She constantly flip-flops on issues like healthcare and immigration. She may be a decent prosecutor but when it comes to articulating policy, she leaves a lot to be desired.
You realize the African American community overwhelmingly supports Joe Biden. I doubt her attacks on President Obama’s legacy will endear her to them anytime soon.
I'd like to understand you and your colleagues. Now, Goldberg likes Booker, Blow is yearning for Yang and you're supporting Harris. You do realize Democrats have to win more than NewYorkafornia to beat trxmp.
On August 1st, your former colleague, Nate Silver, said "If you're a pundit and can't figure out why real, actual people like Biden, you're not good at your job. He talks about the middle class a lot, he talks about trump a lot, he represents the continuation of the very popular (among Ds) President Obama, and people think he can win."
2
Maybe she's the one, but so far, she is boring me.
Criticism of Biden for being what was a moderate in 1980: pointless. The same critique can be made of her time as California's top prosecutor.
Health care reform: Medicare for all but you can keep your current insurance, and we'll take 10 years to toss out the entire current system ad replace it: Laughable. Better idea-- fix Obamacare. (None of you has worked in a legislative position in Congress; I have. Participated in overhauling major legislation. It can be done. This current crop of Trump Republicans in the Senate has succeeded in convincing many of you that throwing out the baby is the way to get new bathwater. )
Other policy issues: fumble-mumble. Needs to sharpen.
I'm not saying she can't, but so far, she seems weak on policy and strong on what news columnists (like this one) fall for: "Oooh, it's Kamala Harris!" It's a bit late for her to be so weak and waffly on policy.
Watch the Iowa caucuses: she will likely flop there and Mayor Pete might get a huge boost. Watch New Hampshire: Biden and Warren should have a strong ground game there.
Watch the South Carolina primary. She might gain ground against Biden, maybe not. If not, she'll fade.
A lot of loyalty and money will swing on what happens in those three states.
Distrust pundit' picks. Some of them go googly-eyed in the presence of their idols.
1
Agree and I'd like to see her paired with Cory Booker.
1
Midwesterners will not support Kamala Harris. She is too west coast, too liberal and she lacks humility. She is a fighter, let there be no doubt. She certainly can cut Trump down, but that won't win her the votes needed to overcome the masses of Trump supporters who view him as some kind of second coming.
Eviscerating Trump in a debate is not a qualification for the presidency. These debates are not gladiatorial contests. Frankly, these debates have become so idiotic that I seriously question their usefulness.
Biden knows how to connect with the kinds people he needs to to defeat Trump. I'll be frank. An aggressive woman of color with a razor sharp tongue and wit will not win votes in middle America.
Kamala Harris would be a tremendous asset on the campaign trail, slicing up Trump where she goes, but not so much as a vote getter for herself.
People make choices about voting the same way they do when they buy things. It's buy my product and feel good about yourself. Reaching that goal is the foundation of marketing. Kamala Harris doesn't instill that feeling in people. I think old Joe can to a much larger extent. He won't tear the place apart and that is a feel good feeling. The others are a bit too extreme to create that reaction.
The left wing of the Democratic party cannot elect the president. The entire country does and a candidate is needed that appeals to the largest number of people.
344
@Bruce Rozenblit
Exactly. Pollsters warn Independents will be choosing the next President, and they are saying loud and clear then will vote for Trump over a Democrat that swings too far left -- aka Warren, Sanders, and yes Harris.
27
@Bruce Rozenblit
"The left wing of the Democratic party cannot elect the president."
Please remember that "Candidate Trump has no path to the presidency" was mistaken. :)
30
@Bruce Rozenblit
2020 is coming soon, but we still have time to sort out a positive, winnable candidate. It is clearly just too soon, especially using the current debate format (which, by the way, appears to me to have been inevitable) given the numbers.
14
This is the first time in a long time that I have disagreed with Roger Cohen. First, I think it is too early to pick the candidate. Second, Harris has a lot of work ahead of her to explain her lack of prosecutorial discretion.
1
If Kamala can’t handle Tulsi, how will she handle Trump??
I’m done with Kamala. I started this election cycle with Kamala firmly as my #2 candidate (though well behind Warren). From her prosecution of the Trump nominees, I thought she was tough.
But, as the election cycle has gone on, all her weaknesses have become manifest.
She lacks an ideological core. Her record isn’t progressive nor are her plans.
She’s an opportunist: she served a canned dish around “food on the table not food fight” and then proceeded to dump mashed potatoes and gravy on Biden... When their current positions on busing converge.
She has a bad record on criminal justice and people who know her best (CA) aren’t thrilled with her. Kamala has not been able to shake off the “she’s a cop” label that was attached to her.
She’s not a retail politician. The CA elections aren’t the best grounds to prepare anyone to run for national office. Her ground game hasn’t been electric.
I don’t even understand the key message behind why she’s running: “to prosecute the case against Trump”. I get the link to her being a prosecutor, but it’s a weak identity given her troubles with criminal justice system (above).
She looked unhappy, and at time angry on the debate stage. That’s not a good look given it’s use as a cudgel against AA politicians.
It’s time we stopped looking for Obama in every politician. He was a once in a generation phenomenon. Kamala isn’t it. She’d make a fine attorney general.
2
Anybody as completely unprepared for the assault on her record by Tulsi Gabbard, and others that have exposed her :what should I say I actually stand for today" will be exhausted by the time 2020 rolls around. When she picks her finger up and lectures other Democrats for their policies, and doesn't even have a criminal justice reform policy she sounds more like Trump deflecting about Russia. I'd like an answer to why so many people have problems with her tenure as California's AG - from her. Not a non-answer. All the attacks on Gabbard by what some call Black Twitter and by Joy Reid, Malcolm Nance and other prominent AA figures are pathetic and alarming. Either she can defend herself, or she can't. The only thing she has demonstrated is that she can stick a shiv in Obama's VP's back. Could you point us to what poll that shows she actually has significant support from the AA community? She is a very ambitious AG that can prosecute the case against Trump? She needs to present her own case first. I get it. People think she makes a great reality show politics player, especially when she simpers and whines about her being bused to another community. Was she assaulted where she was sent to? Would both of her Dr. parents have let that happen? The media will love watching her get eating by the lions. She knows what flavor the Kool Aid she is drinking. It's vanilla - from what she wants y'all to know is an ostensibly chocolate cup. At least for the South Carolina primaries.
2
Tulsi Gabbard's well-researched and calmly-delivered obliteration of Harris's record as California AG - prison labor, suppressing death row evidence, prosecuting petty marijuana violations - demonstrated which lady wore the pant(suit) on that stage.
Then in her post-debate interview Harris seemed offended that a self-described "top tier" candidate should be subjected to scrutiny from someone whose polling presently matches where Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were, respectively, at this point of the 1976 and 1992 election cycles.
5
Now that Mister Cohen has handicapped the upcoming election and put his money on Harris and send Biden to pasture we can all relax? Few have noticed the bump in the polls Harris got after the first debate is gone. I would caution making Harris the new flavor of the month before her record in California is truly looked at.Trump won by 73000 votes in three states mainly because Black Voter turnout was down. Have we forgotten Beto and Mayor Pete were once the flavors of the month? When Tulsi Gabbard confronted Ms. Harris during the debate about her record in California she caught Harris flatfooted. Before we put Biden on the porch in a rocker and make Harris the new flavor of the month we should take a deep breath. Many Black voters I talk to are not happy at the way Harris treated Biden at the first debate.
2
Kamala Harris gives the impression of someone coldly opportunistic, sanctimonious, and disingenuous. These are not the leadership qualities that we’re looking for in the next potus, so....No.
1
I like Harris and hope Elizabeth Warren asks her to be her running mate.
1
Kamala Harris is a child of privilege. She went to a Montessori school in the US, was bused 3 years to an elite white school in Berkeley, and went to an elite school in Canada. Her parents had doctoral level educations and were likely in the top 10% of their community’s income level.
Harris’ attack on Joe Biden during the first debate was a cheap shot, truly beneath the dignity of a serious presidential candidate; prior to the debate her campaign website was ready to start selling T-shirts with pictures of her as a little girl with the caption “That little girl was me.” Really a bit much.
Her playing the race card and simultaneously bashing the top-polling Democratic contender was not a two-fer but a great disappointment. I had hopes for Harris before the debates, despite her hard line on prosecuting and incarcerating blacks, but now she is near the bottom of my list (especially after her clear inability to respond to Tulsi Gabbard’s criticisms).
I think she will soon have to confront reality and recalibrate her campaign strategy when potential voters learn that she supports federal support of and involvement in busing white and black schoolchildren to create integrated schools. (She ducked this question in the latest debate.)
Busing was politically toxic in the 1970s and 1980s and is no less so today. If the 2020 Democratic platform includes federally mandated busing of black and white children to promote school integration, we are doomed to a second Trump term.
1
Harris? Really? She can't even hold her own against Tulsi Gabbard. She landed one really good blow on Biden and had a few one liners in the first debate, but in the second debate she didn't do quite as well. You seriously think she can defeat Trump? I give Trump 5 seconds to come up with the perfect nickname for Harris.
Honestly, Harris comes off as your standard sleazy politician. Even her attack on Biden was a calculated move and included selling t-shirts.
While reading your op-ed, I realized that all the talking heads really liked Obama and above all else want to beat Trump. Issues like the economy and health care don't really matter to you personally, either way you'll be fine. You just want someone dignified in the White House. And many of the talking heads really do want a moderate, anyone but Sanders or Warren. Funny, I don't feel the same way in the slightest.
1
I fear the punditry in ‘20 is actually worse than in ‘16. Kamala is not any good. She has no deep convictions, limited experience and it shows.
2
"Europeans ask where you came from. Americans ask what you can do." While Roger's description of Europeans may fit Brexiteers in the UK, his notion that white Americans are different seems rooted in nostalgia for what he hoped America would be rather than its ugly present-day reality. While the Democrats may need someone who knows how to fight Trump and reset America's direction, they and the country need a politician with better, more coherent policies than Ms. Harris offers. Sadly Warren has staked out positions on health care that will turn off many voters and Biden is well beyond his sell-by date.
Part of her "great American story" was sleeping with Willie Brown, then the most powerful person in California politics, and subsequently getting valuable jobs because of that. -- That doesn't that mean she's the devil, but she is certainly no saint.
1
Joe Biden has the energy and the single mindedness of a bulldog in beating trump. He knows how to do it and everyone else is just guessing.
1
The Democrats need a candidate who is seriously qualified to be president with experience and conviction, like Biden or Warren. Not a wannabe like Harris who is all ambition and making up policy as she goes along.
1
Kamala Harris is not going to get the nomination, Tulsi Gabbard rightly shut that possibility down at the last debate, Harris had no answer, still has no answer, think Trump will let that slide? He won't, he will eat her for breakfast. Mr. Cohen is in either in serious denial or drew the shortest straw at the oped meeting.
2
Harris is demonic: withholding evidence that would exonerate a prisoner is inexcusable in all circumstances. She must not be the nominee.
4
Roger Cohen writes; "...the essence of the country — ....palpable at every naturalization ceremony across the United States. Becoming American is a process that involves the inner absorption of the nation’s founding idea."
The gravest thing Trump has done is to empty this idea of meaning.
Quite the opposite. The Democrat's efforts to put illegal aliens in front of American citizens and law abiding immigrants 'empties' the naturalization process and the very value of citizenship.
2
"Forms of socialism work in Europe, and the word is widely misunderstood in America, but socialism and America's essence are incompatible."
The word socialism is not just misunderstood in America. It is radioactive. I sometimes get the feeling that Sanders and his supporters are more concerned with rehabilitating the concept of socialism than defeating Trump. This is madness.
Ms. Harris has the intellect and gravitas to emphasize Trump's glaring weaknesses and depravities without being roped into his juvenile mind games. She would assist Trump in exposing the massive con he has perpetrated upon this nation.
On a side note , I was more than a little impressed the other night with Ms. Klobuchar's refusal to take the bait and attack her fellow Democrats. She kept the focus where it belongs: Donald Trump. She deserves respect for this. Other Democrats should get a clue.
1
"They are suspicious of government, inclined to self-reliance. Europeans ask where you came from. Americans ask what you can do."
What nonsense. Europeans are (mostly) looking to the future, the US is looking to the past. Europeans can see the evils of kleptocratic vulture capitalism, Americans are so badly in its grip that the will of the majority is totally irrelevant.
Stop intoning this liturgy, Mr. Cohen.
1
Harris has the same "authenticity" problem that plagued Clinton. Voters don't know who she really is. She is a big favorite with the coastal elites who make the big donations but she claims to be for the little guy. She portrays herself as the "poor black girl" who depended on busing but she is actually the daughter of two PhDs. Her mother was a Hindu from India and a cancer researcher. He Jamaican father was a professor of economics at Stanford. She was hardly a product of the mean streets. She depends on presenting herself as the prosecutor in chief but the act fell flat in the last debate when she was on the defensive over her record. So who is she really? Will her act go over with the electorate in the swing states? Democrats don't have to worry about New York City and the Bay Area.
1
"The gravest thing Trump has done is to empty this idea of meaning. His has been an assault on honesty, decency, dignity, tolerance and civility. On this president’s wish list, every right is alienable. He leads a movement more than he does a nation, and so depends on fear to mobilize people."
^^^ This. Thank you for saying this.
As for the Dem nominee: I agree with Mr. Cohen. Now is not the time for pie in the sky. Now is the time for a nominee who can appeal to the vast majority of the nation, including those with reasonable concerns about ideas like "socialism" and eliminating private medical insurance. A nominee running on a platform of "revolution" or other extreme change is a recipe for disaster in 2020.
As a former Californian let me inform you that she is a sham, For one thing she ruthlessly put politics ahead of justice as Attorney General. I voted for Hillary but will strongly support Trump over Harris. Do not be deceived by her image.
2
Harris was totally destroyed in the second debate with her private, high-priced version of Medicare for All [aka Medicare Advantage], and exposed for the hard-nosed, overly ambitious, career prosecutor willing to trample the rights of minorities, including concealing evidence, in order to advance her own career. When it comes to being at all progressive or all all in touch with minority issues, there's no there there. Let's talk about Julian Castro instead who clearly is a man of integrity and at a moment when Hispanics in America are desperate for a champion is there for there. He knew the law and challenged Joe Biden on his lack of knowledge and insensitivity to the plight of Hispanic immigrants. He's an expert on housing which is a major problem for most Americans. And, he would put Texas in play. At this moment he has the integrity, stature, and experience to merit a spot on the Democratic ticket perhaps with Biden who seems to have a lock on the top spot.
2
Trump may go down as the greatest president in history since Thomas Jefferson.
1
Tulsi took her down HARD. Made Ms Harris take down of VP Biden look like a playground spat, mostly because Tulsi spoke the truth.
Ms Harris has a glass jaw.
3
You are glossing over what it means to be a career prosecutor. Tulsi Gabbard gave three horrific examples that worked as a soundbite, but there’s much more out there on Harris and it’s indefensible. Harris is wildly ambitious but she doesn’t know who she is or what she thinks. She isn’t genuine. She has personally and directly badly harmed more black men and black families through enforcement of draconian drug laws, and has the nerve to attack Biden on busing with her hurt face “I was that little girl.” You like her because you think she’s the center, and she’s playing what she hopes is the center. But voters are desperate for a good hearted authentic leader. She is neither.
5
I'm not sure if this is a broad endorsement of Kamala Harris, which I have no essential problem with, just a little early for that, or simply pointing to Harris's accurate characterization of Trump as a predator as a critical point of reality. Harris is correct. She may be able to "stare it down", and the Republicans excavation of Nazism from the mountain of garbage they have accumulated for self-definition is at once ironic and poignant.
"...Trvmp's electoral vulnerability is to women. They have seen through his misogny at last...."
Trump's misogyny was in full view in 2016 yet over half of white women voted for him. What are these women seeing now that they didn't see before?
Harris's record as AG in California and the many missteps she has taken with blacks in her campaign thus far will not give her the black vote. Polling indicates 7% of black voters support her.
Perhaps the immigrant vote is the key. I don't know if her promises to illegal immigrants attract or repel legal immigrants.
1
Seriously? Harris has some of the worst math / economic ideas of the bunch. She somehow thinks it is both fair and possible to raise the three trillion needed for single payer strictly from households earning $100,000 or more. On top of that, she intends to include eleven million illegal immigrants who will pay nothing. No other single payer system works like this. None in Europe covers illegals.
1
You may be right. In the end, who must stand for the Democratic party in the heat of Trump's hulking lie-isms and vicious madness - on the debate stage - in front of the world? Kamela gets Marianne. She can absorb's Pete's logic. She's more beautiful than Trump is handsome. The ultimate foil - a minority female with the chops of a lawyer. She's cooler than Trump. Go Kamela go!
Harris, as you suggest, is in some ways a candidate from central casting. But she needs a few more years to get beyond being “a work in progress.” Her flip flopping on health care and her tentativeness when asked about other difficult issues suggests that she has not “proved she is not averse to risk.” She may be the most risk averse candidate running. To a degree, that’s a good thing. But being president is all about making tough decisions. And Harris is a little too risk averse when facing such decisions—in part because she hasn’t fully thought through her positions on the relevant issues, That is the reason for her flip flops.
If you put aside the election for a moment and consider who could be most effective in the Oval Office, more obvious choices for the role are Biden, Julian Castro, Jay Inslee, John Hickenlooper, Corey Booker, John Delaney and Elizabeth Warren. Hickenlooper, Inslee and Delaney probably can not win the nomination. So that leaves Biden, Castro, Warren, and Booker. Of the four, Biden is best prepared to be president: he has already completed an 8 year apprenticeship. And he CAN win. He already has great support in the Black community (more than Warren could obtain) and I cannot think of a single non-Black Democrat who would refuse to vote for him in the face of the specter of a second Trump term. ....
That said, if Harris gets the nomination, I will vote for her and hope my analysis is wrong.
2
Kamala Harris??? You have to be joking. Biden has a 27-point lead over Harris in South Carolina....39% to 12%. Harris can't even lock down the black vote in this must-win state. Among black voters, who make up more than 60 percent of the Democratic primary electorate in South Carolina, Biden has 51 percent support. That’s more than four times higher than the 12 percent of black voters that said they back Harris. This is officially embarrassing. Harris is a mainstream press candidate. They love her for reasons that don't make any sense. Fortunately, pundits have no power. Voters will choose the next President, not so-called political experts. Voters don't like Harris. She comes off as arrogant and thin-skinned. If by some miracle she becomes the nominee she will lose decisively. Harris constantly demonstrates that she simply doesn't have the temperament to be President. At the first debate, she bungled softball questions like whether a convicted terrorist should be able to vote from prison. The Boston Marathon Bomber kills three people, maims & injures 280 more. Harris concern? That I think "we should have that conversation" on whether he gets his absentee ballot. This was a gaffe of epic proportions. On this basis alone she will lose the majority of independent swing voters. How do you think the people of Charleston will react when Sanders tells them we should have a conversation about whether Dylan Roof should be voting? Get real. She clearly isn't ready to be POTUS.
4
First, I disagree with Mr. Cohen's statement "Europeans ask where you came from. Americans ask what you can do." Today, the Republicans more than any European ask "where you came from"!!! Second, it tells you how somber the situation in the USA is, if you have to search hard for somebody who can beat Donald in the race to the White House. A nation with some dignity left would vote for any person that has more dignity, respect for others, intellect, higher moral standards, empathy (not just for his own bank account).......
1
"She has a former prosecutor's toughness". Imagine you're writing this from a prison cell following a wrongful conviction brought about by Kamala Harris' prosecutorial misconduct. Is "toughness" really the word that would come to mind?
3
Trump will beat Trump, let’s hope we get a well prepared, qualified President.
What Ms. Harris will need in the coming months is a coherent narrative--she has part of it---the human part, which is important---but now, she needs a policy narrative---several, on health care, climate, crime, immigration. Although she was not my first pick, agree, she is beginning to appear as the one that can take down Trump. The front runners now, have well developed narratives, but, narratives that will not sell well with the voters we will need to beat Trump. The other feature Harris offers, and this merely a footnote, but, on the debate stage, right in front of Trump followers sitting in bars with their red hats on, will witness, Trump being emasculated---by, of all people a female African American.