Who is the unhappiest politician in the United States this afternoon?
Uh huh. It’s Donald Trump.
That’s because with the withdrawal of President Biden from his re-election bid, all of a sudden Trump is the unfit old man in the race. Trump is the one who would be every bit as old as Biden is now before the 2028 election.
The only way he wouldn’t be the old man is if the Democrats nominated Bernie Sanders, and even though the Vermont senator will be 83 in September, he isn’t obese, smelly or confused.
Of course, the Democrats won’t be nominating Sanders. In all probability, the Democratic nominee will be 18 years younger than Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris will be 60 in late October, born at the opposite end of the Baby Boom from Trump.
You will be hearing the corporate media say Harris is a bad choice, that her approval rating is as low as Biden’s. To borrow a word from the president, that’s a lot of malarkey.
First of all, vice presidents don’t really have separate approval ratings from presidents.
Second, if this isn’t the perfect year for the Democrats to have a female nominee in the wake of Dobbs, Agenda 2025 and J.D. Vance, there will never be a better opportunity.
Third, Harris matters to two important constituencies in the party — women and African-Americans. In what will be a very complex process, pushing her aside would not be a good move.
And while it’s true her first campaign was less than impressive and she withdrew before the primaries in 2020, she certainly outdid incumbent Vice President Mike Pence (and his pet fly) in the fall campaign.
My guess is she’ll be fine. Trump has already signaled that his main area of attack on her will be illegal immigration, but as much as that matters to the Trumpanzees, there are other issues on which Trump is far more vulnerable.
It will be interesting to see who the Democrats choose to run with Harris. I would expect them to choose a white male governor to balance the ticket, although I would purely love to see them go with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Andy Beshear of Kentucky is one possibility and Roy Cooper of North Carolina is another. People will mention Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, but he has been in office less than two years.
Michigan has a wonderful governor in Gretchen Whitmer who I think might be a great president someday, but an all-female ticket might be more of a gamble than Democrats need to take.
And the candidate who is now obese, smelly and confused showed his complete lack of class Sunday.
“Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve — And never was!” Trump said. “We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly.”
Trump was humiliated as a loser in 2020.
Imagine how much worse it will be when he loses to a woman in 2024.