Harris choice cements left-wing control over Democratic party

7he :all Street -ournal

In choosing .amala +arris as his running mate on 7ues day, -oe Biden checked the essential boxes his party had demanded²a woman, a mi nority, and a progressive who has moved left as the 'em ocratic Party has. :e’ll see how the California Senator plays in the swing state sub urbs that Mr. Biden needs to defeat President 7rump.

Mr. Biden’s choice is es pecially important because he would be the oldest President on Inauguration 'ay at age

. 7he actuarial tables and his declining mental acuity suggest he wouldn’t run for re election, assuming he lasts a full term. Americans who have watched Mr. Biden on the campaign trail²and the way his advisers protect him from media questioning²are smart enough to know that in voting for Mr. Biden they’re also voting for his running mate as a likely President.

Ms. +arris is most ap pealing as an example of American upward mobility, especially for immigrants. +er father is a -amaican born Stanford economist. +er Indi an born mother was a breast cancer researcher at the 8ni versity of California, Berke ley.

(ven when the country was less racially tolerant than it is now, both parents had successful careers and were able to provide opportunities for their daughter even as they divorced. She made the most of them. Like Barack 2bama, Ms. +arris’s success is a living refutation of the left’s critique of America as an oppressive, racist land.

+er political record, on the other hand, will reassure 'emocrats more than inde pendents or soft 5epublicans. She’s a political lifer who rose through the patronage machine of former Assem bly Speaker :illie Brown. She was a local prosecutor, a state Attorney *eneral for six years, and was elected to the Senate in 20 after party bigs cleared the primary for her. 7his isn’t an extensive re sume for executive office, and on foreign policy she is about as experienced as Sarah Palin.

Ms. +arris ran for Pres ident this year but washed out quickly despite being a media favorite as the can didate from central casting. +er campaign’s most nota ble moment came in the first debate when she played the race card against Mr. Biden by distorting the history of forced busing in the 0s. 7he jab scored oohs and aahs from the media judges but its demagoguery was blatant.

Mr. Biden will get cred it in some quarters for rising above that attack to choose her. But we’d feel better about Mr. Biden if he had bypassed her for that reason. An effec tive President needs to put his stamp on the party, not vice versa. In choosing Ms. +arris, Mr. Biden is bending to the party’s preferences and rewarding the kind of polit ical cheap shot he abhors in Mr. 7rump.

+er record as prosecu tor will bother some on the Black Lives Matter left, but her identity as a minority will blunt that concern. She’s pro gressive but malleable. She was quick to endorse Medi care for All and the *reen New 'eal as a presidential candidate, but she back tracked when they began to look too extreme.

She is also a ferocious par tisan. As California A* she killed a deal that would have rescued some ailing Catholic hospitals because of oppo sition from the Service (m ployees International 8nion. In the Senate she was one of the nastiest questioners of Brett .avanaugh, which is a high bar. She floated some innuendo about the judicial nominee’s alleged secret dis cussions about 5obert Muel ler’s 5ussia probe without any evidence. As a candidate, Ms. +arris will be delighted to brawl with 'onald 7rump.

Mr. Biden may have backed himself into the corner of having to choose Ms. +ar ris. +e limited his choices by promising to select a woman, and the black 'emocrats who saved him in South Caroli na pressed for a black wom an. 7hen the Sanders wing pressed for a progressive, and Ms. +arris is a safer choice by far than (li]abeth :arren.

In this sense the choice is revealing about the unusual nature of Mr. Biden’s candi dacy. +e won the nomination as the last ditch, anti 7rump alternative to what would have been the suicidal selec tion of Bernie Sanders. More than any recent nominee, Mr. Biden is a party figurehead, more than a party leader. In adding Ms. +arris to the tick et, he has underscored that a vote for Mr. Biden isn’t mere ly a vote to oust Mr. 7rump. It’s a vote for the coastal pro gressives who now dominate the 'emocratic Party.