Who should Biden choose?

Joe Biden has, so far, run a smart campaign for president. He has let Trump go ahead and dig his own grave. Why fight for the shovel when the shoveler is burying himself?

The one truly major thing for Biden to do, at this point, is to designate his running mate. Start with the premise that it must be a Black woman with name recognition and who is well credentialed.

This would leave us with this group:

⏩ Val Demings, a former chief of police and congresswoman from Florida who made her bones as impeachment manager

⏩ Susan Rice, who plays well with Obama supporters and is an excellent public speaker

⏩ Stacey Abrams almost made it as governor in Georgia in 2018

⏩ Keisha Lance Bottoms, the mayor of Atlanta, reacted well to all the crises that were tossed at her

⏩ The last, but not by any sense the least, the senator from California, Kamala Harris.

There are no bad candidates. Each would be an asset to the ticket.

In order to make a choice you have to ask if you could send your selection to a debate against Trump if Biden suddenly developed laryngitis and could not make it. Who could stand up to Trump toe to toe? Who could easily win a debate against the current vice president, Mike Pence?

My clear choice is Kamala Harris. She has played in the big leagues and has the stature to be considered a potential president. Harris can stand up and tear apart Trump’s attempt at being a “law and order” president. She can point out that he is not even a Nixon, who after all did resign. You really cannot promise law and order with all of the disorder on your watch.

And she has the knowledge and selfassurance to easily stand up against Pence.

She brings a degree of fire to the ticket and will charge up Biden’s entire base. She did take a crack at Biden early on but showed political savvy in getting the attention that she needed and then immediately pulled back from what was, at the time, an untenable position.

Biden and Harris are a winning combination. I would venture to say that this ticket, if announced, will immediately move Biden up in the polls by anywhere between three and five points on a national basis.

At that stage, Trump will say and do things out of desperation. If his past is any indication, he’ll make bad decisions that will once again highlight to the American public, if they have not already learned this, that Trump was and continues to be grossly unfit to hold the office of president.