By John and Robert Balson II
As Covid-19 has dominated the news cycle for the past 2 months, the once incessantly followed 2020 Presidential nomination process and election has been largely an afterthought. Joe Biden continued his strong performance after his domination of Bernie Sanders in South Carolina and again the following week on Super Tuesday. Seeing no clear path to the nomination, Senator Sanders dropped out of the race on April 8th, guaranteeing that Vice President Biden would be the Democratic nominee for president in 2020. He will be running, of course, against the incumbent President Donald Trump. One of the last major questions that is yet to be answered is who Biden will select as his running mate. He previously guaranteed he would select a woman, meaning his choice will likely be one of the following: Stacey Abrams, former minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives and Democratic nominee for Governor of Georgia in 2018; Kamala Harris, senator from California and former-Attorney General of California; Amy Klobuchar, senator from Minnesota; Gretchen Whitmer, Governor of Michigan; Catherine Cortez Masto; senator from Nevada; or Elizabeth Warren, senator from Massachusetts.
One of the last major questions that is yet to be answered is who Biden will select as his running mate.
Point/Counter Point:
Who’s the right woman for the job?
John: Amy Klobuchar. Broadly, she’s an experienced politician, a somewhat moderate democrat, and she hails from an both a somewhat important state (Minnesota) and a crucial region (Midwest). After the primaries, in which candidates generally move to the extremes in order to garner support from the base of their party’s voters, Biden will try to seem more moderate in order to gain a following from a broader spectrum of people. To accomplish this goal, he would be well served to select Klobuchar, who has much less radical views than many of his other likely choices.
Robert: You failed to recognize a key question of the Vice Presidential selection for Joe Biden, the fact that his Vice President must be ready to take command of the United States government given the relatively likely possibility that Biden will not be able to complete his term. Biden, if he wins, will enter office as the oldest president ever, older even than Reagan when his second term ended. Given this I think it is of the utmost importance that Biden select someone with experience leading the executive branch of a state government. This leaves Biden with one clear candidate, Gretchen Whitmer, the Governor of Michigan. Also, she is very popular in Michigan, a state that is very much in play in the upcoming election. If Biden is able to take Michigan away from Trump, his path to 270 electoral votes becomes much clearer. On the other hand, democrats have won Minnesota in every presidential election since Richard Nixon won the state in 1972.
Biden, if he wins, will enter office as the oldest president ever, older even than Reagan when his second term ended.
John: First off, the claim that Biden will not complete his four year term is completely baseless. As a 77-year-old man, he inherently faces health risks, but there is no evidence of him having any conditions that may affect his capacity to serve as president in the near future. The comparison of the job description of a governor to that of the president is also completely ludicrous. A governor is the head of only a small semi-independent entity, whose main work revolves around taking care of smaller, more grassroots issues. In the case of Governor Baker, an article published in the Globe credited his administration with working hard to reduce the queues in the RMV. The “War on Wait Times,” about which “Baker’s inner circle received daily reports” is an important issue, but that type of work has nothing to do with what the president and his inner circle should be worried about. The role of senator is much better preparation for vice president. Senators spend time thinking about and working on national issues and understand the inner workings of Congress, a skill necessary for the executive branch to pass legislation. Finally, in terms of electability, Klobuchar is as good if not better than Whitmer. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the state of Minnesota by less than two percent of the vote, making it an important state for Biden to secure. Her national presence will also be an important factor in other parts of the country, as she ran earlier this year for the Democratic nomination. Having a well-known centrist, as opposed to somewhat of a nobody on the national stage, on Biden’s team will certainly help swing many independent voters and provide him with greater voter turnout all around the nation.
[Klobuchar’s] national presence will also be an important factor in other parts of the country, as she ran earlier this year for the Democratic nomination.
Robert: Executive experience is executive experience and while the issues might not be the same the experience of a governor is far closer to that of the president than a senator. And when it comes to helping Biden actually get elected, as I said before Minnesota has not been a swing state in decades and Trump’s approval rating there is in the low 40s. On the other hand, Hillary lost Michigan, a state with more electoral votes, by only .23%, meaning it will be one of the most hotly contested states in the election, and having a widely liked Michigander campaigning alongside Biden will likely give him a boost.
