Stacey Abrams to Biden: "I'd be an excellent running mate"

The push is on to offer up Stacey Abrams as the woman Joe Biden should pick for his vice-presidential choice. It is certainly beginning to look like a coordinated effort in the press to move her name to the top of his list of potential running mates.

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It began earlier this week with an opinion piece in the New York Times. The author of the piece is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Abrams sits on the board of that liberal group. The title sums it up: It’s Obvious Whom Joe Biden Should Pick as Vice President. It’s obvious to him, anyway. His reasoning is that Stacey Abrams is the answer to three of Joe Biden’s problems in the presidential election – a lack of voter enthusiasm, young people are not interested in voting for him, and he doesn’t have the Latino vote. He thinks Abrams checks all of those boxes for Biden. She’d obviously bring out the female African-American vote but on a national level, her ability to turn out Latino voters in Georgia may not transcend across the country.

Wednesday Elle magazine ran a slobbering piece on Abrams. What struck me as I read it was the abundance of confidence the woman has in herself. To read it is to think she has it all sewn up. She is certainly aggressively pursuing the chance to run with Biden. When asked if she is interested in being chosen, she doesn’t try to nuance her answer at all. “I would be an excellent running mate.”

But Stacey Abrams does not give the expected answer when I ask if she would accept an offer from former vice president Joe Biden to serve as his 2020 running mate. “Yes. I would be honored,” Abrams says. “I would be an excellent running mate. I have the capacity to attract voters by motivating typically ignored communities. I have a strong history of executive and management experience in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. I’ve spent 25 years in independent study of foreign policy. I am ready to help advance an agenda of restoring America’s place in the world. If I am selected, I am prepared and excited to serve.”

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Well, now. How’s that for a prepared response? She’s the whole package, at least in her own mind. What really interested me is her claim of expertise in foreign policy, because she’s been reading up on it for years, or something. Foreign policy is supposed to be Biden’s area of expertise among politicians in the Democrat Party so she may want to tread lightly there. Remember, though Joe Biden has been historically wrong on foreign policy decisions throughout his 40 plus year career, Barack Obama chose him to balance out Obama’s lack of experience in that area. It should be fairly easy for President Trump to campaign against Biden on that subject. Abrams wants to “restore America’s place in the world”? Please. The Obama-Biden administration completely caved to Iran, apologized throughout the world for the successes of the United States, bungled withdrawal efforts in Iraq, sat by and watched during the Arab Spring, and where was Joe Biden as Ambassador Stevens died in Benghazi? Does the United States need to sign on to more feckless international agreements that restrict the American economy, like the Paris Climate Agreement?

Abrams has political experience in the State of Georgia but not at the national level. Her resume boasts that she was the first woman to lead a political party in Georgia’s General Assembly. She was the first African American to lead the Georgia House of Representatives. And, had she been legitimately successful in her campaign to be Governor of Georgia, she would have been the first black woman governor in the United States. But she lost. That’s the point. She tried to transition from the Georgia House of Representatives to the next level, the governorship, and she failed to garner enough votes to do that. Then, as Democrats do, when she lost that race she cried voter suppression and racism and sexism and everything else she could. She took the Hillary Clinton route instead of showing grace and professionalism. She still hasn’t conceded to Governor Kemp. If Joe Biden chooses her, she’ll have to step down as Governor of Georgia. I’m kidding but here is how she looks at the results of that race: “I’m supposed to say nice things and accept my fate,” Abrams writes in the preface to her New York Times best-seller, Lead From the Outside. “I refused to be gaslighted into throwing away my power, diminishing my voice.”

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She has the chutzpah to later declare herself “a really good loser”. What? I’m thinking her ego won’t allow her to be a good vice-president. Does she sound like someone willing to play second fiddle to good old Joe?

“I’ve learned that failure is not permanent,” Abrams tells me. “My responsibility is to not let failure dissuade me from my core obligations. Sometimes we pursue a challenge thinking it is about our victory, but we don’t know the true purpose until later. Not becoming governor of one state gave me the opportunity to launch a national network in 20 states [to fight for fair elections]. We are helping reform democracy in places where it was broken and battered. We are fixing access to a census that the president of the United States tried to destroy.” She continues, “I may not have won the office, but what I was able to earn for the causes I serve has been extraordinary, and beyond anything I could have imagined. Apparently, I’m a really good loser.”

More accurately, she’s been successful in cashing in on victimhood.

Joe Biden has committed to picking a woman to run with him. She checks that box, as well as the African-American box, and she’s from a southern red state. According to Real Clear Politics, Trump leads Biden an average of 7.5 points in Georgia. Color me skeptical that a Biden-Abrams ticket would flip Georgia into the blue state column.

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