The latest McLaughlin poll has Kamala at 36% (up 3%) for the 2028 primaries followed by Buttigieg at 8%, Newsom at 4% and well, why even bother with the rest (ok, AOC at 3%).
Yes, people protest that it’s all about name recognition, but Buttigieg and Newsom (or AOC) aren’t exactly unknown. In an ideal scenario for the Dems, some dark horse candidate may emerge to change everything.
But what if he doesn’t? It didn’t happen in 2020 and Dems had to settle for Joe Biden.
Normally after losing a massive election and blowing all that cash, Kamala should be a non-starter, but the complicated events of 2024 and her race and sex, make her the presumptive nominee. Kamala’s two runners up are white men. Running against a black woman who was the former VP and nominee.
MSNBC firing Joy Reid and replacing her with two black people led to outrage and accusations of racism. Try replacing a black woman with a white man in the presidential race. It won’t be as easy as you think.
Making matters worse is that Kamala seems to have learned nothing from 2024 and has somehow gotten even worse.
Take a look at this clip.
There’s a very low bar here. Any politician coming to the site of a devastating fire should be able to manage better than this. It almost makes me miss Biden who would have told the fake story about his house burning down and then mumbled something incoherent. What does it say that Kamala is even worse?
And if you think the Dems will have no trouble getting rid of her, look at the California governor’s race.
In a different scenario, the governor’s race in California would already have taken shape. Aspiring candidates would have been making appearances around the state. Donors would have begun bankrolling their favorites, and organizations would have started to announce endorsements.
Instead, Kamala Harris came home…
The possibility has made it difficult for most other Democrats to move forward, realizing that any calculations they make now would be upended if Ms. Harris entered the race. The 2026 contest to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, who cannot run again because of term limits, is currently populated by lesser-known aspirants, many of whom likely would step aside if Ms. Harris decided to run.
Democrats can’t even properly manage to run a governor’s race in their biggest state because of the mere possibility she would enter it. Unfortunately for them, Kamala is indecisive and entitled, so the race is frozen.
Now maybe Kamala will retire for a career in competitive ice fishing, but most likely she’ll try for something again. And if she decides to go for the big brass ring, it’ll take another managed donor revolt, like the one that toppled Biden, to stop her. And that is going to be an even messier situation because of the party’s identity politics. Ousting Kamala will virtually require a black woman to replace her and the party is short of those, which is how Kamala ended up as VP.
In short, the mess is just getting started.