As a bleeding heart liberal of the worst possible kind, I think Joe Biden dropping out is a good thing. I’ll try not to delve into the Biden vs Trump stuff here too much (beast makes some very reasonable points) but I don’t think it’s good for the country for either of these men to run for the presidency. If we’re being honest, as best case both have some form of early-stage dementia. I say this not as a doctor but as someone who helped care for my mother-in-law’s dementia for 10 years. Politics aside, we need young, capable leaders. We deserve better than a choice between two creepy old farts who probably wouldn’t make it through a second term.
I think people underestimate the support that Kamala Harris has. We (Democrats) largely voted for Biden
and Harris, with the thought being that Biden’s significant limitations could be overcome by Harris being part of his team and with the expectation that this was a 1 term appointment for Biden. Biden was not the top choice for a lot people, but we had confidence that he could put together a legislatively effective team that could bring us out of the Covid situation before passing the torch onto the next generation. That’s largely what he has done and is doing. Harris being a more progressive force that would help to modernize the office with Biden in the seat was something we voted for as well - that's a feature, not a bug. It's a yin and yang sort of thing - Harris will need similar balance, so look for her to pick a popular, more centrist VP from a swing state.
I find the timing of this rather interesting. Part of me thinks Biden should not have run - it should have gone to an open convention. But the other part of me thinks this is brilliant, Trump has spent the last however long focusing on Biden, and now has to switch to Harris. On the other hand, Harris has a lot of ground to make up very quickly, though it helps being the VP and already having been on the campaign trail. So just from that perspective it being the VP makes a ton of sense, but it’s certainly a high-risk, high-reward play. Overall, I think the Democrats have a better chance of winning with Harris than Biden, but I’m only 60/40 on that being correct at this moment in time.
I don’t think Harris is a sacrificial lamb as Alan suggests though, I think she has a genuine chance to win, potentially even win big here. If the narrative is “pick between two unlikable old farts” and “pick between a bright young thing and an old fart” she could have a major advantage. I think Martha is right in that the bright young thing could have been any number of people - certainly some that she mentions, but it sounds like those are the top VP candidates at the moment (Shapario, Kelly, Cooper) so they’ll get a bit of both.
In summary, I’m nervous but equally excited that it’s not going to be Joe Biden on the ticket for the Democrats. It never should have been either Biden or Trump, but here we are.