I HOPE THERE'S ENOUGH SPRECHER IN THE FRIDGE.

Tell me the Democrats haven't just eased the sitting president out of office and made the sitting vice-president the interim president without the formality of invoking the 25th Amendment.  Yes, Old Joe made a trip to the Lyndon Johnson presidential library today, where he offered some new end runs around the Constitution, the better to keep Democrats in power, because it's only democracy when they win.

That is, if the substitution is a winning move.  "Carville: ‘Excitement’ around Harris has to be tempered with ‘realism.’"  Yes, all the predictable pop-culture cultists are doing what Democrats do so well, turning the next nominee into the Last Best Hope for Weimarkind.  They do have Old Joe's disastrous record to run on, though, that is, if Republicans and Libertarians can keep their focus.

“They’re having to put a campaign together right away,” Carville said of Harris’s bid, acknowledging it may not be an easy ride. “They were obviously thinking about this ahead of time, but they gotta accomplish — between now and the convention, they gotta accomplish what most campaigns have eight months to do.”

“So, I’m not I’m not saying it can’t do it, but people are excited about the party feeling better about itself,” he added.

Unfortunately, it's the party's left that is not feeling better, and they are most vocal in objecting to the vice-president being made the Democrats' candidate without a contested convention.  Gottseidank, the tribal council of Black Lives Matter suggests there's more to a nomination than ticking the diversity boxes!

This election process has been a disservice to our communities and to democracy. Historically, Black people have been loyal Democratic voters, but time and again, the party has taken our votes for granted and prioritized political theatrics over our real needs.

So we will do the hard thing: we will celebrate, and honor the joy many in our community are feeling about Kamala’s historic candidacy and path to the nomination—while calling out the undemocratic process and engaging in a vigorous discussion on the issues our community cares about.

We do not live in a dictatorship. Delegates are not oligarchs. Any attempt to evade or override the will of voters in our primary system—no matter how historic the candidate—must be condemned. We demand an informal, virtual snap primary now that the incumbent president is no longer in the running.

For the past few years, the Democratic Party has proclaimed that “democracy is on the ballot” in an effort to persuade Black voters to participate in the upcoming general election. They have presented this as the most serious election for democracy in our lifetimes. However, democracy isn’t just an ideal to be protected against Republicans; it must also be safeguarded from erosions within the Democratic Party. Calls for “unity” cannot come at the expense of democracy. The Democratic party, which has been the loudest in defending democracy, is now poised to commit some of the most undemocratic maneuvering to avoid listening to the will of the voters.

Do I hear an Amen! from Red State's Brittany Sheehan?

While Black Lives Matter may not typically align with Republican or conservative perspectives, their recent critique of the Democratic Party's nomination process presents a well-articulated argument that resonates with non-partisan concerns about the integrity of our political system. BLM is prompting a necessary dialogue from the bottom up, in response to millions of votes being discarded in the name of unabridged institutional nepotism disguised as expediency.

All eligible Americans, regardless of political affiliation, should have their voices heard through fair and transparent civic processes.

Things can get interesting, quickly.  Old Joe was a useful sock puppet for the left wing of his party, and Donald Trump made another run at the ring because of the open borders, money printing, and personnel policy of incompetence-by-diversity.  I repeat, it's on the Republicans and Libertarians to keep their focus on that record.  That the party's left hopes to win by pushing the current vice-president, if she is the nominee, to present more truthfully as a leftist, promises to be entertaining.  Let's start with David Klion in the generally Excessively Earnest New Republic, with "The One Vice Presidential Pick Who Could Ruin Democratic Unity."

That includes the left, or, more precisely, the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party—progressive millennial voters such as myself who were grudgingly welcomed into Biden’s big tent four years ago. On issues like labor, climate, and student debt, Biden delivered far more for us than anyone anticipated. In the process, he earned the loyalty of Sanders and his heir apparent, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both of whom were among Biden’s staunchest defenders as calls for him to step down grew over the last month following his humiliating performance in last month’s debate.

For rank-and-file leftists, however, any goodwill Biden might have banked on domestic policy had long since been squandered. For more than nine months following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, Biden has fully enabled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reprisal campaign and his genocidal war crimes against the Palestinians of Gaza. At the same time, he and his allies have arrogantly dismissed a wave of activism driven by young leftists demanding an immediate cease-fire. These activists never wanted Trump to return to power and, for the most part, understood he would be at least as bad as Biden on Palestine—and worse on everything else. Still, it was impossible to muster any grassroots enthusiasm for reelecting “Genocide Joe” amid the daily flood of horrific videos, images, and reports from Gaza. Biden’s stance on Palestine wasn’t the biggest reason he was struggling in the polls even before the debate fiasco. But it undoubtedly hurt him at the margins, and especially in the must-win state of Michigan, with its sizable Arab American population.

Therefore,

This is a hopeful moment for the whole left-liberal coalition. The vibes, for once, are good. Almost every leftist I know is excited about Harris and thinks Trump is beatable. With a newly united party behind her, there are only so many ways Harris can screw it up, but one seems all too plausible: She could select Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as her running mate.

In Common Dreams, Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon join the pile-on.  "A broad coalition to defeat Donald Trump and the fascistic MAGA movement is exactly what we need. Making Josh Shapiro the nominee for vice president is exactly what we don’t need."  Never mind that Mr Shapiro might be a voice for fracking and school choice and containing campus protests that turn violent, you know, median voter issues.  Shore up Dearborn, lose any hope of carrying the rest of Michigan, let alone Pennsylvania.  Now come claims from Pennsylvania of Mr Shapiro "covering up sexual harassment in his office by another Democrat running for statewide office."  Rick Moran notes, "Shapiro is near the top of the list because Pennsylvania is vital to Harris's campaign. She must win it if she's going to have any chance of defeating Donald Trump."  I'm not sure how catering to the party's left wing and doubling down on the failed policies builds a broad coalition, but, then, thinking like a Democrat isn't something I'm good at.  Meanwhile, the Palestinian cheering section is still mobilizing to demonstrate in Chicago.

If that's not amusing enough, that "if she is the nominee" might have some purchase.

We’re informed (in great detail here by Naomi Wolf) that the Veep’s handlers haven’t even bothered with the required Federal Election Commission filings to be a candidate (nor has “Joe Biden” submitted his official withdrawal paperwork). So, you can surmise that the whole thing is another Democratic Party prank, leading to more shenanigans as the August 19 Convention cometh.

Now, that is James "Long Emergency" Kunstler. On the other hand, you might recall Naomi Wolf as the guru behind Al Gore's earth tones, and she has enough experience with the mechanics of campaigning to raise all sorts of ways for dissident Democrats or mischievous Republicans to play at lawfare.

There is more to say about FEC law. It is very complex and difficult to start and to end a Presidential campaign (or any campaign, but at a Federal level especially). You can’t just throw your hat in the ring, and you can’t just take it out. You have to file a mass of complex forms to get started, and to be cleared to raise money; the money is carefully monitored; all communications and ads are monitored; and if a campaign ends, it must be closed down with another complex range of legal filings, an accounting for donor funds, a return of donor funds, a statement to and from the FEC, and so on.

There is a narrative being played out now, it seems, in legacy media, that astonishes me; it implies that President Biden can just step aside and Vice President Harris can just step into his place.

But FEC law does not work that way.

She too would have to start a Presidential campaign from the very beginning. She too would have to file with the FEC. She too would have to put in place her legal team, her campaign manager, her communications team, her fundraising team, her advisors, her pollsters, her ground troops. As I know full well from having worked for both a Presidential and a Vice-Presidential run for President, these are completely different officers with totally different staffers. And campaign staffers are different from either of these and cannot be simply shared.

Legally, as I understand FEC law, VP Harris can’t simply pick up where President Biden left off and simply “inherit” his campaign, let alone his donors’ money. To my knowledge, you can’t just at will, without at least complex filings and legal appeals, switch out the candidate and just change the name of the campaign.

That is, unless the national committees of the two major parties have some sort of shell organization already registered, which might be a prudent practice against a contingency more permanent than the incapacity of a specifically declared candidate deciding on the basis of ill health or unfavorable polls arising sometime between the end of the primary season and the general election.  If a slated candidate dies after winning the general election, that slate's vice president will be sworn in as president.

Keep the beer chilled, readers!