Who Should Lead the Democratic Ticket? Six Columnists Weigh In.
With President Biden’s candidacy in question, we asked six New York Times Opinion columnists: Who would you like to see as the Democratic nominee? Read their answers below. Or listen here:
Who Should Lead the Democratic Ticket? Six Columnists Weigh In.
Gretchen Whitmer, Kamala Harris, President Biden — who is best positioned to beat Donald Trump in November?
00:35 Lydia Polgreen on Vice President Kamala Harris
06:33 Nicholas Kristof on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan
09:42 Ross Douthat on Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia
13:55 Pamela Paul on Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland
18:10 David French on Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania
23:57 Charles Blow on President Biden
Lydia Polgreen: Kamala Harris ‘Does Very Well in Going Up Against Bullies’
I’m Lydia Polgreen, Opinion columnist for The New York Times. Like many of my colleagues, I think it’s time for Joe Biden to bow out. And I believe that the best person to replace him is Kamala Harris.
She didn’t make it that far in the primaries, and that might make you think: This is someone who has tried and failed to become president — why would she be good on the national stage? But I think it’s important to remember that running in the primaries and running for the general election are actually two very different things.
In the primaries, you’re essentially running against your peers — in many cases, your fellow politicians from your party — and you’re arguing with them over smaller differences than the big differences that separate our politics in this very polarized time. And where gender and race actually play a huge role in terms of how people are perceived and where the showing of emotion or anger or other feelings play very differently, depending on whether you’re a woman, depending on whether you’re a person of color — that primary environment, I think, is actually quite complicated.
Those same dynamics can be at play in a general election, as well, but they’re actually much different in thisparticular general election,because Donald Trump is a very particular kind of politician.
