A Washington Post columnist believes President Biden could ease concerns about ageing by dropping unpopular Vice President Kamala Harris from the running and nominating Hillary Clinton instead.
Kathleen Parker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning political and cultural columnist for The Washington Post, said the 76-year-old former secretary of state, who lost the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump, would free the U.S. from the “old white guy’s dilemma.”
“As far as I know, no one has mentioned her as Biden’s running mate, but what about putting Clinton in place of Harris?” Parker said. She wrote in her latest column:
Parker said Biden, 81, has been in a “steady decline over the past few years”, more evident in his “stumbling, searching for words and the blank looks he sometimes gives”, all of which are now “impossible to ignore”.
She wrote that North Dakota’s legislature has passed a bill setting an age limit for candidates, making neither Biden nor Trump eligible to run for U.S. House of Representatives in the state.
Parker argued that adding Harris to the shortlist would further erode support from voters already skeptical of the vice president’s “competence, or lack thereof.”
Parker said having Clinton on the shortlist instead of Harris would reassure voters that she could run in his place during his second term if necessary.
“At 76, she may not want to retire, but it’s hard to do so when you feel like your work is unfinished,” the columnist wrote.
“If Biden needs to step down, even people who didn’t vote for Clinton will trust her ability to get the country back on the right track.”
“This is just an idea, but there are sadly worse ideas that have worked,” Parker added.
She wrote that replacing Harris could be “risky” because it could “endanger the black vote,” but that “Democrats want to win elections” and their voters will support a candidate who “presumably promotes a worldview that aligns with their values.”
Parker suggested he would withdraw from the running in exchange for Harris being appointed attorney general for Biden’s second term.
She noted that Clinton has “entered the news cycle herself” by endorsing Westchester County Mayor George Latimer in the race to unseat Rep. Jamaal Bowman.
Polls show Latimer with a large lead over Bowman, who is part of a progressive “squad” of Democratic senators that includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush and Ilhan Omar.
Polls suggest Trump is on track to beat Biden this November.
of The Des Moines Register/MediaCom Iowa vote The survey of 632 Iowa voters showed Trump leading Biden 50% to 32%, including third-party candidates, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at 9%.
Pollster Frank Latz said the numbers were “bad news” for Biden and suggested he might lose, particularly in Midwestern battleground states such as Wisconsin and Michigan.
The Washington Post has reached out to the Biden campaign, Harris and Clinton for comment.
