Hillary Veep-Stakes Update

With Hillary a week away from locking up the nomination, focus will start to turn again to who she selects as her running mate. I’m convincing myself that she’s going to select Xavier Becerra, the congressman from Los Angeles and member of the House Democratic Leadership.  The House minority leadership team is not typically a spring board to national office, and Becerra would bring zero national name recognition to the ticket.

But, he is a seasoned and polished performer on television. He’s got the skills to prosecute the case against Trump. He’s been in the House since 1993, knows the issues, and passes the test of someone who could be a heartbeat from the presidency. His lack of national profile means he won’t upstage Hillary on the campaign trail in a way that, say, Elizabeth Warren might, but he would be a fresh new face.

Am I forgetting anything?  Oh, yeah, he’s Latino. His parents were immigrants from Mexico, the place that Trump wants to wall off. Becerra’s candidacy would be a living refutation of Trump’s xenophobia and racism. Democrats would do anything to have a Latino on the ticket for all the obvious reasons. So, much so that people are floating names like Julian Castro—immensely talented, but thin resume: HUD Secretary and former Mayor of San Antonio—and Secretary of Labor, Tom Perez, who’s never run for elective office.

Becerra would be an exciting, historic choice, that helps energize an important part of the Democratic coalition and refutes one of the main rationales for Trump’s dreadful candidacy.

Trump Still Lonely: The Opposite of a Drinking Game

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder today became the latest high-profile Republican to announce that he won’t be endorsing any candidate in this year’s presidential campaign. Meanwhile, most senior Republicans when asked if they are supporting Trump say things like, “well, I said I would support the Republican nominee and so, I am going to support the Republican nominee.” They rarely actually say the word “Trump,” and I’m pretty sure a lot of them are going to vote for Hillary.

Polls are fickle and unreliable at this stage of the contest, but the behavior of senior Republicans, particularly those running for election or re-election this fall, is a great predictor of what’s going to happen in November. Other than the shell-of-a man that is Chris Christie, I don’t think that a single Republican governor or senator or candidate for those offices has appeared on a stage with Trump since he won the nomination. So far, they are taking a walk.

Links

A couple of thoughtful pieces this week:

Rebecca Traister in New York reports on her travels with Hillary on the campaign trail.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/05/hillary-clinton-candidacy.html

David Frum, former speechwriter to George W. Bush, writes in The Atlantic about everything in our democracy that had to break in order for Trump to be the Republican nominee. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/the-seven-broken-guardrails-of-democracy/484829/