Yesterday was a great day for Black women! Serena Williams won her match in Lexington from a set down, the Duchess of Sussex continues to be free from all of the Petty Windsors’ crap and now Kamala Harris is the first Black woman and Asian-American woman to appear on a national ticket. Joe Biden had clearly chosen Kamala Harris weeks ago, if not months ago. So it wasn’t the most startling news yesterday, when his campaign announced it via text-blast. Still, I was happy, because Biden could have f–ked it up at the last minute, but he didn’t. He chose the most experienced person on his shortlist. He chose the woman who held his feet to the fire and called him out publicly during the campaign. He chose the woman who would challenge him the most. But is Kamala the “safe choice”? That’s what political analysts say!

What’s telling is that Biden — and his team — didn’t feel the need to reach for a less predictable pick. They knew that while picking Harris would draw considerable attention, it would also be the thing most people expected them to do. Despite the historic nature of putting Harris on the ticket, Biden and his advisers knew that selecting Harris might be described by some as unsurprising. But one man’s “unsurprising” is another man’s “safe.” And that’s exactly what Harris is — and what Biden believes he needs.

See, if you are Joe Biden, making your third run for president and ahead in virtually every swing state and nationally over President Donald Trump, every day between now and November 3 you want to do nothing that threatens to change the underlying dynamics of the race. And those underlying dynamics are that this election is a referendum on Trump’s first term in office and, more specifically, the deeply haphazard and erratic way in which he has handled the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

Under that theory of the case, Biden needs to spend most of his time convincing voters that Trump deserves to be fired and a (relatively) small amount of time making sure they believe he could do the job in the incumbent’s place.

[From CNN]

I disagree! I think if Biden wanted to play it safe, he never would have promised Jim Clyburn that he would choose a black woman as a running mate. If Biden wanted to play it safe, he would have chosen some boring-ass white dude as a running mate. If Biden wanted to play it safe, he wouldn’t have chosen the bête noire-candidate of the Bernie people (although they don’t like anyone). I do believe that Biden’s polling position means that he felt like he could take a bigger chance with his VP pick. I also think that Biden is like everybody else: he wants to see the debate between Kamala Harris and Mother’s Husband. LOL.

Also, the Trumpers have literally no idea how to attack Kamala. It’s amazing. I’ve seen so many comments about how Senator Harris treated Brett Kavanaugh badly at his Senate hearing and I’m like… lol, you get that’s why we like her so much, right? She was mean to a drunk rapist, oh noes. Where the Nasty Women at??!

Trump wasted no time calling Kamala Harris “nasty” pic.twitter.com/jze9yQKe9V

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 11, 2020

A historic photo: @JoeBiden asking @KamalaHarris to join the ticket — taken just a few hours ago, from his home in Wilmington. Your next President and Vice President!! pic.twitter.com/vLNHxnvkb3

— Ronald Klain (@RonaldKlain) August 11, 2020

Photos courtesy of the Biden campaign, Avalon Red, Backgrid.