by Don Fredrick, The Complete Obama Timeline, ©2024
(Jul. 23, 2024) — Every Democrat who says no to being the running mate of Kamala Harris knows she will lose to Donald Trump. The Democrats with White House ambitions want to be viable presidential candidates in 2028. In addition to the fact that Harris is a terrible candidate with a lack of accomplishments who is up against a charismatic former president with a proven track record, look at the history of vice presidents since the 1960s and their inability to become president:
Lyndon Johnson became president only because John F. Kennedy was assassinated (perhaps at the direction of or at least the knowledge of Johnson), and then had to drop out in March 1968 because he knew he would lose in November.
Johnson’s vice president, Hubert Humphrey, was defeated by Richard Nixon in November 1968.
Nixon’s two vice presidents never went on to be elected president. Nixon’s first vice president, Spiro Agnew, was forced to resign in 1973. Gerald Ford became president only because Nixon resigned, and then lost to Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Carter’s vice president, Walter Mondale, lost in a 49-1 state blowout by Ronald Reagan.
Reagan’s vice president, George H. W. Bush, almost became president in March 1981 via an assassination attempt. Bush then ran for president in 1988 and won, mostly because his opponent, Michael Dukakis, was a terrible candidate.
George H. W. Bush’s vice president, Dan Quayle, went nowhere and essentially disappeared after Bush-Quayle lost to Clinton-Gore in 1992. Clinton won in 1992 and again in 1996 (with substantial help from third-party candidate Ross Perot.)
Bill Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore, lost to George W. Bush in a close election in 2000.
George W. Bush’s war-mongering vice president, Dick Cheney, did not become the Republican nominee in 2008. Senator John McCain won that nomination, and then lost to media darling Barack Obama.
Obama’s two-time running mate, Joe Biden, was rudely pushed aside in 2016 to pave the way for Hillary Rodham, who then lost to Donald Trump. (Some might argue that had Biden won the Democrat nomination in 2016 he might have defeated Trump.)
Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, destroyed his political future and disgraced the conservative movement by siding with RINOs like McConnell, Ryan, and Romney.
The resurrected Joe Biden then won in 2020, partly because of Covid and primarily because of the sudden appearance of tens of thousands of ballots that were “found” long after the polls closed.
Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris, will get the 2024 Dem nomination because of behind-the-scenes manipulations by the Democrat elites and power-brokers. She is likely to lose to Trump.
The track record of the last 60 years suggests that the odds are very much against a vice president becoming president. Lyndon Johnson would never have become president had John F. Kennedy not been assassinated. Joe Biden would never have become president absent Covid and vote fraud. George H. W. Bush was the only vice president who was elected legitimately in that time period, and that was largely because he rode the coattails of Reagan’s reinvigorated economy and the fact that his Democrat opponent was incredibly weak and ran a terrible campaign.
If I were a Democrat today with presidential ambitions I would most certainly not want to be the running mate of Kamala Harris. Spare me the disgrace and let me run in 2028. That is why Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, and Wes Moore have already told Harris, “Count me out.” The person who does tell her, “Yes!” is someone who wants a future book deal and a job with CNN after November 5.