It’s never a good sign when you think your campaign has to be bolstered by a gimmick at the outset. But Joe Biden is reportedly considering picking Stacey Abrams as his running mate out of the gate. I believe this would be a mistake. It really wouldn’t get Biden anything, because if he can’t appeal to the base of the party and African-Americans on his own, Abrams isn’t going to do it for him. If he’s worried about seeming too old and out-of-touch, Abrams will hang a lantern on those problems. Finally, you learn a lot during a primary campaign and candidates are going to run better or worse than anticipated. If Biden’s the nominee, he should want to make his pick with that key, additional information at hand.
Besides, the natural Democratic ticket, as we discussed on The Editors this week, is O’Rourke-Abrams—to balance, of course, the relatively moderate loser of a 2018 election with a left-wing loser of a 2018 election and a candidate who conceded his loss with one who didn’t.