FiveThirtyEight’s Perry Bacon Jr. makes a cryptic argument in his post “The Debate Over Biden’s VP Pick Is Full Of Half-Truths And Misleading Arguments.” While the flow is rather circuitous, he contends:
- The “it must be a black woman” argument is multi-faceted and complex. But, ultimately, it’s mostly a backdoor argument for not picking Elizabeth Warren and subtly an argument for Kamala Harris.
- None of the electability arguments being advanced have much basis in fact but the notion that every black woman being mentioned is equally attractive politically is bizarre.
- Harris is the only traditionally-qualified black woman in contention.
- Any white moderate (we’re looking at you, Amy Klobuchar) advancing a generic “pick a black woman” argument is really lobbying against Warren, who would otherwise be the obvious choice.
Bacon doesn’t dismiss arguments for a black woman made on the basis of equity. Indeed, he thinks they have merit. He’s just skeptical of those made on the basis of electoral impact.
