By Joseph Sohm @ Shutterstock.com
Viewing the vice president debate through Plexiglas last Wednesday made for a strange reflection: The ghostly image of a 3rd participant: Bernie Sanders.
Who Is Running the Democratic Party
Give Mike Pence credit, urges Kimberley Strassel in the WSJ. Mr. Pence’s big victory that evening was in taking the Bernie wraps off.
Just three weeks from an election, not one member of the Beltway media, including the debate moderators, has been willing to challenge Joe Biden on his leftward lurch. It was left to Mr. Pence to take the Bernie wraps off.
Kamala Harris had her good moments, but it was these exchanges on Mr. Biden’s agenda that were memorable for her non-answers. And no surprise, since The Socialist Who Must Not Be Named poses the true liability for the Harris-Biden ticket.
Mr. Biden rolled over for many of Mr. Sanders’s more radical policy ideas (and picked a lefty running mate) to keep the party peace. To broadcast this agenda now would risk scaring off middle-of-the-road Americans. But to disavow it risks alienating the progressive base Mr. Biden needs to turn out.
The standout moment of the debate (as even liberal commentators were forced to acknowledge) was Ms. Harris’s refusal—yet again—to come clean on packing the Supreme Court. Average Americans reject this; progressives demand it; the Biden campaign says it will explain its own view only after the election.
Three times Mr. Pence challenged Ms. Harris to say whether a President Biden would add “seats to the Supreme Court, which has had nine seats for 150 years, if you don’t get your way.” Three times Ms. Harris dodged, along the way telling a canned but irrelevant story about Abraham Lincoln.
Why Biden/Harris Evade SCOTUS Picks
- Biden’s choices for SCOTUS are too radical to sit well with most voters.
- Biden/Harris support stacking the Court but refuse to say, fearing turning off voters.
Lifetime appointments have influences beyond any presidency. Would Biden need to evade the question unless he plans on packing the Court?
