i've stated previously that harris is toxic.

but, you'd might as well be voting for a scatter plot. you don't have the slightest idea where she stands on anything. it's just not an informed choice.

if there was an experienced black female legislator with a progressive streak to consider, i'd be happy to, but there kind of isn't anybody so he's looking at mayors and shit. the argument i made when this issue came up with supreme court judges in canada (they were looking for an indigenous candidate and couldn't find one) was that the best thing to do is look at promoting qualified people from the lower courts and wait it out, don't just promote an unqualified law prof to the highest court because of their ethnic background. the justice system is kind of important. i understand the identity politics, but you want to make sure that competency is the priority. in another generation, if more attention is paid to diversity in the lower courts, it should provide for better candidates, when the issue comes up at that time.

let's be real: it takes time for an emancipated population to develop. it was always hard to argue with a straight-face that obama was qualified for the job, even if he often sounded so very inspiring, and i'd bet biden knows better than most what the actual truth was when he first walked in there. whether picking obama over clinton ends up going down in history as a mistake or not (mccain was always a loose cannon...), it ought to have been a catastrophe, and i'm sure biden is fully cognizant of that, and everything that everybody did to hold things together with an unqualified president.

now, the situation is flipped over, and it's biden that is going to need the help. an effective vice-president is going to need to know how to pass legislation. she's going to have to have serious experience in the house, know who to call, etc. that's what biden could do, it's what cheney could do, it's what gore could do - and what pence can't do, because he doesn't have that experience.

so, i say give it another generation for some black women to work their way through congress and get that experience. as it is, today, right now, the women we have that are qualified are white - which reflects the changing reality of the last several decades, when white women were first in line for so long. that wasn't fair, but it's real, and so many years of being first in line back then means they are first in line, now.

so, let's focus on diversity for congress and all of the smaller offices, for now, and competency for the increasingly central role of vice-president.