About that Thing Y’All Don’t Want to Talk About…
By 
If discussions of Biden being replaced on the ticket bother you, then please skip this post. Typically my threads are open but I really don’t need folks spending a lot of time discussing how the LGM frontpagers are THE WORST EVER for discussing what literally everyone else in politics is discussing.
Folks are moving into position…
In the lead-up to a planned meeting of Democratic governors with the president Wednesday, Beshear was frank in his concern following a debate performance that saw Biden, 81, sometimes trail off and struggle to speak coherently. The governor deferred questions on whether or not Biden ought to run again, saying the “decision on continuing or not will fall to him and his family,” but Beshear did preview some of the questions he and his colleagues might ask. “I don’t think it’s an attack on the White House or an attack on the President, who is a good man and a nice man, to just say, ‘tell us a little bit more about how you’re doing,’” Beshear said. “I think the American people would respond positively to it, and the President has formed a relationship of empathy and of direct communication to the American people. “So I think it will be a wise decision in whatever way they would choose to just address it directly.”
How… non-commital!
During the interview, Brown said that Harris’ allies are floating Beshear as a vice presidential candidate with whom she’d pair well. Beshear said he didn’t want to speculate, but highlighted his “good relationship” with Harris. Recently, he attended an event with her on medical marijuana at the White House. He said that his name being tossed around in that context is a reflection of the state’s positive trajectory. “While it’s nice to hear your name and things like that, I’m just proud of what we have done as a state, and the President and the Vice President have been very helpful in making a lot of that happen,” Beshear said.
I mean… the lay of the land is pretty straightforward for Beshear. He’s a popular, term-limited governor in a red state who is drawing dead with respect to being competitive for any statewide office other than the one he currently holds. The VP slot walking into the bar and saying “Hiya, Andy!” is about the best thing that could happen to him (whether or not the ticket wins in 2024) and I can’t see that he’d turn it down, notwithstanding his pledge to serve out the rest of his term.
Now, does this make sense for the national ticket? The Democrats ain’t gonna win Kentucky, or Ohio or Missouri or Tennessee or West Virginia, so Beshear’s appeal is primarily in terms of balance; urban vs. rural, South/Midwest vs. California, white vs. Black, male vs. female. Does that make him better than Whitmer, Buttigieg, Shapiro, or Pritzker? I can see the argument than Shapiro offers everything that Beshear offers, plus Pennsylvania…