The drama you’ve been craving
By 
I cannot recommend Josh Marshall’s thread about the media’s attempt to sell the idea that Harris is being imposed on unwilling voters by the DEMOCRATIC ESTABLISHMENT strongly enough:
2/ that with the incumbent president and presumed nominee out and no time to run anything more than a fake primary she had legitimacy on her side. 80 million voters literally chose her to be person who took over for Joe Biden if he couldnt serve. D primary voters in effect …— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 24, 2024
4/ stakeholders cld rally behind even if she wasn’t personally their choice. That was never going to be possible with any other potential nominee. If the pick was Whitmer on what basis were Shapiro or newsom supporters ever going to think that was fair?— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 24, 2024
6/ defined by the support of women and African-Americans, and especially Black women. The idea that in an unprecedented emergency situation they were going to skip over the Presidents loyal Black woman VP for no clear reason but the opposition of elite political columnists and …— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 24, 2024
8/ DC chattering class. What shut it down was the rush of support for Harris from people across the Democratic party, high and low, who understand its inner workings and the points made above. You only think that’s “the establishment” if what you understand of …— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 24, 2024
10/ to channel and direct support for herself in a way that all potential challengers threw their support to her within 24 hours. The “establishment” didn’t shut down the thunderdome contested convention columnists and reporters were demanding. The convention remains open.— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 24, 2024
Some of this we’ve already been over, but #4 is also very important. Even if you assume arguendo that a swing state governor should be the nominee — itself a greatly oversimplified point that ignores many other factors that go into a candidacy — you can’t nominate “generic swing state governor,” you have to nominate a specific one, and a 2-week series of panels with Dakota Johnson and Jeff Flake would provide no meaningful basis to decide between them or legitimize a choice between them, let alone legitimize passing over the prospective candidate people actually voted for.
The process is being followed, and the will of the Democratic voters (and the representatives of Democratic voters) is being honored. It’s the fantasies of a Golden Bachelor primary that constitute the elite attempt to bypass the will of the voters, based on both their disregard for the legitimacy of the process and the vast overconfidence some pundits have about their ability to identify strong national candidates ex ante. They don’t care about democratic legitimacy; they care that their drama-filled reality show was cancelled before it could air.