I think it is fitting to end 2024 with one of Steve-O-in NJ’s historical epics, this one in response my challenge at the end of the post to name a figure who would rebut the statement on the Victory Girls blog regarding Kamala Harris, “Never has so much been handed to one person who didn’t deserve it.” My mind immediately went to the Kim Kardashian’s sisters Khloe and Kourtney, who attained fame, celebrity and riches because their oldest sister had a viral sex tape. But moving from government and politics into pop culture is cheating.

Steve-O takes up that challenge with gusto in this Comment of the Day to the post, “Presuming Bias Also Makes You Stupid…and a Failure”. Here is it is….

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It really depends on how far back in history you are willing to go. I could name you at least 10 monarchs who were handed a whole lot they didn’t deserve for no reason other than accident of birth without even putting on my thinking cap:

1. Edward VIII of the UK – a child who never quite grew up and just wanted everything his own way, also TERRIBLE judge of character.
2. Louis XVI of France – clueless and careless, led him to the guillotine
3. Alfonso XIII of Spain – not up to the job and paved the way for fascist Franco.
4. Selim II of the Ottoman Empire – called the Drunkard or the Sot for a reason, led to the huge defeat at Lepanto and Turkey’s long slide down into the Third World.
5. Henry VIII of England – initially might even be considered heroic but ultimately destroyed by his excessive appetites and dictatorial nature.
6. Mary I of England – Henry’s eldest daughter, called Bloody Mary for a reason.
7. Charles II of Spain – the misshapen result of generations of Hapsburg inbreeding.
8. Hirohito of Japan [above, with Khloe and Kourtney] – allowed himself to be a puppet for overambitious generals and admirals, didn’t stand up to them until defeat was certain.
9. Cixi Yukian of China – waited till it was too late, then foolishly threw in with the Boxers, resulting ultimately in the Chinese Empire collapsing.
10. Oh yes, lest we forget William II of Germany, who pushed wise old Bismarck aside and led the German Empire into WWI and its destruction.

If I put on my thinking cap, I could probably triple that list. The fact is that when you hand someone power based on something other than merit, you throw the dice and risk ending up with someone who’s either useless or a puppet for the unscrupulous.

Swinging back to American history, it’s true that most Vice Presidents who have followed the Presidents they served under into the White House have ended up being one-termers, however they got there. At least four that I can think of, three of whom were chosen successors: Adams, van Buren, Johnson, and Bush the elder, all had impossible acts to follow. That said, at least three who had to pick up the fallen banner: Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and LBJ, proved to be just as consequential as the men they followed. Thomas Jefferson is in a class all his own, since he was elected Vice President under the original rule that the runner-up in the presidential election would become VP, and reluctantly served as VP under John Adams, who he was the opposite of in most ways.

Ann Richards was not some kind of great natural talent who came out of poverty and obscurity like Lincoln. She was a teacher from a relatively middle-class background who campaigned for liberals until she got her shot at statewide office, then gained wider attention with her loud mouth at the 1988 Democratic Convention attacking Bush the elder for being “born with a silver foot in his mouth.” Well, Bush went on to swallow Michael Dukakis whole and spit out his shoes. She became governor by holding back against a nasty campaign in the primaries by Jim Mattox and a gaffe-filled campaign in the general election by Clayton Williams. As governor she really wasn’t any great shakes and actually signed a law that criminalized homosexual conduct. Having apparently learned nothing, she attacked Bush the younger as “some jerk” “shrub” and “that young Bush boy” and was booted from office in 1994 after one term. She continued to basically suck wind until her smoking like a chimney and drinking like a fish gave her esophageal cancer which sent her down for the dirt nap in 2006. Her opinion on the last WWII vet to serve as president, who was also the youngest pilot in the United States Navy, who served as ambassador to China and Director of the CIA as well as Vice President, poles above anything she ever accomplished, means absolutely nothing.

Harris had a more accomplished resume than Ann Richards, but the fact is it was tainted because she bought her initial access with sexual favors and had greater chance of being elected as a leftist woman of color in the far-left state of California. She wasn’t, however, any more accomplished than any other candidate for Vice President, and everyone could see she was a failure in that office who had to be hidden and silenced. There is no way she would ever have been chosen as the candidate if Biden had kept his promise not to run for a second term. There are at least a dozen Democratic governors and Senators who would have been better choices and had a better shot at preventing a Trump comeback. However, he and the powers that be in the DNC decided that race and gender were paramount over merit. The rest is history.

Unfortunately, the Democratic Party doesn’t seem to want to read this recent history or learn from it. Like the Bolsheviks and the academic community that gave us Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, they refuse to admit they might have been incorrect and instead blame wrongthink both on the other side and by the ordinary people who just won’t see the light and get with the program. Then again, they are the party that believes in rewriting and tearing down history that they don’t like, so maybe this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

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It’s me, back again for a brief and minor cavil with Steve’s analysis.

I am absolutely certain that Harris would have been selected to run against Trump in an open convention. Primaries probably would have sunk her, but at a convention after that ship had sailed the party bosses would have been scared stiff that Harris’s rejection would lose too much of the group identification bloc. Biden, the “transitional President” choosing her as his DEI Veep meant that she was the presumed heir apparent. His sick, corrupt and cowardly party didn’t have the guts to admit what a hack and empty pants suit Kamala was, as we saw during her putrid campaign and even after.

I also think the Democrats have probably trapped themselves into running women for President regardless of the talent pool until either the party dies or one of them gets elected. They should try a Kardashian….