Mediaboss Marketing

As endorsements for Kamala Harriss run for president poured in over the past four days, Barack and Michelle Obamas voices were notably absent. On Friday, however, the former president and First Lady laid the speculation to rest when they wholeheartedly endorsed Harris.

In a video shared by the Obamas and Harris, the couple calls Harris to tell her that theyre with her. Michelle says, I cant have this phone call without saying to my girl Kamala: I am proud of you. This is going to be historic. Barack then chimes in, saying, We called to say, Michelle and I couldnt be prouder to endorse you, and do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office.

On X, Michelle wrote, Im so proud of my girl, Kamala. Barack and I are so excited to endorse her as the Democratic nominee because of her positivity, sense of humor, and ability to bring light and hope to people all across the country. Weve got your back. In his own tweet, Barack wrote, At this critical moment for our country, were going to do everything we can to make sure she wins in November. In a campaign email, the Obamas added, There is no doubt in our mind that Kamala Harris has exactly what it takes to win this election and deliver for the American people. At a time when the stakes have never been higher, she gives us all reason to hope.

Since Harris announced her candidacy on Sunday, shes received support from 200 representatives and more than 20 governors and 45 senators (not to mention Black women and countless celebrities). She has also raised more than $130 million. Now that the Obamas are securely in the KHive, Harris is as she put it in her phone call with the couple gonna have some fun with this.

Get the Cut newsletter delivered daily

By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us.

Continued here:
The Obama Endorsement Has Arrived - The Cut

Former President Barack Obama has been in regular touch with Vice President Kamala Harris since she emerged as the likely Democratic nominee to share his experiences and is expected to endorse her soon, according to people familiar with the situation.

Mr. Obamas name had been notably absent from the succession of top Democrats lining up to support Ms. Harris after President Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday. But Mr. Obama has been active behind the scenes, serving as a sounding board to Ms. Harris and checking in with former aides who he thinks can help her cause, they said.

The former president had been reluctant to endorse Ms. Harris too quickly to avoid the perception that he was overseeing her coronation, but also to give his friend and former running mate Mr. Biden time to process his wrenching decision to step aside.

Mr. Obama has told people close to him that he has been impressed with the start of Ms. Harriss campaign and amused by a spate of stories claiming that he was holding out because he had doubts about Ms. Harris, whom he has known for two decades.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss their private conversations.

It is not clear if Mr. Obama has spoken to Mr. Biden since Sunday, but the two men had been communicating regularly in the weeks leading up to Mr. Bidens decision, which he made after veteran Democrats, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, pressured him to quit after a catastrophic debate performance last month.

Mr. Obamas feelings about Mr. Bidens capacity to run for re-election remain opaque. But some people close to Mr. Biden bitterly resent the role that vocal former Obama aides played in trying to force him out.

Mr. Obamas endorsement delay came as no surprise to people close to him. He adopted an identical stance before the 2020 election, when Mr. Bidens aides pressured him to endorse early in the Democratic primaries before Senator Bernie Sanders dropped out. (Mr. Obamas favored phrase back then was, I dont want to thumb the scale.)

Shortly after Mr. Biden announced his decision to quit quickly followed by his endorsement of Ms. Harris Mr. Obama posted an affectionate, if somewhat formal tribute on Medium that did not mention her once.

Joe Biden has been one of Americas most consequential presidents, as well as a dear friend and partner to me, he wrote. Mr. Obama chose Mr. Biden as his running mate in 2008 because he said at the time that he wanted an older, more experienced running mate with gray in his hair and limited future presidential ambitions.

We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead, Mr. Obama wrote in the post. But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges.

See the article here:
Obama Has Been in Touch With Harris and Is Expected to Endorse Her Soon - The New York Times

As endorsements for Kamala Harris pile up from all corners of the Democratic Party, one omission is glaring: former President Barack Obama.

Claims out of Bidenworld have it that hes convinced Kamala cant win and is spitting mad that Joe jumped the gun on crowning her as his replacement; Bam had wanted several candidates to compete, with a winner chosen at the convention.

But the party, doubtless exhausted after weeks of tension over whether Biden would drop out, rushed to embrace Harris to end the drama.

And Democrats figure Harris is a (relatively) fresh face; though her approval ratings are as low as Bidens, theyre surely not as firmly locked in.

The same messaging machine (including most of the media) that covered up Bidens decline can now turn (shamelessly) to covering up her flaws.

They only have to make it work for a bit over three months to Election Day, and theyve already got a social media blitz going.

The thing is, Kamalas flaws are many: Shes crashed and burned while trying to discuss policy almost as often as Joe.

She has little experience actually governing, and shes thrown her support behind lefty causes, like the Green New Deal and defunding the police, which centrist Americans oppose.

Not to mention the border czar fiasco and her media enablers have already burned themselves trying to memory-hole that.

Nor is it clear how much the public trusts the press after the Biden revelations.

Plus, Harris former staffers (and shes gone through a lot of them) routinely complain that she doesnt do her homework, then blames her minions when shes caught out.

Doesnt bode well for live interviews (perhaps a repeat of her meltdown with Lester Holt?) or for debating Donald Trump.

Morning Report and Evening Update: Your source for today's top stories

To be clear: Switching out Joe for Kamala ups the challenge for the Trump-Vance ticket; polls suggest the race is already tighter, and the Dems convention, including her VP pick, might tighten it up more.

Republicans are still feeling out the right tone to attack a nominee whos a black woman: Dems will call them racist and sexist no matter what, but the voters will judge for themselves.

Yet she may still bomb, and forcing out one nominee is surely the limit or Democrats will lose the democracy issue entirely.

Well likely never know for sure if Obama really wanted Sen. Mark Kelly or whomever, but we do know hes a smart guy.

And we suspect the early coronation of Kamala Harris will prove not that smart.

The rest is here:
Barack Obama's instincts that Kamala isn't a winner are spot-on - New York Post

Photo: Chip Somodevilla ( Getty Images )

Nearly a week after President Joe Biden announced that he was dropping out of the upcoming presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack and Michelle Obama have finally endorsed Harris as well. Their endorsement comes after public outcry from those waiting for the Obamas to act.

Oprah And Michelle Obama in The Light We Carry Is Our TV Pick This Week

Oprah And Michelle Obama in The Light We Carry Is Our TV Pick This Week

In a video that has been making its rounds on social media, the Obamas are seen calling Harris to officially lend their support. We called to say Michelle and I couldnt be prouder to endorse you and to do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office, the former president says.

Michelle Obama chimes in, I cant have this phone call without saying to my girl Kamala: I am proud of you. This is going to be historic. Barack also states: Bottom line is, we are ready to get to work. We are telling everybody to kick off those bedroom slippers and get off the couch and start knocking on doors and making phone calls.

The support from the Obamas couldnt come at a better time. On Thursday, a campaign spokesman for Donald Trump speculated that Obama was planning to select a different candidate.

There is a strong sense by many in the Democrat Party namely Barack Hussein Obama that Kamala Harris is a Marxist fraud who cannot beat President Trump, and they are still holding out for someone better, Cheung said in a statement.

Therefore, it would be inappropriate to schedule things with Harris because Democrats very well could still change their minds. However, folks have speculated that Obama held off the endorsement to not overshadow Bidens Wednesday night address to the nation.

Other prominent Democrats who have endorsed Harris as the Democratic nominee include Minority House Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Former Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi and Bill and Hillary Clinton.

View post:
WATCH: Praise Be! Barack And Michelle Obama Call Kamala Harris With Some Good News...Listen In - The Root

Hope and change? Photo: Leah Millis/Reuters

During her brief run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2019, Kamala Harris was widely believed to be emulating Barack Obamas 2008 campaign strategy. She treated South Carolina, the first primary state with a substantial Black electorate, as the site of her potential breakthrough. But she front-loaded resources into Iowa to prepare for that breakthrough by reassuring Black voters that she could win in the largely white jurisdiction. She had the added advantage of being from the large state of California, where the primary had just been moved up to Super Tuesday (March 3). For a thrilling moment, after her commanding performance in a June 2019 debate, Harris seemed on track to pull off this feat, threatening Joe Bidens hold on South Carolina in the polls and surging in Iowa. But neither she nor Cory Booker, who also relied on the Obama precedent, could displace Biden as the favorite of Black voters or strike gold in the crowded Iowa field. Out of money and luck, Harris dropped out before voters voted.

Now Kamala Harris is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee for 2024 without having to navigate any primaries. But she still faces some key strategic decisions. Joe Biden was consistently trailing Donald Trump in the polls in no small part because he was underperforming among young and non-white voters, the very heart of the much-discussed Obama coalition. Can Harris recoup some of these potential losses without sacrificing support elsewhere in the electorate? That is a question she must address at the very beginning of her general-election campaign.

Theres a chance that Harris can inject a bit of the Obama hope and change magic into a Democratic ticket that had previously felt like a desperate effort to defend an unpopular administration led by a low-energy incumbent, as Ron Brownstein suggests in The Atlantic:

Polls have shown that a significant share of Americansdoubt the mental capacity of Trump, who has stumbled through his own procession of verbal flubs, memory lapses, and incomprehensible tangents during stump speeches and interviews to relatively little attention in the shadow of Bidens difficulties. Particularly if Harris picks a younger running mate, she could top a ticket that embodies the generational change that many voters indicated they were yearning for when facing a Trump-Biden rematch

In the best-case scenario for this line of thinking, Harris could regain ground among the younger voters and Black and Hispanic voterswho have drifted away from Biden since 2020. At the same time, she could further expand Democrats already solid margins among college-educated women who support abortion rights.

Team Trump seems to believe it can offset these potential gains by depicting Harris as a California radical and a symbol of diversity who might alienate the older white voters with whom Biden had some residual strength. Obama overcame similar race-saturated appeals in 2008, but he had a lot of help from a financial collapse and an unpopular war presided over by the party of his opponent.

Harriss likely effort to follow Obamas path has major strategic implications in terms of the battleground map. Any significant improvement over Bidens performance among Black, Latino, and under-30 voters might put Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina very nearly conceded to Trump in recent weeks back into play. But erosion of Bidens support among older and/or non-college-educated white voters could create potholes in his narrow Rust Belt path to victory in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

These strategic choices could definitely affect Harriss choice of a running-mate, not just in terms of potentially picking a veep from a battleground state, but as a way of amplifying the shift produced by Bidens withdrawal. Brownstein even thinks Harris might consider following Bill Clintons 1992 example of doubling down on her own strengths:

The other option that energizes many Democrats would be for Harris to take the bold, historic option of selecting another woman: Whitmer. That would be a greater gamble, but a possible model would be 1992, when Bill Clinton chose Al Gore as his running mate; Gore was, like him, a centrist Baby Boomer southernerrather than an older D.C. hand. I love Josh Shapiro and I think he would be a great VP candidate, but I would double down with Whitmer, [Democratci consultant Mike] Mikus told me. I dont think you have to go with a moderate white guy. I think you can be bold [with a pick] that electrifies your base. I heard similar views from several consultants.

Whitmers expressed disinterest in the veepstakes may take that particular option off the table, but the broader point remains: Harris does not have to and may not be able to simply adopt Bidens strategy and tweak it slightly. She may be able to contemplate gains in the electorate that were unimaginable for an 81-year-old white male incumbent. But the strategic opportunity to follow Obamas path to the White House will first depend on Harriss ability to refocus persuadable voters on Trumps shaky record, bad character, and extremist agenda. Biden could not do that after the debate debacle of June 27. His successor must begin taking the battle to the former president right now.

Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world.

By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us.

See the rest here:
Harris May Follow Obamas Path to the White House After All - New York Magazine