I've been thinking a great deal about who Joe Biden is going to pick to be his running mate as he will be making this decision fairly soon.
We know this much. Biden is going to pick a woman. It is also quite possible he will pick a woman of color.
With this in mind I believe the following three women would be best suited to be his running mate.
Keisha Lance Bottoms - The first term Mayor of Atlanta has been a supporter of Biden even when it wasn't fashionable stumping on his behalf when things weren't going so well in Iowa. When someone is prepared to stick it out with you in the worst of times it is helpful to have them at your side during the best of times.
Bottoms can also speak about the ravages of COVID-19 in a way no other elected official could having been afflicted with it along with her husband and son. While Bottoms was most asymptomatic, her husband Derek lost 20 pounds in a week. All the while Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp personally sued Bottoms for implementing a local mask mandate. If Biden picks Bottoms and this litigation is still pending it could further illustrate the difference in response to COVID-19 between Democrats and Republicans. A fight with Governor Kemp would warm her up for a debate with Vice-President Pence.
Val Demings - Best known for being a House manager during the impeachment of President Trump earlier this year, Demings spent the bulk of her professional career with the Orlando Police Department before being elected to Congress as the member from Florida's 10th Congressional District. Starting out on patrol in 1984, Demings became the city's chief of police in 2007 before retiring from the force in 2011.
While some progressives might recoil at having a former police chief on the ticket it must be remembered the vast majority of Americans don't want to defund the police and neither does Joe Biden. Should Biden name a former police chief as his running mate, President Trump is going to have a hard time convincing Americans that a Biden Administration would defund the police - try as he might. Ditto for Pence.
Tammy Duckworth - The first term Illinois Senator raised her profile considerably when Tucker Carlson questioned her patriotism and service to this country last month and handled him with aplomb. Duckworth, who lost both of her legs while serving as a U.S. Army helicopter pilot in Iraq in 2004, has kept up the pressure regarding the Trump Administration's indifference to Russia paying the Taliban bounties to kill American soldiers and no doubt would do so in dramatic style in a debate with Pence.
I believe Bottoms, Demings and Duckworth would compliment Biden on the ticket and do him no harm. I don't think the same can be said for Kamala Harris, Susan Rice and Elizabeth Warren. More on them later.
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