Why Amy Klobuchar is Biden’s best bet

It is rarely a good idea to make campaign promises that put you in a box or could go very wrong, as nearly every president can attest.

Joe Biden must have skipped that chapter in the campaign how-to handbook. He’s now stuck with vows to appoint women and minorities to key positions, vows which he could find complicated to keep.

Not only has the presumptive Democratic nominee promised to choose a female running mate, but also to name an African American woman to the Supreme Court. There’s nothing wrong with these goals, which are overdue, but problems arise when circumstances change.

The coronavirus pandemic, for example. It would be smart for Biden to consider New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo as his running mate, if for no other reason than that Cuomo, along with epidemiologist Anthony S. Fauci, are about the only names many Americans trust in this time of national crisis.

It may prove equally vexing to find a black woman for the high court given that most justices are culled from federal appellate courts. There are only five black women currently serving on U.S. appeals courts, all of whom will be 68 or older this year, according to the Federal Judicial Center. Democrats may prefer someone younger to get the nod.

But that promise cannot be kept until he is elected, and whether he is elected may turn on how he keeps the first promise: to name a female running mate. It’s safe to say that at no other time in recent history has the person riding shotgun been so critical. Biden would be the oldest president to assume office at 78 and has begun lately to look challenged at times by his age. Thus, voters must be able to envision the vice president, whoever she might be, as the president of the United States. And even if Biden bears up well, his pick will likely be next in line, at least, for the Democrats.

If I were Sen. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.), who appears to be on the shortlist, I’d drop my bid for the No. 2 spot and make a play for the high court. She has sat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and has been a former prosecutor and California’s attorney general. And she is young, age 55.

Another reason Harris may want to bet her chips on the Supreme Court instead of the vice presidency: She was often sharply critical of Biden in the debates, as in the time she all but drove Biden to his knees, repenting a regrettable anti-busing position decades ago. It was an unnecessarily humiliating moment for Biden that likely struck many Americans as more unfair than righteous.

Stacey Abrams, a former Georgia representative and unsuccessful 2018 gubernatorial candidate, has also been mentioned as a possible running mate. A Yale-educated lawyer, Abrams is a social-justice, voting-rights warrior who blames voter suppression for her loss, by 55,000 votes, to Republican Brian Kemp. On a personal note, she had me at, “I’m not going to do class warfare; I want to be wealthy” when she said those words during a recent speech. But she’s unlikely to be widely viewed as qualified for the nation’s top office.

I’m not sure that can be said of Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), a former Orlando police chief. Some say Demings will help Biden with black voters who view his 1994 crime bill as racist. But as a presence on the camera? She would be a far more convincing commander in chief than the current titleholder.

This brings us to Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the “Minnesota nice” candidate who brags about winning in “red districts.” Alas, she happens to be white and, perhaps more troubling to liberals, a moderate. While liberals prefer someone more progressive and others are demanding an African American woman on the ticket, such concerns should be understood as less important than winning in November. With all due respect to Charlamagne tha God’s insistence that Klobuchar would hurt black voter turnout, it is difficult to believe that Klobuchar would be a net loss for the Democrats with so many red and purple states seemingly in play.

The path to victory isn’t paved with progressive promises. It looks more like Main Street: a broad avenue of hope for a sane, steady future. The vast majority of Americans are ready for the middle road. Klobuchar has a cheerful outlook, a sharp mind, an impressive Senate record and a comforting, maternal vibe who could allay concerns about Biden’s age and health. If winning is the goal, she’s Biden’s best bet.

He can square the circles after he’s elected.