I Didn't Expect Kamala Harris To Be The Nominee So Easily

'She's been a terrific advocate for women's rights in recent months and her prosecutor's background will really help her challenge Trump in a forceful way that Biden could not,' notes Sree Sreenivasan.

There are 106 days left till America's presidential elections (that's more than the 101 days combined that the Indian, UK and France campaigns lasted).

If anyone tells you they know exactly what's going to happen or are making grand predictions, they are naive. So don't fully trust what anyone says they know, including me!

It's been about 8 hours since the news broke of President Joe Biden dropping out and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris. It's been the latest in a series of whiplash announcements and developments in what many of us already believe is the most consequential election of our lifetime (or at least since the last one). It comes on the heels of The Bad Debate, The Attempted Assassination, George Clooney Speaks Out, Biden Gets Covid, etc.

Since the developments of the day, responses from Democrats haven't all been predictable:

1. The most relevant candidates expected to challenge Harris have all endorsed her.
2. Small donations to the campaign topped $52 million in just five hours.
3. Major donors, including many billionaires, have gotten behind Harris and will be writing big checks to the campaign.

Meanwhile, the responses of the MAGA party have been very predictable:

1. Labeling her 'extremist' and 'too liberal' (strange since I also got complaints from some progressives that, as a prosecutor, she wasn't liberal enough).
2. Making fun of the way she laughs, that's not even borderline sexist. It goes way over that line.
3. Blaming her for the problems at the southern border.

Fact is that I didn't expect Harris to be the nominee so easily and there's still a chance she might stumble. I thought that the first 3.5 years of her tenure have been marred by various problems (some of her own making, including in managing her office); the Biden acolytes suppressing her potential; giving her the worst assignments without the right tools or support to succeed (eg, 'fix the immigration crisis') and America's limitless misogyny and racism.

But she's been a terrific advocate for women's rights in recent months and her prosecutor's background will really help her challenge Trump in a forceful way that Biden could not.

As I wrote last week, there's much excitement among Indian Unclejis and Auntyjis about Usha Vance and her husband JD after he became Trump's VP nominee.

But any visions of Usha versus Kamala in some sort of ultimate desi showdown aren't going to come to much. This is a battle between Trump's vision and the Democratic vision, and a legendary Indian American venture capitalist Vinod Khosla has it exactly right:

One other thought for all my non-American readers. You've no doubt seen this video make the WhatsApp round from Yonden Lhatoo, managing editor of Hong Kong's South China Morning Post: 'Biden or Trump: Whoever Wins, We Lose.' (External Link)

It's clever and provocative. He's absolutely right about America's history of interfering in the world and trying to be its police chief, judge and executioner. America's self-congratulatory smugness about its own goodness has been undeserved at least since the CIA's coup in Iran in 1953 and the subsequent chaos that affects all parts of the world today. And that's just one episode.

'Whoever wins [between Biden and Trump], we lose' is a brilliant line that can win applause on WhatsApp and in political speeches.

But that very line also masks a misunderstanding of what's at stake.

Biden's replacement and Trump are, in fact, NOT the same. And their impact on the world will NOT be the same. Think of what's going to happen to the environment and the planet, eg, under Trump.

Just as Gore and Bush were not the same in 2000. But people were told that, including by third party candidate Ralph Nader.

Just as Hillary Clinton and Trump were not the same in 2016. But people were told that, including by Bernie Sanders fans.

The world paid the price for those misunderstandings. It cannot afford to have that happen again.

Sree Sreenivasan is CEO of Digimentors, a digital and AI consultancy in New York City. He is the president and co-founder of SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association. You can find him on Instagram here.