Joe Biden’s running mate — and the winner is …

As are many others, I am anxiously awaiting to hear who Joe Biden will pick for his running mate. I believe it should be Kamala Harris, a current senator from California. He said he will announce his decision in early August.

Biden has an impressive list of well-qualified people, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Florida Rep. Val Demmings, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, former national security adviser and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, California Rep. Karen Bass, and former Democratic leader in the Georgia House of Representatives Stacey Abrams.

Each one would be an able replacement for Biden, should he be unable to complete his term. And, I believe, each one would give Vice President Mike Pence a run for his money in the debates leading up to the Nov. 3 election.

Biden has pledged to make his cabinet look like America, as he should, and I think his first step is to select a qualified woman of color as his running mate.

While each one on the list is qualified, each one has her own negatives to contend with. I won’t go into detail here. Suffice it to say that none of those negatives comes anywhere close to the problems President Trump or Pence have. Each one on the list outshines our current officeholders by a mile.

I like Harris for many reasons. She has varied experience at the local, state and federal levels; she is personable; has a sense of humor; and can identify with regular people and their problems.

According to her website, https://www.harris.senate.gov/about, “after Harris earned an undergraduate degree from Howard University and a law degree from the University of California, Hastings, she began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.

“In 2003, Kamala became the District Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco. Among her achievements as District Attorney, Harris started a program that gives first-time drug offenders the chance to earn a high school diploma and find employment.

“Having completed two terms as the District Attorney of San Francisco, Kamala was elected as the first African-American and first woman to serve as California’s Attorney General. In this role, she worked tirelessly to hold corporations accountable and protect the state’s most vulnerable people.”

Currently, she serves on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on the Budget.

Wikipedia reports that as a senator, she has supported single-payer healthcare, although her current plan differs from the Medicare-for-all program supported by Sen. Bernie Sanders; federal descheduling of cannabis; a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants; the DREAM Act; a ban on assault weapons; and progressive tax reform.

As I said, each candidate has her negatives. According to Wikipedia, “in October 2003, the San Francisco Ethics Commission found that Harris unintentionally violated the city’s campaign finance law by exceeding the voluntary $211,000 spending limit. In what was thought to be the largest fine to date under that law, the Ethics Commission levied up to $34,000 in penalties and corrective measures, and ordered her to buy newspaper ads informing voters about not abiding by the spending cap.”

The reason I bring this up is to show that Harris accepted full blame, saying, “Leadership isn’t about being perfect. Leadership means taking responsibility.”

That to me means a lot, and it stands in stark contrast to the leadership we have today. This is the kind of honesty and integrity we need in the White House.

Should it become necessary for Biden’s vice president to step in and take over, Kamala Harris would be a great first woman president. She would be able to get along with, and work well with, foreign leaders, and she would be tough enough to not let them walk all over her. And, she would stand up for Americans.

Even as vice president and president of the Senate, her experience in the Senate will help her work with her former colleagues to pass legislation that would benefit everyone, not just big business or special interests.

And I’m sure this Blog is the first thing Joe Biden reads every morning, so, Joe, listen to me. Choose Kamala Harris as your running mate. You won’t regret it.

To learn more about Harris, check out https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/elections/kamala-harris.html or https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/28/us/kamala-harris-fast-facts/index.html