RPT: ANALYSIS - Biden Picked Harris For Governing Skills Despite 'Top Cop' Record Infuriating Progressives

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th August, 2020) Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden selected US Senator Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate because of her governing background although her strong law enforcement record has alienated progressives, analysts told Sputnik.

On Tuesday, Biden announced that he picked Harris as his running mate, less than a week before the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Harris, who served as California attorney general for six years, dropped out of the Primary in December.

In a tweet on Wednesday, Biden said Harris is "ready to lead on day one," an interesting comment in light of rumors that the former vice president may only want to serve one term.

Some analysts believe Harris' service as California's attorney general from 2011 to 2017 gives her an impressive governing record. Which is why, she may not have been selected for her ability to rally voters, analysts say.

"The vice presidential pick seems to indicate that Biden thinks he is confident that he is likely to win the election. Although Harris has the debating skills to attack the opposition candidate, the VP's traditional campaign role, Harris is more of a 'governing' pick than a 'campaign' pick," Independent Institute Center for Peace and Liberty Director Ivan Eland told Sputnik.

Moreover, Eland pointed out that Harris could play up the fact that she helped govern the largest state in the country.

California State University Emeritus Professor of politics Beau Grosscup said as a woman of color, Harris can assuage African-Americans and voters who might have second thoughts about Biden, given there is a good possibility he is a one-term president.

"Harris would bring energy and intellectual sharpness to the Biden campaign... They have to figure out a way to bring this imagery to the front on the TV/internet," Grosscup told Sputnik.

University of Pittsburgh Professor of International Affairs Michael Brenner thought Harris's experience as a legal prosecutor would enable her to bring forcefulness and punch to the Democratic campaign.

"Subtlety is not her style. She'll be very vocal, forceful and articulate on the Sunday talk shows where she will set up semi-permanent residence," Brenner told Sputnik.

During the primary, Harris came under fire during debates for her strong law enforcement background, which analysts say could backfire, despite her governing experience.

"Kamala Harris will do more harm than good. Yes, she'll shore up Biden's standing with the Democratic center... but she'll infuriate the party's Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-wing," Political commentator and historian Dan Lazare told Sputnik.

Lazare said Harris represented a repressive strain in the Democratic Party that had grown ever more pronounced over the past 40 years.

"The goal was to be as punitive at home as the Clintons and the rest of the Democratic Leadership Council were being abroad: Arrest them, try them, and lock them up until the prisons were overflowing, which in California they soon were. That was... a program that Kamila Harris would eagerly carry forward into the 21st century," he said.

Now that the neocons in the party are triumphant, Lazare warned, left-Democrats have nowhere to go.

"My guess is that they'll stay at home in November, thereby giving Trump the edge he needs to either win or rig the elections," Lazare said.

University of Houston Professor of African-American History Gerald Horne explained that Harris' 13-year record as the top legal law enforcer for first San Francisco and then California could also backfire on her with some of her own core support.

"Her 'Top Cop' reputation may hurt her with young Blacks and help with Euro-Americans across class lines," Horne said.

Grosscup said the post-George Floyd Black Lives Matter movement makes it difficult to defend Harris on the issue unless they can make the appropriate case that she and Biden are anti-police violence and not anti-police.

This distinction, however, has not yet gained footing and is hampered by the drive to "defund" the police, Grosscup added.