Former Defence Minister Christopher Pyne: VP Kamala Harris is ‘out of
Kamala Harris should be a strong candidate for president, but she isn’t. Instead, she has looked out of her depth with the difficult policy issues she has been gifted by Biden, writes former Australian Minister for Defence Christopher Pyne.
In the last three decades, the United States has had three eight-year presidencies – Bill Clinton from 1993, George W Bush from 2001 and Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017. That’s stability.
Fair minded people would say they held the shop together well enough. In style and substance, they were all vastly preferable to Donald Trump.
The jury is still out on what kind of President Joe Biden will be. He hasn’t yet reached a full year in office.
But it’s clear that he is no spring chicken. He may not even seek a second term. If the Democrats want to keep the White House, they might not want him to do so.
Biden was the antidote to Trump. Biden was in the US Congress for so long, he was like slipping on a familiar dressing gown and feeling comfortable.
By comparison, Trump’s presidency was like an all night dance party.
My guest on Global Focus on Sky News this week, former Republican Congressman from Tennessee, Zach Wamp, put it this way: “A big slice of the electorate was tired of him (Trump), tired of him dominating the news cycle, tired of him always talking about himself, tired of him treating people poorly.”
Wamp is convinced if the Democrats don’t move Biden on, the American people certainly will. He is sure that Biden won because he was facing Trump, not because the voters dislike Republican policies.
He points out that in an election where the Republican President lost by eight million votes, the Republican Party picked up fifteen seats from Democrats in the House of Representatives.
Trump was the first one term president since 1992. Biden may well have at least one thing in common with Trump. The last two one term President’s to follow each other were in the nineteenth century.
It’s as rare as hen’s teeth.
Here in Australia we have the impression that Republican politics in the United States is all about Trump. In fact, the Republican Party is already looking past Trump to greener pastures.
Wamp was the Chairman of the Presidential nomination campaign of Senator Marco Rubio from Florida, he is well credentialed to discuss the possible Republican candidates for President in 2024.
After the debacle in Afghanistan, Wamp is optimistic about the future for America: “We need a new generation of leadership. So the good news for the world is the new generation leadership is emerging and their strong and they’re capable and they’re experienced.”
He cites Congressman Mike Gallagher from Wisconsin, Congressman Dan Crenshaw (Texas), Governor Ron De Santis of Florida, Congresswoman Nancy Mace (South Carolina), former US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley and Senator Tim Scott (South…
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