'Queen Kamala,' Election Cheating & Money Grab: How US Democrats Failing Democracy
© AP Photo / John Locher
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Barack Obama has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, even though he was previously said to doubt her ability to beat Donald Trump. Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel has discussed with Sputnik why Obama changed his mind and why election cheating concerns are on the rise.
Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama backed Harris after a conspicuous pause that had prompted speculation about an internal power struggle within the Democratic Party.
The New York Post on July 25 quoted a source close to the Biden family as saying that Barack Obama doesn't think Kamala can win.
"The Obamas likely received substantial assurances from Harris that, in the event of victory, Barack would play important roles guiding and selecting key players in the federal government," Wall Street analyst and investigative journalist Charles Ortel told Sputnik.
"In the event of a Trump victory, the Obamas may have bargained for blanket pardons especially concerning 'organization' and 'operation' of several tax-exempt entities. In exchange, the Obamas will bring money and voters, though I fail to see them closing Kamala's yawning enthusiasm gap. In fact, whenever and should Kamala appear with either Obama, she will come off weaker and inauthentic by comparison," he continued.
Prior to Obama's belated endorsement of Harris, some US political commentators and lawmakers suggested that the real game behind Barack's hesitation could be aimed at igniting a "Draft Michelle Obama" movement into the forthcoming Democrat convention.
With a strong vice presidential pick, Michelle could have higher odds of defeating the Republican contenders than Harris, Ortel presumed. He believes "Obama certainly understands that Harris is an insincere, incompetent manager and unsympathetic contender."
While the corporate press is now insisting that Kamala Harris is narrowing the gap with Trump, her victory is not a done deal.
The latest New York Times/Siena College and Wall Street Journal polls claim that after Joe Biden stepped aside, Harris almost erased Trump's lead. However, the Democracy Institute, an independent American pollster, found that Trump would secure 48 percent of the popular vote versus Harris, who enjoys 40 percent support. An Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey in five swing states found Harris trailing Trump by a few percentage points in most of them. Swing states proved to be the key to winning the race in 2020.
Kamala Elevated to Top Without Primaries or Campaigning
The hasty replacement of Joe Biden with Kamala Harris as well as granting the vice president full access to what is left of Joe's campaign funds has raised questions and concerns on both sides of the aisle.
Team Trump filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on July 23, accusing the president and his veep of violating campaign finance laws and the will of donors. The Biden campaign had nearly $96 million in the bank after burning through most of its funds in recent months.
"The funds raised were obtained with the specific assumption they would support a campaign for Biden to seek reelection as president and Harris as vice president," Ortel said.
It's not only conservatives who have expressed their discontent: Black Lives Matter (BLM), a leftist group behind the 2020 protests over African American George Floyd's death in police custody, denounced the Democratic Party as hypocrites for "installing" Kamala as the Democratic presidential nominee without a public vote.
"Biden and Harris deride Trump and J.D. Vance as posing threats to 'democracy,'" Ortel said. "How democratic is it to freeze plausible rivals, including Robert Kennedy, Jr., out of primaries and then to anoint Harris as nominee for the presidency when she never actually campaigned or exposed her views seriously during the Democratic 'primaries'?"
Biden Campaign Was on Spending Spree Even Facing Fundraising Freeze
Biden's debate debacle on June 27 as well as his decision to quit obviously stem from his deteriorating health condition, according to the pundit.
Judging by Hollywood actor George Clooney's recent NYT op-ed, Joe's decline became obvious to many during the mid-June fundraiser. Against this backdrop, the Biden campaign's enthusiastic spending spree in June and July raises questions, according to Ortel.
Biden’s campaign had spent $243 million through the end of June, according to FEC records, and continued to do so even after some liberal donors refused to continue funding in the wake of Joe's deplorable performance in his debate against Trump. The setback did not stop Biden's team from buying a whopping $35 million in ad time in July, according to Bloomberg.
"National campaigns burn through enormous sums especially on advertising," Ortel said. "Media corporations are key beneficiaries of this spending, so it seems that editors and 'journalists' are not driven to identify and explain such obvious conflicts of interest. Another factor is that very few candidates spend much of their own money on campaigns. So, the temptation to live large on the campaign trail (flying private and the like) is overwhelming."
It appears that ailing Biden's campaign was used by some as a source of financial bonanza, according to the analyst.
What's more, a large and fair question is when the Cabinet and White House staff first began to suspect Biden was suffering from diminished mental capacity, according to Ortel.
"Who decided to shade the truth about Biden and then to treat him as a figurehead and who, actually, makes key decisions in the Biden administration?" the analyst asked.
The Democracy Institute's survey shows that 62 percent of American voters believe Harris knew about Joe Biden’s declining health for some time, but chose to cover it up, while only 31 percent believe she did not.
2024 Election Cheating Threat is Real
A new survey by Rasmussen Reports and the Heartland Institute found that 62 percent of likely US voters fear this year's election could be impacted by cheating, especially in key battleground states.
Around two thirds of Republican voters believe that the 2020 election was rigged and that Biden did not win fair and square. These concerns have been fuelled by independent auditors, who found various abnormalities and apparent irregularities in voting procedures in big cities in major swing states during the 2020 election.
"It is truly sad that elections seem far less safe in 2024 than they were in 1994, before we all became so reliant upon computers and the Internet," Ortel said. "Without doubt, cheating will continue. The real issue is whether cheating will overcome a large and growing enthusiasm gap that currently favors a rising Trump against an already waning Harris."
According to the analyst, the Democratic Party's "king"- and "queen"-making procedures correspond to the establishment's needs and agenda, and do not meet the aspirations of ordinary Americans, let alone US national interests.
"The ways in which Biden was installed in 2020, following dreadful early performances in debates and state contests and now the way he has been shucked to the side (un-democratically, ironically) bear hallmarks of the way Barack Obama leapt from the Illinois state senate (with pathetically thin accomplishments) into the White House by January 2009. Perhaps the same folks who played kingmaker then are doing so now, in concert with Barack Obama?" Ortel concluded.
