THIRD PARTY:.....Kennedy Scion Picks Google-Founder's Ex-Wife As Running Mate... She's 38 and Loaded... Another Longshot Independent Stab At The White House...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Nicole Shanahan is her name. National politics is her game. Not quite the known figure in any political setting, the 38-year-old is nonetheless buying the ticket and taking the ride. As of this morning, she's on the campaign trail.

You'll see her as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s running mate as he rides the cheap carnival ride known as a longshot candidacy for eventually hanging it at The White House. The odds? Long. Damned long.

But he's a Kennedy, son of the former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, and, we should add, a headstrong Kennedy, at that. Yesterday, he made his first meaningful decision.

From newrepublic.com: [ Kennedy on Tuesday announced that he’s chosen a running mate for his third-party presidential run: Nicole Shanahan, an investor, Silicon Valley lawyer, and Democratic donor who was previously married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

This might seem like a strange choice. Shanahan has no political experience or national name recognition. Her image as a wealthy dilettantish sort has no obvious appeal to the disaffected voters that Kennedy hopes to lure from President Biden and Donald Trump.

But if you want to understand this decision - and why Democrats believe it poses a potential problem for them - follow the money. To get on the ballot in numerous states, Kennedy will need to fund a large operation. Shanahan has already proven willing to bankroll Kennedy’s efforts, shelling out $4 million to fund that 1960s nostalgia-themed ad about the Kennedy family during the Super Bowl, which the other Kennedys sharply criticized.

Kennedy does have other reasons to choose Shanahan. She appears to be at least partly ideologically aligned with him: While she told The New York Times that she isn’t an anti-vaxxer, as Kennedy is, she seemed to agree with theories that link vaccines for kids to things like autism. She also proclaimed herself moved by "pockets of silent support" for Kennedy’s bid, meaning she’s imbibed a gallon of Kennedy Kool-Aid about the country supposedly hungering for his third-party challenge. ]

I'd want to say that this is an intriguing choice, but, well, what isn't any more in our national political landscape? Still to pick his second banana is Republican Donald Trump. Incumbent President Joe Biden, the Democrat, has Kamala Harris, also an attorney, as his running mate.

Kennedy is 70 and maybe age is again at pay here, and why he would want a younger running partner. We all know that picking the Veep is always a crapshoot. Mike Pence? In 2008, Republican John McCain picked photogenic Alaskan Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential hopeful, only we all know how that went and where - nowhere.

The suspicion here on Ms. Shanahan is that her all-in, strong support for Kennedy is enough to get her huffing and puffing on the campaign trail. She has zero experience. That may or may not matter. It'll be all about how she speaks to the masses and how the masses react to her words and actions.

Here, however, you have a Massachusetts liberal joining hands with one from across the country in California.

The thing is both of those states likely will go - and were always going to go - with the Democrat.

November will come soon enough...but not before we suffer our Summer of Political Discontent...

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