Shapiro is an attorney. Yawn.
Kelly is an engineer at heart, and a highly praised, disciplined, and decorated one at that.
Consider me biased as an engineer myself, but considering Harris is already an attorney, having a greater diversity of specialization at the top will go a long ways towards the functionality of their administration.
And, honestly, we're in an optics war at this point. Kelly is the pick for optics. They don't let just anyone become astronauts, he has a PR presence nationally that predates this election, and he can lean a lot on his honorable Air Force career to boot.
Also, when I hear the last name "Shapiro" the only cunt I can think of is Ben...
Yeah this is the real problem. Anyone who is somehow undecided after 4 years of Trump is gonna need to be convinced in a single sentence with small words or it's gonna go right over their head.
"But Astronaut" is a pretty damned high bar in many people's views, in large part because of the stringent qualifications. They're also the very few that actually get to experience the Overview Effect.
Nothing against Kelly, and nothing against the state of Pennsylvania, but I'd rather free up a Democrat-held governorship of a single state than a Democrat-held senator seat in congress, which is already at razor thin margins.
Both Arizona and Pennsylvania are swing states, so I can only consider which option I'd be least thrilled to see a Republican fill the vacancy since there would be a good chance of that happening in either situation.
The Arizona Senate seat would be filled by the Governor for the remainder of the current session. The current governor is a Democrat, but even if she was not, AZ law requires the appointment to be from the same party.
The seat has no chance of changing hands until the next regular election either way.
Well, they have 39,000 dead Palestinians to assuage their bloodlust, with a few tens of thousands more to come from starvation. Forgive me if I don't immediately cast my thoughts to the plight of poor, downtrodden AIPAC. The last thing the Israeli lobby needs is more influence in the Executive branch.