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I hope people are prepared for the fact that Biden's poll numbers will likely drop, possibly by a considerable amount, when he announces his VP pick—no matter who he picks.
At the moment, Biden is basically untouchable: he's a very known quantity, he's got a low profile but he's looking presidential at the exact right moments. The best Republican attack on him is that he's a puppet of the far left, which isn't very compelling or believable.
But the GOP is going to slam the VP pick as hard as they can. They will raise as much uncertainty around her as possible—to try to turn her into a clueless and dangerous Sarah Palin-type with a corrupt past.
They're going to throw as much against the wall as they can as fast as they can, in order to see what sticks. Their twin goals will be (1) to create chaos around her selection and (2) firebomb her name to the ground.
My biggest concern, though, is that the media is going to respond to these attacks the same way they responded to the Hillary Clinton attacks—take some dumb email "scandal" and make it front-page news for three months running.
And then, when enough concern is raised about the VP pick to drag some Republicans who are reluctant Trump voters back into the fold, Biden's poll numbers will drop a little.
Horse-race pundits will turn that into a narrative: "Joe Biden—once riding high—is losing popularity after questions have been raised about his selection of [insert name here] as his vice presidential pick."
I don't know what there is to do about this. We can't control what the Republicans are going to do. They are desperate and they love ripping into women, so the attacks will be vicious and loud.
But we can push back on bullshit media narratives. We can't afford to let the media get played by Republicans again, the same way they were in 2016.
If the Times or NPR or any other outlet tries to "but her emails" the VP pick and both-sides her into someone just as scandalous as Donald Trump, it's up to you to act as the public editor—to remind the media that there are real, important stories that need coverage right now.
Republican political strategists have become experts at working the referees—at tricking the media into doing their bidding. We have to get better at countering them, and we have to do it fast.
