(Photo
by
Anna
Moneymaker/Getty
Images)
Well,
Joe
Biden
is
out
of
the
2024
race
for
president.
Dems
have
seemingly
coalesced
around
Kamala
Harris
for
the
top
of
the
ticket,
leaving
the
political
speculation
to
focus
on
who
will
be
the
Democratic
Vice
Presidential
candidate.
There
are
plenty
of
qualified
options
out
there,
each
bringing
their
own
pluses
and
minuses
to
the
equation.
One
tantalizing
option
is
Kentucky
Governor
Andy
Beshear.
Beshear
stacks
up
well
against
the
Republican
VP
choice,
JD
Vance,
and
he’s
already
fielding
questions
from
mainstream
media
about
that
potential.
It’d
be
interesting
for
lawyerly-types
as
it’d
be
a
T14
law
school
matchup,
pitting
Beshar’s
UVA
Law
versus
Vance’s
Yale.
But
he
also
neutralizes
Vance’s
Appalachian
appeal.
Vance
got
famous
exploiting
his
family
in
Hillbilly
Elegy,
and
likes
to
pretend
that
makes
him
a
man
of
the
people.
Yes,
he
thinks
you
can
fix
the
opioid
crisis
by
leaning
into
Big
Pharma,
(which
very
much
feels
like
the
wrong
takeaway
that
anyone
who
truly
cared
about
the
devastation
prescription
narcotics
have
had
on
the
region
—
and
the
nation),
but
that
background
is
supposed
to
be
part
of
what
he
brings
to
the
GOP
ticket.
But
Kentucky’s
native
son
knows
better.
His
recent
appearance
on
MSNBC
gave
a
preview
of
the
snark
that
he
could
expect
from
a
VP
debate
between
Beshear
and
Vance.
“I
want
the
American
people
to
know
what
a
Kentuckian
is
and
what
they
look
like,
because
let
me
just
tell
you
that
JD
Vance
ain’t
from
here,”
Beshear
said.
“The
nerve
that
he
has
to
call
the
people
of
Kentucky,
of
eastern
Kentucky
‘lazy.’
Listen,
these
are
the
hard-working
coal
miners
that
powered
the
Industrial
Revolution,
that
created
the
strongest
middle
class
that
the
world
has
ever
seen,
that
powered
us
through
two
world
wars.
We
should
be
thanking
them,
not
calling
them
lazy.
So
today
was
an
opportunity
to
both
support
the
vice
president,
but
also
to
stand
up
for
my
people.
Nobody
calls
us
names,
especially
those
that
have
worked
hard
for
the
betterment
of
this
country.”
And
the
Harris
campaign
was
impressed.
(If
you
want
to
read
something
that’s
significantly
better
than
Hillbilly
Elegy
about
how
growing
up
in
Appalachia
reverberates
throughout
a
legal
career, check
out
Cassie
Chambers’s
Hill
Women.)
Kathryn
Rubino
is
a
Senior
Editor
at
Above
the
Law,
host
of
The
Jabot
podcast,
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
AtL
tipsters
are
the
best,
so
please
connect
with
her.
Feel
free
to
email
her
with
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments
and
follow
her
on
Twitter
@Kathryn1 or
Mastodon
@[email protected].