After nearly two years of stumbles, bumbles, and word salads galore, high staff turnover, and unexpected intermittent waves of bad media, Operation Rehab Kamala Harris’ Reputation came to an end in November 2022.
Politico and other “news” outlets began to declare that Harris had finally “found her feet” – this coincidentally just months after Harris strategists were reported to have been pow-wowing in Washington, D.C., on a strategy to help the struggling veep.
The same outlet, which has been criticized by the left in the past for being too harsh on Harris, wrote two months later about Kamala World feeling a “sense o optimism” after the 2022 midterms. This, according to another writer at this outlet, suggested that Kamala Harris’ bad luck was turning.
It is not clear if Harris’ luck is “turning”, but we are seeing a lot of stories in a matter of a week that suggest that a growing number of Democrat movers & shakers are increasingly skeptical that Kamala Harris is capable of taking it to the next level – the presidency.
The Washington Post published a Monday story in which it explained how many party activists doubt that the vice president has proven she is capable of winning the top job at “a pivotal moment in Biden’s term”:
Jacquelyn Bettadapur, leader of the Cobb County, Georgia Democrats, stated that many Democrats don’t know enough about her work. She also said that it didn’t help that she isn’t “that” adept at communicating.
More than 12 Democratic leaders from key states voiced similar concerns about Harris’s ability to win elections. Some spoke on condition of anonymity in order to share their candid thoughts. Harris’s tenure was underwhelming, according to them, with struggles as a communicator and near-invisibility. This has left many rank-and-file Democrats unsure that Harris has the charisma, force, and skill necessary to win a presidential campaign.
Harris’s critics also doubt her ability to govern on the national level. They claim that Harris won her Senate seat in 2016 against weak opposition. Her presidential campaign ended in 2019 before even one ballot was cast. This was due to her uneven performance on the campaign trail and weak support.
The Democrats worry that Harris, who they said was the first person of color to be vice president, can’t make it to the top in a presidential race (in 2024/2028). This is primarily because she hasn’t been tested in battle, b) Harris didn’t have any competition in 2016, and c) Harris isn’t very good at communicating with Average Janes or Joes, who are critical to the success and failure of any political campaign.
There is another aspect to this story. It is that other prominent Democrats are still waiting for Joe Biden to decide he would rather have someone else run with him. One example is Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s recent comments in which she supported a Joe Biden 2024 campaign but declined to support Harris as his running partner.
She said, “I want to defer what makes Biden comfortable in his team.” Kamala has been a friend of mine for many years. Kamala is a good friend of mine. Kamala was my friend back in the day she was an attorney general. I was still teaching at the time and we had worked together on the housing crisis. They need to work together, and I feel they do. I’m not suggesting that there aren’t problems. They are, I believe.
As I pointed out in my response, Warren was sending smoke signals to Biden, just like a fake Native American can. She was telling Biden she was ready, willing, and able, if he was so inclined, to take Kamala Harris’ place. Warren is still bitter about the outcome of the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, where her candidacy failed to gain traction. Warren, despite claiming that Harris and she were old friends in 2020, is just like many other power-hungry, entrenched politicos in Washington, D.C., who are willing to throw their pretend friends under the bus if they get ahead politically.
Harris’ doubters on left will be able to see if their concerns are valid. Harris will continue to embarrass the administration and herself on a national level, as she did Monday in Raleigh, NC. However, it will not be easy to tell if Harris does this. Harris is, and will always be, her worst enemy.
