Kamala Harris: ‘President-In-Waiting’
Kamala Harris is one heartbeat, one 25th Amendment removal, or one impeachment conviction away from the American presidency.
A woman who launched her political career as consort to an influential (married) California power broker, who “consorted” her way into the upper echelons of California’s power structure, and who, virtually unsupported, withdrew from the Democrats’ 2020 presidential race even before the first primary vote was cast may become president of the United States.
Why? Because Joe Biden, the oldest American president in history, is clearly unwell, and, in mere months, has been responsible for a series of disasters that are unfolding before a world audience in real time. Few believe Biden will remain even remotely functional until the 2024 presidential campaign kicks off.
Nothing’s going right for Mr. Biden.
The harsh details of Americans killed or abandoned in Afghanistan, brutal inflation at home, Joe’s failed promise to “shut down” COVID-19, and the humanitarian crisis at America’s open southern border have finally triggered a sense of reality among senior Democrats who may already be plotting Biden’s “graceful” early exit, especially since his polling negatives are devastating their midterm election prospects.
Furthermore, Biden is losing the protection of some normally-friendly national media who have noticed, among other derelictions, that Biden has done nothing about COVID his predecessor was not already doing. Others have filed formal complaints with the White House press office about Biden’s refusal to take their questions following scripted appearances.
Media were instrumental in electing him, so, if/when Joe Biden loses the NYTimes/WaPo/ABC/NBC/CBS/CNN/et al, he has lost. Period.
But, since Biden’s inauguration, the only thing his constitutionally-designated successor, Vice-President(ish) Kamala Harris, has done successfully is to stay mostly invisible.
Out of a desire to distance herself from her boss’s ineptitude, an awareness she’s way out of her depth, or, more likely, because Biden’s handlers know she’s as hopeless on camera and in interviews as Joe is, Harris has kept a very low profile.
On the rare occasions Team Biden allows her out in public, it’s only to assign Harris thankless duties like dealing with the border mess Biden’s policies created (an assignment she’s assiduously ignoring), or send her on tone-deaf, public-relations-nightmare errands like the trip to Vietnam the week after desperate people were airlifted from the roof of America’s now-abandoned Kabul, Afghanistan embassy.
Kamala Harris was an unlikely VP selection. After securing his nomination, Biden promised a female running mate, then, following the George Floyd riots, public/party pressure forced him to select a woman of color. Harris, of subcontinent-Indian/Jamaican heritage, was the lone “acceptable” female among the party’s original primary aspirants.
Ironically, Biden picked Harris even after she effectively accused him of segregationist sympathies during a nationally-televised debate, and later publicly stated she believed the woman who accused then-Senator Biden of sexual assault.
But, lately, her usual media allies have been giving Harris unfavorable press, too.
When an NBC interviewer noted that, for months following her Border-Czar assignment, she hadn’t been to the border, Harris mugged and replied, absurdly, “I haven’t been to Europe, either.”
Harris did make an awkward trip to Central America, though, where she tried to talk tough on immigration, exclaiming, “Do not come!” before Guatemala’s president reminded Harris that her administration’s own policies were attracting illegals.
CNN reported that Harris’s staff was “in a panic” over her border assignment. Based on interviews with current and former staffers, Politico detailed the dysfunctional atmosphere on Harris’ staff where, “as one source memorably put it, ‘people feel treated like [excrement].’”
None of that is surprising, really, because, by comparison, Kamala Harris makes even Hillary Clinton look smart, gracious, authentic and likeable.
Harris‘s unexceptional poll numbers inspired some influential female Democrats, including public relations specialists, to develop a strategy to rehabilitate the vice president’s public image.
It’s a futile effort, because, unscripted, Harris can be even worse than her boss. Harris has difficulty getting through even friendly interviews without radiating insincerity, outright fabrications, and bizarre, inappropriate facial expressions/cackling laughter in response to serious questions for which she lacks answers.
Harris’ likability-deficit and incompetence may be Joe Biden’s 25th Amendment/impeachment insurance.
But, either way – Biden in, or Biden out – Democrats have a huge problem. Sadly, so does the nation.
May a merciful God – and the next midterm and presidential elections – preserve the United States of America.
