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Can Kamala Harris Be Saved?

She is finally polling better this year, but Kamala Harris must discard her word salads to be an effective surrogate during the re-election campaign.

U.S. Senator Kamala Harris speaking with attendees at the 2019 National Forum on Wages and Working People hosted by the Center for the American Progress Action Fund and the SEIU at the Enclave in Las Vegas, Nevada. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
U.S. Senator Kamala Harris speaking with attendees at the 2019 National Forum on Wages and Working People hosted by the Center for the American Progress Action Fund and the SEIU at the Enclave in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Kamala Harris: Why Can’t She Turn the Corner? Vice President Kamala Harris was featured prominently in President Joe Biden’s official re-election campaign announcement on April 25.

This was a three-minute video that showed Harris walking and smiling with the president and taking selfies with voters.

It appears the president wished to display his running mate in the best light and put down rumors that he would replace her on the ticket.

Kamala Harris: More Problems? 

One notable aspect of the video is that Harris said no audible words in the footage.

This has critics of the vice president speculating whether the White House may still have misgivings about her future.

At least one of her detractors wondered if the Biden administration still needs to “rehab” her image because of her low approval ratings. Harris could still be seen as a “drag on the ticket” an opponent said on Fox News on April 26.

Washington Times opinion editor Charlie Hurt said on The Five talk show that “I hate to go here, but it’s true.

If you’re playing identity politics, and you pick her because she checks a couple of the boxes on identity politics, you can’t be surprised that she’s incompetent because you didn’t look at competency when you picked her.”

Other guests on The Five such as Judge Jeanine Pirro were skeptical that Harris has righted the ship.

“I don’t know what the hell she is talking about whenever she opens her mouth. And you know what? Her poll numbers are lower than Joe’s poll numbers! So, I understand why they feel the need to keep her given that she was picked because of identity politics,” Pirro said.

On the Way Up?

According to polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight, Harris has actually inched up in approval averages.

She has hit 42.6 percent approval up from a 2023 low of 37.7 percent in January.

Meanwhile, Biden is at 42.7 percent in the FiveThirtyEight polling average. Harris and Biden are virtually even now. However, in the Real Clear Politics average of likability, Harris scored only a 38.5 percent favorability.

Harris is likely on firmer footing due to her recent travel to Africa, in which she was treated like a native “daughter.”

She has also found issues that she is comfortable articulating such as abortion rights and limiting or banning assault weapons.

Oh, The Word Salad…

But the vice president was up to her usual difficulties in a recent speech.

On April 25, at an address at Howard University in Washington, DC, Harris served up one of her trademark “word salads.”

This means she talks in disjointed circles without a logical conclusion with vague words that do not make sense.

“So I think it’s very important, as you have heard from so many incredible leaders for us at every moment in time and certainly this one, to see the moment in time in which we exist and are present, and to be able to contextualize it, to understand where we exist in the history and in the moment as it relates not only to the past but the future,” she said.

Whew, that’s a doozy and a mouthful.

There is no way that long and confusing sentence was in the text of her speech. Does she get nervous speaking during prepared remarks and decide to go off script?

This must be frustrating for her speech writers.

Maybe Harris should just write her own speeches so she feels more comfortable delivering them.

Why Can’t She Thrive? 

I have written repeatedly that Kamala Harris has a world of potential due to her experience as a district attorney, attorney general, and U.S. Senator.

She can sometimes be polished and even inspiring on the stump. President Biden and his communication staff seem to be waiting for Harris to stop making puzzling comments. Harris just can’t seem to get it right and her critics point to her foibles with glee.

She is finally polling better this year, but Kamala Harris must discard her word salads to be an effective surrogate during the re-election campaign.

If she continues to butcher her rhetoric and confuses voters with poor communication during the vice presidential debate in 2024, voters could be turned off and wonder if she could ever become president someday.

MORE: Kamala Harris Is a Disaster

MORE: Joe Biden – Headed For Impeachment?

Author Expertise and Experience

Serving as 19FortyFive’s Defense and National Security Editor, Dr. Brent M. Eastwood is the author of Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare. He is an Emerging Threats expert and former U.S. Army Infantry officer. You can follow him on Twitter @BMEastwood. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and Foreign Policy/ International Relations.

Written By

Now serving as 1945s New Defense and National Security Editor, Brent M. Eastwood, PhD, is the author of Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare. He is an Emerging Threats expert and former U.S. Army Infantry officer.

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