During her Women’s History Month address, the nation’s first woman vice president delivered eloquent words in March. Of course, she didn’t.
Kamala Harris said, “So, during Women’s History Month, we celebrate, and we honor the women who made history throughout history, who saw what could be unburdened by what had been.”
Her profound wisdom isn’t limited to women and history.
“When we talk about the children of the community, they are the children of the community,” Harris said.
Kamala Harris Needs to Go
Breaking up is tough to do, but it’s past time for President Joe Biden to dump Harris from the 2024 ticket.
Perhaps there are reasons making the change would hurt him–two potential reasons to be precise. But the political benefits of replacing Harris with a competent running mate far outweigh the down sides.
In early 2021, some of us anticipated that the vice president’s staffers would be planting strategic leaks about President Joe Biden’s cognitive capacity to undermine him. Instead, it seems the president’s staff is leaking about the vice president.
Also back in March, it was Reuters reporting about a whispering campaign among Team Biden, as a White House official said, “A point of tension in their relationship is that I don’t think that the president sees her as somebody who takes anything off of his plate” due to a “fear of messing up.”
That “messing up” fear might be well founded considering what happens whenever Harris speaks behind a podium or sits for an interview.
The Reuters report was episode three, at least for this season of Kamala in the White House.
From Bad To Worse
The New York Times reported in February the “painful reality for Ms. Harris is that in private conversations over the past few months, dozens of Democrats in the White House, on Capitol Hill and around the nation — including some who helped put her on the party’s 2020 ticket — said she had not risen to the challenge of proving herself as a future leader of the party, much less the country.” The piece added, “Even some Democrats whom her own advisers referred reporters to for supportive quotes confided privately that they had lost hope in her.”
The Washington Post reported in January that Democrats, “worry that Harris herself lacks the political skills to win a national race.”
You think?
Imagine the best-case scenario for Democrats, which is the octogenarian Biden wins re-election in 2024. That leaves Harris as the heir apparent, who can’t make it through a speech or a softball interview on the Today show, much less a presidential campaign.
Biden is running, and the reason so many Democrats are urging him to run is because the unelectable Kamala Harris is the alternative.
But there is no guarantee that Biden will make it to the end of a second term. As Harris has talked about: “The significance of the passage of time, so when you think about it there is great significance to passage of time. There is such great significance to the passage of time when you think of a day in the life of our children.”
To make it more clear, the clock is ticking for Biden, who would be the first president elected in his eighties, making the passage of time much more significant. Voters will consider his running mate more than they would if other presidents run.
Kamala Harris Will Be an Issue
VPs have been an issue before. In 1956, Democrats warned that the popular Republican President Dwight Eisenhower’s health could make him unlikely to finish his second term. Democrats banked on the far less popular Vice President Richard Nixon being enough to drive voters to Adlai Stevens. It didn’t work. Voters liked Ike, and Nixon seemed highly competent.
But a bad VP certainly harmed President George H.W. Bush in 1992. Nudging Dan Quayle from the ticket might have been helpful, though a risky move.
For all of Dan Quayle’s problems, he spoke in sentences, unlike Kamala Harris.
So, the only two reasons it would be tough to dump Harris from the ticket is her historical role as the first woman–and woman of color at that–to be vice president of the United States.
The consensus seems to be Biden simply can’t replace such a historical figure. But he can.
For one, there are other non-white women who would be more qualified and articulate.
A few examples.
Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto won a competitive re-election in 2022, which was on balance a Republican year. Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois is an Asian American/Pacific Islander, and a veteran with national security credentials. Former Rep. Val Demings, an African American of Florida, lost her bid to unseat Sen. Marco Rubio–which was always a long shot–but has a record as a former Orlando police chief and could help with the Democrats problem on law and order. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, a Texas Latina, has also raised her profile in recent years.
The point is, if Biden and Democrats feel boxed in by intersectional identity politics, they have options. They aren’t tethered to Harris.
Yet you still have the optics of casting Harris aside as possibly looking rude. Even here, Harris could likely be persuaded to become the president to chairwoman of a major corporation, nonprofit or university as a golden parachute. The latter two would allow her to claim she’s not seeking a second term because she feels compelled to give back.
This would by no means set a new precedent. Franklin D. Roosevelt had three vice presidents. Abraham Lincoln swapped out when he ran for re-election.
On balance, voters would likely respect that Biden as making a bold management move. For his own electoral chances, the VP is the change to make.
This is not about personalities, but about the future of the country–and for those who care, the future of the Democratic Party. It’s worth taking seriously.
Or, as Harris has said, “We got to take this stuff seriously, as seriously as you are, because you have been forced to have to take it seriously.”
Barbara Joanna Lucas is a writer and researcher in Northern Virginia. She has been a healthcare professional, political blogger, is a proud dog mom, and news junkie. Follow her on Twitter @BasiaJL.
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