Democrats are expressing concern that Republican attacks against Kamala Harris are “taking hold” and that the White House is “running out of time” to change public opinion about the vice president before the 2024 election.
Republicans are targeting Harris. But Democrats have been criticizing the vice president, too. And Democrats have long known that Kamala Harris would be the campaign’s Achilles heel.
Degrading Harris’s image
A group of Democratic strategists recently met in the White House to discuss the problem with Harris’s image.
According to the strategists, Republicans have spent the last two years “trying to paint Harris as incompetent. And yet, the strategists found, the White House was still developing its strategy for how to combat the ruthless assault against the first Black and Asian American woman to hold the vice presidency,” USA Today reported.
The assessment led to a discussion about ways to rehabilitate Harris and improve her image.” Some of the strategists present for the meeting argued that “Harris would benefit from more public appearances in environments where she can be herself and in front of voting groups with whom she is already popular.”
The Challenge
I have a few counterpoints.
One, the perception that Harris is incompetent does not stem solely from a Republican smear campaign. Democrats themselves have harbored concerns that Harris is incompetent, and that in her incompetence she would drag down the ticket.
So, it’s not as if some magic GOP spin campaign has taken hold in the minds of the American public.
Harris’s incompetence is plausible enough to have taken root with a push from the opposition, largely because the perception already existed in the voters’ minds.
And come on, who runs for president or vice president without being subject to an intensive smear campaign from the opposition? You didn’t see that one coming?
Making the public believe something about the opponent is part of the game. Republicans have expended great effort into making Biden seem old, Hillary seem corrupt, Obama seem aloof, Bill Clinton seem like a sleaze, Dukakis seem like a wimp, and so on.
Democrats have done the same thing, making Trump seem like Lucifer’s earthly vessel, Sarah Palin seem rock dumb, Bush 43 illiterate, and so on. You get the idea. Of course Republicans are going to take a run at Harris
And two, the Democrats rehabilitative prescription – giving Kamala Harris more public appearances in environments where she can be herself – isn’t going to cut it. What does Harris being herself look like? I have no idea; I couldn’t begin to describe what the authentic Harris looks like. Can you?
I think what the strategists might be suggesting is the version of Harris where she is articulate and comfortable and able to smile convincingly. But Harris’s authentic self? That’s not where her political strength lies.
Kamala Harris is not good at campaigning
What the strategists might be discounting is how poorly Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign went. Harris entered the campaign with plenty of fanfare, with the expectation that she would be a top-tier Democratic candidate.
But she equivocated on messaging, failed to resemble “herself” at any time, and fizzled out before Christmas 2019 – while her poll numbers were in the low single digits.
So, Democratic voters clearly had reservations about Harris back in 2019, back when about 97 percent of them decided to vote for other Democrats.
Harrison Kass is the Senior Editor and opinion writer at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
From 19FortyFive
AOC Just Proved How Stupid She Is
