Hardly a week (perhaps hardly even a day) goes by without a story appearing that criticizes Vice President Kamala Harris. Some even say she is the worst VP ever.
These take aim at her inability to deliver a clear and concise statement, which often comes out instead as “word salad” of rambling points.
She’s been called out for being the ‘Border Czar’ that failed to visit the actual border for months, while the problem is far from resolved.
Yet, Harris also has supporters who have noted her accomplishments, including her efforts championing environmental causes.
However, the fact is that as vice president of the United States of America, she is simply a media punching bag – and that’s essentially part of the job. As Politico.com reported this week, “the vice presidency has been strengthened over the course of the past 40 years, raising expectations for how much power and influence she should wield in the job. On the other, party dynamics mean that vice presidents are tasked with enhancing the appeal of presidential administrations to different elements of their parties.”
Its roles as party office and executive branch office can overlap, which can make it a difficult job. There was a time when the office of the VP had little power, but that has changed. Harris has been given a number of responsibilities – and she has shown that she is better suited to tackling some than others.
“The vice presidency has long been a challenging office for politicians, and not always a friendly place to cultivate presidential ambitions. Harris has had an even harder time than her recent predecessors. Polarized politics have something to do with this — she inspires vocal, often harsh objection from political opponents, and defenses from her own party tend not to match the intensity of the criticism,” Politico added.
Understudies for the President
Harris is hardly alone to receive such criticism.
Mike Pence, Dick Cheney, Al Gore, Dan Quayle, and notably Joe Biden also were frequent targets by those who feared that they weren’t up to the job should something happen to the respective guy sitting in the Oval Office.
Moreover, it has been noted that historically, vice presidents have been understudies, and have often been disliked or even despised by the president they served.
This has changed in recent years (mostly). Review the list for former Veeps – Pence, Cheney, Gore, and Quayle. What they have in common is that they didn’t actually throw their hat into the ring. They never faced off against the president they’d serve within the primaries. They were selected not to please any voter base, or because they delivered in the primaries. They were genuinely picked as they were believed to be the absolute best person for the job.
Kamala Harris Was Never the Best Choice
It could also be argued that Harris was never the best person for the job, and she may actually be disliked by the president. Harris ran against Biden in the 2020 election but dropped out after her campaign failed to gain momentum. She had sparred with Biden on numerous occasions on key issues – so much so that one can wonder why she was selected. But the easy answer is that she checked the boxes.
Biden vowed to have a woman on the ticket, and a woman of color who was also half Asian was too good to be true for his campaign – especially when we remember how Joe Biden once infamously described Barack Obama.
In other words, Harris isn’t so much a bad VP as she’s just not suited to the role, and she is probably not liked by Biden either, while she has been tasked with doing the impossible. What could possibly go right?
Author Experience and Expertise: A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
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