Can Kamala Harris Bounce Back? – The questions keep on coming when it comes to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Biden has allegedly referred to his vice president as a “work in progress.” Many Democratic donors have questioned Harris’s future, because they do not believe she has effectively used her platform as vice president to advance issues that matter to liberal Democratic constituencies.
Harris will lead advocacy for abortion rights now to mount a comeback, tout the administration’s stances on climate change, and pledge to protect Medicare and Social Security.
Will that help Kamala Harris in the long run? History seems to suggest maybe not. Sure, she is now officials Biden’s running mate, but is she more of a liability than an asset?
Kamala Harris: Uneven Performance
Harris has received low marks for her leadership in the administration on issues like immigration, voting rights in Republican states, and a handful of other difficult issues. Republicans have blamed her for the administration’s ineptitude with drug cartels.
Democrats remain worried about Harris’s uneven performance in high-profile interviews. They worry that she receives different treatment as vice president due to her mixed Jamaican and Indian ancestry compared to even the president when he held the office. The vice president has a 39% approval rating among voters, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Some in Harris’s camp told Boston.com they felt slighted by a comment by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who said she would defer to Biden on whether or not Harris should remain on the Democratic ticket months back before she was placed back on the ticket.
“I really want to defer to what makes Biden comfortable on his team,” Warren said during an interview months back on GBH’s “Boston Public Radio.”
Those speaking for Warren stressed that the senator has nothing against the vice president and didn’t want to get ahead of the president’s announcement he would seek re-election.
“Right now, she seems to be an albatross,” CNN quoted an unnamed Democratic Party chair saying back in March. “She’s either going to be a liability or a help. And you better embrace her because it’s not like she’s going to be off the ticket.”
Harris’s Place on the Ticket
Biden’s age combined with her lack of strong leadership qualities has caused many Democrats to question her place on the ticket.
Months back, Philadelphia Democratic Party boss and former Rep. Bob Brady told the Wall Street Journal that people shouldn’t expect too much from the vice president.
“You don’t expect the vice president to be out there tooting her horn,” Brady said. “The president is the boss, and she complements him perfectly.”
Much of Harris’s job involves advising the president, and she played an important role last year in getting Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmed.
Richard
March 25, 2023 at 12:58 pm
His mental compacity is the main problem. He has all these others mentioned, but they fail to question if Biden is mentally able to continue in the leadership position, but that leaves Harris. She may not be demented as Biden is, but her leadership and (giggles is so unprofessional) that is why Obama wanted her to be the VP, he knew she is a lost cause.
Mel Gill
March 27, 2023 at 12:44 am
A Canadian student of politics and author of best-selling book: A Director’s Guide to Good Governance > if Biden has any hope of winning in 2024 he should pressure Harris to resign and appoint someone like Whitmer or a younger Dem Governor as running mate. Short of that, the Dems are dead.
William M Krings
March 31, 2023 at 11:02 am
The ‘other’ mayor from IN.
Robert Billeaud
April 11, 2023 at 2:08 pm
A rare moment of honesty, sort of, from Elizabeth Warren. You know what she wants to say. Anything other than a ringing endorsement in these highly partisan times is an indictment.
JD Delaney
April 13, 2023 at 8:47 pm
The entire Administration (Democrat) is a joke. Boot A KEG, drove to Ohio after a week or so (that was the story). I firmly believe he took a train ride to El Paisso just for gits and shiggles. The ENTIRE Administration would go down in history if ONLY ONE (Admin) could tie their own shoe.
Sorry: I am 80+++ years, a former U.S. Marine, then Air Force Special OSI Agent, Highway patrol officer, Deputy Sheriff and lastly U.S Customs Officer. ( 60+) years in Law Enforcement. And now I am being led by a mental midget that cannot think beyond one sentence. +
Grover Johnson
April 16, 2023 at 10:48 pm
Mel, as a student of politics you know that isn’t what parties or administrations do (well, often), this replacing of a VP after a term. Neither party historically has done what you’re suggesting all that much.
Politically, I get your meaning and how it makes sense. But even recent history demonstrates you “stick to what brung you here,” Bush II and the GOP in ’04, for example. Remember the “Chaney Problem?”
Nope, run the course. That’s what politics dictates. It ain’t best; it’s just what you got, what you went with.
(Can you imagine Pres. Bush winning in ’04 if he asked Cheney to resign? C’mon.)
More Labatt’s anyone? : D
(Cheers, Mel… and good luck with your studies. Wish I’d picked what you’re doing 30 years ago; seems incredibly fun as a career.)
Marc W.
June 19, 2023 at 10:58 am
I think she’ll survive. She’s so odd (& damaging) that she provides, for anyone looking, needed distraction from the Corruption in the WH.
VP’s are chosen for their associations in the electorate & their lack of ability to outshine the President/candidate. Harris keeps to a certain level of oddness. Her only consistency. She has no powers & is restricted from veering off the road, ideology-wise.
WH staff take their marching orders from the Donor & Media classes.
Mick Rast
June 29, 2023 at 12:21 pm
Kamala is a work in progress that will NEVER progress.
Bill D
June 29, 2023 at 12:30 pm
Imagine Harris as President in charge of our nuclear arsenal. I can picture her pressing the button and then laughing madly about it. Reminds me of Dr. Strangelove.