Let's quit bad-mouthing Kamala Harris.
Vice presidents are doomed to look weak. It is built into the job description.
She would be a fine candidate.
I am fully aware of the public mood regarding Kamala Harris. Republicans, Democrats and pundits say the same thing: She was a weak candidate back in 2019 and she was chosen for “diversity reasons” to balance the ticket.
People underestimate her.
I saw her up close twice in 2019. In September of 2019 she was a popular candidate, one of the leaders. I was part of a crowd of a thousand people at a speech in a New Hampshire apple orchard.
She also got good response at a Democratic convention where each candidate had a 20-minute slot. Here is a 90-second clip from that speech:
The Democratic Party was divided after the 2016 contest between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Bernie was beloved by a large subset of party activists, but Hillary and Bill Clinton had been making friends and raising money for Democrats for 40 years. She won the 2016 nomination, but lost the general election.
There were a lot of sore Democrats in 2019, filled with resentments and "if only" thinking. The party looked for a new leader, creating a free-for-all of ambitious candidates: Senators Sanders, Warren, Klobuchar, Harris, Gillibrand, Booker, Bennet, and briefly my own senator Jeff Merkley. Present and former congressmen O'Rourke, Swalwell, Moulton, Gabbard, and Delancy. A former general Sestak. Two billionaires, Steyer and Bloomberg. Governors Inslee, Hickenlooper, Patrick, and Bullock. Former mayor Buttigieg. New age author Williamson. And a former Vice President, Biden. That comes to 23, but there were others, too.
Kamala Harris did not fail. She was one of 23 and only one could win. I saw them all and Harris was one of the strongest. In the left shift within the Democratic Party in 2019, the sharpest battle was between supporters of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and then between Sanders and Pete Buttigieg. In this context Warren was a moderate and Buttigieg an establishment conservative. Biden was a deep also-ran, coming in fourth in Iowa and fifth in New Hampshire.
Harris' political position was out of style at that moment. She was the former District Attorney, a tough-on-crime prosecutor. She was a bit of a surprise, a law and order politician in a blue part of a blue state. As a dark-skinned woman, she looked the part of a blue-state progressive who might join the chorus of anti-police rhetoric, but she had a different message. In 2019 progressives looked elsewhere, toward a full throated progressive. That set up a contest that scared a great many Democrats: Trump vs. Sanders.
Democratic support moved to Joe Biden because the culturally conservative Black Democrats of South Carolina sent a message that Democrats heard: Don't go with Sanders. Pundits who dismiss Harris focus on her identity as a Black woman and relegate her to an act of cynical ticket-balancing. That was no doubt a consideration for Biden, but she was also a policy choice. She represents a position that reflects Biden's long-held position as the author of the 1994 crime bill.
The statistics on violent crime are down, but crime is a powerful issue. Currently it helps Republicans. The post-George-Floyd riots in Seattle and Portland branded Democrats as soft on civil unrest. Voters see images of flagrant shoplifting that isn't policed and prosecuted. They hear of flagship downtown stores closing because of theft. People see tents and shelters on blue-state city sidewalks. There is growing discontent with uncontrolled immigration at the southern border. If, for any reason, Joe Biden were to stop being president and Kamala Harris were free to be herself, and free to stake out her own ground, then she would be in an excellent position to push reset on the Democratic brand.
The person who stands behind the man with the microphone always looks weak. The body language is disastrous for them. They are second banana.
Vice presidents only take on the image of a leader when they take center stage and can act like a leader.
Harris is Plan B. She would be fine if something happened to Biden.
I agree, Peter, I wish Biden would get out of her way and support HER candidacy!
Next time a believer in the Big Lie tells you that Mike Pence failed in his duties to reject the "controversial" Elector votes (or some variation on the argument that he had authority to do that), tell them you agree ... the Vice President has that power. Then remind them who the current VP is and tell them you hope it happens again,