Kamala Harris

[DoctorP]

She's kind of an airhead. This is Dan Quayle type stuff going down with her right now. She needs to step it up if she wants to be taken seriously and more than a token diplomatic icon.

[diamenz]

stop being a racist sexist.

[west_tip]

Yeah, she's a joke, she's a garden variety opportunist/careerist politician. Pretty vapid and insincere and the kind of person whose comments are banal soundbites and platitudes.

[Lakers Legend#32]

And the people attacking her are the ones who voted for Sarah Palin for VP.

[ZionDunks]

She’s a skank, woman is a low rent skunk makes big Mike Obama look like class

[RRR3]

And the people attacking her are the ones who voted for Sarah Palin for VP.
Sure, but that doesn’t make Harris any less terrible. Her record is very awful, she’s a stooge of the prison industrial complex.

[Patrick Chewing]

She's kind of an airhead. This is Dan Quayle type stuff going down with her right now. She needs to step it up if she wants to be taken seriously and more than a token diplomatic icon.

You voted for her. You reap what you sow. Suck it up, buttercup.

[west_tip]

Here is what the millions of Americans who take their opinions from Fox News and related outlets have been hearing about Kamala Harris. The vice-president was put in charge of the southern border because she “has brown skin”. Her picture book, “Superheroes Are Everywhere”, was issued to migrant children, maybe corruptly. (“Is she profiting from Biden’s border crisis?” tweeted Republican supremo Ronna McDaniel.) Metropolitan elites worship her; Vogue, which ignored lovely Melania Trump, put her (her!) on its cover. Her entrepreneur niece, Meena Harris, is an anti-white racist queen of cancel culture.


In other words, while the mainstream media soberly cover Ms Harris’s efforts to win Joe Biden’s trust and master her portfolio (which includes Mexico and Guatemala but not the border, where her book has not been issued to anyone), she is being relentlessly defined on the right as a dishonest member of the corrupt elite with an agenda alien to white America. Tucker Carlson—who during the election campaign refused to pronounce Ms Harris’s Hindu name correctly—has neatly synthesised these two slanders. “She’s a globalist superhero. Just like Voldemort, you can’t really know how to pronounce her name.”


So far, so predictable, you might say. But Ms Harris is no ordinary vice-president. As the first non-white, female vice-president of a party that has made diversity an organising principle, she is the presumptive next Democratic presidential nominee. It is hard, even at this early stage, to imagine her being denied. Given the 78-year-old Mr Biden’s age, her elevation could be only three years off. And the election that would ensue—the Republicans’ worsening derangement suggests—may well be as crucial as the one just past. This raises the question of whether she has what it takes to rise above the right-wing slanders and appeal to middle America, as Barack Obama did, or whether she will be destroyed by them, as Hillary Clinton was. And it is making senior Democrats nervous. “Everyone is saying, ‘Oh God, Kamala is next and then we’re in trouble’,” says a Democrat close to the White House.

Oratory aside, Mr Obama’s success was based on an ability to reassure white Americans that was rooted in his intimate knowledge of them. The son of a white woman, brought up by his white grandmother, he promised better times for all and rarely mentioned race unprompted. Ms Harris is a different case. She is the daughter of South Asian and Jamaican immigrants, brought together by the civil-rights movement, who brought her up as black. Though nothing like the vindictive race-warrior of Mr Carlson’s fevered imagining, she leans into black identity politics more than the former president did.

This is a good way to win elections in California. It would be a disastrous general-election strategy, as shown by the white backlash to Mr Obama, notwithstanding his carefulness, and by Ms Harris’s failure to impress even black voters during her hapless presidential bid. African-Americans tend to support the Democratic candidate who seems likeliest to appeal to white voters, on which basis they preferred Mr Biden. And her Hail Mary effort to turn things round by accusing Mr Biden of racial insensitivity during a televised debate (“I do not believe you are a racist …”) only confirmed them in their choice. Polls suggested that black voters found it cynical and insincere.

The coverage of her current job has also been mixed. She has been accused of failing to carve out a well-defined “Veep” role or hire a sufficiently politically savvy staff. This is probably unfair. Her pressing need is to do whatever Mr Biden (with whom she had some making up to do) wants in order to make his administration successful. And she appears to be doing that. She was involved in the recent Middle-Eastern diplomacy. She is due to visit Mexico City next week. Though inexperienced in foreign policy, she is a polished front-woman who espouses Mr Biden’s internationalist views. The criticism of her seems rather to reflect not only the underlying anxiety about her ability to succeed him, but also the unusual nature of her position.

Ever since Walter Mondale upgraded the vice-presidency in the late 1970s, most of its occupants have spent four years trying to make themselves useful; then a second term, if it transpired, laying the groundwork for a presidential run. The carping suggests Ms Harris is expected to do both things at once, which is unrealistic; and indeed she would be castigated if she tried to.

[B]There is one political task she cannot delay, however. That is to understand why her presidential campaign failed, which was not mainly to do with her race or gender, however much of an electoral burden they may be. Her stump speech sounded like group-written marketing spiel (something about wanting to “prosecute the case against Donald Trump”). Her promise—quickly rescinded—to scrap private medical insurance suggested a politician who had no clear idea where or what she stood for: whether on the left, with an emphasis on expanding the government, or towards the centre, with more focus on enterprise and opportunity. This was why the pundits and donors who at first flocked to her quickly moved on. It was in turn why she resorted to playing the race card against Mr Biden. No wonder she makes some Democrats nervous.

Kamala chameleon
She should reflect on the fact that the centrist Mr Biden won as Mr Obama had before him: by promising hope, opportunity and togetherness for all. There is no evidence that Democrats can get round Americans’ mistrust of government and vexed racial politics any other way (however they may hope to govern). Mr Obama, a big admirer of Ms Harris, must believe she can pull off the same trick. Talking up her vice-presidential credentials was one of his two big political calls last year. The other was his initial dismissiveness of Mr Biden. It would be a terrible shame if the former president turned out to be wrong on both counts.

Decentish, short article on her in this weeks Economist.

I think the democrats are in a pretty tough spot for 2024 if indeed Biden does not run for a second term. Harris would be the obvious choice as the democrats nomination but as the article says her 2020 campaign failed miserably and she clearly did not have a central defining ideology.

Her role in 2020 was to balance out the ticket and secure black votes and women votes but she has way too many flaws that will be exposed if she runs as President - she is frankly dislikable. Also, she will have to begin campaigning barely two years into her term as VP.

[Mr. Woke]

She is way better than Pence.

Pence is a regressive Christian extremist (as well as a token Trump ass kisser). Those types of people are just despicable.

[DoctorP]

You voted for her. You reap what you sow. Suck it up, buttercup.


https://media1.tenor.com/images/5663c32788acd27fc2270d9d85c69576/tenor.gif

[Lakers Legend#32]

Kamala encourages everyone to have a good weekend.

Trump Stooge Michael Flynn (at a QAnon event of course) encourages a Myanmar style overthrow of the government

Guess which one the MAGAts are jerking off over?

[Nanners]

She's kind of an airhead. This is Dan Quayle type stuff going down with her right now. She needs to step it up if she wants to be taken seriously and more than a token diplomatic icon.

If you were paying attention during the dem primary you would already know that she is a talentless idiot with terrible political instincts.

The only reason Joe hasnt stepped down yet is because his handlers are aware of the fact that Kamala is somehow even less competent than a 78 year old pedophile with dementia.

[DoctorP]

If you were paying attention during the dem primary you would already know that she is a talentless idiot with terrible political instincts.

The only reason Joe hasnt stepped down yet is because his handlers are aware of the fact that Kamala is somehow even less competent than a 78 year old pedophile with dementia.

I didn't care much for her either as I preferred Warren but she's been even less of a factor than I expected. I guess it's by design.

[DoctorP]

Kamala encourages everyone to have a good weekend.

Trump Stooge Michael Flynn (at a QAnon event of course) encourages a Myanmar style overthrow of the government

Guess which one the MAGAts are jerking off over?

A solid point.