Commentary For the country’s sake, Vice President Harris should step aside
The Democratic Party’s indulgence of identity politics has proved successful in building a diverse organization, but its strategy of courting (and pandering to) minority voters is the road to ruin. In 2020, Joe Biden’s promise to tap a Black woman as his vice president
— along with Rep. James E. Clyburn’s election-altering endorsement in South Carolina — paved Biden’s way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
His “history-making” selection of the telegenic Kamala D. Harris might prove to be his downfall in 2024 — and he’s had enough fall-downs to make voters worry. Harris’s résumé was impressive. A former California attorney general and sitting U.S. senator, she seemed to have been created by Central Casting. Or was it artificial intelligence? As the first Black woman and the first woman of Asian descent to be nominated for vice president, she was a doubleheader.
But her evolving beliefs undercut that appeal. As a presidential candidate in 2020, she followed the Democratic playbook on issues, except when she raised her hand in support of eliminating private health insurance. She also managed to imply that Biden was racist and segregationist, citing his long-ago stance against student busing. In her famous debate rebuke of Biden, she said she had been one of the little Black girls on one of those buses.
Her touché was short-lived. Harris ended her campaign in December 2019 citing a lack of financial resources. Next thing we knew, she was moving into the Naval Observatory. She was a colossal failure as border czar, a position she held briefly, and otherwise seemed to have gone undercover.
Whatever the reasons, it has seemed that Harris’s role was to be quiet, lest she embarrass her boss with her sometimes inane, rambling remarks and a laugh that erupts from nowhere about nothing obvious to others. I do, however, relish the thought of her face-to-face with Vladimir Putin and suddenly cackling at a linchpin moment during nuclear arms discussions.
The Kamala conundrum comes down to this: She was picked because she was Black and female, a combo tantamount to job security. Now that she’s become a burden to the Democratic ticket, Biden can’t fire her. He can’t break his promise to his base. Full stop. The seriousness of this situation can’t be overstated. Biden’s diminishing faculties, notwithstanding his relatively successful State of the Union address, and his increasing physical frailty are concerning.
Every honest person knows he’s not in top form. A recent New York Times poll found that 73% of registered voters believe Biden is too old to be the nation’s top executive. This includes 61% of those who voted for him in 2020.
At the start of Biden’s term, I was pulling for Harris to do well. She had pizzazz and a reputation for being a tough prosecutor. She had moxie and swagger, and she leaned centrist. There was reason for hope: Criticism from California progressives that she wasn’t adequately attuned to racial-justice issues and sided too often with prosecutors likely proved helpful when she was vetted for the VP spot.
Her performance as second in command has been disappointing, to say the least. Americans have taken note. Though Democrats unsurprisingly like her more than Republicans do, a recent analysis by Fivethirtyeight set her average overall approval rating at just 37.2%, among the lowest recorded for a vice president.
There’s no reason to think her ranking would spike were she suddenly promoted to the Oval Office. Instead, most signs points to disaster. This is why I propose with all due respect that Harris step away from the ticket.
This is not a partisan suggestion. I said the same about Sarah Palin in 2008 when it became clear, as I wrote, that she was “out of her league.” No one would have blamed Palin for wanting to spend more time with her family, including a new baby, I said. I ended the column with these words, “Do it for your country.”
Harris could provide her own reasons for moving on. Perhaps she and Biden could a cut a deal for her to become the next attorney general — if he’s reelected. Biden then could tap someone else with executive experience who could reassure voters that the next vice president would be ready to take the reins should events require it. Democrats and Republicans alike would be relieved.
Please, Madame Vice President, do it for your country.