What Kamala Will Face

I may be wrong, but I do, in a way, feel sorry for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Politics is a prize fight, and the former stayed in the ring too long and the latter will sooner or later get KO’d.  

When Joe Biden was tapped to save the Democratic Party in 2019, one pundit described it as “the last kid picked to play ended up as captain of the team.” He had been spurned by his party so badly in his two presidential bids he didn’t even try in 2016. (Besides, no one was going to get in Hillary’s way that time.) Then, at an age when any right-thinking man would be choosing his tee times and where to take the grandkids for lunch, he was pulled out of storage and maneuvered to save the party’s fortunes. The worst of it was, he believed his own press clippings. 

He had been the party’s pit bull in the senate, dutifully torpedoing Supreme Court nominees, then he had served as a soporific vice president. Wheeled out as “Uncle Joe” in 2020, he stayed in his basement and let the pandemic and riots put him in the White House. He bumbled through three and a half years in office until finally exposed on national television, and the movers and shakers who had picked him realized the gig was up. “He’s our man!” became “Here’s your hat” in a matter of days. Maybe he deserved better; the voters certainly did. 

The “people’s choice” became, with time running short and the possibility of actually allowing delegates to choose the nominee a definite prospect of embarrassment, the woman who flamed out after she lost the primary in her own state in her bid in 2020. Though she may likely ride the honeymoon into the White House, ultimately the world will hit her hard. Jimmy Carter 2.0. 

Will any reporter (should he or she get the chance) dare ask her the questions many of us would like answered: 

“Vice President Harris, by the words of your own boss, two qualifications for your being selected were your gender and your race: Was that right?” 

“Vice President Harris, for four years you were with President Biden running the country (or weren’t you?): Do you take responsibility for the state of the economy as you have made it? The border—or lack thereof—as you have made it? Our nation’s influence abroad, such as you have made it?” 

“Vice President Harris, as senator, you questioned whether a man could serve impartially and fairly as a judge simply because of his membership in the Knights of Columbus: Will you use such a religious-based litmus test for your selections?” 

“Vice President Harris, it was clear to many for a long time that President Biden wasn’t cognitively fit to run the country: When was it clear to you? Why didn’t you say anything? Or did you? When and to whom? Or do you think he is still fit to do so?” 

Should she be elected, it will be interesting to see how she deals with those who have put her in office: not the voters (they didn’t even make her the nominee), but the Pelosis, Schumers, Obamas, and other party bosses whose assistance she needs but under whose thumbs she will chafe. A president doesn’t like being told what to do; and in D.C., even your own turn on you when you don’t do what you’re told. 

And who will advise her? The party’s anti-Semitic base caused her to spurn Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, a Jew, and instead choose the Biden clone Tim Walz of Minnesota. She had the tactlessness to do this in Shapiro’s own state, showing how politically tone-deaf she is. There will be Schadenfreude in Harrisburg if she loses the election by losing Pennsylvania. 

On the one thing she had been in charge of, the border, she is showing herself a “Kamaleon,” running from her record. Five will get you fifty on which way she’ll go once in office. Governors should start sending their illegals to D.C. and watch it turn into New York City. 

She is not Barack Obama. There was—is—no great groundswell of enthusiasm or support for her. Her own staff turnovers are legendary, running at ninety percent in her four years as vice president. It will be difficult to lead the free world when even the nameplates on office doors keep changing.   [Kamala Harris] is not Barack Obama. There was—is—no great groundswell of enthusiasm or support for her. Her own staff turnovers are legendary, running at ninety percent in her four years as vice president.Tweet This

There are many things to be said against Trump, but you can’t say he shrinks from confrontation. Vice President Harris does not strike me as one who takes confrontation well. One can picture her as the head of the school board, lecturing parents on how to raise their children. As of this date, she hasn’t even let her own fawning media interview her. It will be hard for Putin to hide the smirk on his face when they sit across from each other.    

Her campaign theme of “Freedom” is like Rossini’s “William Tell Overture”: rousing music to an otherwise forgettable production. Her own popularity is a bouquet of freshly cut flowers that looks nice now but will soon wither and die once the realities of time and experience arrive. 

And that’s why I do, in a way, feel sorry for her. If she is elected, she will be in over her head, way over. A year from now, the honeymoon will be over and we will see what she looks like without the makeup. 

Her economic plan will increase prices and shortages. Her energy policies will have Arab countries thinking they have hit the jackpot and Americans thinking about going back to horses. Her border policies will have Nebraska thinking it’s Texas. The Squad will tolerate her, and Planned Parenthood will cheer her on. Hollywood may make a Netflix movie about her. But most of us will wake up with a helluva hangover. 

Two years from now, she will be like her current boss, with her party wondering where they can turn to next and how. She will be very lonely. 

In the end, it may be a good comeuppance, for her and for this country. Sanity is not to be found in identity politics. Having a woman—or any person of whatever category—in the White House is no justification for incompetence in the White House. We do a disservice to ourselves and those we choose when we choose for any other reason than ability. In 1980, the Watergate prosecutor Leon Jaworski formed a group of “Democrats for Reagan.” Although he disagreed with several of Reagan’s positions, he said, “I’d rather have a competent extremist than an incompetent moderate.” 

Now, I don’t think Trump is an extremist, and I know Harris is no moderate. But even if others disagree, I hope they will ponder the wisdom of Jaworski’s words. The world is a dangerous place, especially for those who have lived only in San Francisco or on Capitol Hill. Reality doesn’t care about your pedigree, gender, race, or theme song. It sets its own terms and gets revenge in the end. Biden found that out the hard way, and it was sad. Harris, one day, will; and it will be sad as well—but I hope only for her. There will be fewer people to pray for. 

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]