It’s a simple question: Where is Vice President Kamala Harris? The country of Afghanistan is still crumbling following President Biden’s botched withdrawal. COVID numbers continue to spike around the country, the economy is struggling along with record inflation numbers. Given all that, the Vice President seems nowhere to be found, even canceling a campaign event she was scheduled to attend in California due to the topics it would present.
Some of Harris’ supporters are starting to get restless wondering what, exactly, Harris is doing to help the Biden administration or demonstrate any real relevance to what’s happening in the country. She has avoided largely taking any real substantive role in what’s happening with Afghanistan. She has also avoided wading into much of anything going on around the country right now, short of a tweet here and there.
As a result of Harris’ missteps and generally disliked personality, she currently sits at the lowest approval rating for a Vice President since Al Gore back in the 90s:
With Vice President Kamala Harris coming up short in one favorability poll after another—including an NBC survey last week which found she has the lowest ratings since Al Gore in 1993—even the people who want to see her succeed worry that it just might not be doable.
New Hope, Pennsylvania, retiree Susan Giffen, 69, told the Times that Harris would make a good President but, asked if she’d ever actually get elected to the job, said, “Absolutely not. I’d vote for her. But I don’t think she can win. And I wouldn’t vote for her in a primary.”
Four men, who were not identified by party, voiced the sentiment that could dash future election hopes for Harris, with two saying straight out that a woman should never be president, while another noted that she “cackles” too much, and a third calling Harris “a joke” and a “trophy.”
Such attitudes could also help explain why, on average, 49 percent of voters have a negative view of Harris while just 43 percent have generally positive feelings about her, which puts her about 10 points behind Biden.
Personality is one thing – maybe it’s the only thing that matters – but it’s not everything in terms of how a politician can appeal to voters. President Trump rubbed a lot of voters wrong with mean tweets and his personality but pulled a lot of voters in despite his shortcomings based on his rhetoric and propensity to fight.
Kamala Harris hasn’t been able to make any headway in turning over her personality in the minds of voters. In fact, it may be her bad retail skills relating to voters coupled with her sparse resume that will make it a tough go in 2024 or 2028:
“I can’t think anything of her because she hasn’t done anything,” said Trump voter Adam Osborn, 45. “She’s not in the news in a way that portrays her positively, and she’s not in the news period. She’s in the shadows of the administration.”
Conversely, Biden’s successes shine no light at all on Harris for some voters.
“I’ll give Biden credit for the things Biden’s done,” Biden/Harris voter Popsy Robinson, 71, told the paper. “Biden’s been around a long time.”
Some voters, like Philadelphia administrative assistant Edwina Thompson, a Black woman who declined to give her age, think that while racism and sexism are making Harris’s problems much worse than they’d be for a white man, she also isn’t doing herself many favors.
If racism is/was an issue for Harris, she’s not able to overcome it the way Barack Obama did in 2008. Whatever racist hesitancies existed in the minds of voters before voting for the first African-American president, they were quickly overcome with the message of “hope and change” coupled with Obama’s ability to deliver a speech. Obama won the presidency twice because he knew how to captivate voters and draw them in.
Harris has little to none of that ability, bowing out of the 2020 Democratic primary with roughly 2% polling support weeks before any votes we cast.
Despite being part of the official “Biden-Harris Administration,” as it is to formally be called, the Vice President hasn’t been handed many meaningful tasks and has generally bombed the ones she was given.
Harris has future political intentions, there is no doubt about that. She wants to be president, and she wants to succeed Joe Biden. Whether that ascension happens in 2024 or 2028 is anyone’s guess, though the earlier timetable seems more likely.
The question is whether Biden’s presidency is mired in turmoils concerning inflation and Afghanistan to the point where Harris’ future campaign suffers because of it.
Harris is at a crossroads of carefully being involved, but also at times uninvolved since she does not want to be seen as the one running the show if something goes wrong, which it has. Biden’s time in the White House will likely be limited to one term which means he may be acting as a sacrificial lamb and doing some heavy lifting before his exit.
Reports indicate that Harris will be focused on helping Democrats win elections in 2022, with campaign and fundraising appearances. In the meantime, though, her actions have mostly come in the form of press releases or brief twitter statements concerning some of the day’s most pressing domestic issues.
The amazing disappearance act of Vice President Kamala Harris could be the shrewdest political move she’s ever made if the Biden administration continues on its rocky trajectory.
