Joe Biden's selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate may have been his biggest folly or a stroke of genius. It all depends on how you look at it.
Of course, she is the epitome of a diversity hire — chosen because of her gender and her skin color — and, to that extent, she fulfilled her primary purpose: to make Democrat voters increasingly obsessed with identity politics more comfortable voting for a crusty old white man for president in 2020. Since then, however, Kamala Harris has been an undeniable drag on Joe Biden's presidency. And that's an impressive feat, considering his disastrous poll numbers. Though he entered office with respectable approval ratings, he's spent most of his presidency underwater, worse than Donald Trump, who entered office with approval ratings underwater.
As bad as Biden's numbers are, Kamala Harris's are worse, and Democrat insiders were calling on him to ditch her from the ticket ages ago. In that sense, her selection as Biden's running mate was a big mistake. As Biden grapples with widespread concern over his advanced age and cognitive decline, there's little reason for liberals concerned about voting for Biden to feel comfort knowing that if he doesn't make it through a second term, she'll ascend to the highest office in the land. Heck, Republicans have been using the talking point "a vote for Biden is a vote for President Kamala Harris" for a couple of years now. And you can bet that will continue for the remainder of the campaign.
Yet, despite the liability she presents, she's also the perfect insurance policy for Joe Biden. If Joe Biden had a competent and popular vice president, it stands to reason that the 25th Amendment would have been invoked by now. You can't tell me that Biden's cabinet members haven't seen what we all see on a daily basis. Trust me, they all know that Biden is essentially a walking corpse, but did they really want to invoke the 25th Amendment and install Kamala Harris as president? All that would have accomplished is that Democrats would be saddled with running a person with even worse poll numbers than Joe Biden in 2024. Invoking the 25th Amendment at any point in Biden's presidency might have been an early inauguration of Donald Trump.
So, in that sense, Biden's selection of Kamala really worked out beautifully. Biden still thinks he is the only Democrat who can beat Trump, and he wants to prove it. The polls show that's likely not going to happen, but bless their hearts, Team Biden is tryin'!
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The problem now is that since Joe Biden decided to seek reelection, Kamala Harris is a huge problem, and even now that Biden has secured enough delegates to win the nomination at the Democratic National Convention, Biden's allies in the media are still calling for Harris to go away.
"At the start of Biden’s term, I was pulling for Harris to do well," writes Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker. "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."
She continued, "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 percent, among the lowest recorded for a vice president."
You think that's bad? It gets worse. Parker concedes that Harris was only picked for being black and female, which she describes as "a combo tantamount to job security."
Yeah, that sums it up quite nicely.
Parker continues: "There’s no reason to think her ranking would spike were she suddenly promoted to the Oval Office. Instead, most signs point 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.
Of course, this theory has it's problems. Joe Biden would face major backlash from the identity-obsessed left by asking for her resignation.
Another problem is that Kamala Harris isn't going to go willingly. She is most certainly not ignorant of the fact that she's unpopular and couldn't dream of getting elected on her own. Joe Biden is her one and only ticket to the presidency. She will not go consensually or quietly. So, the Democratic Party is just as stuck with Kamala Harris as they are with Joe Biden.
