In the early days of Kamala Harris’s campaign, her public appearances were meticulously scripted and tightly controlled. When she finally stepped into more open interviews, she failed to seize the moment to do what was crucial. Polls have shown that voters want a different direction for the country, and despite her claiming to be the "change" candidate, she's avoiding creating distance between herself and the unpopular Biden-Harris administration.
It may cost her dearly.
According to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll, three-quarters of Americans "want her to take a new direction from President Joe Biden's, most don't think she would."
The poll, produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates with fieldwork by Ipsos, finds that the public by a broad 74%-22%, would prefer to see Harris go in a new direction as president rather than continue the policies of the Biden administration. Even most Democrats say so.
But that's not what most people expect: 65% instead think Harris mainly would continue Biden's policies, vs. 33% who say she'd chart a new course.
Desire for change reflects how the Biden administration continues to labor under deeply negative ratings of its economic performance. Forty-four percent of Americans say they're not as well off financially as they were when Biden took office, roughly where it's been since early 2023 and tying the most in polling since 1986. Few, 18%, say they're better off, though that's up from 13% in January.
Kamala has had plenty of opportunities to come up with an explanation for what makes her different from Joe Biden, yet she's choked every time. During an appearance on “The View,” co-host Sunny Hostin asked what Kamala would have done differently than Biden over the past four years. Her answer was stunningly tone-deaf: “There is not a thing that comes to mind.” This only reinforced her unwavering alignment with Biden’s policies.
Later, on “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert, Kamala faced a similar question about how a Harris administration would differ from Biden’s. Her response fell flat: “Well, I mean, I’m obviously not Joe Biden,” she said, offering no clear vision or policy distinctions. Instead, she defaulted to familiar rhetoric about her love for the country and its people, avoiding any real substance.
Kamala's surrogates can't even make a case that Kamala would be substantively different from Joe Biden.
Mitch Landrieu, the co-chair of the Harris-Walz campaign, appeared on CNN Thursday morning to discuss hurricane response and was given an opportunity to do what Kamala couldn't: explain what makes Kamala different from Joe Biden.
He had no answer, either.
"Mayor, I do want to shift completely to campaign mode for a second, if I can, while I have you, because you are one of the national chairs of the Harris campaign, and you were one of the national chairs of the Biden campaign," host John Berman began. "To that end, Vice President Harris has been asked repeatedly how she's different than President Biden. And some people think she's been tripped up by answering that. How do you think she is different than President Biden?"
"Well, first of all, whatever the difference is between them, it's not nearly as vast as the difference between her and Donald Trump," Landrieu replied. This was a terrible answer, and it got worse.
"She's obviously a woman. She is a woman of color, and she is of a new generation."
Kamala's a woman of color? Who knew?
"So, she is not Joe Biden, as much as they want to try to make her Joe Biden," he later added.
He then connected her to Biden administration policies.
"But she was and is part of the Biden administration and part of all the historic gains that were made, from the American Rescue Plan to the bipartisan infrastructure law, to the CHIPS Act, bringing back manufacturing. But she has continued to work really, really hard on demonstrating that she wants to continue the fight to lower the costs for everyday Americans," he said.
In short, neither Kamala nor her surrogates can explain how she's different from Joe Biden. They should have come up with a good answer for this question months ago. In an election where voters want change, this failure to communicate how and why she's different will ultimately cost her.
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