Kamala Harris got asked one simple question at a National Urban League Conference: Name the most effective presidents in American history. She rambled on, in her own special word-salady way, about a sleepless night spent watching NPR, and she eventually cobbled together a list. For someone who is clearly planning to run for president again for some reason, her response was the worst she could have possibly given.
National Urban League President Marc Morial asked her: "In your view, rank the top three most effective presidents in American history."
"Oh, Marc, don't make me do that," Kamala joked. Probably because she would have to remember the names of three presidents.
Eventually, she did come up with three. Franklin Delano Roosevelt made her list first — a painfully obvious choice, if you ask me. “He did some good things," Kamala said. "It was he who talked about the expansion of the Supreme Court, and then he got ferocious blowback for that, but he did good." What Kamala treated as a résumé highlight was actually FDR's court-packing scheme, a scheme so widely condemned that it still gets cited as a warning sign whenever a modern politician floats the idea. Of course, she skipped over Roosevelt's decision to intern Japanese-Americans during World War II entirely.
Second on the list was another obvious choice. "I credit Kennedy, of course, in terms of what he laid the groundwork for, and then Johnson followed up on," she said, an apparent reference to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — which was widely opposed by Southern Democrats.
She closed out her list with Barack Obama, pointing to the healthcare debacle known as Obamacare. “If we had one issue that has been ailing America for generations, which is a health care system that has failed anyone other than the rich," Kamala said, "I think he's one of the greatest presidents."
Millions of Americans still paying sky-high premiums might disagree, but I digress.
Morial: In your view, rank the top three most effective presidents in American history.
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 31, 2026
Kamala Harris: Don't make me do that… FDR did some good things… I credit Kennedy in terms of what he laid the groundwork for, and Johnson followed up on… of course, Barack Obama pic.twitter.com/5J8Yy2DIDG
Here's the name Kamala never said: Joe Biden. But why wouldn’t she? After all, she served as his vice president for four years. The administration was branded Biden-Harris, too. Biden spent his presidency telling anyone who would listen that he'd defeated COVID and delivered the greatest economic recovery in American history. Kamala had every opportunity to include him among the greats, which would have effectively tooted her own horn as well. She didn't.
That's not a memory lapse. It's a strategy.
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Kamala knows the Biden-Harris record is a liability, not an asset, and she's already trying to cut it loose ahead of a possible 2028 run. There’s a reason why she lost every single swing state in 2024: The Biden-Harris era sucked.
I’d run from it, too.
Kamala is the leading choice among Democrats for the 2028 nomination, according to most polling. Now, I still say that’s a function of name recognition, but she won’t see it that way. And her answer to that question signals she’s going to run from her record as the autopen’s vice president, not run on it.
