Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

It's time for a serious talk about Veep Kamala Harris . . .

1 view
Skip to first unread message

Leroy N. Soetoro

unread,
Feb 15, 2024, 4:17:50 PMFeb 15
to
https://nypost.com/2024/02/09/opinion/its-time-for-a-serious-talk-about-
veep-kamala-harris/

We need to talk about Kamala Harris.

Joe Biden’s problems are undeniable.

TV viewers Thursday night watching him confuse Mexico and Egypt saw the
same things as the special counsel who interviewed the 81-year-old
president and found him an “elderly man with a poor memory.”

Polls paint a dire picture of a man with only about 40% of Americans
approving of the job he’s doing, and barely a quarter thinking he’s
physically and mentally up to the job for another four years.

Biden has now trailed Donald Trump in national and swing-state polls for
the past five months and much of the past year — despite Trump’s own age,
unpopularity and baggage.

He’s drawing only 44% of voters — a dreadful position for an incumbent —
and drops into the 30s when voters are offered third-party choices.

He has all the hallmarks of a man cruising to defeat in November.

And he’s not going to get any younger between now and then.

But how can he be replaced?

Only obscure Rep. Dean Phillips is running against Biden in the primary,
and he’s getting nowhere.

Normally, if an aging and unpopular leader was visibly failing, he could
be pushed aside for his heir-apparent.

Biden could be pressured to resign.

He could be removed from office under the 25th Amendment on the grounds
that he’s “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”

Democratic Party rules allow its leadership to pick a new nominee after
the convention, but only if the original nominee is unavailable.

One way or another, Biden needs to go.

How better to do this than to elevate the vice president to the presidency
and have her run as an incumbent?

After all, in 1968, when Lyndon Johnson abandoned his re-election campaign
and Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, Democrats fell back on their sitting
vice president, Hubert Humphrey.

But this time, it’s Kamala Harris.

She’s even more unpopular than Biden or Trump, with a 35.5% approval
rating at this writing.

Her favorability has been under water in every single poll taken since
August 2021.

And as we’ve seen repeatedly, Harris doesn’t improve upon close
inspection.

She was kept out of high-profile appearances during the 2020 campaign, and
that has largely continued.

Every time the White House has said she was in charge of an issue, it got
worse.

Her staffers keep quitting.

Her speeches are full of meandering, empty platitudes.

Clips of her appearances could come straight out of “Veep.”

In other words, Harris isn’t an asset to any effort to push Biden aside —
she’s his best insurance policy.

And because she was selected largely for her race and gender, it would be
extremely awkward either to ditch her or to promote someone else to the
top of the ticket over her.

Only drafting Michelle Obama could avoid that problem, but bringing out of
retirement a former first lady who has never run for or held office would
be its own challenge, even if she could be persuaded to try.

What could Democrats possibly offer Harris to get her to step aside
gracefully?

She’s already been a senator, and neither Rep. Adam Schiff nor Rep. Katie
Porter will step aside to let her run for Dianne Feinstein’s old Senate
seat this year.

Harris is a lawyer, but not the type who’d likely be interested or
qualified to be a Supreme Court justice.

Maybe she’d like to be governor — Gavin Newsom is practically wearing a
sandwich board advertising his availability if Democrats want a substitute
presidential candidate — but clearing the primary field for her in 2026
could be dicey in a state full of ambitious pols.

She could be greased with promises of lucrative board seats, but why not
hold out for the presidency — even if it’s only for a few months?

So, Democrats are stuck.

Biden won’t go, and his age and mental decline only make him more
stubborn.

Harris won’t go, because there’s nowhere for her to go but down.

Nobody in the party — not even Bill Clinton or Barack Obama — seems to
have the pull to make either of them step aside.

Democrats know what they need to do.

That doesn’t make it any easier to do it.

Conversation

Kirk Kaybee
1 day ago

I once saw a video where the audience actually seemed to like her,
applauded and everything. I can’t for the life of me comprehend how anyone
could actually like her, but to each their own. I don’t know what she
accomplished before her presidential run, but she was very UNLIKEABLE in
the 2020 Democratic primaries, and she has become a poster child for what
we call a “diversity hire,” meaning her competence was below the VP job
description. She alone was appointed border tsar and said she would find
the root causes of immigration. She traveled to a few countries and that
was the last we heard of it. Fast forward 3 years and a bad problem, that
problem, the one she was supposed to fix, has become the number one issue
in most voters’ minds. That’s why most people associate her with failure.


--
We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.

No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.
0 new messages