California Dems question whether it's time for Willie Brown spooge bag Harris to drop out

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/17/kamala-harris-california-dems-
2020-drop-out-071329

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Confronted by an army of reporters after speaking
before 5,000 cheering Democrats in her home state, Sen. Kamala Harris
delivered a defiant response to recent media reports that her flagging
campaign is crippled by internal disputes and on the ropes.

“I am very supportive of my campaign, of the people who are working on
it,’’ she told reporters at the California Democratic convention after her
appearance at a live Univision presidential forum here Saturday. “They've
done great work which has gotten us to the point where we are today.“

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“And let’s be clear,’’ she added. “We have to focus on the real issues in
front of us. We’ve got an impeachment hearing going on, we’ve got a
criminal living in the White House, we’ve got immigrants who are afraid of
leaving their homes. We’ve got the 2020 census coming up. ... That’s where
my head is focused.”

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The California senator’s pumped-up demeanor was bolstered by a powerful
new endorsement from the iconic United Farmworkers Union. Still, much of
the buzz this weekend among the activist delegates and guests gathered in
Long Beach to hear from eight presidential candidates centered on her
political future — and whether it may be time for her to withdraw from the
race rather than face potential humiliation in her home state primary.

After a spectacular campaign launch in January before 22,000 in her
hometown of Oakland, Harris — once lauded as a top tier contender — has
been mired in low single digits in the polls and dogged by reports of a
campaign marked by flailing strategy, muddled messaging and a team in
disarray.

Harris’ loyal activist base, who call themselves the K-Hive, have lost
none of the passion and intensity from those early days. They chanted her
name this weekend, waved “Kamala Harris for the People” signs, and
expressed anger and frustration at growing media reports of her political
demise.

And early endorsers like Gov. Gavin Newsom and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis
insisted that Harris remains a contender whose fortunes are far from
determined in a volatile race.

But in the halls and meeting rooms of the Long Beach Convention Center,
many of the battle-scarred Democratic insiders — strategists, elected
officials, campaign operatives — had a far more caustic view of her
chances, suggesting that Harris’ team has already let slip away her shot
at the White House.

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With California polls strongly suggesting she might not win, place — or
even show — in her home state, many privately expressed the view that
Harris should begin seriously considering leaving the race to avoid total
embarrassment in the state’s early March primary. Her continued weakness
in the presidential contest could even have a more damaging effect,
several said — encouraging a primary challenger in 2022, when Harris is up
for reelection.

“I don’t think she can last until California,’’ says Garry South, a
veteran strategist who has advised Newsom and former presidential
candidate Joe Lieberman. “I don’t wish her ill, but she’s got a decision
to make: you limp in here and get killed in your home state, and it
damages your reputation nationally. Or you pull out before the primary
like Jerry Brown did in 1980 … and you at least avoid the spectacle of
being decisively rejected.”

Candidates have until late December to formally pull their names off the
March 3 primary ballot in California. But some suggest Harris can withdraw
from the presidential contest after Iowa if she fares poorly there — which
would leave her on the California ballot, but enable her to justify the
acute embarrassment of a distant finish in California by having left the
race weeks beforehand.

A battering in California “would bespeak of weakness..and could embolden
some billionaire with visions,’’ said South, perhaps a monied business
executive — or even a wealthy activist like Tom Steyer, whose own
presidential candidacy is viewed as a longshot and who has toyed in the
past with a run for US Senate.

Interviews with a half-dozen veteran Democratic campaign insiders at the
convention who spoke on condition of anonymity — many out of fear of
angering a sitting senator — echoed South’s view.

“It's not happening,’’ said one leading grassroots organizer working the
campaign floor, speaking not for attribution. “She has her chance [to
leave the race]...she should take it.”

“Of course she should get out..but who’s gonna tell her?’’ agreed one
leading Democratic strategist, who declined to speak on the record. Harris
has told California insiders she is determined to stay in the race through
Iowa, said the strategist, who added the real concern was reports of team
members who are apparently beginning to snipe at each other and lay blame
anonymously in various media outlets.

Labor organizer Erin Lehane said Harris, who has been effective in recent
days with her impassioned reaction in the wake of the Santa Clarita mass
shooting, "needs to ride it back to DC and say — I’m not leaving until
comprehensive gun laws area a reality...she should be saying that now that
this has happened in my home state, this is where I’m going to be.’’

Newsom waved off headlines about Harris’ collapse, and said he’s headed
off on the campaign trail to assess the situation — and is determined to
help her.

“I’m going to Iowa, I’m going to check it out first-hand,’’ he said. “And
I’ll say this: Polls don’t vote, people vote...and the only poll that
matters is Election Day.”

Reminded that those well-worn campaign tropes are embraced mostly by
candidates facing defeat, Newsom gamely insisted that the field remains
fluid — but he also acknowledged the uncertainty of Harris’ path.

“Honestly... I don’t really have a sense of what it’s like on the ground
and the momentum,’’ he said. “I live in a bubble with her, because she’s
my friend...and we’ve been running around with all the volunteers and the
[campaign] shirts, and we feel good,’’ he says. He recalled appearing at a
recent fundraiser for Harris and said, “she was relaxed, i thought she did
great, she felt good.’’

“She’s too talented to be dismissed — she’s too capable,'' he said. While
pundits are hyper-focused on the race, voters are not "as focused as we
believe they are... so I see a lot of movement and potential.”

As she stood in the convention hall on Friday, wearing a cape fastened
with a “Kamala Harris for the People” button, parole officer Denise
Alvarez, a Southern California military veteran, said she was undeterred
by media reports and wanted Harris to fight until the very end.

“I like that she wants to give everyone health care, but she respects our
unions,’’ Alvarez said. “She has the best plan...she cares about people.”
Alvarez dismissed the polls in key early states like Iowa, saying they’d
been blown out of proportion. “The [campaign volunteers] say it’s going
great.’’

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Kounalakis, an impassioned Harris supporter, also blamed what she said has
been negative coverage of Harris’ campaign.

“I don’t think the press reports have been very fair,’’ she said. “She has
an incredible leadership style. We love her. We support her...presidential
politics are tough, but she’s tough enough to handle it.”

She added, hopefully: “At the least, she’s going to be our state senator
for California for a long time.”

“Her problem is now there are probably a lot of people out there who
thought she would be a rocket — like me.”

- David Doak, a veteran Democratic pollster

David Doak, a veteran Democratic pollster who has directed presidential
campaigns for Richard Gephardt and Joe Biden, says that despite her
talent, Harris has been diminished by missteps and failed to effectively
deliver a rationale for her run.

“Presidential politics are a combination of how much people like you and
like what you’re saying — measured against viability,’’ Doak says. “And
her problem is now there are probably a lot of people out there who
thought she would be a rocket — like me.”

“But as you get these stories about your campaign not doing well, and you
don’t show up in the polls, the people who don’t have a pick tend to line
up with other people,’’ he says. “It’s a chicken and egg thing...if you
don’t have viability you don’t get votes.’’

Doak, who advised Sen. Alan Cranston's unsuccessful 1984 presidential run,
doesn’t believe Harris is entirely out of the picture — now or in the
future.

“Is she a longshot now? Yeah,’’ says Doak. “I don’t think staying through
Iowa will hurt her. And frankly, she will be forced to get out if she
doesn’t do well in Iowa and New Hampshire.”

But as far as her future in the Senate, he said, “that stuff is forgotten
pretty quickly."



--
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Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
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The Obama-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)
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Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
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Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
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