Kamala Harris Can’t Articulate The Case For Voting For Her

In a discussion about Vice President Kamala Harris’ stunning surge in the polls last week, podcaster Joe Rogan stated the obvious: “She’s the least popular vice president of all time, and then in a moment in time, all of a sudden she’s our solution.”

Rogan is right. The vice president who has been a national joke for four years, tapped by President Joe Biden because he’d promised his base he would choose a woman of color, has suddenly become a serious contender in the presidential race. And now she’s picked a radical Minnesota governor with a disastrous record to round out her ticket.

What exactly is Harris’ appeal? She is the same unlikable, inauthentic candidate who was forced to drop out of the 2020 Democrat presidential primary before a single vote was cast. 

For starters, she’s not Biden, whose implosion at the CNN debate triggered three weeks of despair inside the party, during which many Democrats had resigned themselves to certain defeat. Biden’s decision to drop out of the race was a tremendous relief. Not all party leaders were pleased by his endorsement of Harris on his way out, but after their deliverance from an inevitable rout, they would have settled for Genghis Khan as their nominee.

What would account for Harris’ meteoric rise from political pariah to Democrat star in two weeks? “Kamalamania” is not based on reality; it is purely a media-driven construct. The legacy media have joined with Democrats in a full-court press to catapult Harris over the finish line — by whatever means necessary. Americans are witnessing a real-world demonstration of the power of propaganda and are amazed by the ease — and speed — with which it was accomplished.

The media’s swooning coverage has taken a candidate once considered so weak as to be a “drag on the ticket” and elevated her to rockstar status. The cover of New York Magazine features the vice president sitting atop a coconut (a nod to Harris’ mother once asking her if she just fell out of a coconut tree), with Democrat Party leaders and fans celebrating her candidacy from below. The merry little scene is titled “Welcome to Kamalot.”

This effort has included deleting evidence of her previous radical views from the internet — most importantly, any references to Harris’ appointment in March 2021 as the border czar. This is dangerously similar to Winston Smith’s job at the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984. It was Smith’s responsibility to “rectify” historical articles or news items to agree with the ever-evolving whims of the Party, whose slogan read, “Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present, controls the past.”

But the most important part of this entire fraud is to prevent, or at least minimize, those occasions in which Harris is required to speak extemporaneously because that’s when she gets into trouble — as she did on Thursday night. 

Biden and Harris traveled to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to welcome home newly freed Russian prisoners Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, and Alsu Kurmasheva. The vice president was unscripted, and, yes, it was a mess. 

Harris told reporters: “This is just an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy and understands the strength that rests in understanding the significance of diplomacy.” 

At any rate, becoming the Democrat presidential nominee so late in the game has worked to Harris’ advantage. First, it limits the amount of time for conservative media to properly vet her. It also minimizes the number of missteps she can make on the national stage. 

But sooner or later, Harris will have to face reporters. She will also (likely) face former President Donald Trump on a debate stage. If Trump can remain disciplined, share his vision for a second term, ask voters if they were better off under his leadership than they are now, and simply let Harris be Harris, he can regain his lead in this race. 

Harris will be forced to make her case in her own words. My guess is that voters will be shocked by her inadequate communication skills. 

They may also be surprised by her arrogant demeanor. Aside from the fly that landed on then-Vice President Mike Pence’s head (and remained for two minutes) during the 2020 vice presidential debate, the biggest takeaway was Harris’ imperious behavior: “I’m speaking. I’m speaking.” 

When Fox News asked attendees at Harris’ recent address to the American Federation of Teachers’ Convention in Houston, Texas, what they see as her policy accomplishments during her time as vice president, well … no one could say. One supporter told Fox, “I really don’t know much of what she did.”

Another said, “I’m not sure I know enough about her accomplishments to answer that question.” 

Other attendees pointed to generic achievements, such as that the Biden-Harris administration “delivered for working people” and that Harris has been “a great provider for working people, especially children.” 

When a similar question was posed to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., during an interview with WCVB-TV in Boston, she replied, “She is the first sitting vice president ever to visit an abortion clinic.” That was quite a reach.

Call me crazy, but the only thing this administration has delivered to working people has been economic pain. Its reckless spending triggered a 20 percent rise in prices across the board. In an effort to tame this record-high inflation, the Federal Reserve raised mortgage interest rates from 2.73 percent to 6.73 percent, shattering the dream of homeownership for many Americans. 

Harris is also facing headwinds from a weakening economy. On Friday morning, we learned that inflation is no longer the only problem with the Biden-Harris economy. The Labor Department reported that 114,000 jobs were added in July, far short of the 185,000 economists had been expecting. This report dampened hopes for a soft landing and sent stock prices tumbling.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3 percent, triggering a recession indicator economists called the Sahm rule. According to MarketWatch, this means “the three-month moving average of the unemployment rate is now 0.5% above the low in the last 12 months.” The creator of this indicator, former Federal Reserve economist Claudia Sahm, told Bloomberg on Friday that while the U.S. is not currently in a recession, “we’re not headed in a good direction.”  

At the moment, the most far-left candidate ever to seek the presidency is riding high. But reality has a way of fooling with the best-laid plans. 

Will common sense prevail in November, or will Americans be fooled by the Democrats’ propaganda again?

Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a research fellow at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.