Did you see Barack Obama lamenting to a group of black Americans that Kamala Harris is not enjoying the enthusiastic support of enough black women, nor ‘the bros’? Well, I suggest it is largely Barack Obama’s own doing.
After shoehorning Joe Biden into the White House in 2020, the Democrats are now trying to shoehorn Kamala Harris in behind him. As Biden exits after being ushered out by his Democrat friends, incoming Harris has been thrust – unwittingly – into a self-contradictory (dare I say ‘knucklehead’) campaign strategy.
That master orator and saint of the left has blundered when giving behind the scenes advice to her campaign: in my own image worship ye, with ‘hope’ and ‘change’ as the battle cry.
Obama is out and about rephrasing that slogan, failing to recognise that it is a petard for the regime – a small explosive in waiting.
The first argument in support of this hypothesis is the obvious feature of the Harris campaign. Biden withdrew from the race, perhaps he was pushed, but it was based on his mental frailty and not his political allegiance. In other words, Harris is not campaigning in opposition to Biden’s policies, but as a participant in forming them. She has said so herself.
That’s unique in politics: campaigning to win with nothing new to sell.
Anything brandished as ‘new’ would be disloyal and seen as damning Biden … along with herself. We have seen this happen with illegal migration and Harris subsequently being sucked into a political vortex noticed by everyone, including the left-wing media.
The decision to present Harris as the ‘change candidate’ was a disastrous miscalculation. Such a campaign requires her to repudiate the Biden policies – or at least most of them. She hasn’t and she won’t. So there goes ‘change’. And there, too, goes ‘new’.
Increasingly, even by the left-leaning media, Harris is required to explain why she is the Democrat candidate without leaning on her status as Vice President. This because the media, too, has been unwittingly tricked into the standard Presidential campaign mindset: what will you do differently? Of course, one possible correct answer could be, ‘I would ensure that the Biden policies are refined and pursued to implementation. We believe in them…’ But Biden’s policies are not so well-liked (especially that inflation thing) as to make that a positive option. So there goes ‘conviction’. Instead, she informs us that she is not Biden. Nor Trump.
Trying to distance herself from Biden while at the same time agreeing with the Biden policies is an impossible challenge, even for the most politically athletic candidate. Two irreconcilable positions, not helped by Harris’ losing battle with oratory.
Nobody on the left seems to have thought this through before shunting old Joe out and shepherding in a candidate nobody voted for.
The entire left has followed Obama’s lead. Just look at that star-studded televised gala embrace known as the Oprah Winfrey/Kamala Harris interview, attended by hundreds of Hollywood celebs via video link.
The polls are said to be ‘tight’ but some commentators are saying (almost in the same breath) that Donald Trump will win in a landslide. Which reminds of the late screenwriter William Goldman’s immortal quip: ‘In showbiz, nobody knows anything.’ It’s equally true of politics. Goldman won the Oscar for his screenplay, All the President’s Men.
