President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race amid concern from fellow Democrats that he stood no chance of beating Donald Trump this go-round. “I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down,” Biden posted to X, before shortly after throwing his “full support and endorsement” behind Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the party’s new nominee.
“Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump,” Biden added. “Let’s do this.”
But can Harris “do this”?
It’s hard to conclude that Harris would fare worse than Biden, whose cognitive difficulties were so apparent his own party came to view him as a serious electoral liability.
Yet if one recalls Harris’ own ill-fated run at the Democratic nomination in 2020, and her time in politics before then, the math in this equation becomes somewhat fuzzier—Harris was a truly bad candidate. And prior to that, she perpetuated some truly bad policies.
Kamala Harris the horrible campaigner and Kamala Harris the cop can be easy to forget if you’re only considering what Harris has done lately. Her tenure as vice president has been almost entirely unremarkable. The most distinguishing feature has been a series of bizarre but benign word salads. And political memory is short.
So Harris isn’t the best orator? Surely that’s surmountable. Besides, the lack of distinguishing actions during her vice presidency could even be to her advantage. She’s basically a blank slate, at least if you don’t look back too far.
But what if you do look back?
The first thing you’ll see is Harris’ shambolic 2020 campaign for president. She wouldn’t commit to policy positions. She couldn’t defend her past actions. There were ongoing stories about her poor treatment of her staff. She entered the race as a top-tier candidate, with glowing press and some big-time backers, and dropped out two months before the Iowa caucuses, polling at just 3 percent nationally. She wasn’t even polling as a top-tier candidate in her home state of California.
It was impossible in that campaign to ascertain what Harris stood for. This wasn’t just a case of national campaigning jitters. One major thread in Harris’ career—including during her days as district attorney of San Francisco and attorney general of California—has been flip-flopping on issues to suit the audience or the political moment.
Hellbound and Down 