What happened to Kamala Harris?
He was the rising star, his candidacy had aroused hope, emotion, pride in the female and African American world. Sure, why Kamala Harris, the vice president of Joe Biden, a year ago, she made history by becoming the first woman and the first black woman to hold that position. And she also became, albeit temporarily (about 80 minutes), president of the United States of America.
The big disappointment
Born in Oakland to an Indian mother, immigrant from Chennai, and a father of Jamaican descent, she has a very respectable record. Graduated from Howard University and Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. Then deputy district attorney in Alameda County and then district attorney in San Francisco. And finally California attorney general. All the cards in order to be one super vice president and perhaps, after two years on the side of a senior president like Biden, even something more. Never bad popularity data and the influx of domestic political rumors are eating up Harris’ entire image.
Bad polls for the vice president
Biden is already experiencing a decline in popularity, but the vice president is suffering worse. The poll average of Real Clear Politics gives his support at 40%, two points below Biden (42%). A more detailed analysis of the “Los Angeles Times” shows that his data are worse than those of Biden when he was vice president, those of Al Gore (vice president with Bill Clinton) and even those of Dick Cheney (number two of George W. Bush).
The resignation of his closest collaborators
Further confirmation of this collapse also comes from the resignation, almost simultaneously, of his spokesman, Symone Sanders and the director of communications, Ashley Etienne. In her partial defense, Harris can say that she received a real “hot potato” from Biden, namely the migration issue on the southern border with the United States. A theme where there is a lot to lose and little to gain. On her first international trip as Vice President, to Guatemala and Mexico last June, Harris had to say to undocumented immigrants from Central America fleeing poverty: “Don’t come to the United States.” Four words that guaranteed her a a barrage of criticism even from his own party.
The uncomfortable role of “number two”
The position of Vice President of the United States is very unique and two-sided. On the one hand you are close to number one, but on the other hand your power is almost zero. Benjamin Franklin he had defined the position “as a superfluous excellence”. Nelson rockefeller, deputy of Gerald Ford (1974-1977), had made a very clear synthesis of it “I go to funerals, I go to earthquakes”. Thomas Marshall, Deputy of Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921), had defined it “cataleptic, because the deputy cannot speak, cannot move, does not feel pain, is perfectly aware of everything that is happening, but does not participate in it”. But Kamala had generated a lot of expectations and someone already saw her in the running for the dem in 2024 to the chair of number one. But it was not only her fault. Some observers bring up the machismo against the woman. The most discontented seem to be the men and the vice president is a constant target of the most sexist attacks not only on social media, but also on conservative television.
The attempt to relaunch
Despite this Kamala Harris does not seem to want to “die” politically. And a few days ago it started to recover especially on the issue of immigration, confirming the considerable increase in funds for the development of Central American countries such as Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Important figures over a billion dollars in part guaranteed by large American and Latin companies such as Pepsi and Apple for “Help them at home”. They will serve to create jobs, new establishments, business. Will this move be enough to revive the combative Kamala Harris? Certainly if midterm elections in 2022 were to penalize his boss, his collapse would become much more than worrying and, perhaps, without return.
On the subject, read also:
Usa, money to Central America to curb immigration
Usa, Kamala Harris spokesperson resigns: rumors about internal tensions
Usa, Kamala Harris as president in January 2022