Well, we are only halfway through President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ first four-year term. There is little to celebrate thus far, and the clock is now ticking on their remaining two years.
President Biden still has not addressed whether he will seek a second term in 2024, and this has placed Vice President Harris in a sticky situation. She must be asking whether she will hit the campaign trail for Biden or herself.
The Washington Post asked some key Democratic leaders about their thoughts on a Harris campaign for the presidency, and they had plenty of them but asked for anonymity so they could be even more candid.
The WaPo report revealed that more than a dozen Democratic leaders in key states had deep concerns, and they viewed Harris’s time as vice president as very underwhelming. They said that she has been marked as one who struggles to communicate and stays quite invisible.
The report said that many of the rank-and-file Democrats are unpersuaded that she has the “force, charisma and skill to mount a winning presidential campaign.”
That should cause deep concern in Harris and those who would run her campaign.
One political strategist from South Carolina said, “every fiber in my body wants her to be president,” but they are not sure “that the people who have to make that happen feel that way right now” because it’s unclear Harris “has what it takes to get over the hump in our present environment.”
Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was unsure whether Harris should be Biden’s running mate in 2024, let alone president.
WaPo explained that every sitting or former vice president who has sought the Democratic nomination since 1972 has gotten it. But Biden is the only one of those who went on to be in the White House.
Here’s how WaPo summed up what turned out to be a hit piece on Harris, “In 2016, she won her Senate seat against weak opposition, they say. In 2019, her presidential run ended before a single ballot was cast, doomed by an uneven performance on the campaign trail, weak support, faltering resources, and turmoil among her advisers.”
