From a beacon of hope to a grey mouse to a beacon of hope: Kamala Harris wants to become the next US president. But her backpack of failures is not that light.
Maybe Joe Biden was once serious about his announcement that he would be a “bridge for the next generation.” Back in the election campaign four years ago. But as the elected President of the United States, the chair in the Oval Office quickly became so comfortable that he preferred not to hand it over to his designated successor. At least not so quickly.
Besides, it wasn’t as if the country was pining after Kamala Harris. Quite the opposite. In the second year of her vice presidency, just 35 percent of Americans still supported her. This means that she not only underperformed Biden’s poor poll ratings, but also those of her unpopular predecessor, Mike Pence.
In the beginning she was almost co-president
The first woman and non-white person to hold the office was still considered a kind of co-president at the beginning of 2021, but she acted so unhappily and sloppily that Joe Biden soon saw no alternative in her. Until June 27, 2024: On this Thursday, the 81-year-old botched the TV duel against Donald Trump and showed the whole nation that he is no longer in control.
It took another three weeks before he reluctantly gave up on running for president again. And suddenly Kamala Harris was back. The woman who hardly anyone would have given a cent to before. Until Biden’s withdrawal, names like Gretchen Whitmer, Governor of Michigan, Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, and Pete Buttigieg, US Secretary of Transportation, were being bandied about as possible successors at some point in the future. Even the former Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who switched to the maverick camp, was talked about more than Kamala Harris.
Kamala Harris six construction sites
There are many reasons for her moderate popularity, and these are likely to accompany her election campaign as construction sites that are difficult to conceal:
Border security: The issue of illegal immigration has been troubling Americans for many years. Conservatives speak of an “invasion” on the border with Mexico, where Donald Trump once wanted to build a wall. When Joe Biden moved into the White House, he gave Kamala Harris the job of dealing with it – a more thankless project in US politics is hard to imagine.
With one of her first official acts, Harris dashed all hopes that she would cover herself in glory: As the newly appointed US Vice President, she traveled to Central America, met people there who were seeking protection from war and violence in the USA and admonished them with the phrase: “Don’t come!” “Don’t even come.”
After that, the number of border crossings continued to rise until Joe Biden took up the issue and announced a significantly tougher immigration policy this spring. Kamala Harris’ poor record on such an important issue is likely to be her biggest burden in the election campaign.
The non-campaigner: In the last presidential election, Kamala Harris herself ran for the highest office in the country. After a sensational start, however, her campaign quickly fizzled out. The lawyer lacked the ability to convey “clear messages,” it was said at the time. The botched election campaign still haunts her.
The quota non-whites: Although Harris did not even make it onto the Democratic primary ballot in 2020, Joe Biden named her as his vice presidential candidate. For reasons of “diversity,” as he said. Right-wing circles therefore still accuse her of becoming vice president only because of her gender and her origins (her father is Jamaican, her mother is Tamil). This debate is likely to gain momentum again this year, as she again did not have to qualify through the primaries.
The Obamas pledge their support to Kamala Harris – by phone
Electoral reform: The majority of Americans agree that the electoral law is in dire need of renovation. For example, there is no right to vote by mail, and some are calling for Election Day to be made a holiday. Kamala Harris should also take care of this project. She has come a long way in just under a year. The right people were brought on board and Congress was prepared accordingly. But in the end it was two Democratic senators, her own people, who refused to support her. And so the Vice President was left empty-handed again.
Employee attrition: The political business in the USA is fast-moving, job, project and team changes are the order of the day. And yet it casts a bad light on leaders if they change their people too often. This is exactly what Kamala Harris’s staff suffered from after she began her term in office. The reasons given were that the boss herself was in a bad mood when it came to her tasks, her team was frustrated and poorly organized. Her office is now running smoothly again, but her reputation as a lousy boss keeps popping up.
Her laugh: Of course, it is absurd and unfair to criticize a politician for her laughter, but in the US election campaign, which is extremely focused on pleasing functioning, even that can be used against the candidates. Her opponent Donald Trump accused her of having a “crazy laugh”, and Harris is certainly not someone who smiles, but someone who likes to laugh a lot and loudly.
Is it courageous and life-affirming or, as some say, exaggerated, like so much that comes from her home state of California? “People who laugh a lot see themselves as strong and competent and are not afraid of social conflicts. In this respect, Kamala Harris will be a very unpleasant opponent for Donald Trump,” says laughter researcher Michael Titze in star-Conversation. What is certain is that the Republican has so far responded to every threat with an even more violent counter-threat.
Harris, like Donald Trump, relies on attack
The 59-year-old still has 100 days to work on her projects – and all those that the Republicans will open up by the beginning of November. How she will do this is slowly becoming clear. In a major profile in the US magazine “The Atlantic”, Harris herself said that her strength is not in making “nice speeches”. But the former prosecutor can attack – just like her opponent.
As a prosecutor, Harris said recently, she had dealt with criminals “who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers and con artists who broke the rules for their own benefit. So listen to me when I say that I know guys like Donald Trump.”
Sources: Axios, “The Atlantic”, Reuters, AP, “Die Zeit”, Deutsche Welle, “Taz”, FiveThirtyEight, “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, RND
