The Most Enjoyable New York Times Piece of the Year

By Rich Lowry

Monday, February 06, 2023

 

I can’t remember the last time I haven’t wanted a New York Times piece to end, but this report on Kamala Harris is much too short.

 

There are a number of candidates for best passage:

 

Try Harder!

 

“Even some Democrats whom her own advisers referred reporters to for supportive quotes confided privately that they had lost hope in her.”

 

Quiet Panic Is Better Than a Loud Panic, I Guess

 

“Through much of the fall, a quiet panic set in among key Democrats about what would happen if President Biden opted not to run for a second term. Most Democrats interviewed, who insisted on anonymity to avoid alienating the White House, said flatly that they did not think Ms. Harris could win the presidency in 2024. Some said the party’s biggest challenge would be finding a way to sideline her without inflaming key Democratic constituencies that would take offense.”

 

When Hillary Thinks You Have Bad Instincts . . .

 

“Two Democrats recalled private conversations in which former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lamented that Ms. Harris could not win because she does not have the political instincts to clear a primary field.”

 

Nothing to See Here — She’s Just Uncomfortable with Politics

 

“Advisers and allies trace Ms. Harris’s challenges to her transition from the lawyerly prosecutor she used to be as district attorney of San Francisco and attorney general of California into a job where symbolism and politics are prioritized.”

 

She Believes She’s Anti-Platitude

 

“My bias has always been to speak factually, to speak accurately, to speak precisely about issues and matters that have potentially great consequence,” she said in the interview in Japan. “I find it off-putting to just engage in platitudes. I much prefer to deconstruct an issue and speak of it in a way that hopefully elevates public discourse and educates the public.”

 

And, Finally, the Answer from Her Small Band of Supporters Is, of Course, to Let Kamala Be Kamala

 

“President Biden has to give her more leeway to be herself and not make her overly cautious that a mistake, a rhetorical mistake, will cost the party a lot,” [Historian Douglas] Brinkley said. ‘It’s better to let Kamala be Kamala.”’