Kamala Is a Misunderstood Genius

By Luther Ray Abel

Sunday, August 06, 2023

 

Kamala Harris, the woman you thought you knew as the ruthless California Democrat with a gaffe and a cackling problem, is taking on a “forceful new role” as a “one-woman rapid-response team”  in the Biden administration. Republicans available for comment said things such as “Hallelujah!” and “Gee! I’m looking forward to that.” The New York Times was there for the story on why Americans have always been wrong about Kamala Harris.

 

Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a Times White House correspondent, writes:

 

Once a rising star as a senator in California, Ms. Harris has for years been saddled by criticism of her performance as vice president. She has struggled with difficult assignments on issues such as the roots of illegal migration and the narrow path to enduring voting rights protections. Concerns about her future spread as Democrats pondered whether she would be a political liability for the ticket.

 

Ms. Harris’s recent moves are her latest attempt to silence those concerns and reclaim the momentum that propelled her to Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s side as a candidate and into the White House in 2020.

 

“It’s good to have her out there,” said Cedric Richmond, a senior adviser for the Democratic National Committee, who added that the vice president’s decision to take on the Republican Party — assertively and in real time — was central to the campaign’s 2024 strategy.

 

“Ms. Harris has for years been saddled by criticism of her performance,” is an all-timer in the “I’m bad at my job, and it’s other people’s fault for noticing” category. As National Review has covered extensively (Charlie on Harris lying about Florida, Jim on Harris’s ineptitude forcing Biden to run again, and Maddy and Noah separately noting Harris’s inability to speak coherently), Kamala Harris finds it difficult to say or do anything that isn’t factually wrong, incomprehensible, or alarming.

 

With all of that accepted, in a moment of inspiration, the White House observed the VP and thought to foist her blunderbuss mind upon the fact-checkers, activists, and journalist classes of the Right. In a political scrum, it doesn’t matter if she’s wrong because, by the time campaigns have a rebuttal, she’s already ten lies down the line.

 

Even better for the White House, these bold fabrications satisfy a Democratic base that disliked Kamala’s disappearance, as they’re especially sensitive to the impression that a strong woman has been forced to pipe down. Harris loosed on a GOP field is a fundraising bonanza, and she doesn’t have to pretend that she’ll debate any of the Republicans who call her out on her lies because she knows the truth and that Republicans are nothing but apologists for slavery.

 

When DeSantis pushed back on Harris’s characterization of his state’s history curriculum, Harris knew what to do:

 

“You clearly have no trouble ducking down to Florida on short notice,” [DeSantis] said in an open letter last week, accusing her of trying to score political points and inviting her to discuss the new standards.

 

Ms. Harris, who returned to Florida for her second trip in less than two weeks, had a swift reply.

 

“Well, I’m here in Florida,” she said before pausing as the crowd at an African Methodist Episcopal Church event in Orlando erupted in applause. “And I will tell you, there is no round table, no lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact: There were no redeeming qualities of slavery.”

 

The Biden administration is making the most of a charitable press corps, fratricidal GOP primary field, and a live grenade in its vice president to sow as much chaos as possible while remaining above the fray. Kamala Harris is her own woman, after all, she’s more than Joe, which means Joe isn’t responsible for what she says.

 

A bull with an affinity for china shops is thought to be a menace by owners of china shops — unless one wily storekeeper can direct the bull to the competition while (ideally) sparing his own storefront. That’s the bet that the Biden campaign is making: that Kamala’s carnage will leave them in marginally better shape than the Republican alternatives. It’s the sort of genius that comes in an Acme crate.