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So the weird thing about the VP slot is you have to be so dispensable you can spend four or eight years attending funerals, and so indispensable you can step into the Oval Office on a moment’s notice depending whose funeral you attend. And given Biden’s health, NBC’s glowing “Kamala Harris’ real significance may only be seen four years from now” might be too pessimistic.
Someone described Harris as perfectly suited to be VP, which strikes me as damning with faint praise
Or optimistic. But the point isn’t whether I want her as president, or that she savaged Biden during the primaries and the Times made this vicious disunity a virtue, calling it “her more energetic style.” It’s that after months of teasing us over which woman of colour Biden would pick, the press erupted into applause rather than analysis when he picked this one.
On Aug. 11 NBC crowed “Biden’s choice of a Black woman for VP is historic. It could also help him win.” The next day it assured me she “creates a conundrum” for Trump’s campaign: “Harris was difficult to pin down ideologically in the Democratic presidential primary, which hurt her candidacy and ultimately forced an early exit from the race. But it now makes her a more complicated target of attacks from Trump …” Slippery and unpopular? Heck no. You go, girl.
There is much to analyze about Harris. Some is unquestionably positive: Her competence, energy and intelligence mean anyone, including me, would be happier seeing Biden win knowing she’s Plan B. But there are also issues journalists need to confront, from her radicalism to her evasiveness. As well, while Trump’s affairs have been scrutinized, what about Harris’s affair with married 31-years-older California power broker Willie Brown, which her Wikipedia entry conspicuously omits? And how can the press discuss whether an unreflective embrace of identity politics tends to alienate voters while enthusiastically engaged in one?
Will the Democrats win the election? Quite possibly. Will Kamala Harris become the first African-American, Asian-American, female president? Quite possibly. Will she do a decent job? Quite possibly. Will she be dangerously radical? Quite possibly. Should the press be part of her campaign? Certainly not.
