The lightness of being Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris at a Town Hall event at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. Picture; AFP.

For Kamala Harris, even friendly interviews are treacherous these days. This week she may have made the biggest mistake of her 81-day campaign in response to similar questions from TV host Stephen Colbert and “The View.” Asked what she would do differently than President Biden, the Vice President said “there is not a thing that comes to mind.”

If Ms Harris loses, that answer will go far to explaining why. Her mistake isn’t merely that she hasn’t distanced herself enough from Mr Biden’s unpopular record, though that is a problem. It’s that she hasn’t shown voters that she is her own woman. Her campaign of “vibes” and safe appearances suggests she will be, like Mr Biden has been, a captive of her party and its unpopular policies.

Even if they disagree with him, voters can’t say Donald Trump hasn’t put his stamp on his party and the issues. That isn’t true of Mr Biden, who has always followed the rest of his party. Thus as President he veered left, bowing to progressives on everything from immigration to spending to cultural coercion. He’s ending his term with a 41 per cent approval rating.

Without having to compete in a presidential primary, Ms Harris had a chance to set her own campaign path. Instead she has hugged closely to both the Biden record and her party’s progressive agenda.

After her ascension as nominee, the Vice President surrounded herself with David Plouffe and other Barack Obama advisers who stuffed her with vague, feel-good generalities. “New way forward” and “opportunity economy” and “I grew up a middle-class kid.” The slogans worked for a time as they rallied Democrats demoralised by Mr Biden.

Kamala Harris appears on screen as she speaks during a Town Hall event in Nevada. Picture: AFP.

But they have worn thin as it’s clear the words are attached to the same old politics. Her pledge to appoint a Republican to her cabinet is a meaningless gesture unless it’s a notable conservative to a serious post. On policy, her one deviation has been to say she’ll raise the capital gains tax by 40 per cent rather than nearly doubling it as Mr Biden wants. Even that move was done for the expediency of pleasing Democratic donors like Reid Hoffman.

Of late she has begun to suggest she’s a moderate by using words like “consensus” and “compromise.” But there’s not a single issue on which she has stood up to the left of her party. Some Democrats have urged her to find such an issue and run on it. Perhaps endorse charter schools. Or say parents must approve gender transitioning surgery for minors. She won’t do even that.

The political problem here is as much about character as policy. Voters want a President who is strong enough to bear the burdens of the job, and that means standing up against powerful interests or countries that want to harm America. The Vice President has looked more like an empty political vessel who will say or do whatever her advisers tell her to.

That concern is reinforced by her wariness about doing interviews beyond soft forums hosted by her political allies. Even in those interviews, Ms Harris has had a hard time saying anything beyond packaged platitudes. None of this is reassuring to a swing voter who dislikes Mr Trump but wonders if Ms Harris is up the job of President.

This may explain why the Vice President’s political momentum seems to have stalled. Mr Trump hasn’t risen much in the polls, but Ms Harris seems to have plateaued. If you read the Democratic press, which means nearly all of the press, you’ll notice a creeping concern this week that Mr Trump is gaining in the polls in the battleground states.

Democrats are suddenly worried, and a few are starting to blame Ms Harris for playing it safe with her version of Mr Biden’s 2020 basement campaign strategy. They want her to define herself better for swing voters.

***

That’s good advice, assuming she is up to it. But if she really is a doctrinaire progressive, as her career going back to California suggests, then she’s better off in relative hiding. And if she’s not confident enough about her own views to express them with any specificity beyond evasive generalities, that is also revealing information for voters.

Ms Harris and Democrats are betting that a majority of voters will never vote for Mr Trump again, and they may be right. But he could win anyway if the remaining undecided voters conclude that Ms Harris is merely a political cipher whose agenda is whatever Democrats like Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren command.

The Wall St Journal