Kamala Out of the System

Much like Hillary Clinton released a memoir of her failed presidential campaign against Donald Trump titled "What Happened," former Vice President Kamala Harris has a new memoir of her failed presidential campaign against Donald Trump, titled "107 Days" (after the length of her campaign), thought it should be titled, "What Happened?"  Because the added question mark would be highly appropriate.

Harris appeared with Stephen Colbert on his late-night talk show a few days after he - like Harris eight months earlier - had become irrelevant.  She lamented that the system of government in America is broken, and that she plans talk to people about their lives while she tours the United States to promote her book, saying that, by not asking for anyone's vote, she can talk to them in a way that is not transactional.  All of this comes as Harris has announced that she will not run for governor of California in 2026.

"I believe, and I always believed, that as fragile as our democracy is, our systems would be strong enough to defend our most fundamental principles," she told Colbert.  "And I think right now that they’re not as strong as they need to be."

By talking to people on her book tour, Harris is planning to do exactly what she could have done as Vice President if President Biden had made it clear from the start that he would be a one-term President, which, I now believe, is what he should have done all along.  He should decided privately that he would not run again in 2024 and wait until after the 2022 midterms to make his decision public.  That would have given Harris plenty of time to talk to Americans on a non-transactional way to help her decide whether to run in 2024, as Biden's earlier withdrawal, had it happened, would have allowed other Democrats to run and make the primary/caucus campaign more competitive.

And what does Harris plan to do when her book tour is over?  She plans not to return to government "for now," but that tease may indicate another presidential run in 2028, and many Harris supporters believe she is entitled to try again, since a 107-day campaign was clearly insufficient at defeating Donald Trump.  But let's look at the big picture.  In a live recent podcast he hosted, journalist Ryan Lizza asked listeners to weigh in on whom they thought should be the 2028 Democratic presidential nominee, and they responded with the names of numerous Democrats, but the name of one particular Democrat was never mentioned.  Guess which Democrat.