They Just Might

Former Vice President Kamala Harris is still considering a political comeback.

Asked if she would run for President in 2028, she said that she just "might" do so.

To those who think she should try for the Presidency again, let me refresh your memories.

How many primaries and caucuses did she win in her 2020 presidential campaign?  Zero.

How many primaries and caucuses did she actually compete in in her 2020 presidential campaign?  Zero.  She had to end her candidacy in 2019.

How many swing states did she win in the 2024 general election?  Zero.

How many Democratic presidential candidates other than Harris have lost the popular vote in the past twenty years?  Zero.

Well, at least she has a perfect record.

You know, it's really galling to hear Harris say she might run again after losing to Trump in 2024 and not see her being ridiculed en masse when Martin O'Malley, who showed a real feistiness in going after Trump when he ran for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, got laughed at when he said that he might run again in 2020 after he lost to Trump in 2016, and . . . oh, wait, that was Hillary Clinton!

Good luck with another run for the Presidency, Madam Former Vice President.  The Democrats, as repeatedly noted here, are notorious for shunning and turning away failed presidential nominees.  They don't get to make comebacks.   They don't get a second chance.  They don't even get a lousy speaking slot at the next Democratic National Convention.  They are complete . . . losers.

And that certainly includes Harris.  In fact, she's even less popular than Donald Trump.  Seriously.  In an NBC News poll released this week, Donald Trump - who has led the country into another unjust war in the Middle East, destroyed the economy, sicced ICE on native-born U.S. citizens - including journalists - suspended civil liberties, dismantled federal government services, and has taken away people's health insurance - had 41 percent of people surveyed respond favorably to him.  Harris had a 36 percent favorable response.

Is it any wonder why advertising genius Donny Deutsch laughed at the Democrats on television two days after Trump forced Harris into early retirement? 

Oh, and lest you think I'm being a nasty ol' white man beating up on a woman of color, I'm also here to tell you that Gavin Newsom, Harris's fellow Californian, is even less popular; he only got a 27 percent favorable response.  It's not really surprising.  Newsom has trolled Trump and ridiculed him every chance he gets and has been instrumental in bringing Donald's poll numbers down.  But that should not be construed into thinking that Newsom himself is popular.  In fact, he has been held in great - and justified - suspicion among progressives, who have noted that Newsom does not want to tax billionaires because of the wealth they benefit for the economy, he started a podcast because he apparently has too much time on his hands as governor of California, his podcast included guests such as Steve Bannon and the late Charlie Kirk, and, while talking with Kirk, he agreed with him that it is "unfair" in allowing transsexual women to compete in women's sports.

Gavin Newsom is not the savior of the Democratic Party, people.  He's a smooth-talking technocrat who takes superficially liberal positions and hopes his suave demeanor and his perfect hair will compensate for his lack of substance.  In other words, he's the Gary Hart of California.

I hope Democrats don't get sold on Harris or Newsom in 2028 simply on name recognition alone - or because they're not Vance or Rubio (or Trump, who's already plotting on how to stand for a third term).  As for whom the Democrats should nominate for President in 2028 - assuming there'll be two candidates for th3e office - they must remember Smokey Robinson's mother's advice.

They'd better shop around.  Just not in California.     

Ninety-Five Minutes of Jive

If you need proof that the people running Kamala Harris' presidential campaign were some of the most clueless election campaign professionals in America who did not know how to position their client against Donald Trump and win, by all means watch this 95-minute YouTube podcast video from the mainstream Democratic podcast Pod Save America.  Jen O'Malley Dillon, Stephanie Cutter, and the usual lot of Democratic strategists still coasting on their wins for Barack Obama and Joe Biden pretty much say over the hour and a half and change that they ran a strong and effective campaign but it wasn't strong and effective enough.

That is, they lost.

These folks seem rather happy with their close second-place finish.  Except in this sort of contest, there's no silver medal for finishing second. 

 

No More Winners and Losers Lists

I thought I might make truncated lists of winners and losers of the year  for the end of 2021 - five on each list - and I had some probable candidates for either side.  But as the year has worn on, I have come to a decision.  Not only will there be no winners and losers lists this year on this blog, there will be no winners and losers lists for any year hereafter.

If there's one thing 2021 has taught me, it's that we are all winners and losers at one time or another, and quantifying successes and failures is a waste of time.  I don't pay enough attention to current movies or TV shows to gauge the biggest hits and flops, for example, and politicians such as President Joe Biden have proved that one can experience the best of times (declining COVID cases in the spring, the infrastructure bill) and worst of times (Afghanistan, Delta) all at once.

Also, looking at individuals who have had good years, I've noticed how the wrong people tend to have great success, all of it undeserved.  A particular celebrity I don't like now stars in a TV series that is described as the biggest hit show of 2021.  Why do I want to acknowledge that?   And a person's or institution's failure can overshadow its biggest success.  Netflix, for example, won a record number of Emmys in 2021, but subsequent fallout over Dave Chappelle's Netflix show, in which Chappelle badmouthed transsexuals, rendered that achievement meaningless.   

Sports?  Katie Ledecky solidly asserted herself as the greatest female swimmer of all time at the 2020 - no, 2021 Tokyo Olympics, but her victories don't mean so much when there was practically no one there to see them in person thanks to COVID.  And even though the U.S. men's soccer team won the CONCACAF Gold Cup, their failure to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics made them a laughing stock once again.  You gotta feel sorry for these guys.  Even when they win, they lose. 

I can't do this anymore.  I'm rarely satisfied with my lists after I've published them, thinking I might have left someone out or might have been premature in choosing whom I left in - some of choices for winners at the end of one year were overturned by their colossal failures the following year - and it's a pain in the neck to construct these lists.  So that's it.  I'm done.  No more winners and losers lists.  It's over.

Sorry.