As the media glowingly covers Kamala Harris's every little step and spoken word, there's a long-standing truth in politics of peaking too early.
Harris knows this issue well, having peaked too early in 2019 when she arrived on the DNC debate stage. She was another first-term Black senator with presidential ambitions like Barack Obama. She was also the first South Asian American, as her mother was an Indian Tamil Brahmin. However, Congresswoman from Hawaii Tulsi Gabbard aggressively ripped into Harris's record on criminal prosecutions when Harris served as an attorney general and district attorney in California.
Soon, campaign infighting ensued, with staff members leaking damaging stories and her poll numbers stuck in the low single digits. Harris saved face by exiting the race in December 2019. At the time, Harris had not endured even one caucus or primary, and the Iowa caucuses were still a month away. [That month, America, under former President Trump's leadership, recorded a fantastic accomplishment: The United States became a net energy exporter for the first time in over 50 years].
Harris was a Junior Varsity (JV) team member then; she continues to be one today, no matter how ecstatic and adoring the media's coverage of her is. Disloyalty among staff members is not a trivial issue. According to Axios, much of Harris' VP staff has turned over in the past 3½ years. Of the 47 Harris staffers listed in 2021, only five still worked for her as of this spring.
Washington Post's interviews with past staffers revealed that Harris would not read the briefing materials produced by her staffers and then chastise them when she sounded unprepared. Her ex-staffers have complained of the toxic working environment under her leadership. The Post quoted a former staffer:
With Kamala, you have to put up with a constant amount of soul-destroying criticism and also her own lack of confidence. So you're constantly sort of propping up a bully, and it's not really clear why.
A junior varsity (JV) team is a secondary-level sports team composed of younger or less experienced players compared to the varsity team of the same sport at a school or club. JV teams serve to develop skills and prepare teams for the big nights. In many high schools, JV teams are more inclusive, allowing more students to participate in sports regardless of their skill level. In a sense, JV teams are the result of school district DEI policies long before DEI became the Democrats' favorite word.
President Barack Obama crudely used JVs as a metaphor to describe political readiness and talent. He was referring to the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/Daesh) terror organization when the then-President sat down for a lengthy interview with David Remnick of The New Yorker on January 27, 2014. Obama said:
The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a JV team puts on Lakers uniforms, that doesn't make them Kobe Bryant. I think there is a distinction between the capacity and reach of a bin Laden and a network that is actively planning major terrorist plots against the homeland versus jihadists who are engaged in various local power struggles and disputes, often sectarian.
Obama was completely wrong about ISIS, which went on to establish a brutal caliphate in Syria and northern Iraq, terrorizing millions and decimating ancient artifacts. ISIS was no JV team at all, and it took Trump, in partnership with Russian President Vladimir Putin, to destroy the terror organization. No media outlet gives credit to Trump for this achievement.
But the "JV" term has stuck in Washington. As the press fawns over Harris, Obama has yet to endorse her for the nomination. Obama knows.
The problem is that the Biden record is also the Harris record. Harris can't assume Biden's assets (campaign staff, war chest, donor list, connections with state party offices) without also assuming Biden's liabilities. And these are numerous, as we have seen repeatedly in our numerous TIPP polls. Our most recent Bidenflation poll alone is enough to deflate Harris's campaign and force her on the defensive.
The next big test for Harris is choosing her Vice Presidential nominee. Of course, the press will be glowing in their praise for whoever she picks, but the voters may not. The problem here is what we pointed out in our editorial earlier this week - the Democrats deceived themselves that Biden was a fit, healthy, Trump-beater that they never developed a leadership bench. Not that they could have; for a Party that revels in identity politics, any talk of developing a bench would have created a revolt within Black women's ranks and the liberal whites who are the main constituencies of the Harris wing.
With Biden having outsourced his administration's duties to his cabinet, Tony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, and Janet Yellen were constantly on TV, peddling one dismal policy after another. The 2020 campaigners who built a national following - Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Amy Klobuchar - became AWOL.
Harris's challenge is not only to convince voters that her VP choice is ready to become President on day one but also to help define her pick before the GOP can.
The New York Times published a survey of 251 Democratic delegates. Ten said they would want California Governor Gavin Newsom to be Harris's running mate. The Constitution prohibits two people from the same state from being on the same ticket.
Other smashing superstars were listed, but not many voters have heard of them. Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania Governor? Mark Kelly, the Arizona Senator? Andy Beshear, the Governor of Kentucky? Roy Cooper, the Governor of North Carolina? These so-called leaders probably wouldn't even meet the JV threshold.
Meanwhile, Trump is part of the big leagues. He is the only person in the race who has been President for one full term and has real experience running the country. Under Trump, America's borders were safe, with the lowest levels of illegal immigrants in recent memory. Inflation was low as the economy boomed to catch Blacks and Hispanics along for the ride. There were no new wars during his entire term. There was no lawfare against Hillary. Trump's judicial appointments became the last gate that stopped liberal activism. Ronald Reagan's "a rising tide lifts all boats" proved true under Trump.
Of course, Trump overdid his tweets and acted more like an entertainer than a Chief Executive by constantly picking fights with everyone around him so that he would be in the news. The American voter has already baked this cost into a second Trump presidency. Besides, Trump, still not having returned to Elon Musk's X, has proved to be much more disciplined on Truth Social.
So the Dems' freshly minted JV Team is going to use abortion and Trump's "convicted felon" standing to win in 2024? Good luck with that.
Rajkamal Rao is a columnist and a member of the tippinsights editorial board. He is an American entrepreneur and wrote the WorldView column for the Hindu BusinessLine, India's second-largest financial newspaper, on the economy, politics, immigration, foreign affairs, and sports.
Correction: The original article identified Kamala Harris as African American. We corrected it to 'Black' and also noted that she is the first South Asian American, as her mother is an Indian Tamil Brahmin.
