Her VP has been chosen, she has accepted the nomination, and the Democratic National Convention is firmly in the rearview mirror. What remains is the campaign trail and an expectation that policy takes precedence over political pastiche. VP Kamala Harris must now face the electorate without the “vibe” bumps of historic announcements or events. Does she have the juice to capitalize on the manufactured “Kamalamentum” that has brought her so far?
Base Line or Basement?
Any presidential candidate gets a series of polling bumps when they first enter the fray. Whether that’s from an unexpected VP choice, a national rally disguised as a lovefest, or even securing the nomination. Each of these milestones receives media fanfare and exultant coverage from the media du jour. But then begins the daunting task of making the case to the American public, and putting one’s policy proposals through the proverbial wringer.
To date, Ms. Harris has studiously avoided journalistic exposure. In fact, in the 36 days since President Joe Biden announced he was withdrawing from the race in favor of his number two, Harris has held precisely zero press conferences or sit-down interviews. In an age where the public demands news updates practically by the hour, this is a situation that has gone from atypical to astonishing.
What’s more, the political optics of the Fourth Estate quietly acquiescing to such a basement-style strategy without any serious qualms does her more harm than good. After all, a chief criticism of the US media by her opponents, Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been that there exists a cozy cartel of Democrats and DC journalists. Each day that passes without Harris facing the nation is another opportunity for her critics to accuse her of hiding from the public.
Kamala and the Policy Deficit
If campaign speeches were the measure by which a candidate is judged, one might assume that VP Harris’ platform was solely to undo the damage of the previous administration – not the most subtle strategy when she was an integral part of said administration. But beyond the promises to fix the disaster of which she was the standard bearer, only one concrete proposal has been released to the eager electorate: price controls.
As Politico noted in its Sunday morning election coverage, “Under pressure to defend Kamala Harris’ grocery price gouging plan, some Democratic lawmakers are delivering a quiet message to anxious allies: Don’t worry about the details. It’s never going to pass Congress.”
The article goes on to quote “six [anonymous] Democratic lawmakers and five Democratic aides” who are facing a moment of despair over what even left-leaning economists have warned against. So, the central plank of Harris 2024 appears to be a policy that either terrifies a significant portion of her own party or is seen as something that couldn’t possibly be passed into law anyway. One might wonder how long before this key pillar is consigned to the memory hole.
Stealing The Donald’s Thunder?
During her whistlestop campaign tour of battleground states, Kamala has also touted a small assortment of ideas that appeared to be more a toe-dipping in the waters of public sentiment than a set of outright pledges. However, if the keen-eyed electorate felt a sense of déjà vu, that’s likely because the two most prominent explorations were directly lifted from Trump and JD Vance.
The first was a “no tax on tips” initiative that the 45th president has been touting for the last several months. This proposal has been met with cheers and jeers from both sides of the political aisle. Critics on the political right have argued that, while exempting tips from income tax would work well, they should still be subject to payroll taxes, which fund things like social security. On the left, the chief criticism is that such a proposal does not further the minimum wage argument.
And then there’s the increase in Child Tax Credit (CTC) initially proposed by VP contender, Sen. JD Vance (OH). Vance proposed an increase from $2,000 to $5,000, which Harris swiftly upped to $6,000 when she jumped on the bandwagon.
By lifting policies directly from the Trump campaign, Harris is indirectly – and presumably unintentionally – signaling that Team Trump has ideas so good she wants them for herself and that she lacks political imagination. Neither of these indicators will help her on the campaign trail. If the policies are ultimately the same, it makes it harder for her allies to criticize Donald Trump and nearly impossible for them to paint Kamala as a revolutionary force for change.
Time to Do the Work
The honeymoon is over for Kamala Harris. Convention accolades fade as quickly as childhood summers, and substance is required to create an adult campaign that both engages and inspires. Joe Biden won the office by not being Donald Trump, but after almost four years that have seen a growing nostalgia for an economy that functioned and a world that was not on the brink of war, such simple messaging won’t be enough.
If the current VP feels that she can glide into the Oval Office on a magic carpet of “good vibes” and identity politics, she may come to the rude awakening that the American public demands more. Especially from those who are already at the levers of power.
