Can Black Hillary ‘Get Serious’ Enough to Fix Her Popularity Problem? – Opinion

Vice President Kamala Harris hasn’t accomplished much during her stint in the White House, but she has managed to reach a notable achievement: Having approval ratings lower than President Joe Biden. Harris has a negative reputation and the country doesn’t think she is capable of recovering.

Columnist Peggy Noonan wrote a piece to the contrary Wall Street JournalIn which she speculated on the steps that the vice president might have to take in order to restore her image. Now the question is, will Harris be able to accomplish this task?

Noonan started out by pointing out how bad Harris’ numbers are. She wrote:

President Biden’s poll numbers are bad and Vice President Kamala Harris’s are worse. This week’s Rasmussen survey had 39% of her favorably and 57% not. The number that stuck in the public’s mind came last month, from a USAToday/Suffolk poll that put her approval at 28%, disapproval at 51%.

Noonan brought up Harris’s horrible month, with news reports calling attention to her poor managerial skills. “There’s been an exodus of high-level staffers. The Washington Post had a sweeping, searing piece that described a ‘dysfunctional’ and chaotic office full of bitter enmities,” she wrote.

The author notes that these stories, combined with the fact that Harris has not shown herself to be an effective leader “leaves people uneasy.” She wrote:

Uneasy is what all this means. She seems out of her depth, and the president is old. This will continue for three more years. It is also dangerous: We don’t want their weakness to become America’s weakness.

Noonan’s first suggestion relies on the notion that “[t]he Harris Is Incompetent stories are played out” for the time being because publishing more would be “overkill.” In essence, she is suggesting that Harris has hit her low point and the only way to go from here is up — as long as the vice president plays her cards right.

Since “[e]xpectations are low,” the vice president can “use the time of her deadness to focus on why she’s failing,” according to the author.

Noonan suggested Harris could reflect on the poor decisions she made, namely her failed meetings in Guatemala and Mexico in June to discuss dealing with the “root causes” of illegal immigration and the current migrant crisis that her boss started. “She seemed unprepared, unfocused—unserious,” the author recalled.

The author’s second suggestion is that Harris “must make herself useful.” She wrote:

The second is to be useful. She’s there to help the president. The most recent vice presidents were successful at what they did and were able to avoid this type of criticism. They were Washington veterans who helped the president navigate through the city, locate old levers, and forge new connections. George H.W. Bush did this to Ronald Reagan of California. Al Gore knows things that benefit Bill Clinton, the former governor in Arkansas.

Noonan notes that while Harris has not established herself as a Washington insider, she could make herself useful to Biden by helping him in explaining the White House’s stances and policy proposal, pointing out that the president is severely lacking in his ability to communicate. This is what the columnist said:

To do this Ms. Harris would have to decide to become serious—to inform and immerse herself, meet with party thinkers, study her briefing books. Her current strategy, to the extent it exists, appears to rely on her sense of her own personal charisma—delighted laughter, attempts to connect personally, to convey zest.

Instead, she should be sincere and deep. She shouldn’t confuse Happy Warrior with Hungry Operative.

Noonan isn’t wrong in her assertions. Harris might have the chance to solve her problem of unpopularity if Harris would just follow her lead.

Harris, however, is not capable to follow the Noonan recommendations. For starters, the vice president seems to lack the wherewithal to use this period of low popularity to reflect on what she’s doing wrong. The fact that others have pointed out that her current staffing issues are reminiscent of how things went when she was California’s attorney general seems to demonstrate that she is not one for learning from her mistakes.

She was just one example of her dismal performance in South America. Harris has repeatedly stated that she doesn’t want to be a border czar since she was appointed. After months of being pestered by pundits and Republican politicians, Harris finally made the effort to cross the border. Moreover, she has done little to address the supposed “root causes” of the migrant crisis — probably because President Biden himself is the primary root cause.

The chances Harris will learn to become a useful member of Biden’s team are low. What the Democrats and activist media don’t want to admit – at least not publicly – is that the vice president simply isn’t good at her job. It is clear that she seems out of her element. While her communication style isn’t nearly as meandering and disjointed as the president’s, she often seems off-putting. It appears that she is unable or unwilling to answer difficult questions.

Do you remember how she responded when asked about crossing the border? “And I haven’t been to Europe,” she replied. “And I mean, I don’t … understand the point that you’re making. I’m not discounting the importance of the border.”

She failed to answer straight questions many times. In many cases, she devolves into that Hillary-esque cackle that makes one’s neck hair stand up on end.

Simply put, vice president Kamala Harris is unlikely to reverse her low approval ratings. She lacks the political wit and charisma to get back on American’s good side. However, it’s understandable for Democrats to be worried about Kamala. Biden’s performance has been woefully inept, and they finally realized that running Harris in 2024 isn’t going to do much good for them. The party will have to figure out how to make a comeback from this.

About Post Author

Follow Us