As reviewers get the chance to read the whole of Kamala's book, it appears to me that sentiment is starting to shift against her. Moreover, some Dems- most notably Josh Shapiro- are now retaliating directly against her. My guess is her career within her own party is finished. Is she thinking of running as a maverick? Sadly, mavericks have to stand for something. Kamala stands only for Kamala.
The LA Times offers the following review of Kamala Harris's new book. It appears they don't think she can win in 2028. In other words, she is all washed up. A previous op-ed opined- 'Harris’ dilemma is that she symbolizes Democratic discontent with the party. That discontent isn’t monolithic. For progressives, the objection is that Democrats aren’t fighting hard enough. For the more centrist wing of the party, the problem is the Democrats are fighting for the wrong things, having lurched too far left on culture war and identity politics. Uniting both factions is visceral desire to win. That’s awkward for a politician best known for losing... Her gauzy, often gaseous, rhetoric made her sound like a dean of students at a small liberal arts college. With the exception of reproductive rights, her convictions sounded like they were crafted by focus groups, at a time when voters craved authenticity. Worse, Harris acquiesced to Biden’s insistence she not distance herself from him....Such clubby deference to the establishment combined with boilerplate pandering to progressive constituencies — learned from years of San Francisco and California politics — makes her the perfect solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.'
This was the problem with diversity hires. They don't actually increase diversity. Indeed, they may reduce it- as when Kamala decides against picking a running mate because he happens to be homosexual.
Without a doubt, it is important to capture the reflections of a vice president who found herself in an unprecedented situation after the president was pressured to withdraw from the 2024 election.
What is more important is that a politician should be aware of how unpopular her party has become. She should write about things which show it in a favourable light. Moreover, Kamala as an ex-prosecutor, should be hitting Trump as hard as she can on every page. She has plenty of material to work with.
And “107 Days,” a taut, often eye-opening account — written with the help of Geraldine Brooks
perhaps that was a mistake. Playing up misogyny within your own party hurts it. What's more, hurting your party hurts you.
— takes you inside the rooms where it happened,
surely more was going on inside those rooms than some mean girls in the West Wing dissing Kamala?
as well as what led up to Kamala Harris’ remarkable run.
For one, apparently MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell
a light-weight. Don't take advise from an actor even if he played the President's dad on West Wing.
first gave Harris the idea she should seek the presidency in 2020.
Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, were having breakfast at a restaurant near their Brentwood home when O’Donnell “wandered up to our table to talk about the dire consequences of a second Trump term.” Harris, then in her first term as a U.S. senator, recounts that O’Donnell bluntly suggested: “‘You should run for president.’ I honestly had not thought about it until that moment,” she writes in “107 Days.”
If Hilary couldn't win, what made Kamala think she could? Hilary was far more experienced.
Later, Harris also reveals that Tim Walz was not her first choice for running mate: Pete Buttigieg was, though she ultimately concluded the country wasn’t ready for a gay man in the role.
Oh dear! How very politically incorrect! It is also maladroit. She should have run it past Pete before publishing. He wasn't pleased with what Kamala wrote
"He would have been an ideal partner — if I were a straight white woman," Harris writes."But we were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man.
"Part of me wanted to say, Screw it, let's just do it. But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk.",
Buttigieg said he was surprised to read that.
It is an incredibly maladroit thing to say. Everyone knows Pete is Gay. Don't bring it up. Just say, Pete is my bestie. I'd have loved to run with him. He is so brilliant. Did you know he was a Rhodes Scholar? Still, in politics, you must put aside personal feelings. Walz was great. We became close friends'.
"I just believe in giving Americans more credit than that," he told Politico. "Politics is about the results we can get for people and not about these other things."
“We were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man,” she writes. She assumes Buttigieg felt similarly, but they never discussed it.
Perhaps she meant that African American men might not like Pete. The big question is why she didn't pick Schapiro? The answer was that he might outshine Kamala.
We do not glean much more than we already knew or assumed about President Biden’s life-changing 2024 phone call that set Harris on this path. Pleas for Biden to step aside had been building following his disastrous debate performance less than five months before the election, but by that time Harris had given up on the idea that he would withdraw from the race.
Her brother-in-law, Tony West, a former DoJ official, 'put together what was known as the “Red File,” a collection of plans in case something happened to Biden. West argued that it would be foolish not to prepare. Harris writes that she “didn't want to dwell on such an eventuality” and “I left it in his hands.”'
This seems strange. Why task an Uber executive with a constitutional matter?
Perhaps, the truth is, Kamala had an outsider build a file on Biden's mental state so she'd have plenty of ammunition if and when she had the courage to make her move. If so, her ploy was good enough to get Biden's immediate endorsement. He had wanted to wait a day or two. Both knew that Obama was working behind the scenes to try to get someone electable to run.
But on Sunday, July 21, Harris had just finished making pancakes for her grandnieces at the vice president’s residence
Oh! I get it! She wants to quit politics so as to set up as a TV chef.
and was settling in to watch a cooking show with them when “No Caller ID” came up on her secure phone.
“I need to talk to you,” Biden rasps, then battling COVID-19. Without fanfare, he told her: “I’ve decided I’m dropping out.” “Are you sure?” Harris replies, to which Biden responds: “I’m sure. I’m going to announce in a few minutes.” In italics, we are made privy to what Harris is thinking during their brief phone call: “Really?” Give me a bit more time.
But Harris pressured Biden to endorse her immediately. He would have happily given her all the time in the world. But she might move against him meanwhile. After all, if he wasn't fit enough to run again, maybe he was not fit enough to complete his term. Thus, he tweeted the required endorsement within minutes of his letter of withdrawal being published.
The whole world is about to change. I’m here in sweatpants.”
This is a humanizing touch which may go down well with women. But would male readers be impressed?
If we wanted in on the powerful feelings that must have been swirling within each of them during such an exchange, or a nod to the momentousness of the moment — no dice. The conversation shifted to the timing of Biden’s endorsement of Harris, which Biden’s staff wanted to delay and which she wanted immediately. Politics, not sentiment, reigned.
That's fine, because she is a politician. Biden may not have liked Kamala very much but there was one man he hated- Donald Trump. The thing to do was to say 'Sir, you are the only person to have defeated Trump. I know that if that felon can be kept out of the White House, it will be only thanks to you and God.'
The Atlantic book excerpt published earlier this month, it turns out, accurately represents the overall tone of “107 Days.”
i.e. it is anti-Biden rather than anti-Trump.
A thread running throughout is one of bitterness toward Biden’s inner circle,
so, she was like Selina Myers in VEEP.
whom Harris felt had been poisoning the well since she first took office: “The public statements, the whispering campaigns, and the speculation had done a world of damage,”
Perhaps for the Beltway movers and shakers. But the ordinary voter didn't care much about that type of gossip. Some thought that Kamala was in a favourable position because, firstly, she hadn't been damaged by the circular firing-squad of having to win Primaries, and, secondly, people felt she didn't have the stamina for a long, bruising, campaign. What was surprising was that she proved a poor communicator. Why was she pretending to be a thirteen year old Valley girl? Apparently, she had a voice coach who forced her to make various animal type noises. In the process, her brain might have reverted to a child-like state.
she recounts, and perhaps laid the groundwork for her defeat. While she had a warm relationship with the president himself,
That would be worth playing up. It is proof of your merit if your Boss likes and trusts you.
Harris believes she was never trusted by the first lady or the president’s closest advisors, nor did they throw their full weight behind her as the Democratic nominee.
But they had no political influence. Some say that Joe was upset with Kamala which is why he tried on a MAGA cap and that Jill wore Red on Election day to signal she was voting for Trump.
At the same time, she never doubted that she was the right person for the job.
A diversity hire is not the right person to win. You need to look Presidential to become President. If you are a lawyer- like Obama or Kamala- people expect you to speak cogently and persuasively. Throw in some soaring flights of oratory and you deserve to win.
She writes, “I knew I was the candidate in the strongest position to win. … The most qualified and ready. The highest name recognition.”
That's true. Everyone knew her. Few disliked her. But was she Presidential? No. But she would certainly have won Class President in a Californian Middle School- unless the mean girls spread rumours that she was bulimic.
She also calculates that the president and his team thought she was the least bad option to replace him because “I was the only person who would preserve his legacy.”
Alternatively, they thought she would lose and thus Biden would go down in history as the only man to defeat Trump in an election.
“At this point,” she adds, “anyone else was bound to throw him — and all the good he had achieved — right under the bus.”
But, she is throwing Biden under the bus right now! The problem is that her book does not address the real problem- viz. the unpopularity of the Democratic party and the seething internecine fury within its own ranks.
For those who are cynical about politics, “107 Days” will not alter your view. After Biden announces his withdrawal, First Lady Jill Biden welcomes Second Gentleman Emhoff into the fray, advising: “Be careful what you wish for. You’re about to see how horrible the world is.” Her senior adviser David Plouffe encourages Harris to distance herself from the president on the campaign trail, because “People hate Joe Biden.”
Was this true? I'm not sure. Biden was likeable. It was his immigration policy that Kamala should have distanced herself from. She could say 'my parents were immigrants. But they got Visas and obeyed the law. Others must do so to. Trump is too disorganized to tackle the problem. I have the experience to get the job done in a fair and humane manner. We are a nation of laws. I will enforce the law without fear or favour. Trump doesn't have the attention span to follow through on anything.'
Again and again, Harris provides examples of being left out of the loop or not robustly supported by his inner circle.
Their job was to support him, not her.
She writes that her feelings for the president “were grounded in warmth and loyalty” but had become “more complicated over time.”
She felt he should do more for her. But, unlike Willie Brown, who is even older than Biden, she hadn't slept with Biden. Maybe she suffered from 'absent father' syndrome. But your Boss isn't your daddy. Make yourself useful to him even if he doesn't buy you a pony or takes you to a Taylor Swift concert.
She claims never to have doubted Biden’s competence, even while she worried about how he appeared to the public.
Fair play to her. She could say 'it was COVID which led to his pure debate performance'. The problem was the Special Counsel's report which portrayed Biden as a vert old man with a poor memory who got easily confused.
“On his worst day,” she writes, “he was more deeply knowledgeable, more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than Donald Trump at his best.”
The problem here is migration. It seems to me that a lot of Americans want net negative migration and, it may be, only a cruel, lawless, approach can deliver this. The problem is, this may tank the economy.
Still, his decision about seeking a second term shouldn’t “have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition,”
With hindsight, either Trump was unstoppable or there was a better candidate than Kamala. Her ego, her ambition, put Trump in the White House- unless he truly is the Messiah and God Himself has put him there. Sadly, God may have done so only to hasten the Day of Wrath.
she concludes in an observation that grabbed headlines upon its publication in the Atlantic excerpt.
It was a double edged sword. Suppose Kamala had resigned saying she would focus on prosecuting Trump. Biden appoints Newsom or some other dude with good hair who could give Trump a run for his money. Kamala would still keep the accolade of 'First female Veep' and her party would think well of her for sacrificing herself for the greater good.
The exhilaration that Harris’ campaign frequently exuded in those early rallies is summarized here, but those accounts don’t capture the joy.
Indeed. But Fear is a bigger motivator. Trump was saying immigrants plan to roast and eat your cat.
Some of the details she chooses to highlight tamp down the excitement. For example, at their first rally together after picking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate, Walz, Harris and their families greet an audience of 10,000 people in Philadelphia.
Harris thought Walz would deliver the Rust Belt. But she lost Pennsylvania.
Though Harris writes, “We rode the high of the crowd that night,” she also notes, “When Tim clasped my hand to thrust it high in an enthusiastic victory gesture, he was so tall that the entire front of my jacket rose up.” She makes “a mental note to tell him: From now on, when we do that, you gotta bend your elbow.”
This is humanizing. But it also suggests that Walz might have beef for brains.
The Kamala Harris I saw on the campaign trail and enthusiastically voted for is often in evidence on the page. She is smart, savvy, funny and tough.
She certainly had her moments. My feeling is she makes an excellent first impression but has difficulty following through. I suppose one could say the real problem was with her Party's set of policies. It may be possible to ride two horses simultaneously but not if they are going in different directions.
As in many of her stump speeches and media interviews, she tends to recite her accomplishments as if reading from a resume, which sometimes reads as defensive.
It is what you expect from a diversity hire. The problem was that everybody knew that Trump had zero experience when he got elected. Also, he was as old as fuck.
But she is also indefatigable: She believes that she must win to save democracy, yet she seems to shoulder that formidable burden without breaking a sweat.
So, she was the Energizer bunny. Good for her. The problem is bunnies don't get elected President. Obama had gravitas. People unconsciously compared Kamala to Obama. There was only three years age difference between them yet Kamala came across like a teenage girl running for Class President though she was 60 years old.
“107 Days” does an excellent job of conveying the difficulty of seeking — and occupying — high office, and suggests that if she’d won, Harris’ resilience and ambition would have served her well as the leader of the free world.
Anyone would be better than Trump. If Markets don't rebel causing the Republicans to lose the mid-terms, America won't be leading shit by the end of the decade. De-dollarization is inevitable if foreign countries can't sell in America and thus have no dollars. Exorbitant privilege will be over. Moreover, once the Europeans have got an army of their own, they will be able to tell Yankee Doodle to doodle the fuck off.
Many of her insights are astute, though occasionally tinged with rancor. She does accept responsibility for certain missteps, such as when she was asked on “The View” if she would have done anything differently than Biden had she been in charge.
Start off by saying Biden came to power under very difficult circumstances. Then say 'with hindsight' and focus on what you'd do on immigration. Keep saying 'Trump doesn't have the attention span to get this sorted. Obama deported more in his second term than Trump did. I'm the daughter of immigrants- but they got Visas and obeyed the Law in every respect. I'm a prosecutor. I have a lot of experience enforcing the law. Moreover, with me, you can be sure that the law will be enforced in a fair and impartial manner'.
She reflects that her response — “There is nothing that comes to mind” —
suggested she didn't have a mind. Nice laugh. Lovely smile. Shame the lass is an air-head.
landed as if she’d “pulled the pin on a hand grenade.”
One would have thought she would have memorized a beautifully crafted response which hammered away at senile, attention-span of a goldfish, Donald Trump. Instead, she appeared complacent. After all, she had Secret Service men to protect her from immigrants who might otherwise roast and eat her cat.
But she doesn’t attribute her eventual loss to that or any other miscalculation: She simply needed more time to make her case.
Actually, she needed less time. The longer the spotlight was on her the more insubstantial she appeared. Still, I must say, she had a lovely laugh. I'd certainly vote for her to be Class President no matter what the Mean Girls say.
I craved a soaring moment, a rallying cry.
More particularly because we unconsciously kept comparing her to Obama. Maybe she was dynamite when she was in her forties. Now, she appeared to be entering her second childhood.
I didn’t find hope or inspiration within these pages — the book felt more like an obligatory postmortem with an already established conclusion.
What was that conclusion? It was one the American voter had already come to. She was a diversity hire. Her party shot itself in the foot by getting behind her. Now, thanks to her, DEI is dead. Wokeness simply aint cool any more.
If an aim of this memoir was to rally the troops for a Harris run in 2028, “107 Days” falls short of lighting a fire.
In other words, it is a ghastly failure. Kamala is a rancorous diversity hire who blames everybody but herself for not getting to be the leader of the Free World. Nixon's come-back was associated with appealing to the 'silent majority' and the so-called 'Southern Strategy'. But he had established himself as a foreign policy maven. Also his 1962 'Six Crises' gave him gravitas. He wrote the chapter on his defeat himself. It showed insight, humility, and an ability to learn from past mistakes.
The brilliant, charismatic woman who came close to breaking the ultimate glass ceiling has given us an essential portrait of an unforgettable turning point in her journey, but “107 Days” is mainly absent the perspective and blueprint for going forward that so many of us hunger for. A few years out, that wisdom may come.
It will be too late. This book should be a passionate attack on Trump. He should be excoriated on every page. Every event should be narrated with this element of 'foreshadowing'. That would give it dramatic tension. A diversity hire complaining about West Wing 'mean girls' isn't an attractive sight. But the deeper problem is the unpopularity of the Dems and its inability to unite as the Republicans have done.
Now, it is only the financial markets which can rein in Trump. If they go into free-fall next year, Trump loses Congress in November. After that he will face impeachment and other such hearings. He will have to issue Presidential pardons like confetti to his cronies. Finally, he will have to resign so as to get one for himself.
Sadly, Trump may already have found a way to rig the markets. Still, the fact is, the Michigan Consumer Sentiment index is now at 54. That's pretty low. However, net migration is now negative. It may be that Americans care more about immigration than about inflation. Maybe, Biden was simply too decent a guy to get tough on that heart-breaking issue. Perhaps, the same is true of Kamala. It is better to save your soul than gain the world.
Politico & the FT seem more hostile to Kamala than the LA times- which, after all, would be inclined to look kindly on a fellow Californian.
Politico appears to think Hell hath no Fury than a diversity hire scorned. Worse, it seems nothing can be more divisive for a Party, than affirmative action wholly divorced from merit.
Kamala Harris is going scorched-earth against her fellow Democrats,
rather than Trump. She says he spoke to her very nicely on the telephone. Only after she put down the phone did she realize he was a con man. The problem is that he didn't win by conning people. He is actually doing the things he promised- worse luck.
criticizing not just Joe Biden but a list of party leaders — and potential 2028 candidates — in her new memoir.
This is why DEI must die.
Recounting the whirlwind 107 days of her presidential campaign after Biden dropped out of the race in July 2024 following a disastrous debate performance, the former vice president tosses criticisms at a slew of major Democratic players, from her longtime friend California Gov. Gavin Newsom to party star Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Is she utterly mad? I suppose, once she decided not to run for Governor of California, she had no further 'skin in the game'. She might as well shit on her own party because her shitting on Trump proved wholly ineffective.
The memoir, titled “107 Days,” presents a raw retelling of the chaotic days between Biden’s bombshell announcement and the November election. Throughout, Harris bluntly describes the failings of a slew of pillars within the Democratic Party, pulling the curtain back on party leadership as Democrats stumble through attempts to land on cohesive messaging
That was up to her. She was the mouthpiece. Why couldn't she come up with a coherent message? Was she stupid? If so, why blame others for losing?
during a second Trump era and scramble to elevate possible standard bearers ahead of the 2028 election.
Screw that. If you publish a book in 2025, what you should be doing is 'foreshadowing' the awfulness of Trump. Attack him on every page. Keep saying, 'not in our wildest imaginings did we think this convicted felon would act with such reckless disregard for the law. This is what makes my party's losing the election so exceptionally tragic. I blame only myself. It is a heavy, heavy, burden to bear.'
Here are eight Democrats Harris calls out in her new memoir:
Gavin Newsom
another Willie Brown protege.
The California governor, and Harris’ longtime friend and competitor in their home state, was among the Democrats the former vice president exposed for their response in the hours after Biden dropped out of the race.
“Hiking. Will call back,” Harris wrote of Newsom’s response in notes from her calls that day.
What's wrong with that? Californians are always either surfing or hiking or jogging.
“He never did,” she pointedly added in her memoir, skipping reference to Newsom’s subsequent endorsement hours later.
We get it. Kamala is a chatty Kathy. Newsom didn't want her to gas on in girlish glee over the telephone. Also, Kamala needed to focus on her campaign rather than bite the ear off a guy with a real job to do- viz. govern California.
A spokesperson for Newsom previously declined to comment to POLITICO on the anecdote.
What was there to say? Everyone knows Newsom did right by his Party. He endorsed Kamala immediately without demanding a Cabinet post for after his Gubernatorial stint ends.
Harris and Newsom, both natives of the Bay Area , have had long and oftentimes overlapping political careers. While Harris, up until her book tour, has largely faded from view after her failed presidential bid, Newsom’s popularity has grown among Democratic voters, especially after the White House sent National Guard troops to the Golden State.
He has good hair. Vance- not so much. He is now being depicted as a bald baby. It's a no-brainer to make Newsom the Democratic candidate for 2028.
The California governor has come increasingly in the spotlight as one of the few Democratic voices willing to match Trump’s preferred tough-talking form of public sparring.
It is foolish to diss a sitting Governor of a great State. This is the guy who could be handing out Cabinet Appointments in 2029.
Newsom wasn’t the only Democrat whose response the vice president described as lukewarm.
But she says Trump was very warm to her and that he said she was doing a tremendous job and that Ivanka was her biggest fan.
In her memoir, Harris recounted Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s
Gretchen was cochair of Harris's campaign
reticence to commit to an endorsement. According to Harris, Whitmer said she needed to “let the dust settle” following Biden’s withdrawal from the race before making a public statement.
She knew her own State. Trump carried it in 2016- the first Republican to do so since Reagan- but Biden beat him convincing. Kamala lost it, by a small margin.
Whitmer, whose name had been floated at the time as a possible Democratic candidate to replace Biden, endorsed Harris the following day — and announced that she would co-chair Harris’ presidential campaign.
Kamala comes off as narcissistic and petty-minded. No wonder, her staff kept quitting on her.
A spokesperson for the governor declined to comment on the record.
Gretchen's record speaks for itself.
According to her call notes from the day of Biden’s withdrawal, which Harris presented in an italicized list in the early pages of her memoir, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker also declined to immediately offer an immediate endorsement.
“As governor of Illinois, I’m the convention host,” Harris described as Pritzker’s response. “I can’t commit.”
What's wrong with that? The fact is, Biden had 'pledged' votes but Harris didn't automatically inherit them. It was only when the other front-runners endorsed her- which they did quite quickly- that she became the only real candidate winning by 97 percent.
Pritzker endorsed Harris the day after Biden dropped out.
Because Biden's pledged voters switched to Harris. Why does Harris not give Biden some credit for that?
“Gov. Pritzker fought hard to elect Vice President Harris and Democrats across the state and country,” said a spokesperson for the governor. “He’s proud to have helped lead a convention that built momentum and showcased the Harris-Walz ticket.”
It was a successful convention. The Obamas were on top form. People had been dreading a 'circular firing squad' or big protests over Gaza.
In a shocking dig at the former Transportation secretary, whom Harris described as a “close friend,” Harris wrote that while Buttigieg was her top pick to join her on the presidential ticket, she ultimately didn’t select him because she didn’t believe America was ready for a Black woman and a gay man in the White House.
One diversity hire is enough- if you happen to be that diversity hire. With friends like Kamala, who needs enemies?
Josh Shapiro
Shapiro, who was also in the running to be Harris’ No. 2, didn’t make the cut either.
Harris was concerned that the Pennsylvania governor’s ambition would prove an obstacle to his willingness to serve in a secondary role to hers.
So, she clearly believes that Veeps should not out-shine their bosses. Yet she carps that Biden's people didn't want her to shine. She says Biden ought to have understood that if she shone, he would too. Clearly, it was a case of one rule for Biden and a different one for herself.
Shapiro “mused that he would want to be in the room for every decision,”
Biden had said Kamala would be in the room for every decision as had Obama before him. The thing was meaningless.
Harris recalled in the memoir, writing that she responded bluntly that “a vice president is not a copresident.”
True enough. Still, why piss off Shapiro? Biden, a Penn native, won it by a wide margin in 2020. Kamala lost it narrowly.
She just couldn’t trust that he would settle for a role as No. 2.
That makes us think more highly of Shapiro. He has fire in his belly.
And while Harris lauded Shapiro as “poised, polished and personable,” she said he “peppered” her and her staff with questions — including how many bedrooms were in the vice president’s home and “how he might arrange to get Pennsylvania artists’ work on loan from the Smithsonian.”
Which showed he would be 'in it, to win it.' This may be brash behaviour but Shapiro knew he was bringing a lot to the table. As for Walz, his stock falls because we now know that Kamala thought he was stupid and unambitious- i.e. no threat to her.
Shapiro also showed a “lack of discretion” in the process, Harris wrote,
showing far greater lack of discretion
citing an incident when his car — with Pennsylvania plates — was filmed by CNN outside of her residence despite her staff’s efforts to secure the governor less obvious transportation.
Why bother? The news was bound to come out.
A spokesperson for Shapiro pushed back on Harris’ characterization of the governor, telling POLITICO this week that “it’s simply ridiculous to suggest that Governor Shapiro was focused on anything other than defeating Donald Trump and protecting Pennsylvania from the chaos we are living through now.”
Shapiro is a working politician whose priority is bring down Trumpism. Kamala is an unemployed diversity hire bitching about mean girls and mean guys in her own party.
Mark Kelly
The Arizona senator, a former astronaut and retired naval officer, was a strong contender in the veepstakes, Harris recalled, describing him as “magnetic” and saying that she “admired” him.
He'd be more useful to the party in the Senate. He replaced Krysten Sinema- who gave Biden a lot of trouble- as senior senator.
But while Kelly was an “American ideal of selfless service,” he was also “untarnished” politically.
That's a good thing. I suppose 'untested' or 'inexperienced' was what Harris meant.
He had yet to weather an “‘oh shit’ moment,” Harris wrote, saying that she “wasn’t sure” how he would handle the kind of attacks Trump was likely to lob his way.
We know Harris was shit at handling such attacks. Could Kelly have been worse? No. He was a fucking astronaut.
Harris was also wary of the fact that Kelly was slow to sign the pro-labor PRO Act — a choice that she called a “red flag.”
Arizona is, for good reasons, a 'right-to-work' state. Kamala is being stupid.
Now that Kamala has gone after her colleagues, they, in turn, can come after her. The legal basis of this, as Kamala well knows, is Section 4 of the 25th Amendment which states- 'Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
The Veep has an incentive to be alert to a decline in the cognitive functioning of the President. Kamala showed reckless disregard and dereliction of duty in this regard.
Shapiro has already come out swinging against Kamala. The Guardian reports-
Shapiro said he had not read Harris’s account, but added: “She’s going to have to answer to how she was in the room and yet never said anything publicly.”
It's a mistake to pick a fight with a fucking attack dog. Kamala must now bitterly regret her bitching about Josh.
Shapiro was asked how Americans should feel “when we hear something that we suspected but wasn’t acknowledged by politicians who were looking for our support, and then we find out later we were right, and they should have spoken up, and they should have shown more courage”.
Kamala was a cowardly careerist. She thought, if she did her constitutional duty then she'd have to face other challengers in the primaries. Her best play was to keep quiet and hope the old man had a stroke.
Shapiro said that while he wasn’t present for White House discussions, he looked at the 2024 race from the perspective of Pennsylvania, which Harris ultimately lost.
“If you can’t win Pennsylvania, it’s pretty darn hard to win the national election,” Shapiro continued. “And I was very vocal with him, privately, and extremely vocal with his staff about my concerns about his fitness to be able to run for another term. I was direct with them. I told them my concerns.”
So, Shapiro has done well out of Kamala's book. She, herself, hasn't though maybe she has hurt her good friend Pete by once again bringing up the issue of his sexuality. Also, she has well and truly shat upon 'Walz’s vice presidential debate performance, which, she points out again, he had prepped for with “consummate debater” Buttigieg. She writes of seeing JD Vance gloss over Donald Trump’s rhetoric and record, “when Tim fell for it and started nodding and smiling at JD’s fake bipartisanship, I moaned to Doug (Emhoff, her husband), ‘What is happening?’” Walz fumbled answers, she writes.' (CNN)
In other words, Governor Walz is as thick as shit. Most people from 'fly-over' states are, you know.
For me, the most bizarre revelation in Kamala's book is that she cooks 'roast pork' for her Jewish husband. I know a lot of Jews do eat pork but there is no need to mention the matter. It is insensitive more particularly if you keep banging on about being married to a Jewish man. I suppose Kamala is simply too full of herself to consider the sentiments of others. Still, she has my vote for Class President when, as I hope will happen any day now, my application to Sunnydale High is accepted. Me and Kamala will team up and battle vampires. Joe Biden will rise from the dead but Kamala will kung-fu kick him and drive a stake through his heart. That's what really matters. Meanwhile the Donald can run, or ruin, the country.
It must be said, Obama is the one person whose reputation has been advanced by all this. Some months ago, there were reports of how hard he had worked behind the scenes to get a better candidate than Kamala. He has been vindicated.
It may be that Kamala was emotionally scarred by her parent's divorce. After her mother died, it would have been natural for her to become close to her father- a distinguished, Left wing, Professor (like Pete's father)- but perhaps it was too late for that. Unconsciously, Kamala was looking for a surrogate father. Biden disappointed her but Trump saw her Achilles heel and cooed praise at her till it almost turned her head.
Of course, it may be argued that it is foolish to look for a psychological explanation when the truth is Kamala lacked political savvy and the ability to communicate effectively. Still, maybe, her cooking show will be a success. I like to picture her serving roast pork to the Chief Rabbi and a juicy beef steak to the Sankaracharya in between regaling them with anecdotes about Biden's senile gaffes as POTUS.
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