Kamala Harris has spent a vice presidency proving she can’t be trusted, so why should her predictions about 2024 be any different?
In a sit-down interview with CNN’s Dana Bash that aired Monday, the always-certain-but-rarely-right VP declared boldly that President Joe Biden would run for re-election in two years, and that she would be his “ticket mate.”
But on Fox News Tuesday, a polling expert who made a national reputation advising the campaigns of both Bill and Hillary Clinton, poured a bucketful of cold water all over that idea — with a number to back it up that no Democrat can be happy with.
“I think underscoring all this is if you ask Democratic voters, who would they vote for in a Democratic primary for president, only about 30 percent would pick President Biden, which is unprecedented in nature,” pollster Mark Penn told Fox News’ Dana Perino on “America’s Newsroom.”
“So I think there are some real polling facts underscoring what you see developing here. Look, I think any president before a midterm has got to maintain, steadfastly, that he’s running, and then really take a look at it after the midterm.
“I personally don’t think he’ll wind up running.”
Those are not words to be taken lightly from a man whose experience includes serving as chief strategist for then-President Bill Clinton’s re-election campaign in 1996, Hillary Clinton’s successful campaign for Senate in 2000 and her unsuccessful run for the Democratic nomination in 2008.
If Biden doesn’t run, Penn said, he expects Harris to seek the Democratic nomination for herself — and could well end up with it.
Do you think Kamala Harris could win the Democratic nomination if Biden doesn’t run?
He noted that other Democratic VPs have won the nomination — spectacular flameouts like Hubert Humphrey in 1968 and Walter Mondale in 1984.
“History doesn’t necessarily have to repeat itself, but I do think she would be hard to knock off and would most likely wind up with the nomination,” Penn said.
Well, that doesn’t bode too well for Democrats either.
Humphrey lost the Electoral College vote to Republican Richard Nixon 301 to 191. Mondale, remember, lost the Electoral College vote to then-President Ronald Reagan by a humiliating 525 to 13. Without his home state of Minnesota’s 10 electoral votes and three from Washington, D.C., Mondale would have been shut out entirely.
Considering Harris has a political charisma that combines a root canal with a bad case of gas — and the poll numbers to prove it — she makes both of those losers look like Al Gore.
And here’s the thing, though. As brassily as Harris spoke on Monday — predicting a Biden-Harris 2024 ticket “full stop” — the doubts among Democrats about Biden running again have reached the point where even The New York Times and other propaganda outlets posing as news organizations are speculating about potential successors.
Besides the 30 percent figure of Biden support among Democrats that Penn cited (possibly from an Issues & Insights/TIPP April poll that found the Dems’ leading contender was an up-and-comer named “not sure”), there are plenty of other numbers that are adding up to a headache for Harris and her party.
Biden’s approval rating started to collapse amid his humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 (a stain on the American soul that for generations to come) and has been tanking since.
It was 36 percent on Friday, according to Reuters, which is a sure sign that 36 percent of Americans polled are either lying to the pollsters or lying to themselves.
Inflation is a disaster of course, 8.6 percent in May. That’s thanks to Biden’s policies, and even Democrats know it.
Gas prices are infuriating (average U.S. price $4.88 a gallon on Tuesday, according to AAA).
The southern border is being overrun by an invasion of illegal aliens. More than 1 million have crossed in the fiscal year of 2022, which started in October, according to the conservative Center for Immigration Studies. The consequences are devastating for the country and, as Monday’s mass death proved, for illegal immigrants themselves.
All of these and more have contributed to polling that shows Democrats headed for disaster in the November midterms.
Harris might be putting up a show of confidence in Biden’s run for reelection and her own presence as the ever-faithful “ticket mate,” but both political reality and reality-reality are dictating otherwise.
And if Kamala Harris has proved nothing else over the past 18 months, is that she can’t be trusted. It’s a solid bet that her statements Monday just proved it again.
