To paraphrase an old saying, never interrupt your opponents when they appear intent on making a mistake.
That does not mean, of course, that we should not try to understand our opponents’ otherwise inexplicable instinct for self-immolation.
According to two different polls conducted within the last week, Democratic Party voters prefer Vice President Kamala Harris as their 2028 presidential nominee by a wide margin over all other challengers.
For instance, an Echelon Insights survey of 1,010 likely voters showed that 41 percent of Democrats favored Harris, per Newsweek.
In that same survey, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California placed second at only eight percent support.
Meanwhile, in a Morning Consult poll of 1,012 Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents, 43 percent of respondents preferred Harris.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg came in a distant second at nine percent.
📊 2028 National Democratic Primary
• Kamala Harris — 43%
• Pete Buttigieg — 9%
• Gavin Newsom — 8%
• Tim Walz — 7%
• Josh Shapiro — 5%
• A. Ocasio-Cortez — 4%
• Gretchen Whitmer — 3%
• Cory Booker — 2%
• Amy Klobuchar — 2%
• Elizabeth Warren — 2%
• Andy Beshear — 2%… pic.twitter.com/k8ygxaszMI— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) November 20, 2024
Is Kamala Harris a bad candidate?
Needless to say, we cannot take too seriously any poll that purports to gauge voters’ preferences in the 2028 election. Too many things will happen between now and then.
Still, the fact that more than two-fifths of Democrats seem content to run it back with Harris requires some explanation.
The two poll results, for instance, could reflect nothing more than name recognition. After all, during the 2024 presidential campaign, the establishment and its media minions conducted a propaganda blitz on Harris’s behalf. Low-information Democratic voters — but I repeat myself — might simply have selected the most familiar candidate.
Moreover, the vice president’s resounding defeat at the hands of President-elect Donald Trump has left many Democratic voters deeply embittered. Thus, the idea of giving it another go with their vanquished candidate — or at least saying that they want to give it another go — probably appeals on an emotional level to the party’s unhinged base.
On the whole, however, Democrats’ stated preference for Harris proves that they have learned nothing.
For nearly four years as vice president, including nearly four months on the campaign trail, Harris repeatedly, shockingly and hilariously exposed herself as one of the least impressive public officials in U.S. history. Her inability to say anything substantive, coupled with her propensity for speaking in word salads, should disqualify her from office.
To illustrate the enormity of this problem for Democrats, imagine a debate between Harris and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance. After watching Vance dominate Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz in last month’s debate, one could scarcely imagine a bigger mismatch in Republicans’ favor than Vance vs. Harris.
Indeed, should the 2028 Republican presidential nomination fall to Vance, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard or any other young, brilliant and appealing Trump surrogate, the ensuing campaign, debates included, would showcase Harris’s myriad inadequacies.
In all likelihood, serious Democrats know this about Harris and thus will not allow her anywhere near their 2028 nomination.
Recall, for instance, Democrats’ July coup against President Joe Biden. By pressuring Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, Democratic elites showed that they, not voters, control the party.
And therein lies the irony of these two polls. When it comes to selecting candidates, Democratic voters’ preferences do not matter in the least.
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