Sooner or Later

Since Joe Biden was volunteered out of the race for the White House 2X days ago, Vice President Kamala Harris has been hanging ten on the waves of rising polls and good vibrations. 

She added Minnesota Governor Tim Walz last week as her running mate, and together it’s been a veritable Beach Boys festival.  Catch a wave, and you’re sitting on top of the world. 

But sooner or later the waves hit the shore. Just like sooner or later, Harris and Walz are going to have to answer some questions from reporters and the like.  While the press, perhaps, aren’t knocking down the Democrat ticket’s door, the American people are ready to hear just what that pair have in store for them. 

Of course, it’s not like Americans haven’t heard from her before.  Let’s review.  We’ll set the wayback machine for November 30, 2019.  Harris is just three days away from ending her campaign to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2020.  It was an effort the New York Times summarized like so: 

“Ms. Harris is the only 2020 Democrat who has fallen hard out of the top tier of candidates.  She has proved to be an uneven campaigner who changes her message and tactics to little effect and has a staff torn into factions.” 

Harris began her 2020 campaign with a spark, clearly winning that first debate.  It was there where she hammered her future boss with her famous racist but not a racist comment. 

“Mr. Vice President, I don’t believe you’re a racist,” she began, then promptly rattled off a litany of things Biden had done that had an odd racist smell about them, including his working with a pair of former segregationists in the Senate and opposing busing. 

Here we are, more than four years later, and in less than a month, Harris has delivered a “master class in politics,” according to former Obama advisor and CNN chatterbox Van Jones.  Jones said Harris “securing” her nomination and choosing Walz as a running mate were strokes of tactical brilliance. 

But Harris really didn’t secure a thing. Biden was gently kicked to the curb by a truckload of folks who’d spent the weeks prior telling anyone who would listen that the president was as spry and capable as ever.  From his spot in the gutter, Biden endorsed Harris and Democrats far and wide jumped on it! 

No one cared at all that Harris had spent her time as vice president doing, er, as little to nothing as one might get and still collect a paycheck.  No one cared that she’d been tasked with one thing – albeit a BIG one thing -- fix the border.  She failed miserably. 

Now forty-months and an estimated 8 ½ to 10 million illegal immigrants later, she’s the Democratic candidate for president.  She became the nominee, to paraphrase former Russian dictator Nikita Khrushchev, without firing a shot … or getting a vote.  And to think, six months ago, Democrat leaders and pundits wanted her off the ticket. 

As to her second stroke of political genius, plucking Tim Walz from uber-blue Minnesota, while cheered by the old school media, seems downright goofy today.  

Walz long claimed to have taken part in Operation Enduring Freedom – America’s military foray into Afghanistan.  But he was never “in country” to use the military term for actually being in the war zone.  

Seeking to settle the matter, the Harris Walz campaign released a statement saying in 2018 Walz misspoke about being in Afghanistan and weapons of war.  

However, a 2009 video shows two Minnesota National Guardsmen detailing Walz’ misleading statements to the director of then-Congressman Walz Minneapolis field office. One assumes the staff member ran the concern up the ladder and made Walz aware of the issue.  But, then again, when you assume, particularly in public service… 

In 2023 Walz signed education legislation that included the placement of tampons and pads in boys’ bathrooms from 4th grade forward. This is likely to come up should Walz and GOP vice presidential  nominee J.D. Vance ever debate. 

The weirdest thing about the Walz selection is that Harris gained nothing from it on the electoral map. Minnesota is the California of the Midwest.  The last time Minnesota voted for Republican?  Richard Nixon, 1972. 

Harris left Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly kicking rocks.  Both states are in play, and either would have likely turned out for their native sons. 

But the mind of a political master is a web of complexity, or so it would seem. Democrats are concerned that Shapiro was jettisoned because he is Jewish.  It’s probably not a leap.  Students on college campuses across the nation spewed hatred toward Jews most of the spring.   

And anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian riots rocked Washington, D.C. during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress.  Harris did not attend Netanyahu’s address, though she did condemn the riots.  But her absence added fuel to a growing fire between the Democrats and their long-time voting bloc. 

These would naturally be questions for the press to ask the Vice President.  Or something else like, “Does 8 1/2 million or so illegal immigrants crashing into the United States from the south sound like the border’s secure?”  Walz might answer questions about his role in the Minnesota National Guards deployment to Afghanistan.  Or tampons.  He might be asked about tampons in boys bathroom. 

Right now, Harris is content to craft her message off a teleprompter, while Walz dances about stages grinning and appearing “cuddly,” as determined by the Washington Post.  Though yesterday, the press uniformly ran stories about Walz’ masculinity “terrifying” conservatives.  Hardly. 

But the more miles their campaign logs, the more it loses that new-candidate smell. With the Dems national convention in Chicago next week, it’s not likely either one will sit down opposite anyone with an ABC, CNN or ESPN on their lapel.  But after the lights go out in Chicago, well, sooner will be here and later won’t be an option. 

There is one other factor working in Harris Walz’ favor.  Lately former President Trump seems more concerned with crowd turnout than stressing policy.  He’s strayed far from his message on the economy, illegal immigration, and our national security.   

In many ways, he faces the same cold reality that’s rushing toward his opponents.  He must channel the President Donald Trump who was steady, focused, and, frankly, heroic right up to the 30 minute mark of his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.  He needs to find that guy because sooner is here and later just isn’t an option.