Highs and lows of Kamala Harris' roller coaster summer

[left-of-center2012]

It's been an up and down summer for Kamala Harris. The California Democrat scored the biggest victory of her campaign in June, when, at the first debate, the senator excoriated Joe Biden on his past opposition to busing as a way to desegregate schools. The moment vaulted the California senator in the polls and exposed the vulnerability of the former vice president.

But now, two months later and worlds removed from her campaign's high point, Harris was stuck using the archetypal political cliché this week to fend off questions about her standing in the race and slumping poll numbers.

Campaigns are never straight lines and often the high points are followed by striking lows. But Harris' summer has been particularly inconsistent, leaving Democratic operatives and even some Harris aides to question why the senator was unable to seize on her debate moment and firmly plant herself among Biden, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren -- the race's top three candidates.

Since that moment taking on Biden in June, Harris has been on a steady decline, unable to sustain the momentum that she earned for landing a solid punch against the race's frontrunner. Harris aides tell CNN they aren't worried about the lack of momentum and downturn in the polls, claiming that they won't let "temporary poll dips and blips distract or alter our approach to the race."

But other advisers, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly about the state of the campaign, said morale in the Baltimore-based operation has followed the polling downturn. It reached bottom when CNN released a poll last week that showed Harris had fallen back to 5% nationally, tied with South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and nowhere near Biden, Sanders and Warren.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/31/politics/kamala-harris-highs-and-lows/index.html

[question everything]

1. Attaacking Biden for what he said and done in previous century was miscalculation

Even before the debate she went after him. Petty, even.

But she is still searching for a niche. She tried the "freebies" route: health care, student loans, etc. and since then has changed her stand several times.

So she is stuck. No longer with the hard left: Sanders and Warren but not a moderate like Biden, Klobuchar and others.

And, I am not sure that the rest of the country will be open to an African American woman from California. Too many "negatives." (Hey, I am not bashing; we have to face realities).

Here is a positive angel, maybe. Yesterday Chuck Todd (yes, I know, we are not supposed to mention him here) said: one of these four will be the next president. And he had the images and the age of the four:

Trump - 73, Sanders - 78, Warren - 70, Biden - 77.

And wondered about where are the younger ones and their supporters.

Of course, a lot can change before, let's say April. Especially with the "first in the nation" tag between Iowa with maybe primaries and New Hampshire.

[tishaLA]

2. She hasn't positioned herself as a moderate like Biden or Klobuchar

after all, Klobuchar has voted for the vast majority of tRump appointments to the courts, whereas Sen Harris has maintained a principled position against them based on their positions on civil rights, etc. and Klobuchar has given them the green light to some of the most conservative judicial choices in modern American history.

Klobuchar also voted in favor of more tRump cabinet nominees than any other presidential candidate in 2020, whereas Sen Harris only supported 4 of his nominees for office, among the lowest of any of the candidates for president.