How Americans feel about Kamala Harris becoming president
By: Aaron Blake (The Washington Post)
From September 11, 2023; 12 short months ago. Back then Democrat enthusiasm for Kamala Harris remaining as Vice President had dropped to 30 pct; about half where it was when Biden selected her for the job in 2020. In fact, 41 pct of Democrats and only 9 pct of Independents felt that Kamala Harris made them feel better about the Biden administration. Half the country did not believe that Kamala Harris was ready to step into the role of President.
Today's Kamala Harris is the same as she was 12 short months ago. A year ago there were rumblings about replacing Harris on the ticket. Today Democrats are stuck with Kamala Harris; too late for recriminations.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
This past weekend on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) got the inevitable question: What if President Biden — whose age and fitness for office recent polls show Americans have increasing concerns about — doesn’t actually follow through with his bid for reelection?
But rather than just shrug off the hypothetical, Newsom took it in a different direction. He said that if Biden for some reason backed away, it would be Vice President Kamala Harris’s turn.
“I think the vice president is naturally the one lined up,” Newsom said. He added of the possibility he would challenge Harris in such a situation: “Of course not — by definition. Won’t happen.”
It was a significant vote of confidence in Harris as Biden’s successor — at least in 2024 — from a potentially major challenger.
But how much confidence do the American people have?
Even as Newsom was making his comments, a CBS News/YouGov poll asked a number of questions about Harris. And the verdict wasn’t as encouraging.
The poll showed that 42 percent of Americans said the job Harris was doing makes them think worse of the Biden administration, compared to just 18 percent who said it makes them think better.
While 76 percent of Republicans said she makes them think worse, just 41 percent of Democrats said she makes them think better. Independents leaned strongly toward “worse,” 48 percent to 9 percent.
Similarly, just 30 percent of Democrats said they feel “enthusiastic” about Harris as Biden’s running mate. While three-quarters of Democrats said they were at least “satisfied” with Harris on the ticket, that “enthusiastic” number is cut nearly in half from where it was shortly after Biden picked her for his 2020 ticket. At the time, 58 percent were enthusiastic.
Assuming Biden does continue to seek reelection, the more immediate question is what impact voters’ feelings toward Harris might have on the Democratic ticket. Republicans and conservative media have frequently played up the prospect that Harris would be pushed into service to replace the nation’s first 80-year-old president.
“We will be in a world of hurt if Kamala Harris becomes president,” 2024 GOP candidate Nikki Haley said Monday.
Harris herself retorted over the weekend that the focus on her shows how Republicans are “scared.” “They feel the need to attack because they’re scared that we will win based on the merit of the work that Joe Biden and I and our administration has done,” Harris said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Another YouGov poll, from May, showed 48 percent of Americans said Harris was not ready to assume the presidency, while 32 percent said she was. Again, independents took a dim view, saying 57-22 that she wasn’t ready.
The 32 percent overall who now say Harris is ready to assume the presidency is actually significantly less than the 44 percent who said the same of both her and then-Vice President Mike Pence in August 2020.
We can also compare her numbers to 2008 — albeit less directly.
On the eve of the 2008 election, a Fox News poll showed 74 percent of Democrats were at least “very” comfortable with then-Democratic VP nominee Biden serving as president, and 62 percent of Republicans were at least “very” comfortable with then-Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin serving as president. Today, a recent Suffolk University poll showed 57 percent of Democrats said they were “very comfortable” with Harris becoming president.
The options offered by the Fox and Suffolk polls were somewhat different, with the 2008 Fox poll also offering an “extremely comfortable” option. The fact that it made “very comfortable” the second option, rather than the first (as the Suffolk poll did), might have made that option more attractive for people who were slightly less enthusiastic.
But the idea that people are less sold on Harris in that role tracks with other polls.
Certainly, a major reason Republicans are talking so much about Harris possibly ascending to the presidency is because it casts a spotlight on Biden’s age. But polling also suggests it’s a prospect that Americans have real doubt about — doubt that Democrats like Newsom are apparently trying to do something about.
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BTW, Kamala Harris was claiming Republicans were scared of her after Biden selected her in 2020. But four years of on-the-job performance and polling data doesn't really bear out that claim. There isn't any polling data that suggests Kamala Harris was going to boost Joe Biden's chances of being reelected.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. So, the unbiased liberal press is busily scrubbing their archives, rewriting recent history, and proclaiming Kamala Harris is the second coming of what? Obama? GW? Ronald Reagan, himself?
It seems to be the Obama phenomenon with the bonus of Hillary....
If you speak despairingely of her your not only a racist but a mysongist.
Your ODS and HDS really should be looked at. Jesus they haven't even worked for the government in YEARS.
Both could be true. But, she is younger, speaks in complete sentences and is clearly a LOT smarter than Convicted Felon Trump.
Speaking of misogony...........................
"Flat chested women cannot be a 10!"
( I wonder where he puts his daughter on that scale....anyway..)
---- Convicted Felon, Donald Trump.
Usually when a candidate changes a position it is news story for days. Here Harris is walking away from many positions, and it is a campaign spokesperson who tells us. The campaign simply does not trust her to speak unscripted. The media refuses to cover it.
The media sugar high won't last after the DNC Convention. Thereafter, Harris will need to do a lot more than Biden did in 2020. There is no "God's Gift" for them this time.
It will. Whether voters grow tired of it will be the question.
You hope.
Kamala Harris is already a 'happy warrior'; shades of '68. Although in Harris' case it might be more apt to describe her as a 'giggling trooper'.
That's entertainment!
A clown with his pants falling down
Or the dance that's a dream of romance
Or the scene where the villain is mean.
That's entertainment!
The lights on the lady in tights
Or he bride with the guy by her side
Or the ball where she gives it her all.
That's entertainment!
The plot can be hot, simply teeming with sex
A gay divorcee who is after her ex
It could be Oedipus Rex
Where a chap kills his father and causes lots of bother.
The clerk who is thrown out of work
By the boss who is thrown for a loss
By the skirt who is doing him dirt
The world is a stage; the stage is a world of entertainment!
It might be a fight like you see on the screen
A swain getting slain for the love of a queen
Some great Shakespearean scene
Where a ghost and a prince meet, and everyone ends in mincemeat.
The guy who was waving the flag
That began with the mystical hand
Hip hooray! The American way
The world is a stage; the stage is a world of entertainment!
She was the most unpopular VP in history. The stories of her mismanagement of her Presidential campaign and staff in the White House paint were epic. She was widely viewed by left and right as insurance for Biden to ensure no one would force him out.
But when Democrats had no other choice but to nominate her, the media went to war on her behalf. Nothing else has changed. She doesn't answer questions from the press. She simply parrots words from a binder and lets the media work. The press now goes back and edits stories to help her, follows her talking points to a T, and floods everyone's timelines with positive stories about her. It was obvious it would happen but to see it play out so brazenly is eye opening.
She's still the same idiot who made her staff address her as "General" when she was AG in California, but her importance to the party has changed dramatically.
Prove it! Oh, wait, the editors aren't finished yet. Just hold that thought ...
Yeah, give MSM another week and they'll have her as the most popular and influential VP that ever was. Damn, those re-writes are good... /s