Two columnists share differing perspectives on Vice President Kamala Harris.
POINT: As crises continue to mount, the vice president is out of sight
By Chris Talgo
At the outset of the Biden administration, Vice President Kamala Harris was a media darling, portrayed as the heir apparent and always willing to make a public appearance.
In fact, the White House was so high on Harris in the early days that it instructed media to, "Please be sure to reference the current administration as the 'Biden-Harris Administration' in official public communications."
That was then, this is now.
For the last few months, as the Biden administration has tried to juggle multiple crises, Harris has kept a very low profile.
As a news observer, I cannot recall the last time Harris sat down for a hard-hitting interview or held a news conference of any substance. In fact, ever since President Joe Biden declared Harris "border czar," the vice president has been almost absent from the public eye.
Perhaps that is because as border czar, Harris has failed miserably. The American people are fully aware that the Southern border is a sieve. In 2021, on Harris' watch, more than 1.7 million immigrants have illegally crossed the southern border. Drugs, especially fentanyl, are pouring over the southern border in record amounts.
Human trafficking is also running rampant along the U.S.-Mexico border. As border czar, Harris has been an absolute debacle. To date, she has made one token appearance at the border, when she complained about "rhetoric and finger-pointing."
Instead of dealing with the fraught situation at the border, Harris said she would rather focus on the "root causes" of the problem. However, months after becoming border czar, the situation is becoming worse, not better.
Harris, like any politician, does not want to be associated with the problems facing the Biden administration. From inflation to the supply-chain crisis to vaccine mandates, the Biden administration is drowning in difficulties. And Harris, who is a consummate politician, would rather lie low than face the scrutiny.
Another possible reason behind Harris' hibernation could be her pathetically low poll numbers. Politicians like Harris are hyper-aware of - and hypersensitive about - their poll numbers. Harris' poll numbers are cratering. According to a recent poll, just 28% of Americans approve of Harris' job as vice president.
Because her poll numbers are so low, Harris is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Does she step into the spotlight in an attempt to revive her lagging approval rating? Or, does she sit on the sidelines?
It seems that Harris has chosen the former over the latter.
And who can blame her? Harris is a terrible retail politician. Such is why she was bounced from her party's presidential nomination contest well before lightweights like Tom Steyer and Pete Buttigieg dropped out.
Aside from her struggles to relate to everyday Americans, Harris also lacks expertise and experience in fields relevant to her new position. Harris is not known for her ability to reach across the aisle and forge friendships with those in the opposing political party.
When Biden held the position of vice president, he at least tried to finagle a few bipartisan bills. To date, Harris has been derelict in her duty to grease the legislative skids.
Less than one year into her four-year tenure as vice president, Kamala Harris seems bored with her job, unwilling to enter the fray, and annoyed when asked simple questions.
This does not bode well for her political future.
Chris Talgo is senior editor at The Heartland Institute. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
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COUNTERPOINT: As is the norm in U.S. politics, the VP trap snares Harris
By James Rosen
There is little doubt that Kamala Harris' star is fading.
There's also little doubt that her decline has almost nothing to do with her and everything to do with the position she holds.
On paper, as the cliché goes, the U.S. vice presidency is "the second most powerful position in America." In reality, historians, politicians and Washington insiders have always understood that claim to be a bunch of bunk.
The kind of criticism Harris is facing for her political evanescence is as old as our nation itself. With a few exceptions - led by Dick Cheney and Richard Nixon - vice presidents historically have been so powerless that many have joined their detractors in a form of self-mockery, both sad and hilarious.
John Adams, the first vice president as No. 2 to George Washington, said: "My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived."
As vice president to the charismatic John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson regularly mocked his role, often in profanely colorful terms, and complained that he'd held much more real power as Senate majority leader.
Johnson succeeded Kennedy in November 1963 on one of the darkest days in American history, and the position of vice president was left vacant. In the 1964 presidential campaign, Johnson chose Hubert Humphrey as his running mate. It didn't take long for the former Minnesota senator to learn that the post was largely honorary, especially under a personality as strong as LBJ's Texas temperament.
"There is the old story about the mother who had two sons," Humphrey said. "One went to sea, and the other became vice president, and neither was ever heard from again."
While Harris has not - yet - been quoted as directing a jibe at herself, some of her top aides in the West Wing of the White House have displayed similar gallows humor. They've passed around a story in The Onion, a satirical news outlet, with the headline: "White House Urges Kamala Harris to Sit Down at Computer in Case Emails Come Through."
Joe Biden became the first vice president to reach the Oval Office via the ballot box in 32 years with his election in November 2020. His success was partly thanks to his predecessor, Barack Obama, who had weekly private lunches with Biden, gave him important assignments, and otherwise made the former Delaware senator a key figure in his administration.
Though Biden insists that he has returned the favor with Harris, the evidence suggests otherwise. They are not known to have regular meals or other meetings together, and Harris does not yet possess the high profile her boss enjoyed.
Part of Harris' weakness is tied to her biography. While Biden had served 36 years in the Senate before becoming vice president, Harris served only four. And Harris, the first woman and the first person of color to hold the post, also has made some stumbles.
Biden, Cheney and Nixon enjoyed unusual power as vice presidents. Cheney's clout as No. 2 to George W. Bush in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks became so great, he became known as "Bush's brain." Dwight Eisenhower dispatched Nixon abroad for meetings with foreign leaders.
Biden, Cheney and Nixon, though, were the exceptions to the rule. Most vice presidents have become the butt of late-night comedians' jokes. Some have turned the joke on themselves, even unwittingly.
Addressing leaders of the United Negro College Fund in 1989, during his first year as George H.W. Bush's vice president, Dan Quayle tried to pay homage to its well-known slogan, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."
Quayle declared: "What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is."
James Rosen is a longtime Washington correspondent. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
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