Please watch the TikTok video I've put at the bottom of this post, after the jump, or you can also go here, for YouTube video (begin at 1:06). Alternatively, read the text.
But you won't get the point from the cold text, so I'll have to ask you to imagine a first rate actress reading the lines in the role of a woman who can barely cover up that she's really had it with being carted around to these bullshit nothing places with their tedious needy people:
"I am feeling very good about Pennsylvania, because there are a lot of people in Pennsylvania who deserve to be seen and heard. That's why I'm here in Johnstown, and I will be continuing to travel around the state to make sure that I'm listening as much as we are talking and, ultimately, I feel very strongly that I've got to earn every vote, and that means spending time with folks in the communities where they live, and so that's why I'm here. We're going to be spending a lot more time in Pennsylvania."
Harris was speaking at a bookstore in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Can you put your usual partisanship to the side and genuinely empathize with her as human being?
Try to look into her heart. She's asked "How are you feeling about Pennsylvania?" and she says "I am feeling very good about Pennsylvania," then brings her hand up to her nose, wipes it, tosses her hand downward, and wiggles her body as if to shake off the dust of Pennsylvania. She's sick of it. She should be — who wouldn't? — but she she's not hiding it. She's not doing that "joy" thing they'd taught her to do or even regressing to that horse laugh everybody criticized her for. She is weary.Watch her throw her arms down when she says "I'm here in Johnstown." I'm here in Johnstown. I'm here in Johnstown. I'm supposed to be on top but I'm here in Johnstown. Watch her shake her head — no no no! — as she utters the dreadful words "I will be continuing to travel around the state." Look at the expression on her face — reminds me of the tragedy mask — when she says "to make sure that I'm listening." She doesn't want to listen to some randos in a small town bookstore. Look at the headshaking and the pain as she speaks of "spending time with folks in the communities where they live." She's wringing her hands by the time she gets to "We're going to be spending a lot more time in Pennsylvania."
Her campaign aides must be agonizing over her inability to simply tough it out and be a big old phony for the few weeks it will take to get through through the shortest presidential campaign in modern memory. Just say the obvious things and pretend you love meeting all the boring little people of the swing states. How hard can it be? She did just fine at the glorious convention when there were so many celebrities exalting her, and she did excel at the supremely important debate with millions watching her confront the evil monster that is Trump. She's perfectly capable, under important conditions. But she weakens in dull environments. Watch her. Check my hypothesis.
It's a problem to have a campaigner who's not a natural, who doesn't get energy from interacting with the little people. I could easily spin this in her favor, you know. I don't trust anyone who yearns too desperately to be President.
@triblive VP Kamala Harris made a campaign stop in Johnstown, PA on Friday. She shared her thoughts on the battleground state. #triblive #pennsylvania #johnstown #kamala #harris #news #politics #campaign #election #democrats #republicans #journalism #pittsburgh #trump #biden #2024elections #presidentialelection #vicepresident #veep ♬ original sound - TribLive
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148 comments:
It's a problem to have a campaigner who's not a natural, who doesn't get energy from interacting with the little people. I could easily spin this in her favor, you know. I don't trust anyone who yearns too desperately to be President.
No, you can't.
She yearns to be President, What she hates is having to interact with us worthless serfs,
She wants to rule us, not lead us. She wants to be a dictator (see "let's pack SCOTUS so I don't have to care about the written US Constitution any more"), and it offends her to her soul that she has to ask us for her vote.
There is nothing sympathetic there
You can't make women happy. They always move on to the next thing that's wrong.
She isn't vey good at anything. She has aged of of the side-slut jobs
Taps sympathy meter.
Still at 0.
She could have declined putting herself one heartbeat away from the Presidency so you're essentially arguing that she likes all the trappings of power without accepting any of the responsibility. Sounds like her entire career.
It's possible to be socially awkward and still be a good president. The process doesn't select for those people. See Ron DeSantis, apparently. But you need to love the people you're serving. It helps if you can find a way to show that you love them.
If you don't like your country's citizens -- all of them -- then get out of politics. It doesn't seem to work that way, though. Power overrides service.
She wants the POTUS title and knows that she does not have to do the work, just like Joe. The Obama holdovers and the federal bureaucracy will run the show.
I empathize with her on this about a much as I empathize with those lazy bastards who went, and are still, mostly remote with COVID, still receive the same compensation, and have the temerity to actively or passively complain about how hard life is. Suck it up, buttercup.
She seems tired here. That would be understandable. Might not be anything more than that. She's been climbing the political ladder, in a deliberate process, for a while now. Wouldn't make sense for her to want to stop just as she nears the top.
I’d be a great president if it weren’t for needing to deal with what citizens want.
I dunno, looks like typical small town campaign fodder. There's a nose touch thing but touching the nose isn't a lying cue, it is supposedly an attempt at stress relief. So yah, maybe she hated this shit. I need no convincing she believes it's beneath her to be with these people...
It's like so many brides who are excited about the wedding, but not about the marriage.
Harris and Hillary both have a problem. Unlike Senators or Governors (or reality TV stars for that matter), they never went through the great sifting process that our system uses to select for superhuman levels of charisma. If you've ever met a national politician, even one you disagree with, they're charming MFers (like that pig in Green Acres). But wait, you say, both of them were Senators. Well, yes, but, were they really? Did they have to run the political gauntlet? Come up through the ranks? Rise above hundreds of other would be powerful men and women? No, they had personal connections to politically powerful men and then were installed by their state party machinery into very very safe seats. That's how you get candidates who can't even compete at the car salesman level of personal magnetism.
Maybe Kamala thinks they are all stupid.. and is bored by them.. Stupid people tend to think other people are stupid to.
Biden and Kamala DO NOT SEE people. They do not care ONE drop about the struggles of ordinary Americans. They care about power, Trump-Hate, and lining their own pockets.
I've said before that I think it's possible that Harris has a learning disability like ADHD. She is chronically under-prepared for many of her VP duties, and tries to pull off her public interactions by winging it. This has led many to conclude that she's merely stupid. Her record shows a hugely ambitious woman, determined to advance her interests no matter what. But no amount of ambition can overcome the stupidity she's being characterized with. I'm not saying she's secretly brilliant. But I am saying that chronic under-preparedness, and a huge staff turnover rate, is pointing to something. When she's in situations like this one in Pennsylvania, she is without cover and shows her insecurities.
She has a few public personnae that she trots out in controlled settings. One is the steely-eyed prosecutor. One is the relaxed, casual, matter-of-fact experienced politician ('We're not going to take anyone's guns away' she said on a lady's talk show the other day, lounging in the easy chair). One is the over-performative clown, as she was on the debate, mugging exaggeratedly for the camera, or giggling (cackling) over a word salad.
But none of these is a genuine character, and so I still think she is compensating for something that hasn't come to light.
Being lousy at campaigning doesn't tell us anything about how badly someone wants the position they are after. I would even speculate it means they want the job more. After all, why subject yourself to something you so clearly hate if you don't desperately want that title - President.
Rush made a point that you have to have ego to run for President. I think Jordan Peterson may have said something on this too. And by ego, I mean in both the negative and precise psychological concept of an ego. You have to believe you can win and you have to handle the personal stress that a campaign can test on becoming President. This is one problem I have with the truncation of Harris campaign.
Still, she has to have the ego, and I’m not sure she does. She comes off as a person that has been told what she must do and she has enough sense of duty to do what she’s told. That sense of duty is good to have for an elected position but not enough for this position, and that is setting aside how strong that call to duty actually is.
Yes, she’ll have to win Pennsylvania to win, and it is close enough that she will need to reach into the places outside Philadelphia. I recall Biden won eastern Penn and Trump western Penn, but Philadelphia was enough. That wasn’t good for a guy that lived just a few miles south to come that close to losing.
I don’t know how to improve our pool considering what it takes. The approach of just fronting a figure head willing to be a face and then running our government in the background is not better from my observation.
Technically, I’m a politician representing a taxing entity. I can tell you I don’t want the job, and probably wouldn’t have it if anyone showed the slightest interest in running for my position. I only worry if they would do right by the position, which is actually easy to do, but entirely a thankless job. If I had to run for the position, I’d go LBJ and walk away.
Is the Harris campaign, alongside their sycophants, on a diet of stupid pills? Why would people who work for a living empathize with this lazy tart? If you're not an extrovert, it's really easy to be bored by strangers. That's why most non-alpha types have no business running for President. It doesn't matter if you're a cashier at Wal-Mart or Taylor Swift. If you can't appear basically interested in the job you supposedly do, quit. Particularly if there are many more qualified candidates, like the guy your regime tried to kill twice.
What you are seeing is weariness caused by not wanting to RUN for President.
Not weariness because she doesn't want to BE President.
Kamala has won zero elections to get where she is. She didn't win a single primary election leading up to her nomination. Joe Biden won all those and she merely waltzed in at the last minute and stole all those delegates from him in a fake election.
She knows she is going to be President because she knows the fix is in.
So why do we have to put up the fake artifice of a campaign.
Joe Biden didn't.
Every line is rehearsed. She can remember the lines, but it's not so easy to look natural and comfortable when you're reciting memorized lines, especially for the nth time.
Imagine if you knew the fix was in. Imagine if you knew our elections were fake and that, regardless you were going to be President.
Wouldn't you be exasperated by these mere voters demanding to know what you intend to do if elected?
Posted this once, let's try again. Is the Harris campaign, alongside their sycophants, on a diet of stupid pills? Why would people who work for a living empathize with this lazy tart? If you're not an extrovert, it's really easy to be bored by strangers. That's why most non-alpha types have no business running for President. It doesn't matter if you're a cashier at Wal-Mart or Taylor Swift. If you can't appear basically interested in the job you supposedly do, quit. Particularly if there are many more qualified candidates, like the guy your regime tried to kill twice.
I like when she trots out the Ebonics blackccent whenever she's in front of the homies.
Third plus time posting because Google apparently does not want you to read this. Is the Harris campaign, alongside their sycophants, on a diet of stupid pills? Why would people who work for a living empathize with this lazy tart? If you're not an extrovert, it's really easy to be bored by strangers. That's why most non-alpha types have no business running for President. It doesn't matter if you're a cashier at Wal-Mart or Taylor Swift. If you can't appear basically interested in the job you supposedly do, quit. Particularly if there are many more qualified candidates, like the guy your regime tried to eliminate.
She's bored with the charade. Wants to get on with the pomp and circumstance.
Just say the obvious things and pretend you love meeting all the boring little people of the swing states. Difference is you can tell Trump genuinely likes meeting the boring little people. He doesn't think of them as "little people." That's attitude is reserved for liberal elitists like Kamala.
Back in the day when Kamala was Willie Brown's side piece she was competing with Kimberly Guilfoyle in the San Francisco District Attorney's office. The two women detested each other. Kamala was hanging with or on Willie Brown. Kimberly Guilfoyle was married to Gavin Newsom. It was sort of a cat fight amongst the women of San Francisco Democrat royalty. But according to the San Francisco sources Kamala worked very hard all over the city (not that San Francisco is that big a city) to build her own political base. So she can be a retail politician--but on a very small scale.
Joe Biden was a decrepit old man. Kamala doesn't have that excuse, even though Biden should never have been a candidate. Watching this jez be bored out of her mind ironically makes the steal that much harder to justify. But she can't take the Biden route without making people ask "where's Kamala."
Winning with uniquely unsuited candidates is much harder than picking Clintons or Obama's, but the globalism is a hollow shell of itself.
Didn't I use to have a mini-micro violin, you know, smaller than one you play between your thumb and index finger? Wouldn't you know, the perfect occasion for it, and I can't find it. Oh, well.
Dixcus...
"She knows she is going to be President because she knows the fix is in. So why do we have to put up the fake artifice of a campaign. Joe Biden didn't."
Yup. Can you imagine the Democrats running this charmless nincompoop if they didn't know the fix was in?
I am not qualified to be President, but you can bet I would do a hell of a lot better at feigned interest than Kamala Harris. It's called "salesmanship." But then she's a jez who has passed her best-before date, and she really had no business on a presidential ticket.
Reminds one of ......
"She wants the POTUS title and knows that she does not have to do the work, just like Joe. The Obama holdovers and the federal bureaucracy will run the show."
Works from home. Checks in on Friday to see what "her" decisions were this week.
She has no business being the nominee.
She wants the job, but doesn't want to work for it. That shouldn't be a surprise to anybody.
Maybe she has a point. In Bob Newhart's audio recording of Abe Lincoln getting advice from his Madison Avenue advertising exec, the suit said, "Well, Abe, you know those small Pennsylvania towns, seen one, you've seen 'em all."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcjz7VAljYs
“Can you put your usual partisanship to the side and genuinely empathize with her as human being?”
Let me give it a shot… I’m trying… it might be possible… I think I’m feeling some empathy… wait for it… no, damn it.
It was just some gas from last night’s tacos 🌮.
I can believe she is exhausted. I don’t believe she is tired of the little people. She ran on “Kamala Harris, for the People” when running for CA AG. I don’t believe that has changed. I’d do think she was thrust into this role of running for president unexpectedly and I can imagine how overwhelming that may have been. I give her great credit for the job she’s been doing as a candidate, especially if she is a person who may not have been seeking the role
Not only is she not a natural, she's not even good at being a phony. Too much work. Totally a lazyass. Like the Liebringer.
Kamala is in over her head and she knows it. The closer she get's to the Presidency the more worried she will become.
Dixcus at 10:35 beat me to my point and said it better.
That’s not exhaustion. That’s disdain. Inga doesn’t recognize it because she’s full of disdain, too.
Does Trump seem exhausted?
If she can't handle running for President, she's not qualified to be President. That's not a partisan point.
She ran on “Kamala Harris, for the People”
Yes, but now she's being asked to be "Kamala Harris, OF the people" and that seems to be a bridge too far.
Kamala is tired of these shithole counties.
She is the candidate of the Democrat Grandees and the leftmediaswine. She should not have to mix with the hoi polloi. They are mindless and will do what they are told.
>>I feel very strongly that I've got to earn every vote
She was literally gifted her position without a single actual voter voting for her. She has earned nothing at all.
Most politicians don't find salesmanship taxing. The vast majority are invigorated to meet new people and earn their votes. Donald Trump does this on a level I can scarcely imagine. It's also very cost effective, particularly for large numbers of people. Kamala Harris is a lazy and stupid DEI hire, though, and patriots dot win has previously documented the vans full of paid actors sent to her rallies. Being ambitious is a benefit, but not if you have zero redeeming qualities. Voters sense this and are repulsed by her, which further adds to her disinterest.
How long before Kamala is seen leaving her own rallies?
I know Pennsylvania rather well (as in family there for generations) and what jumped out at me was that she was in a bookstore, which in Johnstown is shockingly non-representative of the local or regional demographic. Totally normal, however, for the Berkeley Brat that she is.
She, and most Democrats, actually believe that they are "mainstream".
Who was the last Democrat candidate for President or VP who actually *worked* in the private sector [law does not count, except maybe commercial law] or had to make payroll ?? Nobody since Carter, who seems to be the most recent.
If she just wanted to be President, she's been wearing the ruby slippers all along — the 25th Amendment. Poof! She's president! Why didn't she do it? It's harder to explain why she hasn't done it than it would be to explain why she'd done it if she had.
She's perfectly capable, under important conditions. But she weakens in dull environments.
As Thomas Sowell said (and he may have been quoting someone); "Intellectuals" can't operate at room temperature.
Althouse’s last statement might be her best ever.
Kamala is lazy.
It IS frustrating and deflating to have a sizable minority of fellow American MAGAts support an obvious criminally demented conman. Its hard to believe that a man who shits in a gold toilet, lies everyone he opens his mouth, finger blasts every vag he can get his tiny hands in and bangs whores while his wife is pregnant.
Seems obvious she doesn't want to be president out of any particular interest in doing the work of a president. I'd say the presidents who wanted the job in order to do the executive things a president can do would include FDR, LBJ, Reagan, the Bushes, and Trump. Clinton wanted to work, but I think his focus was working on being a POPULAR president in an era of intense partisanship. Obama I think regarded the presidency as an award for being a magnificent thinker, speaker, and writer. What Harris hopes to get out of it I don't really know. Respect?
@Bart Hall. Yes, I’m from a very similar town in rural Illinois. If you really want to measure the views of the locals, I suggest the farm implement and truck dealers and the major Methodist and Catholic Churches.
Can you put your usual partisanship to the side and genuinely empathize with her as human being?
That's a two-way street.
She doesn't exude empathy for the human beings of America. They have something she wants.
It's hard to empathize with someone who lies to me and slanders my people.
That's what it sounds like to me.
exactly !
I agree. They're both hothouse flowers. At least Hillary seemed to really want the Presidency. Harris seems to be sort of a non-entity who just does what she's told.
She almost vomits when she has to choke out "I'm listening," visible distaste on her face and in her body language. Ughh.
I disagree. She hasn't had to explain why hasn't done it and in fact she actually has done it, she just skipped the paperwork.
Easy. Because, like Biden, she doesn’t have the power or authority to.
I agree with Dixcus and Severs, above.
If she had done it the formal way, it would have made her appear ambitious and conniving and a backstabber. As it is she appears like someone who this has all just fallen to. Maybe it is that way, I don't know.
Because if she did the 25th Amendment, she'd have to explain "what took so long?"
Joe Biden has been diving deeper into dementia for teh last 3+ years. And she's been out there lying about it. Invoking the 25th Amendment would lead to a huge fight, that teh Dems can't afford while they're trying to win he current election
She obviously wants to be President but she just doesn't like having to actually work to get the votes to win the election fairly and likely will not like doing the work of being President. I have written it before- Harris is a terrible retail politician- literally one of the worse I have ever seen- and far worse at it than even Shelob.
She wants to be President for 8 years, not 5 months.
You can't run "for change" while you're the actual President, but her entire campaign is about "hate Trump!" and "change!"
If she became President now, she's not be able to run on "change!", she'd have to run on what she's actually doing.
And that's a losing platform.
So, can I have my post un-deleted?
I fear the fix may be in in and she knows it.
Has Johnstown been flooded with refugees by the Harris/Biden Administration, too?
He has a long history of this which Democrats are hiding.
+1000
There comes a point in any sports life where you find out that the guy you are playing against is better than you are. I think Kamala is perfectly aware that she doesn't have what it takes to be president, it may not be Trump that is better than she is (though he is) but she knows deep down that the office is more than she can handle.
Inga, are really so gullible as to think that because she used the slogan, "...for the people," that furnishes actual insight into her personality and psychological makeup? Don't you realize that it's political consultants who come up with those slogans, often based on which buzzwords test well with focus groups?
Also, if she's exhausted now, after only a few weeks of "campaigning" before crowds of PAID supporters and giving literally only two press interviews, how in the hell do expect her to marshal the strength and stamina to handle the firehose of stressful demands placed on her as president? That's a serious question. You may understand and sympathize with the fact that she's exhausted, but what assurance can you offer that her exhaustion, to this point, won't only get worse after January 20, and won't adversely affect her ability to serve?
And he inherited the business.
Obama didn't even want her to be the nominee, so the 25th Amendment was a last resort if Biden didn't capitulate. Harris had no say in the matter.
She's perfectly capable, under important conditions
Talking to normies isn't important.
But it is possible occasionally — through ascension from the vice presidency — to end up with a President who didn't want the job.
Possible, but Harris ran for president before she was VP, so she wouldn't be one of those who don't want the job. She just seems to resent having to earn it.
Hillary did have a somewhat tough Senate election, and Harris was in several campaigns including 2020 primary. That might not mean a lot but it's somethin'.
Those aren't ruby slippers- all Harris could do is ask the cabinet to invoke the 25th and even if the cabinet agreed by majority vote she would have needed Congress' supermajority approval to remove Biden if he challenged it which he surely would do.
Dog and P,
Just like the slogan Make America Great Again, eh?
“Can you put your usual partisanship to the side and genuinely empathize with her as human being?”
Of course I empathize with Harris. Why should she waste her time campaigning in some hick town in Pennsylvania when she knows that getting people to vote for her has absolutely nothing with becoming President. Her party is in charge of counting the votes and that’s all that’s important. She also knows she’ll have as little to do as President as she does as Vice President. The same people who are running the government now are going to be running the government if she becomes President. Why should she waste her time and our time discussing policy objectives when she knows all of that is out of her hands. She could be home cooking dinner with her kids (the only thing she speaks about with enthusiasm) and instead she’s going through these silly inconsequential motions that no one finds enjoyable.
This is what some here regard as enlightened political discourse. Either that, or it is what foreign paid trolls think will divide us. Ho-hum.
What did Harry Truman say about suddenly becoming president? “I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.” Harris has this moment to enjoy without the responsibility of being president. If she goes on to win, that's great for her, and if she loses ... well, her people have ways of making sure she doesn't lose ...
No.
I cannot sympathize with Harris. She is not a good person and I am being kind to her.
"law does not count, except maybe commercial law"
I don't know if it counts, but VP candidate John Edwards had to chase a lot of ambulances to get his bundle. George McGovern ran a hotel, but that was after his political career was over. The hotel didn't do so well, but it would have been a nice premise for a sitcom, if Bob Newhart hadn't gotten in there first.
“If she just wanted to be President, she's been wearing the ruby slippers all along — the 25th Amendment. Poof! She's president! Why didn't she do it?”
Because Biden would have been majorly indignant if they'd just kicked him to the curb instead of allowing him to save face by withdrawing “for the good of the country”, and senile people can be mean. He’d still be in a position to throw sand in the gears of her campaign.
That's the trajectory, isn't it? Liberal politicians usually end up moving to NYC, LA or DC when their careers fizzle out: Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bob Kerrey, Ramsey Clark, Barack Obama. They get bored with courting Middle America and want the high life.
I assumed the same was true of Dennis Kucinich, but no, he's running for Congress in Cleveland yet again. Pete Buttigieg isn't going back to South Bend, but he's probably headed for a college presidency, as a steppingstone back into politics from another state.
She clearly is tired of small towns in Pennsylvania, the small people who inhabit those small towns, and wants nothing more than the election to be over so that she doesn't have to mingle with those small people any longer. She's Kamala. She should be sought after only by the highest level of people. Speaking at various upscale events, wearing a different gown or suit at each of the events, speaking with one of her bespoke accents fit to the ethnicity of the room, raking in big donations all along the way from the wealthiest of folks.
I got all that just from her initial sigh and seeming inability to come up with words after wiping her nose. She just looks tired of the work part of the job. But that is the job. And these are the people she's looking to screw over. She should at least get a good look at them.
Dixcus - you nailed it.
ding ding ding
Indeed. Plus - I would guarantee - Kamala and her husband are salivating over the million dollar book deals.
Harris forgot to mention that many of the people of Pennsylvania are proud of their lawns.
Althouse said: If she just wanted to be President, she's been wearing the ruby slippers all along — the 25th Amendment. Poof! She's president! Why didn't she do it?
Because pushing out Joe it is too much work for Kamala to handle. In any case, I doubt if the Cabinet has much respect for her.
Such a travesty when your current ambitions prevent you from flying over flyover country.
Didn't Seymour Hersh write that SOB Joe was given an ultimatum to end running for Pres or get 25th'd? He mentioned KH in his article. If Seymour is correct, KH was involved, but stealthily. Drama free, as the hostess desires.
"Poof! She's president! Why didn't she do it?"
Maybe she didn't have the support of the Cabinet.
Have you ever noticed the way Mayorkas looks at Biden? He adores the man.
@Greg, per the 22nd amendment she could have been President for a day less than a decade if she had gotten Biden to resign or 25th'd him in January 2023.
“That’s not exhaustion. That’s disdain. Inga doesn’t recognize it because she’s full of disdain, too.”
Read an Inga post and take a deep breath. Does that smell like disdain to you?!
Because all the cabinet members had gone on and on about how sharp and engaged Slow Jow was. Ans Kamala too. How are they going to turn around and do the 25th?
Well, when your favorite line is "I'm speaking"...
Correct. If I had claimed that Trump's use of "MAGA" contained a useful insight into the nature of his personality or psychology, you would have been correct to point out that it was just a political slogan.
BTW, what is your response to the question I raised about what KH's current "exhaustion," after merely a few weeks of being anointed the dem candidate, signifies in terms of her ability to meet the physical and mental demands of serving as president for four or eight years? Or are you likewise too "exhausted" to answer questions?
Honestly, her sort of blasé affect here is a lot less irritating to me than her affect when she's "on" and projecting enthusiasm, i.e. her slow "very GOOD class!" preschool teacher voice. Wouldn't vote for her, but still -- much less annoying.
It's critical to her election strategy that voters not blame her for the consequences of the Biden administration's policies (to be fair, no one in the administration seems like they would have placed any weight on her advice so she probably doesn't actually bear any responsibility, other than bills she helped pass in the Senate). If she becomes President, then she might have to make decisions with actual consequences. Voters might hold her accountable!
"Can you put your usual partisanship to the side and genuinely empathize with her as human being?" NO, fuck her. That human being is an antiAmerican, hate-spewing Party member that wants my president murdered. That human being is a despicable, corrupt wicked person. I hope she gets what Trump has faced twice.
Now, can you put away your bogus Democrat Party neutrality and at least recognize that Donald Trump never wanted to be president, was asked to run many times since the 80's and always declined because he didn't want to be president or around the people who flourish in politics. But he finally ran because he recognized the dangers our nation was facing. He put aside a life of luxury to serve his country, and he's faced slander, ruin, and death but he still perseveres because he is doing it for a greater good.
You can't, can you?
I'd like to give her some credit for foregoing the badly-needed height boost and wearing sensible shoes, but the Princess of Wales and Queen of Spain do similar work in stilettos with sincere fake smiles.
If the 2020 campaign season had been normal, wouldn't have both Biden's and Harris's retail deficiencies been exposed? How lucky was that?
I wonder if next year, or after Biden's death, we hear from all the brave people who told him or Jill to pull out of the race last winter or fall. I'd like to hear from a historian about what people said of Mrs. Wilson taking over secretly when it became known or suspected. Were there the same coverup and partisan divide back then?
I think Althouse is right. Harris is very aware she
..has no Primary wins;
..got where she is by secret maneuverings of "the Powers;"
..could be tossed aside any day by the same Powers.
..would be, without the Powers, an ineffective and unpopular President
- possibly a disastrous one personally and politically.
..however much she likes the attention and perks,
- whoring as a career choice rarely has a happy ending.
ALL she has to offer is her seductive smile. At least Obama was a black man. She is not one.
Since Kamala was installed as the nominee, I confess I haven't paid close attention. Why get excited about the choices when they still could change before ELECTION DAY.... Kamala is one of several people I do feel sorry for despite our differences in beliefs. I blame it on bad management or bad teaching or both. Others wanted her to appear to be over the top in skills and abilities. That was not beneficial to her. There was no time or space for her to learn what she didn't know and now she is trying to fake it. She appears to lack speaking skills and/or just personal self-confidence. Had an early mentor sent her out to talk to 50 groups - youth centers etc. - in 50 days she would be more composed now. Practice is the only thing that helps. I had a couple of jobs like that including overnight education tour guide at the COLUMBUS ZOO. Kids will forgive a lot if you keep them engaged. Back to the election - am I wrong to get the impression the entire Harris-Walz campaign is being carried out in less than 10 states ... I
No, I don't believe she wants to be president. I think she wants all prestige and perks.
Does the US want or need a ceremonial president as well as a working one?
There must be something demoralizing, enervating, and dispiriting about running for President as a non-Trump empty vessel for a set of policies best described as "to be determined". And the person or persons doing the determining will almost certainly not be Kamala Harris. At some point, becoming the world's most prestigious puppet loses its allure.
Empathize? Not after she lied to us and then yoinked Joe from his voted for re-election. I would have respected a 25th Amendment move.
When you write a post like this it adds great and unexpected poetry and wonderfulness to how I see the political universe.
Maybe the campaign has decided to write off Pennsylvania and concentrate on Georgia and Nevada. Georgia has a high percentage of black voters while Nevada is heavily union.
I think this goes back to Eisenhower who said," You have to have the fire in the belly that wants it, but you also have to be able to ride the horse. "
You seem to think she actually did just fall out of a coconut tree.
She is "but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more."
Biden is deteriorating rapidly. How rapidly, of course, is hidden from the public. The debate caught all th true believers by surprise- they were told and believed he was totally with it...
49 days as I comment until election day. We may yet see President Harris before then. I'd be happy to see it tomorrow- so the people can see just how bad she'll be. Hypothetical- she gets installed tomorrow after Joe strokes out- and Russia lobs a tactical nuke on Kiev... What does she do?
Excellent question
He has time and energy for a round of golf now and then.
It wouldn't be surprising if Harris were getting tired of campaigning in Middle America. The familiar trajectory of Democrat politicians is to get tired of appealing to the masses and move to NYC or LA or DC where they never have to leave a liberal bubble: Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bob Kerrey, Ramsey Clark, Barack Obama.
Pete Buttigieg isn't going back to South Bend, but he'll probably get a college presidency and try to parlay it into a Senate or House seat from a state other than Indiana. I was going to add Dennis Kucinich to that list, but lo and behold! He's running for Congress again in Cleveland.
"Biden is deteriorating rapidly. How rapidly, of course, is hidden from the public."
I happened to catch the beginning of the news (forget the channel) last night. When they got to the story about the assassination attempt on Trump, they mentioned Kamala's response but not a word from Brandon. Who, I believe, is currently the president, is he not?
I'm re-reading Robert Caro's "The Power Broker", about the (in)famous Robert Moses, NYC parks director (and many other jobs). The one time he actually ran for office was 1934, as the Republican candidate for governor of NYS. Arrogant and disdainful of the press and the people, Moses quickly proved to be a disastrous candidate, and he lost in a landslide.
Kamala seems to be the same way. Every VP imagines they'll run for president someday -- hell, even Quayle and Pence did, briefly -- but she seems annoyed that she actually has to *work* to win the job. Don't you know who I am...?!
is there Pygmalion version for puppeteer?
will her puppeteer has much love for her.
Can you put your usual partisanship to the side and genuinely empathize with her as human being?
I'll save my empathy for the politician who's survived two assassination attempts, thank you very much.
Emphasize with a woman spewing the Charlottesville (formally a 100% disqualifying position 'round here), Project 2025 or Outlawing abortion? Sorry, that's a hard no.
I'd have great empathy for her if she'd come clean. She could announce she'd drop out due to the tedium of dealing with the deplorables. Or even announcing she'll only appear at no-press-allowed fundraisers. Even then limiting those to glitzy places like San Fran, New York or LA.
I'd certainly empathize with admitting that bit of frailty.
For some reason Neill Young singing "The Campaigner" comes to mind.
"Eeeeven Richard Nixon has got soul..."
Kamala not so much.
Yeah it must be hard to be a politician, when you are really just a bureaucrat.
Yard sign in ATL reads: Kamala Harris / Of Course.
That could be the attitude permeating the campaign.
Some men you just can’t reach. Why even try Pensilvania.
She knew that Biden would fight her on the 25th and it would be an ugly spectacle in which Biden's long standing disabilities, and Kamala's indifference to them, would be fully aired in a manner that guaranteed mutual assured destruction.
RoseAnne ,
Harris's earliest mentor most certainly did have her work on her oral skills.
It's impossible for me to empathize with someone as a human being when they can't even pass the most basic Turing test
Watch it with the sound off. It's like watching someone complaining about the service at Starbucks.
@Christopher: invoking the 25th against Biden would make her more likely to lose in November. She's not willing to trade a possibility of 8 years for a guaranteed 5 months but a near guarantee that she doesn't get those 8 years
She has served at the side of a demented Pedo Pete who gained the throne by hiding out. Dealing with the peeps seems so unnecessary to her. Listening tour as opposed to interviews is her best route based on her penchant for word salading when not intensely coached.
Maybe as a counter to Trump being repeatedly in the crosshairs, she should invoke the terror of those pipe bombs on 1/6...
Ann says
"Let me preface this with the assurance that I have never trusted the people who want to be President, and I have despaired over the structural problem that we're always stuck having to vote for somebody who has strongly desired the presidency. But it is possible occasionally — through ascension from the vice presidency — to end up with a President who didn't want the job."
I generally agree with the first part, but Eisenhower (referenced by Michael K) may be an exception (before my time). He was certainly an ambitious person, generals are often necessarily political in a real not necessarily partisan sense. But he was also one seemingly drafted/pressed(?) into running for president, courted by both major parties, for purposes of a much narrower in size and purpose driven NATO.
As for Harris, and "people in Pennsylvania who deserve to be seen and heard"
The Thick of It (predecessor to HBO Veep) and Nicola Murray's Here to Hear initiative:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlPYwIGim28 (1:10 minute)
Wow. That was awful. She really doesn't want to do this, does she?
"Kamala Harris sounds so weary of all those people in Pennsylvania. Does she even want to be president?"
Does Trump? I think he does not. He's just hoping to use his position as POTUS to shed all the legal problems following him and the criminal convictions already laid on his head. He's hoping he can pardon himself.
When Walter Mondale was running for president, he came to the San Jose Mercury News to talk to our editorial board, of which I was a member. He was so tired he could barely get a few sentences out. I met a lot of politicians, and I felt sorry for them. Running around acting like you care about everyone's issues is exhausting.
The only reason we know the names Hillary and Kamala is because each chose to associate herself with a powerful man. Neither one has any accomplishments to speak of.
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