Vice President Kamala Harris is a very enigmatic public figure. Even while campaigning, her remarks are almost entirely scripted and she never improvises. She distances herself from her past. position, Sponsorshipand current policies, but of course not personally. Her policy change announcements were made through anonymous aides and unsourced campaign statements. No comments, no interviews. She would not even submit to a salacious profile in Time magazine.
You could call this the Wizard of Oz election strategy: “Pay no attention to the woman behind the curtain! The Great She Who is speaking!” That’s fine. It’s brilliant in its simplicity. But with each passing day, this practice gets a little more dangerous.
You can play the great and powerful Oz for a long time, but eventually someone else will have to take the curtain down.
Meanwhile, Harris’s scant and shallow policies get polite applause from the corporate media. It’s no longer cynical pandering or “twisting and turning.” When Harris does it, it’s “worth reflecting on.” [her] As Playbook put it, she’s made a “change.” But even Playbook is a little skeptical of the whole thing: She so blatantly copied her Republican opponent’s tip tax exemption, and announced it in the same city where he did, that our intrepid reporters admitted surprise that she’d endorsed the policy proposal.
The next day, excitement was stirred again. Harris’ complete lack of a foreign policy is inspiring to those tired of a race dominated by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama aides. There’s really no indication that the same guys won’t come back to power, but there’s something so refreshing about a blank canvas, don’t you think?
Democrats have even told reporters (behind the scenes, of course) that they see no reason to squash their “enthusiasm and energy” with policy, and they’re right: They have nothing to gain and everything to lose by putting Harris on the stand.
Remember the last time they tried to put Harris in the spotlight? The Democrats and their media buddies tried to turn “Excuse me, I’m talking” into the 2020 “Yes, Queen!” and it didn’t work. If Harris was cool or smart or good at her job or even remotely passable, she would have been a star in the administration. But she was hidden from the press and isn’t going to change course now.
This strategy worked for Joe Biden in 2020.But he had COVID to hide from, and a sitting president weakened by his own COVID policies and plagued by personal grievances and feuds. But the unintended consequence of that hiding was a decline in public trust. It all came tumbling down when his true capabilities were finally revealed in the first reelection debate with former President Donald Trump.
The longer it takes for Harris to give an interview, the more attention it will receive. Her almost inevitable nonsense talk, nonsense slogans, and awkward laughs will be scrutinized closely. In a normal campaign, these moments would get lost in the noise and news cycle; she’s not so lucky to generate headlines simply by speaking.
You can play the great and powerful Oz for a long time, but eventually someone else will have to take the curtain down.
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audience: Harris supporters turn to influencers for campaign posts
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The fire rages: The New York Times: Immigrants becoming U.S. citizens at the fastest rate in years
The Biden-Harris administration is naturalizing more citizens than the federal government has in the last decade. Of course, this is no coincidence, and it’s not just about clearing a backlog. There’s a political agenda here, and it’s going to culminate in November. Miriam Jordan reports.
Naturalization applications typically surge as elections approach.
“A sudden increase in efficiency in naturalization applications will not just clear a backlog; it could change voter attitudes just months before a crucial election,” said Xiao Wang, chief executive officer of Boundless, which uses government data to analyze immigration trends and provides services to immigrants seeking expert help navigating the application process.
“Every citizenship application could be a vote that decides a senate seat or even the presidential election,” Wang said.
