Over and over, since the Vice-President has been nominated as a presidential candidate, I keep remembering a parody of campaign songs from an old movie whose sound track my parents preserved on LP.
"[This candidate] rides a white horse, and [that candidate] rides a mule;
[This candidate] is a President and [that candidate] is a fool.
The song was recorded before Kamala Harris was born, but how she does bring it to mind!
1. Lack of Pathological Extroversion
It went with the quiet, creditable service under both R and D administrations: Despite efforts to draft her either as a presidential candidate or as a senatorial candidate (to run against Kamala Harris), Condoleezza Rice told fans she couldn't see herself campaigning for elective office. She did better in jobs where she was judged on her actual job performance, rather than jobs that required sales or acting skills.
We as a nation don't elect people like that any more. Since a critical mass of voters acquired television sets, we have a steady, consistent record of electing actors over achievers, salesmanship over substance. And then we wonder why so many of our elected officials behave like actors. We make scandals of people's acting out the personality and character traits we elected them for.
2. Money Management Skills
Rice managed to balance the budget for Stanford University when she was Provost.
Harris giggled while the US economy went down while she was Vice-President.
3. Trenches Experience
Rice grew up with segregation. She learned grace under pressure.
It's not fair to blame Harris for having been born late enough to skip that experience. But it's fair to blame her for failing to recognize that she'd skipped it.
4. Willingness to Use the "If You Don't Vote for Me It's Because You're a Racist and/or Sexist Bigot" Line
Rice learned to work around not only real racist and sexist bigots, but also inverse bigots and their pity-votes. Rice understands, e.g., that those who blamed her for serving as Secretary of State during times of war, thus supporting war in a sense, would generally have blamed a White man about as much for the same thng.
Harris grew up hearing people use the "because you're a bigot" line and longing to use it, whether or not she's ever met an old-school racist and/or sexist bigot. Harris does not understand, e.g., that a majority of those who are going to vote against her for vice-presiding over the social, political, and economic disaster that was the Biden Administration had already declared their intentions to vote against the White man who presided over the same.
5. Bigotry
Rice is an American. She's demonstrated the ability to work with both Rs like W Bush and Ds like Barack Obama.
Harris doesn't just fail to return e-mails, but blocks people she suspects of not being her own partisans from her supposedly public campaign web site.
6. Fashion Mistakes
Rice has made some--usually wearing skirts too short--but she does appreciate women's traditional privilege of wearing cooler, more comfortable clothing than men. She knows how to dress like a lady.And when she does wear trousers, they've reached down to the tops of her sensible shoes.
Harris does have a fashion problem. She's 5'4"; off-the-rack clothes are cut to fit women who are either 5'2" or 5'6". Lots of 5'4" women buy, well, jeans anyway, two inches too short if the price and the upper cut are right. Not, however, as formal attire. And not with hooker heels.
And is that a black trench coat that's not long enough to cover a normal Washington woman's skirt? Oy vey. If there were no other reason to vote against Harris, the prospect of having to wear sweat-trap trousers with sex toy shoes, in public, would be a sufficient reason for any thinking woman. Viable women candidates should be advised to leave the spiky heels and pointed toes in the bedroom where such things belong.
7. Political Opinions
Harris:
likes gun bans
wanted free citizenship for illegal immigrants
worked to legalize marijuana
prosecuted parents who didn't force children to attend abusive schools
clung to the idea of race-based preferences in university admissions
supported same-sex marriage, upholding discrimination against widows from the same
harassed whistleblowers in defense of unreported use of fetal tissue
supported the so-called "Green New Deal"
pro-choice
was known for hostile interrogations of Republicans in congressional hearings
demanded that people avoid reading or promoting books condemned by the so-called SPLC
Her very few expressions of support for causes of interest to actual voters have been notoriously weak. For example, her version of supporting Internet privacy was to require companies to warn Internet users that the companies collect data about people--not to discourage their collecting any kind of data.
Rice:
remembers which party the racists joined in the early twentieth century
balances budgets
thought race could be "one factor among others" in university admissions
articulated approved war propaganda during war
allowed waterboarding for Al-Qaeda
downplayed the importance of the Censorship Riot, possibly because of dishonest reporting
pro-choice on early abortion, opposes late-term abortion
upholds the Second Amendment
opposed same-sex marriage, supporting "civil unions," missing the real point
appreciates the value of history
Not a perfect politician, but respectable.
8. Managerial Skills
Rice can keep employees. Harris cannot.
9. Presence
Rice is taller (by four inches, at 5'8") but looks smaller. This seems to be a strategic decision. Projecting a delicate look seems to be part of Rice's "Warrior Princess" image.
Harris...it''s not that she laughs out loud; it's that she laughs at inappropriate times, with her mouth wide open, and always seems to raise the question how many of what she's been drinking.
10. Political Prudence
Rice knows she''s unlikely to win against Trump or even against Kennedy. Bigotry has nothing to do with it. A prudent White man wouldn't run against Trump either.
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