What’s Kamala Harris’s secret? In mid July, she was a political liability for Joe Biden. Now she’s running neck and neck with Donald Trump. In July, Harris was less popular than either Biden or Trump. Now she’s more popular than both men. In July, Harris was an awkward but loyal soldier in a doddering administration. Now we’re told that she’s brat, whatever that means, Harris’s new status isn’t due to her policy proposals. She hardly has any. Her public speeches are fine, but she’s no Cicero, nor has she become more popular because she’s in the public eye. On the contrary, Harris has limited her campaign appearances. There’s something guarded about her, a part of herself that Harris is reluctant or unwilling to reveal. Harris has benefited from adulatory media for sure, according to the Media Research Center, Harris received 84% positive coverage in her first month as a candidate, a far cry from Trump’s 89% negative coverage during the same period. And yet worshipful press coverage doesn’t fully explain the reversal of Harris’s fortunes. A politician’s favorability usually trends in one direction, downward. Good Feelings eventually turn sour. This makes Harris unique. Her reputation has crashed and burned, not once, but twice, after her 2019 presidential campaign debacle, then after her 2021 interview with NBC Lester Holt only to rebound for reasons out of her control. My theory is Democrats and Democrat leaning independents were so happy to see Joe Biden off the ticket that they would have fallen in line behind anyone Harris was savvy and well placed to lock up the nomination before rivals entered the ring. She’s been riding a wave of positive energy that has boosted her favorability, upped her game and allused her with fundraising. The energy is psychic relief and excitement that Democrats have a chance to keep Trump from returning to the White House. The surprise, unbidden possibility of victory endowed Harris with a mystique. She’s made the most of it. The Harris Mystique depends on ignorance about her past. Since most Americans don’t know or care who the Vice President is, Harris had an opportunity to refashion herself for the 2024 electorate. She was warm, friendly and non threatening, while aides revised history. They convinced friendly reporters that no Biden hadn’t put her in charge of the border crisis in the spring of 2021 they told reporters that Harris had abandoned controversial positions such as decriminalizing illegal immigration, banning fracking and gun buybacks. Presto, the second most liberal senator in the 21st century became mamala. The Harris Mystique shields the candidate from easy definition. Her campaign appropriates GOP symbols, tropes and rhetoric to such an extent that if you ignore the blue hair in the crowd, it can be hard to distinguish Harris rallies from Romney rallies 12 years ago, listening to Harris extol the virtues of enterprise, you’d have no idea that she cast the deciding vote on the spending splurge that drove record inflation, that her administration has imposed almost $1.4 trillion in regulations that she wants to weaken right to work laws, and that she wants Congress to pass $5 trillion of new taxes over 10 years, reparations for slavery. Harris’s coy universal basic income. She’s demure, abolishing private health insurance. The Harris whisperers say she’s no longer interested, but she hasn’t quite said so herself and Dana Bash didn’t ask her about the Neo socialist Medicare for all during that CNN interview in September, the Harris Mystique was too powerful. There are signs the voting public may be developing some immunity to Harris’s obfuscations. She’s made progress, but as we speak, the race is a toss up. The polls are too close to draw firm conclusions. Trump could use the remaining days of the campaign to dispel the Harris mystique. How, by defining her as a lefty weakling unsuited to lead the United States, otherwise, Harris’s campaign of concealment, misdirection and euphemism will continue right through election day and into the White House. All right.
