Former Vice President Kamala Harris has released her tell-all book about the 2024 campaign. While it may make for good gossip, it’s a decided failure when it comes to her political future. Indeed, it is just one more major mistake that will keep her out of the 2028 campaign.
Keep in mind that Harris has had a charmed life. From her upper-middle class upbringing in California, to her silver-spooned resume as San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general, U.S. senator and vice president, she has acquired quite a resume.
What she hasn’t built is credibility as a leader — and her latest book only makes that matter worse.Here are five major career mistakes along those lines and why they spell doom for any 2028 presidential hopes.
- Harris’ “Political” Breakup With Willy Brown.
The world knows about Kamala Harris’ romantic relationship with Willy Brown. However, many likely don’t know that Brown used to provide Harris with sage advice for her career. Willy Brown was, and remains, a smart politician. As a leader in California politics, he got things done and never let ideology or partisanship stop him. He was a practical politician.
Brown essentially made her the San Francisco district attorney and while she listened to him, Harris was not too far left. Indeed, while she was campaigning in 2019, Harris had to distance herself from her middle of the road record as a DA.
The farther Harris has traveled from Brown, including an unceremonious political breakup, the farther left Harris became and the less practical — losing independents along the way.
- Harris Never Properly Engaged in Retail Politics.
Harris has always taken her good political fortune for granted. The field was cleared for her to run for California attorney general — so, she hardly campaigned. She had an easy go of it in becoming US senator from California (a one-media state with lopsided voter registration) — even though she lost a post-Senate debate poll to me, 38 percent to 32 percent, in April 2016 in that race.
What she should have done in those years was work within the state relentlessly to build alliances with voters, politicians and leaders — the game of addition.
By not developing those necessary alliances, when it came time to run for president in early 2020, she was placing fourth in California primary polling with candidates like Elizabeth Warren ahead of her.
By being weak in California, instead of the runaway leader in California and locking up its nearly 500 delegates, Harris was not taken seriously in Iowa and South Carolina in January 2020.
That is why I was the first in the nation to predict on national TV, (Fox and Friends), that Harris would not enter the Iowa Caucuses. She didn’t enter Iowa and dropped out. No addition, no race.
- Harris Never Cultivated Democrat Leaders.
Even though Harris didn’t enter the presidential race, she was picked as Biden’s vice president — she was the right identity politics choice at the right time among Democrats. Even so, she squandered that amazing fortune and opportunity.
Any vice president with presidential ambitions has a very clear path to follow. Go around the country and help other people in your party get elected. Vice presidents should add friends relentlessly so that when they run, they can use those relationships for help. Addition.
Harris was not famous for doing that. If you are not famous for that as vice president, you failed at that. Harris failed at that.
- Harris Never Took Responsibility for Her Campaign.
The scuttlebutt about her book, “107 Days,” is that Harris didn’t take ownership for not winning in 2024. Instead of taking responsibility for why she fell short, Harris decided to blame others.
Nor has Harris ever taken responsibility for how money was spent wildly on her campaign, including the purchasing of celebrity endorsements. Donors like accountability and responsibility.
- Harris Has Never Established Her Vision For The Future.
Finally, amidst it all, Harris has spent her time not establishing her vision for the future. Her first post-election book represented a huge opportunity for someone who wants to be considered a leader.
Her whole career she has been considered light on policy and she could have used this entire book to address that weakness.
Instead of using that opportunity to outline her vision of the future, Harris spent her time writing about the past.
Everyone knows, however, that elections are about the future.
Leadership is about addressing the future, not lamenting the past.
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