The 2024 presidential race is ramping up. We know who the main players will be. I’m not sure there was ever any real question. Once again, we’re going to see Biden and Trump squaring off. Will the bumbler prevail or will the blowhard? Does it really matter? The answer is a resounding yes and not necessarily for the reasons you might think. Both men are well past retirement age. Their health must be considered before walking into the voting booth and casting our ballots. That means we need to take a long, hard look at their running mates. We’re waiting to see who Trump will tap. As for Biden? In the past, smart money would be on Kamala Harris. But that might not be the case, considering members of her own party are taking a long, hard look at all she’s failed to do during her time as vice-president.

It seems like Harris became a liability for not only the Administration but for the DNC almost from the time she was sworn in as vice-president. Biden tapped her to become the border crisis tsar. It looked good on paper. She said all the right things, at least if you believed in the Democrats’ playbook. But what did she do? Not much. While undocumented immigrants inundated the southern border, she was noticeably absent. Invitations to come see for herself what was happening were met with silence. By the time she finally made it down, there was little she could have said or done that wouldn’t be mocked. After all, how do you expect to deal with a crisis of any sort if you don’t know first hand what’s going on?

Fast-forward through the last couple of years and things haven’t gotten any better for our Veep. She postured. She smiled. She tried to say all the right things. But when there is no passion, no dedication. . . no belief behind the words, nothing gets done. Each time she’s been tapped to do something for the Administration, she basically disappeared into the shadows.

Now that it’s election time, she’s suddenly making the rounds again. Last week she did a “first”. She visited an abortion clinic in St. Paul, MN. So far, she’s visited five states as she becomes the face of the Administration’s pro-abortion stance this election season. According to her, states that do not allow wholesale abortion are causing a “health care crisis” for women living there. But it gets better. She also stated that those who do not support abortion are “extremists”. All because they don’t believe abortion should be an easily obtained form of birth control.

But that’s not the only thing she’s been up to this past week. She also held a roundtable discussion with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, rapper Fat Joe, as well as others who had been pardoned for marijuana convictions. While I agree that pot shouldn’t be treated more seriously than fentanyl, that’s about as far as I’d go. This is just another stunt pulled by the Veep to keep her face in the public and to prove her worth to Biden, his handlers and the DNC.

What also happened in that so-called roundtable is she once again revealed her own prejudice. Funny how none of the main news agencies commented on it. But it is there and it is something she should be called out for, especially since she is so quick to call out others–particularly when she feels some sort of personal attack in their words.

And the impact is such that, in particular, Black Americans and Latinos are four times more likely — four times more likely to be arrested — arrested for marijuana possession, and the disparity is even larger when you talk about the subset of Black men and Latino men.

Read that again. Do you see it? It jumped out at me when I heard a clip from her comments earlier. “Black Americans” but not Latino Americans. It is something that could be easily missed. But it speaks volumes, or it should. But we’ve heard nothing but crickets from the media who would have had a field day if a white politician said something along the lines of “White Americans and Black and Latinos”.

Again, maybe it was just a slip (probably a Freudian one, but that’s just my opinion), but it is something that shouldn’t be swept under the rug.

This isn’t the extent of Harris’ problems. There are those in her own party telling her she needs to step away and not be Biden’s running mate this year. She can finish out her term, but bow out at the Democratic National Convention and let him choose someone else who won’t be as problematic for him and for the Party. Someone voters are more likely to respect and trust if they should have to step up and take over the Oval Office if something happens to Biden.

Whatever the reasons, it has seemed that Harris’s role was to be quiet, lest she embarrass her boss with her sometimes inane, rambling remarks and a laugh that erupts from nowhere about nothing obvious to others. . . The Kamala conundrum comes down to this: She was picked because she was Black and female, a combo tantamount to job security. Now that she has become a burden to the Democratic ticket, Biden can’t fire her. He can’t risk alienating his base. . . Her performance as second in command has been disappointing, to say the least. . . just 37.2 percent, among the lowest recorded for a vice president.

Her cackling laughter at inappropriate times might remind you of bumbling Billy Carter. Her fumbling when it comes to handling important issues might bring back memories of Vice-President Dan Quayle and the Murphy Brown debacle. The question to ask is if Kamala Harris is a person you want standing next in line to lead this nation, now or after the upcoming election. Because that is exactly what she is right now and what she will be if Biden wins re-election with her as his running mate.

I don’t know about you, but that possibility makes me cringe. It’s bad enough with Biden at the helm. Heaven help us if we wind up under her leadership.

Featured Image: Kamala Harris caricature by Donkeyhoty. Creative Commons 2.0 license.