https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/19/kamala-harris-political-network-506204
Today’s POLITICO offers an inside-the-Beltway view of the Vice President's political activities and ambitions. But if you want to know what Kamala Harris really cares about, is deeply committed to, devotes herself to, you won't find it here.
Instead, you’ll find this broad statement supposedly delineating
"the entire Harris portfolio: slowing migration from the Northern Triangle region of Central America to the U.S. southern border; pushing back against Republican efforts to curtail voting access; encouraging Americans to get the Covid-19 vaccine; and promoting women in the workforce."
These may be important issues, either assigned to the VP or that she volunteered for, but they don’t add up to a Big Picture. We get no sense from this article of Harris being animated by a vision of America’s future that she’s driving towards or encouraging Biden to adopt. We don’t even learn from the article why people are supporting her anticipated future run for the White House. It’s all about nuts and bolts: building a network to put her in the Oval Office. The only Harris quote in the entire article is this profoundly inspiring directive: "Tell me what you got."
So what is the VP up to? It’s clear to me, both before and after reading the Politico article, that her words and her actions are all focused – unsurprisingly – on becoming the next president of the United States. If that means dodging a controversial issue, she'll dodge. If that means going silent about Afghanistan, then we won’t hear from her about it, and she’ll probably avoid settings in which she might be asked questions about it.
Donna Brazille, a very smart political player, offers an improbable account of the VP’s priorities, insisting that “Harris’ networking is not connected to any future political ambitions. ‘I’ll be the first to say when she’s making moves, this is not her making moves’…” Yeah, right.
