Opinion | Is Kamala Harris the answer? Not if you hear her cackle
By Philip Yeung, university teacher
PKY480@gmail.com
The inevitable has happened. Biden has quit the race cold turkey, calling off his re-election campaign, and quickly offering his blessing to his Vice President. Now all eyes are on Kamala Harris to ward off the Trump menace. She will need a ton of luck and political smarts to become the first woman of color to occupy the Oval Office.
After the bumbling Biden, any candidate looks good. But is Harris the democrats' savior? A veteran lawyer friend of mine reminds me that Harris was a trained litigator and a former prosecutor, and as such would be a formidable debater opposite Trump, a semi-literate blabbermouth. Trump is rumored to be afraid to face Harris in the next round as presidential nominees. But my friend is only half right. The other half about Harris is a puzzle. It is her cackle. In interview after interview, she has the weird and annoying habit of bursting out in inappropriate belly-laughs. Her exaggerated cackle is downright unpresidential. Hard to imagine that she can cackle her way into the Oval Office.
Republicans have unleashed a torrent of attack ads mocking her incoherent speech. This could be organized deep-fake or AI-generated malicious distortions. I confess I am unsettled by her bizarre non-sequiturs, in which what she says does not seem to follow logically from what has been said before. When asked by a reporter about Ukraine's refugee problem, she went into full Kamala mode—"a friend in need is a friend indeed"—guffaw, guffaw, cackle, cackle. Weird. You don't laugh at refugee problems. Some late-night talk show hosts are already feeding off her weirdness. Harris must dispel any doubt that this is Republican deep fake. Otherwise, who in their right mind will vote for a person whom Trump has dismissed as the crazy "laughing Kamala".
Lawyers are supposed to have the gift of the gab and a disciplined mind. And yet out of her mouth came this baffling utterance: "I can imagine what can be and be unburdened by what has been." And what about this slice of lunacy: "Today is today, and yesterday is today yesterday. Tomorrow will be today tomorrow, so live today so the future today will be as the past today, as it is tomorrow." This better be fake. If not, she belongs to the mental hospital, not the White House.
On paper, Harris looks like the ideal candidate—inherently newsworthy, by being America's first black female Vice President. She may be only a heartbeat away from the president, but that does not translate into presidential material.
Never mind the presidency, her job performance in the no.2 spot has been, to say the least, lackluster. People don't warm to her either. Americans don't find her likeable. Her popularity ratings are constantly underwater.
There is another drawback. To quote Obama's famous description about Hillary Clinton, Harris "doesn't have the new car smell." She is a nominee by default, by virtue of being vice president. In a country thirsting for change, Harris is no change candidate, as she is saddled with Biden's unpopular zigzagging immigration policies.
Harris is now said to have secured enough delegates to win the nomination. But even riding on the momentum of Biden's dramatic withdrawal, Harris can manage no better than pulling even with Trump in the polls. Will she fade away? Can she survive Trump's cruel taunts and wave after wave of Republican deep fake? Obama, a shrewd politician, has refused to throw his weight behind Harris. Chuck Schumer, another democratic heavyweight, is equally coy. Do they see a chink in her armor that others don't?
Biden is going all out in endorsing Harris. So now, the cackling hen is getting legs from a lame duck to fight off a mad dog. What a zoo, what a country, what an interesting time in history.
Now you know why the Chinese have this favorite curse on their worst enemy: "May you live in interesting times." Give me bland and boring any day. After Boris and Trump, I pray for the return of sleepy politicians. No more heart-stopping roller-coaster rides with nut cases.
But please, no cackling hens either.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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