Typically, when incumbent vice presidents are running to succeed their bosses, they campaign on the popularity of the sitting president.
George H.W. Bush won 40 states and the White House in 1988 essentially by running for Ronald Reagan’s third term, something the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution did not allow the Gipper to do himself.
Conversely, when Lyndon Johnson dropped out of the 1968 presidential race after the New Hampshire primary and his vice president, Hubert Humphrey, replaced him at the top of the ticket, that did not set Democrats up for success that November. Humphrey could not escape Johnson’s shadow or the Vietnam War.
A more complicated case was Al Gore in 2000. He ran to extend the relative peace and prosperity of Bill Clinton’s two terms in the White House, during which he was veep. But after giving Clinton a pass for his tawdry affair with Monica Lewinsky and rallying against his impeachment, a certain fatigue with his peccadillos set in. Enough voters were receptive to George W. Bush’s pitch for restoring dignity to the Oval Office to keep Gore from ever occupying it. But that basic tension kept the race extremely close, and Democrats debated afterward whether Gore should have embraced or distanced himself from Clinton more than he did.
Vice President Kamala Harris has tried to run as something other than President Joe Biden’s third term. To be sure, she says nice things about Biden and his record on the campaign trail. But she takes little responsibility for anything that has happened under the Biden-Harris administration’s watch, positioning herself as the change candidate.
Perhaps this is understandable. Biden’s poll numbers were so bad he had to drop out of the race in July, though his approval rating has inched upward since he did so. Biden continues to receive low marks on the economy, cost of living, and immigration, all top issues this year. The national RealClearPolitics polling average finds that 63.4% believe the country is on the wrong track, compared to just 26.9% who think it is headed in the right direction.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Harris has not been eager to embrace her own past policy positions either, many of them adopted during her failed campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination more than four years ago. At the time, Democrats were trying to outflank one another on the left. Biden won after participating in this game of musical chairs the least. That and not cutting off former President Donald Trump’s microphone when he wants to interrupt during a debate appear to be the two main lessons she learned from her vice presidency.
But if Harris can be judged neither by her record as Biden’s vice president nor her platform as his primary opponent, what is the case for her election? Where is the change? Democrats, who have held the White House for 12 of the last 16 years, hope the answer “not Trump” is good enough once again. But like all understudies, at some point Harris will have to stand on her own.
Hugo Gurdon will return next week.