Kamala and the bucket of warm spit

I went to Georgia for the Clemson game – Go Dawgs! The TV airwaves were full of one Kamala Harris ad after another. In them you would never guess that her opponent was Donald Trump. Rather it seemed as if she was running against Joe Biden. The ads were warm and fuzzy spreading joy. Aside from the usual fluff about how brave she was fighting big business and being for the little people when she was California’s attorney general, her goal as president would be to lower prices. Mind you that those prices were a direct result of her time in office with Biden. Never mentioned were immigration, industrial policy (Green New Deal), crime, foreign policy, Israel, China, Russia, Ukraine or any of the rest of the mess stinking up this administration. Her ads did not even mention Trump. Rather there was an attack ad from some PAC that was full of lies saying that Trump favored a national ban on abortion, that he was in full agreement with Project 2025, that he wanted to cut medicare and social security and that he wanted to have dictatorial power. Meanwhile despite the barrage of Harris ads the only Trump ad was a short one of him pandering to those who worked for tips (no tax on tips) and old folk (no tax on social security). I saw two of these Trump ads and possibly 20 Harris ads.

I was wondering how many vice presidents were elected president immediately after the sitting president had served a full term – or two terms. I could think of only John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and George H. W. Bush. All of the other vice presidents became president due to the death of the president, the resignation of the president or were elected after they left office (Richard Nixon). Bush was Reagan’s vice president for two terms and then was elected on his own right for two terms. I guess that because Reagan was so well liked – except by the media who didn’t like him until his death – that the voters elected Bush as a Reagan surrogate. The problem facing Harris is that Biden is thoroughly disliked by the majority of voters. His approval ratings are abysmal and the question is why would voters want four more years of that? So Harris is pretending that she had nothing to do with any of the country’s woes. Forget that she was the border czar. What has she done in office? The pliant media lists her visits to abortion clinics as an accomplishment (I kid you not). She was anointed to oversee the White House office on the prevention of gun violence (an obvious success) and she was the deciding vote for the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (another obvious success). One article even praises her role as border czar (again I kid you not).

Don’t misunderstand, it is difficult to point to any major achievements of any sitting vice president. Recall that John Nance Garner was misquoted as saying that the office was not worth a bucket of warm spit – Garner actually said the word usually substituted for urine rather than “spit”. Garner also said “Worst damnfool mistake I ever made was letting myself be elected Vice President of the United States. Should have stuck with my old chores as Speaker of the House. I gave up the second most important job in the Government for one that didn’t amount to a hill of beans. I spent eight long years as Mr. Roosevelt’s spare tire. I might still be Speaker if I didn’t let them elect me Vice-President.” 

Now of course for some reason politicians look about being vice president as a career enhancer. How else to explain the parade of people groveling before Trump like Tim Scott or even vying for the nomination to be Harris’ running mate like Josh Shapiro? But think of the past vice presidents who were nominated for president and think whether being VP further enhanced their post VP careers: Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, and Al Gore. Typically, the vice president just stays in the background, presides over the Senate and is occasionally given something to do by the president. By all accounts, it is a ceremonial position with little actual responsibilities. It only becomes important if the president leaves prior to the end of the term. Perhaps the vice president wannabes are hoping for an early exit from the president. Nonetheless, It would be a major historical event if Harris were elected president because she carries the legacy of a failed administration.