A Woman President?
Billionaire money may make it impossible for a Democratic Party woman president
The New York Times ran a December 26, 2024, story titled “Will the U.S. Ever Be Ready for a Female President?” The article quoted AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler, who said she believes Kamala Harris made no missteps in the race. She said, “She totally over-performed and yet fell short. So it does feel like that sucker punch of, like, ‘Wow, even when you do everything right, that glass ceiling is still elusive.’”
No missteps?
No missteps!
There were several significant missteps.
Harris made Dick and Liz Cheney important parts of her campaign. This was a WTF? moment for most left-leaning voters. Harris, running an anti-Trump campaign, clearly failed to recognize the concerns of most voters.
She told the women of The View in October 2024 that she could not think of a major Biden policy she disagreed with. This was widely reported in the press. It made voting for Harris especially difficult for those opposed to the Biden-supported Israel genocide.
Teamsters president Sean O’Brien gave a rousing, pro-labor speech at the Republican National Convention. The GOP is not known for a pro-labor stance, so this was highly unusual. How did the Democratic Party - traditionally a pro-labor party - respond? O’Brien offered to give a pro-labor speech at the Democratic National Convention one month later, but the DNC refused.
Harris began her campaign with a populist message, resulting in impressive initial poll numbers. She then switched that messaging to be billionaire-friendly. Working-class voters felt betrayed. Her polling slipped significantly.
Harris’s billionaire-friendly attitude prevented her from defending Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, who is very popular with left-leaning Democratic voters. The billionaires hate Khan, so Harris gave her no cover, thus enraging a segment of Democratic voters.
The Harris campaign sent Bill Clinton to Michigan. Clinton tried to justify Israel’s killing of over 40,000 (at the time) Palestinians. Michigan has the largest concentration of Muslim-American voters. The mayor of Dearborn tweeted, “Do us a favor - stop sending surrogates who have no respect or regard for this community. You’re only inflicting more damage.”
Muslim Women for Harris-Walz pulled their support for Harris after the DNC refused to allow a Palestinian American speaker at the convention. They said the family of the Israeli Hostage who spoke at the convention had shown more empathy towards Palestinian Americans and Palestinians than Harris or the DNC has.
Harris has been criticized for not appearing on conservative Joe Rogan’s podcast. When Rogan interviewed Bernie Sanders in 2020, Sanders did well, and Rogan endorsed him. So, there was an opportunity for Harris to get Rogan’s endorsement. But when Bret Baier of Fox News interviewed Harris in October 2024, she did poorly. She was unprepared. A more lengthy Rogan interview would have been a disaster.
I don’t think the failed campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris (against Donald Trump) should preclude other women from running. However, this future candidate needs to run on a populist message and not be controlled by billionaires. This may not be possible in the Democratic Party.
Sources
YouTube: Joe Rogan and Bernie Sanders
YouTube: Bret Baier and Kamala Harris
NY Times: Will the U.S. Ever Be Ready for a Female President?
YouTube: Sean O'Brien speaks at the Republican National Convention
YouTube: Bill Clinton addresses Israel–Hamas war at Michigan Rally