In Harris’s interview with CNN she responded to a question about turning the page buy contrasting herself exclusively against Donald Trump, rather than her current boss.
Why is this a struggle? Why not directly repudiate unpopular Biden positions?
Joe Biden is literally one person. He lives in a safe state. Harris doesn’t have to worry about forfeiting his vote. Even the universe of people who are personally loyal to Biden, and might take offense at slights to his accomplishments, consists entirely of partisan Democrats who will vote for the Democrat at the end of the day (or more likely, several days before the end of the day).
Rather than trying to balance loyalty to Biden against catering to the desires of the electorate, Harris’s strategy should focus entirely on catering to the public with no attention whatsoever to Biden’s feelings.
Biden is, on the whole, a liability for Harris. He has been deeply and consistently unpopular since relatively early in his administration. The most recent Times poll finds that 61 percent of voters want the next president to constitute “a major change” from Biden, but only a quarter of them believe Harris would constitute such a change.
If Biden has an unpopular stance, Harris should simply oppose it. People understand that she couldn’t undermine her boss. Harris can say she privately disagreed with some of Biden’s positions on fiscal management and immigration enforcement but supported them because she was a good soldier. Alternatively, if she didn’t disagree with any Biden decisions at the time, she is free to say that she disagrees with them now and wants to go in a different direction.
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