“You like me. You really like me!” -- actress Sally Field at the 1985 Academy Awards Show.
Many a veteran politician wishes he or she could be as open about the joy of being liked as the 1960’s “Gidget” star was when she admired her Oscar up on stage and pretended (hoped?) as though the whole world craved to ask her to the senior prom at that moment. Over the top was one way to describe Field’s breathy performance, leaving the viewing audience anxiously wondering whether the screen star was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, or simply experiencing a flashback to her developing years when everyone’s unsure of themselves.
One senses a similar feeling of apprehension about our first female vice president, Kamala Harris, who definitely has a likability problem all her own and seems lost and unable to do anything about it. Perhaps as an acknowledgement of Harris’s “they don’t like me” dilemma, senile president Joe Biden’s handlers hired a couple public relations brains to come in and do a strategy and messaging makeover for the first-of-her-sex second in command.
There’s no telling whether any amount of mentoring will work on someone as far gone as Kamala Harris, but the Democrats are giving it a shot -- and maybe some collagen, too!
“Vice President Kamala Harris has hired two veteran communications aides to help finesse messaging and long-term planning after a rocky first nine months in office for the second-in-command. Lorraine Voles, a crisis communications expert, and Adam Frankel, a former Obama speechwriter, worked for Harris during the presidential transition and have extensive experience crafting messages from the White House and the corporate world.
“Voles and Frankel ‘offered to be of assistance’ to Harris and will focus on ‘organizational development, strategic communications, and long-term planning,’ a White House official told the Washington Examiner. Both are on temporary assignment, though the White House declined to provide a more specific time frame.
“Harris is tasked with several challenging assignments, including addressing the root causes of a migration surge to the United States from Central America and advancing action on voting rights. After Harris drew national attention for a biting retort during a televised interview while visiting Guatemala this summer, several staff members departed her office.”
There’s no video from the staffers’ “departure”, but one speculates that it was probably accompanied by loud shouting from the high-ranking elected official and maybe even a sprint out the door before Harris, whose nastiness is legendary (akin to Hillary Clinton’s?), had an opportunity to hone her aim with office supply projectiles as the poor souls rushed away from the building.
There’s just something about Democrat women and fits of temper, isn’t there? Speaker Nancy Pelosi has had her share of public embarrassments, most notably when she stood up and ripped former President Trump’s 2020 State of the Union Address text to shreds right there in front of the whole world. Then there’s Golden State moron Maxine Waters and her oft-displayed bad comportment, most recently stating that the horse-mounted Border Patrol agents corralling Haitian immigrants incident was “worse than slavery.”
Don’t forget the 2020 Democrat presidential field was full of angry and vengeful females, which of course included Harris herself. There was Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren (who often appeared to shake with rage whenever she was asked to talk about Trump or his MAGA agenda), New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (who seems convinced that all men are oppressors) and notorious, staff antagonizing hag Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
And we don’t need to mention “The Squad,” do we? Bring in a cauldron to their caucus within a caucus and see how many rhythmic spells they can concoct between the six of them! (Note: The original four were joined in the current Congress by freshman Democrats Jamaal Bowman -- the only man in the group -- and psychotic cop hating freak Cori Bush of Missouri.)
Former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard was the only lady-like one of the 2020 Democrat bunch -- and she didn’t get very far, did she? Democrats demand a dose of feminist fire in their women candidates, gals who aren’t the least bit afraid to loft bombs and prove they’re tougher and more “masculine” than their male counterparts. What, as though Bernie Sanders isn’t imposing?
Senile Joe won the primary race, but only because he was depicted as a nice guy who gets along with everybody. Very un-womanlike in the Democrat party. Joe’s “nice guy” rep wasn’t true then and it’s not true now, but the impression was the same. Biden didn’t earn the nickname “Lunch bucket Joe” for nothing.
So if Kamala Harris got where she is today by being the ball-busting take-no-prisoners prosecutor and former California Attorney General, what’s the need for messaging professionals and a desire to make her marketable to the masses when she clearly doesn’t know how to go there? It’s often said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, and trying to impart an improved personality on Kamala Harris could prove to be an impossible task.
Or perhaps the Democrats are merely trying to teach Kamala basic political decorum. Like fictional campaign manager Tim Watley from the 2012 movie, The Campaign said, “I’m here to make you not suck.”
Doyle’s article indicated that the reason Democrats are bringing in the messaging head shrinkers is because Harris might be tapped to try and generate turnout for next year’s congressional midterms. Or maybe it will give her a reason to get out of bed every morning. Liberal strategists apparently hope the vice president can be sent into heavily Democrat strongholds -- translation, inner cities -- to play up the identity politics angle and motivate African-American voters to show up at the polls. So, it’s all about what you look like, not what you sound like, right?
Regardless, trying to turn Harris into an embraceable figure won’t be trouble-free. For an image makeover, one might get a new hairstyle or upgraded wardrobe or some coaching on how to deliver a speech…or to formulate a one-minute “elevator pitch.” But Kamala has been in the public eye for a long time, and the verdict on her is mostly already in: people don’t like her.
For example, at first glance, it’s not hard to discern that Harris isn’t a mother. She has two adult step-children (Cole and Ella) who affectionately call her “Momala”, but there won’t be any cuter-than-cute grandchildren or biological kin to make the vice president more relatable to the non-feminist women voters. Heck, even rhymes-with-rich Hillary Clinton had Chelsea, and the Democrat 2016 nominee liked to relay tall tales of reading books to her grandkid (she now has three).
Maybe Kamala should get a family dog or two and her handlers can show her frolicking with the pooches in a controlled photo shoot (with COVID mask on, too). But what if the dog turns out to be a biter, like Joe Biden’s pet Major? Bad dog!
Harris hasn’t been helped much by her tendency to grin widely and laugh at inopportune times, such as a month or so ago when she got off of Air Force 2 in Southeast Asia and snickered when reporters asked her about the dreadful situation in Afghanistan. In such instances, I think Kamala is told to present an image of being friendly and smiling a lot to counteract her reputation as a stern and bloodless politician.
Who can ever forget her senate committee room questioning of then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh? Who wants to embrace that woman?
The image pros might also coach her on how to answer questions (they might then work on senile Joe himself). Democrats take delight in twisting a direct query into something they would rather talk about, such as when NBC’s Lester Holt asked Kamala to explain why she hadn’t visited the southern border -- and she replied that she hadn’t been to Europe, either.
Another factor limiting Harris’s potential “personal growth” is the fact she doesn’t have a signature issue. At one time, it might’ve been law enforcement and being tough on crime (from her days as a prosecutor), but such normality quickly became a negative in Democrat-land after the George Floyd riots. Earlier this year, senile Joe handed Kamala a couple frontline issues to concentrate on -- immigration and so-called “voting rights” -- but she botched both of them.
So where to begin with Harris? She’s often seen in the background when senile Joe gives a major address, but lately she’s been relegated to minor chores like flying to California and speaking on behalf of Gavin Newsom’s anti-recall campaign. Perhaps she could start doing ribbon-cuttings, assuming anyone’s starting a new business in Joe Biden’s America?
Can anyone think of a single instance where Harris led a successful political operation?
The assignment of making Kamala Harris likable -- or simply making her “not suck” -- won’t be an easy one for the new Democrat messaging professionals the White House hired to clean up the vice president’s image. Many politicians have undergone minor transformations with the right amount of coaching, but Harris doesn’t have much talent to begin with.
Put it this way -- I doubt we’ll hear her say, “You like me, you really like me!” anytime soon.
Kamala Harris
messaging
2022 elections
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Lorraine Voles
Adam Frankel
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Kamala Harris approval ratings
immigration
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