Former Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris had the same problem as every other Democratic presidential contender. They try to make the case that they are their own candidate, their own person, with their own program and vision of what their White House will look like and accomplish. It’s a tough row to hoe. Obama’s shadow looms just too long and large over the pack of contenders. He was too successful, too beloved and too incessantly talked about. He blended rhetorical flourish and a centrist program on the economy and foreign policy and bridged the two competing factions within the Democratic party. He drew relentless loathing and obstructionism from the GOP. And he made history by being the first African American to bag the Oval Office, not once, but twice.
This history will be tough for any Democratic presidential contender to overcome. The thought that contenders will always be measured by Obama colors their every move. It’s not fair, but it’s blunt political reality.
Harris was a prime victim. The early talk was that she could do what Obama did, and that’s make history by being the first black woman to grab the White House. But it was really more about walking in Obama’s footsteps than cracking a gender ceiling. That was the first problem. There was Obama again. She would not be the first black president. For many African Americans, this is not a small point. For nearly a decade they reveled in and constantly bragged about Obama being in the White House. The novelty of having a black in the White House has long worn off.
Harris would need to find some hook other than a racial first to motivate and inspire African American voters, then inspire other voters to rally behind her candidacy. This required her to spell out a coherent, consistent and workable program on the big-ticket issues from health care to criminal justice system reform. Instead there was confusion, mish-mash and the nagging sense that she was making things up as she went along.
Then there was the sneak attack on rival Joe Biden at the first debate, for his decade’s past stance on busing. It got her a lot of attention and some plaudits. But it also drew scrutiny about her checkered tenure as San Francisco DA and California Attorney General. She forgot the ancient rule in politics that when you go on the attack against an opponent, your house better be squeaky clean, because yours will be looked at, too.
For still others, it was tough to figure out just what exactly Harris was, a centrist, a progressive, or just what. She at times sounded like both.
Really, the only thing left was the gender card. But that was a non-starter for most black voters. Among the general Democratic electorate, it meant even less. Hillary took that off the table. There are simply too many other women Democratic presidential contenders and officeholders to make that any kind of breakthrough for her.
Even if Harris by some miracle could have brushed aside these obstacles, there is one that she and the other contenders can’t. That is, who can beat Trump? Democrats are frenetic about getting a Democrat who can win. Forget symbolism, forget race, forget gender — the overriding mantra is just “Win, baby, win.” This can’t happen unless a Democrat can win the five or six states that will decide the White House. To do that, a Democratic nominee will have to make some kind of inroad into Trump’s hard-core base of white, less-educated, rural and blue-collar voters in those states. Despite all the putdowns and diminishing of their importance in some circles, they vote in big and consistent numbers and will vote again in 2020.
Harris had no chance at winning them over. There’s no guarantee that any of the others, including Biden, can do any better. To offset the Trump pack in those states, a Democratic contender will have to stir legions of black, Hispanic and youth voters to storm the polls.
Obama, of course, did just that. He stirred legions to storm the polls for him and was able to pull off the trick of getting a lot of the same voters who backed Trump to back him twice.
This was and is the Obama shadow that did Harris in. The same shadow remains over the others.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst.
