Democrats say that Kamala Harris should drop out of the race before she loses her home state of California

Kamala Harris. Politico/AP.

Former 2020 contender Kamala Harris risks embarrassment if she continues in the race, potentially losing her home state of California. Politico.  Harris had a brief time near the top of the polls but a series of campaign mishaps, poor management and bad debate performances have left her campaign polling in the single digits, even in California. Candidates have until December to drop out of the race or they will be on California's March ballot. Supports of Harris, speaking anonymously due to fear of reprisal, say that Harris is at risk of being embarrassed and could even invite a primary challenge for her own run in 2022. 

My Comment:

A quick post about a failing presidential campaign. I tend to agree that Harris should drop out. It's pretty clear she's dropped out of the potential candidate tier and is now in the why are they still running tier. To be fair to Harris, there are a lot of other candidates in that tier with her, so she's hardly unique, but it's still true. 

I do think that Harris is probably gearing up for a major embarrassment. Right now there are only four viable candidates, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Peter Buttgieg. Nobody else should really still be in the race at this point. Harris is polling in single digits.

Part of this is because Harris doesn't really appeal to anyone. She has zero appeal to moderates with her support for gun control and nanny state nonsense. Democrats don't like her due to her stance on criminal justice. She was kind of law and order Attorney General for California and threw a lot of people in jail for things as minor as possession of pot. But she's not so law and order that she would actually appeal to conservatives. 

I also find Harris to be personally unlikable. In the debates she came of as a shrill know it all who looked down on anyone who disagreed with her. She has a high nasally voice and generally comes off as annoying. 

Speaking of her debate performances, they were pretty terrible. She did have Joe Biden on the ropes during the first debate but in the end that didn't play well for her. She basically called Joe Biden racist, and though Biden is many things, many of them horrible, nobody bought him as a racist. After that debate, she wilted under pressure when people challenged her. 

Harris has a debate style that I find insufferable. She can never actually support her positions but she is the master of telling stories about hypothetical people that may or may not be helped or hurt by either her or her opponents policies. It's always metaphors and hypothetical with her.   

I do wonder why anyone thought that Harris was a potential contender in the first place. I think a large part of it was wishful thinking. Much like Barack Obama, I think Harris and her handlers thought she would win because of the color of her skin (and her gender). It worked for Obama but it didn't work for Hillary Clinton and it's not working for Harris either. She just isn't popular and competent enough at running a campaign. 

My guess is that Harris will drop out but it won't be until the Iowa Caucus at the earliest. She's got too much of her pride wrapped up in this campaign to give it up. Much like Hillary Clinton, I always got the impression that Harris felt entitled to the presidency. Until she gets rejected by the voters directly, I can't see her dropping out.