Kamala Harris becomes the third candidate this week to drop out of the 2020 Democratic primary race

Senator Kamala Harris. 

Senator Kamala Harris is the third candidate this week to drop out of the 2020 Democratic Primary race, following Joe Sestak and Steve Bullock. Politico. Harris had been a contender but she had been polling in the single digits for a long time. Harris' biggest problem was a lack of funds as she did not have enough cash on hand to compete in Iowa. She also feared that a potential Senate impeachment trial would prevent her from campaigning. Harris took a shot at Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer saying that she was "not a billionaire" and couldn't fund her own campaign. Though Harris hit Joe Biden hard in the first debate, Tulsi Gabbard called her out on her criminal justice past and Harris never recovered. Harris blamed her failure on the Democratic electorate who she claimed was not ready for a black woman president, despite the last Democrat President being a black man and the last presidential candidate being a woman. 

My Comment:

And another one's gone. This is probably the biggest name to dropout so far and the one that had the most realistic chance of winning. There were some who believed that Harris was the chosen one and that the DNC would go all out to help her. That didn't happen and now she is gone. 

I wasn't surprised that Harris dropped out but I was a little shocked at the timing of it all. I figured Harris' pride would be too much for her to drop out before the Iowa caucuses. I expected her to drop out right afterwards before the California primary, but I am surprised she didn't last that long. 

It didn't seem like she had too much of a choice. Harris did not have any money at hand and needed to spend a ton to have a chance in Iowa. If she had continued her campaign would have gone into debt without serious support from donors. And there wasn't any evidence that donors were interested in getting her help. 

So why did Kamala Harris fail? I think it was almost entirely due to her debates. Though much has been made of her attack on Joe Biden, where she called him racist, I think that was the begging of the end. Joe Biden is many things but he's not a racist, at least against black people. Falsely accusing the man who served the first black president of racism helped Harris among people that didn't like Joe Biden but it turned off a lot of moderate supporters. 

Harris was also utterly destroyed by Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard pointed out that far from being a model citizen, Harris had a very rough record as attorney general. She was at the very least tough on crime, which is out of fashion to the left these days, but actually went way beyond that and treated people pretty horribly during her tenure, to the point of leaving someone in prison she knew was innocent. 

I always thought Harris was incredibly unlikable. She has a very nasally voice and a very smug attitude. It's very clear that she wasn't used to being challenged on her views and records and never had any answers. Most annoying was her debate style. Harris would always tell hypothetical stories about people who didn't exist and say how these fake people would suffer under her opponents plans. I always found that insufferable and hated seeing her at the debates. 

I don't give any credence that Harris failed because of her race or gender. Indeed, those were major advantages for her that she squandered. If anyone is hindered by their race and gender it's the white males and, even more so, for Tulsi Gabbard and Andrew Yang who are Samoan and Chinese respectively. Both of them come from ethnic groups that the Democrats take for granted and aren't major voting blocks. I think that the Democrats desperately wanted a black woman to be president, even though Harris is only half black with the other half being Indian. 

I also think that Harris wasn't treated unfairly. Indeed, I think they treated her with kid gloves as it was only after Tulsi Gabbard called her out that she was challenged on her record. And it's clear that other candidates, including Gabbard and Andrew Yang, were treated much worse than Harris. 

As for me, I am glad Harris is gone. After Michael Bloomberg and Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke, she was the one I hated the most. I found her attitude insufferable, her voice annoying and her policies to be bad even by the standards of her party. She would have made a terrible president and I am glad she is gone.