My answer is pure-D misogyny.
But, what do I know…I’ve only been a Black woman in America longer than 3 days.

THE KAMALA HARRIS PROBLEM
Few people seem to think she’s ready to be president. Why?

By Elaina Plott Calabro
OCTOBER 10, 2023

On a Thursday morning in April, I met with Vice President Kamala Harris at Number One Observatory Circle, the Victorian mansion that, for the past two and a half years, she and the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, have called home. She can be a striking presence when she walks into a room, with a long stride and an implacable posture that make her seem taller than she is (about 5 foot 2). By the time I saw Harris at the residence, I had already traveled with her to Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, and Reno, Nevada, as well as to Africa, trips on which she had carried herself with ease and confidence.

Ease and confidence have not been the prevailing themes of Harris’s vice presidency. Her first year on the job was defined by rhetorical blunders, staff turnover, political missteps, and a poor sense among even her allies of what, exactly, constituted her portfolio. Within months of taking office, President Joe Biden was forced to confront a public perception that Harris didn’t measure up; ultimately, the White House issued a statement insisting that Biden did, in fact, rely on his vice president as a governing partner. But Harris’s reputation has never quite recovered.

I think this is bullshyt. I’ve been following the Vice President and all the work she has done for this Administration from the beginning. She’s always had her pulse on the subjects and topics of most interest to the base of the Democratic Party. And, her own actions while she was a Senator – the positions that she took – always seem to bring receipts when we are talking about the direction and policy positions that the Democratic Party should take. So, if you didn’t pay attention to the Vice President and her work, just say that. Because, she’s been working hard since before day one, back when she was a Senator from California.

… Redefining what power looks like has been the theme of every chapter of Kamala Harris’s political career. She is the U.S.-born daughter of immigrants—her mother a cancer researcher from India, her father an economist from Jamaica. As Biden’s running mate, she became the first woman, first Black American, and first South Asian American to be elected vice president. Before that, she was the first South Asian American and only the second Black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate. Before that, she was the first woman, Black American, and South Asian American to serve as attorney general of her native California. Before that, she was the first Black woman in California to be elected as a district attorney.

But after nearly three years in office, the symbolic fact of Harris’s position has proved more resonant than anything she has actually done with it…

Republicans may offer a mandatory “God forbid” when raising the prospect of some presidential health crisis, but they are already pushing the idea that “a vote for President Biden is a vote for President Harris.” They are doing so in large part because they see her as a more inviting target than the president himself: a woman of color whose word-salad locutions turn themselves into campaign ads, and whose outspoken advocacy on social issues makes her easier to paint as an ideologue lying in wait…

The Biden administration has every incentive to embrace Harris. Why does addressing preparedness seem so difficult? Harris has affirmed that she is ready, if need be, but there’s a limit to what she herself can say. It’s not unusual for a president, any president, to take pains to demonstrate his vice president’s readiness for the top job, if only by regularly referencing their closeness—the notion that the person is briefed on everything and has an opportunity to weigh in on major decisions, even if the fingerprints aren’t always visible. And no president comes to the Oval Office with every necessary skill. Harris is an uncomfortable fit in the vice president’s role, whatever that is, and she cannot speak or act independently; the job makes every occupant a cipher. But she has been a successful public servant for more than three decades. She ran the second-largest justice system in America, in a state that is the world’s fifth-largest economy. By virtue of her position, she is among those who represent the future of her party, and she represents its mainstream, not its fringe. Of course Kamala Harris is ready for the presidency, to the extent that anyone can be ready. This should not be hard for her own colleagues to talk about. Not talking about it leaves the subject open for political exploitation—by opponents whose own likely candidate makes the idea of readiness absurd.

And yet the topic is treated as a trip wire. In a brief conversation after an abortion-rights rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, on the first anniversary of the Dobbs decision, I asked Harris herself: Had she and Biden discussed how to address questions about her readiness to step in as president, should circumstances ever require it? “No,” she said. And that was the end of the conversation.

The attacks on President Biden about his age, when Dolt45 is but 3-4 years younger, isn’t even about President Biden’s age. It’s about who will step up to the plate if something happens to the President. I wish that these cowards would just say that. See, you can’t scare me by talking about Joe Biden’s age. I’m not scared of his age, or anything else that might happen to him. Because, I have respect and confidence that the Vice President can step up and do the job. As she’s done with every other job she’s had. I know that the Vice President is getting more preparation every single day. And, yes, I note that there weren’t think pieces about other Vice-Presidents. Nobody cared if dunces like Pence, or Quayle were ready to step up if something had happened to the President. I know that I never once heard about Vice-Presidential POLLING until Kamala Harris became the Vice President. They want to Hillary the Vice President, and they are shocked that there is an entire cohort of folks out here, saying, ‘ I don’t think so’, and bringing receipts on the clowns that try it. It’s a constant battle, and needs to be one.

From The Financial Times:

… US president Joe Biden has not only doubled down on Harris as his running mate heading into what is expected to be a tough re-election campaign, possibly involving a rematch with Donald Trump, but he is counting on her for the critical task of helping drive turnout…

More than a dozen current and former administration officials, US lawmakers and Democratic strategists who have been interviewed believe Harris has not been given the political credit she deserves for her performance so far.

They attribute much of her unpopularity to a combination of the hyper-polarised US political environment, the struggles that any vice-president faces in shining through as second-in-command, and her willingness to take on politically difficult causes and assignments early on in her tenure such as the root causes of immigration from Central America.

Meanwhile, they say Biden’s commitment to Harris has been unwavering. The president has featured her prominently in his re-election campaign launch and dispatched her to win support for the campaign at big fundraising events. Behind the scenes, insiders say, he counts on her advice for key decisions and their relationship is as close as the one he had as vice-president under Barack Obama…