Komm, Kamala, Komm and Save the Nation!

[thombergeron]

Y'all. Harris currently enjoys a 72% approval rating among Black Americans. It's only slightly lower than her 77% approval among Democrats. Black voters were lukewarm on Harris at the top of a ticket in a must-win election because they (rightly) suspected that America is still too racist and misogynist to elect a black woman to the Presidency.

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/1...rs-2020-075651

Harris is 57 years old and currently holds the highest elected office any woman has held in American history. If you're anti-Kamala, you better steel yourself because she's going to be bothering you for another couple decades or so.

[filghy2]

I don't know much about Kamala Harris, but I agree that woman in politics face double standards. I've never understood the degree of animus in the US towards Hillary Clinton. The most bizarre thing was the people saying they voted for Trump in 2016 because they couldn't stand Hillary's lies. A similar thing happened with Julia Gillard, Australia's first and only female Prime Minister. She was actually very effective in getting legislation through a hung parliament, but the common perception seemed to be that she was calculating and devious.

Many of the reasons people give for not liking these politicians seem like rationalisations. If they behave like a typical male politician they are criticised for being ruthless, calculating and devious. If they behaved in a more stereotypically feminine way many of the same people would no doubt complain that they were not strong and forceful enough to be a good leader.

[Stavros]

Two interesting posts above. I recall some of the ridicule Julia Gillard faced in Parliament, but don't know much else about her. As for Harris, the demographic points thombergon makes are similar to the ones I made in the OP. So it begs the question, is she the victim of a biased media -in the UK she doesn't have much support it seems- or does she really have problems of management with her staff and her 'Vision' if she has any?

There is so much to happen in the interim, not least the prospect that Trump will not be able to run for legal reasons, or like Putin he just likes tugging at people's egos. Then there is the prospect that Harris might be President sooner than we think... but let's not dwell on that now....

[Stavros]

I sometimes get the impression that it's not can Kamala save the Nation, but can anyone save Kamala? She seems to me to be level-headed, calm in a crisis, reasonable but maybe not the charisma that some people seem to need, as if Presidents must make rousing speeches to the masses.

She gave a considered and well-judged speech to the Munich Security Conference a few weeks, ago, and in this clip she demolishes the superficial nonsense of De Santis on Ukraine, a topic of which he knows nothing, indeed, his ignorance on a variety of important issues ought to raise concerns. It seems to me the logic of his position is to withdraw the US from NATO.

Anyway, some people here will have seen it, but I still think she can grow into the role and if Biden drops out or something else happens, it will be her opportunity to prove she can do it.

Kamala Harris Slams Ron DeSantis' Ukraine Statement (yahoo.com)