In what could be yet another was of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton getting close to becoming president, Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker argued on Friday, June 14, that President Joe Biden could consider replacing current Vice President Kamala Harris with former Secretary of State and failed presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
The suggestion comes as the Biden Campaign stares bad news in the face headed into the 2024 election in November, with Biden’s polling down badly compared to former President Donald Trump. Particularly, many see President Biden as old and incompetent and Kamala Harris as somehow even more incompetent, with Trump old but not showing it like Biden. So, replacing Kamala with Hillary would be a way of making the Biden ticket look somewhat less worrisome.
In any case, in the Friday column, Parker argued that, rather than focusing on replacing President Biden with someone else, his VP selection could be changed to make the ticket more bearable. She wrote, “No one has mentioned her as a possible running mate for Biden as far as I know, but why not replace Harris with Clinton?”
Continuing, Parker noted that Hillary is also of somewhat advanced age, so she could be uninterested in a strenuous job a the end of her career. She wrote, “At 76, she might want no part of it, but it’s hard to retire when you feel your job isn’t done.” But, she added, Hillary is the only candidate who represents “relative centrism” and is a serious contender to replace VP Harris.
Parker went on to note that, perhaps unlike with Kamala, voters might be willing to trust Hillary to do the job if Biden has to step down or otherwise doesn’t finish his term, which would make the ticket somewhat less unappealing. She said, “If Biden needs to step down, even those who didn’t vote for Clinton would have confidence in her ability to keep the country on track.”
Then, Parker noted that Harris is a “significant obstacle” to Biden’s campaign, as shown by her continually poor polling. She added, on that point, “More independents and disenchanted Republicans might swing for Biden if it weren’t for the prospect of a President Harris — not because of her sex, race or any other demographic category, but because of her competency, or lack thereof.”
Parker also suggested that ditching Harris would not significantly impact Biden’s showing amongst black voters, saying, “The question now is, how risky would it be for Democrats to replace her? Some worry that a change would jeopardize Black votes.” She continued, “It was never clear, however, that Harris was a draw for Black American voters, even if some Black women celebrated her rise.”
It remains to be seen if the Biden Campaign acts on Parker’s advice, but what is clear is that Kamala is not well-received. For example, speaking on Hannity, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich roasted her as “hopeless,” saying, “Kamala’s hopeless because she’s Kamala. Anybody who watches her knows the idea of her being President makes Biden look good, which is really hard nowadays.”
Watch Gingrich speak about the Kamala issue here:
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