Vice president Kamala Harris with Joe Biden in the White House rose garden. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP
Being vice-president of the United States is not much fun, or so it often seems from the outside. All the trappings of power are present: high-profile events, free foreign travel, big limos, secret service protection and a turreted mansion in the grounds of Washington’s Naval Observatory.
But the job itself is a cemetery from which few escape with their political lives. Indeed, attending funerals is in the job description. The incumbent is forever overshadowed by the president of the day, blamed for his blunders, given thankless tasks to perform.
To think of the post as a stepping stone is misleading. George HW Bush, Ronald Reagan’s deputy, moved directly into the top job in 1989. Few others have pulled it off. Joe Biden, Barack Obama’s loyal No 2 for eight long years, was passed over in favour of Hillary Clinton.
Of course, there’s always a chance the ‘phone will ring – and everything changes in a proverbial heartbeat. That happened to Lyndon Johnson, after JFK’s assassination, and, in less tragic circumstances, to Gerald Ford. Yet mostly, ex-vice-presidents slip unlamented into obscurity, diminished and finished. Gaffe-prone Dan Quayle, 1989-93, the “deer caught in headlights”, was terminally mauled. Snarling Dick Cheney, 2001-9, departed widely loathed. Donald Trump thundered that his reluctant fall guy Mike Pence, 2017-21, deserved lynching.
Veep hunting: it’s a favourite Washington bloodsport. Foreshadowing Prince Harry’s “Spare”, Benjamin Franklin suggested re-titling the incumbent “Your Superfluous Excellency”. One Veep spluttered the job was “not worth a bucket of warm piss”.
It’s like having your head in the stocks. Expectations are set impossibly high, then the victim is pilloried and pelted with mud pies for failing to match them.
Veep hunting recommenced in earnest last week after Biden confirmed he will seek a second term with Kamala Harris again at his side. As vice-president, Harris has been patronised by friends, ridiculed by pundits and traduced by enemies.
Evidently, some of this pain goes with the job. And perhaps her sometimes less-than-stellar performance partly warrants it. Yet even by past standards, Harris has had an unusually rough ride. Why? The fact she is the first woman vice-president, has Black and Asian American roots, and is a liberal from California provides a clue. As divided America’s crucial 2024 election looms, her reselection effectively pins a target on her back for Trump – the most likely GOP candidate – plus Maga extremists, rabid Republicans, preachifying evangelicals, lying TV hosts and assorted wackos, racists and bigots to aim at. This is a figure of speech – hopefully.
Yet security is certainly a worry given the Capitol Hill insurrection and out-of-control gun crime. Last week, Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis, another female Black Democrat – who is expected to charge Trump with election tampering – requested extra FBI protection.
Harris will face intense scrutiny for one reason entirely beyond her control: Biden’s age. The president is already the oldest ever; he will be 86 by January, 2029. Pretending this is not an issue is foolish. Recent polls suggest most voters, including most Democrats, believe he should step down.
Biden’s refusal means, actuarially speaking, that Harris, 58, stands an inexorably increasing chance of becoming president as his notional second term proceeds. Given that her disapproval rating is 53%, Democrats worry this possibility could alienate uncommitted independents, representing around half of all voters.
“Because … the chance of [Biden’s] health failing is not small, people will be asked to vote as much for his vice-president as for him, maybe more than in any other election in American history,” veteran commentator Tom Friedman predicted last week. Whether or not her problems stemmed from inflated expectations, from being out of her depth, or from “a mix of sexism and racism”, Harris continued to struggle with public perceptions, he wrote. If the past is any guide, Republicans will try to capitalise on Harris’s uncertain appeal, and weaponise her progressive views, against the constant, unspoken, unwritten and infinitely divisive subtext of colour and ethnicity.
It’s already begun, with an AI-generated TV attack ad last week depicting street riots during a second term. Harris was sneered at for another so-called “word salad” public speaking snafu.
Watching America, a similarly divided world is “loading for bear”, as Americans say. A victory for Trump, 76, would spell disaster for democracy, Europe – and Ukraine. Yet reactionaries of all stripes prefer that to the prospect of Harris sitting in the Oval. Typically, an opinion piece last week in Britain’s Daily Telegraph warned: “President Kamala Harris should terrify us all”. Oblivious to the irony, the article’s female author suggested Harris was the product of “tokenism” favouring women and minorities.
Such mud-slinging is unavoidable. And there’s a lot more to come. Yet looked at another way, Harris has a golden opportunity to turn the tables and de-fang her detractors. Biden’s increasing reliance presages a raised profile and more top-line campaign appearances.
It also means Harris, less fearful of White House second-guessing and backstabbing, will be freer to speak her mind. Two powerful Democrat women, Jill Biden and Hillary Clinton, who have not always been entirely supportive, should rally round. Harris has earned this chance to make her case.
She is already the administration’s lead advocate for abortion rights following the supreme court’s overturning of Roe v Wade last year. The issue is splitting and hurting Republicans from Nebraska and Wisconsin to South Carolina. Her strong stand on police reform, civil rights, GOP voter suppression, climate and education may energise vital centre-ground support.
In this age of disillusionment, of distrust and cynicism about old-boy politics, Harris is honest, passionate – and relatively young. Far from being the liability conventional wisdom suggests, this latest incarnation of the much-abused Veep may prove the Democrats’ saving grace.
