
<p>One of the stories creeping into the news – or shall I say “leaking” into the news? – is an apparent rift between the President Biden Team and the Vice President Harris Team. ; Some reports place the blame on the two principles. ; One news analyst –one of those supposedly with the inside poop – did not resort to euphemistic language. ; He stated in unequivocal terms that Biden and Harris “hate each other.”</p>



<p>Officially, however, everything is honky-dory in the West Wing of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. ; Biden Chief-of-Staff Ron Klain went on damage control – appearing on various news outlets to offer up high praise for the Vice President. ; “She is doing a terrific job,” he declared.</p>



<p>But that is not the perception at the proverbial watercooler.</p>



<p>Team Biden complained that Harris is not taking on the job in a serious and effective manner. ; After being assigned to be border czar over immigration, Harris seems to have gone AWOL. ; Her one trip to the border was a photo op at a point where there were virtually no migrants entering the country.</p>



<p>She did take a trip to Vietnam – for what purpose was never made clear. ; And there was not much to report upon her return to the United States. ; I would bet that most Americans not were even aware of her foray to Asia.</p>



<p>And her job as the outreach person to minorities has not been all that successful. ; Increasing numbers of blacks and Hispanics voted Republican in 2020 and 2021. ; That may be because Harris has not polled well among blacks from the time she first announced for President. Her approval rating among blacks is actually lower than Biden’s</p>



<p>So far, she has not been terribly effective as a super salesperson for the Biden’s Social Welfare efforts even though she was handed that assignment, too. ; She is blamed for being part of the Democrats’ “messaging problem.” ; That may be the source of Team Biden’s greatest irritability with Harris.</p>



<p>Just by way of comparison, when Mike Pence was Vice President – and put in charge of the Covid task force, he was holding briefings in the White House on an almost daily basis – at least until President Trump started showing up.</p>



<p>Team Harris understandably has a different view. ; They argue that Harris has been handed all the tasks in which there are no easy solutions. ; Biden appointed her to the crisis at the boarder because he did not want to take on that situation himself. ; And as evidence of that, Biden has not yet gone to the border for an on-site briefing.</p>



<p>Some see Harris merely as a shield for the President. ; In many of his public pronouncements, Biden uses Harris as a prop. ; She generally stands behind him – off to the left – and has nothing to say. ; She takes her position on the stage and leaves without commenting or responding any questions.</p>



<p>In picking Harris as his running mate, Biden was thinking pure politics. ; A progressive black woman to shore up support among minorities and women. ; On might call it “tokenism.”</p>



<p>Harris was no friend of Biden when they were both competing for the Democrat presidential nomination. ; She made her strongest points in her famous “I was that little girl” debate retort &#8212; when she essentially called Biden a racist and the father of the 1990s crime bills that overcrowded America’s prisons with young black and Hispanic males.</p>



<p>There is a popularized saying that you should “keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” ; It comes from the 1974 “The Godfather – Part 2” movie. ; That may have been part of the thought process in picking Harris.</p>



<p>It is not the first time that has happened. ; For his second Vice President, Abraham Lincoln chose Andrew Johnson, a southern Democrat, to be his running mate. ; President Kennedy chose his mortal political enemy, then-Senator Lyndon Johnson as his Vice President candidate. ; In the cases of the two Johnsons, the political adversary became President upon the assassination of the boss.</p>



<p>In both cases, the disdain and rancor between the supporters of Lincoln and Kennedy and the supporters of Johnson and Johnson carried forward into the new administration. ; It eventually got Andrew Johnson impeached – and the lack of public popularity forced Lyndon Johnson to withdraw his bid for re-election in 1968. ; It would seem that Biden was thinking more about politics than history when he picked Harris.</p>



<p>The other thing Biden did not consider was Harris’ general popularity – or more accurately, her unpopularity. ; For reasons that are too complicated to explain, Harris – at least what the public sees – is not very likeable. ; That was a factor in her inability to get traction in the presidential campaign – and is seen in her flat-lined poll numbers.</p>



<p>In the latest polls, Harris is in the mid-20s in favorability. ; That is phenomenally low for a Vice President – especially one who has only been on office less than a year. ; They generally are more popular than the presidents they serve – largely because they are not steeped in the major controversies and subjected to unrelenting partisan attacks.</p>



<p>The Harris problem has even led to speculation that she would be replaced by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. ; The fact that such a silly conjecture has been seriously aired in the mainstream media is indicative that Harris is a problem for Biden. ; Is it because she is not doing the job, as Team Biden says, or because they are undermining her, as Team Harris alleges? ; Does not matter.</p>



<p>It is safe to say that Biden does have a Harris problem – and no number of public assurances are going to make it go away. ; This is a marriage of convenience and the best that Team Biden can hope for is to get through the rest of his term without a full-fledged political divorce.</p>



<p>So, there ‘tis.</p>

Joe versus Kamala
