Staff Reports
The political landscape has taken yet another twist, and it looks like the ghost of Hillary Clinton is set to haunt the Democratic Party once again. Fresh off her embarrassing defeat in 2016, the former secretary of state has thrown her weight behind Vice President Kamala Harris as she steps into the ring for the 2024 election. It seems that Clinton is determined to help Harris not just break the glass ceiling but maybe even dent it a little by becoming the first woman president, something Clinton couldn’t achieve.
Despite tapping into the anguish of her previous loss, Clinton’s support for Harris might raise some eyebrows. The timing of her endorsement was as swift as it was predictable, coming right on the heels of President Joe Biden’s announcement to give up on his re-election bid. Clinton’s advice is apparently flowing like wine at a vineyard party, as she offers guidance over cozy dinners and calls in seasoned campaign operatives to whip Harris’s campaign into shape. One can only wonder if that charm offensive includes tips on how to dodge a scandal or two, something Clinton has quite the experience with.
🔵 Hillary Clinton Hands Baton to Kamala Harris
Hillary Clinton passed that baton to Kamala Harris on the first night of the Democratic National Convention, endorsing the vice president and her goal to become the nation's first female head of state.
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However, a big question looms: has Harris learned from Clinton’s many pitfalls? The 2016 election was a masterclass in what not to do, with Clinton’s campaign overshadowed by cringeworthy excuses and a heavy reliance on identity politics. Reports suggest that Harris’s team is hell-bent on avoiding those missteps, especially the folly of making the campaign all about gender and race. The drop in identity politics rhetoric might be a move in the right direction, but it still raises concerns about what else Harris is hiding behind her prosecutorial resume.
Speaking of hiding, Harris is currently leading in some polls, but the margins are so thin you could slice them with a butter knife. While there’s chatter that her campaign is targeting crucial battleground states like Wisconsin and Michigan, the fact remains that she’s trailing in other swing states like Arizona and Georgia. These states are like the golden eggs of the election, and slipping up in any of them could very well spell doom for her candidacy.
The crystal ball of polling data suggests that while Harris holds a slight edge over Trump nationally, it’s a pitiful lead when compared to the margins Clinton held when she was on the campaign trail. Back in 2016, Clinton boasted a 5.7-point lead by this time, while Biden was sitting on a comfortable 7.4 points four years later. Harris may be up by just 1.5 points now, but that’s hardly the momentum needed to challenge someone like Trump, who clearly knows how to defy the odds and turn a campaign around. In the end, whether this VP can rise above Clinton’s shadow or become another victim of the Democratic establishment’s mistakes remains to be seen.
