OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Peggy Noonan, a Wall Street Journal columnist and former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan offered Vice President Kamala Harris some advice in a column last week to improve her image and her dismal approval ratings.
The theme of the column is that Harris, who is a breath away from the presidency given Joe Biden’s age and the perception of failing mental health — which has not been medically confirmed, by the way — “needs to get serious” about improving the American public’s perception of her because she may have to play commander-in-chief at some point in the near future.
“The good thing about having been killed is nobody expects anything from you because you’re dead,” wrote Noonan, laying out the “good news.”
“Expectations are low. Ms. Harris can use the time of her deadness to focus on why she’s failing,” the columnist continued, adding that there are multiple threats currently facing the United States — from “China, Russia, [and] the endurance of the American economy.”
The columnist noted that Harris — who polled at around 28 percent last month in a USA Today/Suffolk University survey — will have to adjust her political tactics if she ever hopes to be an effective leader, going on to offer her view as to why the veep has not connected with ordinary Americans or the ruling class in D.C.
“She loves the politics of politics too much, and not the meaning. When people meet with her they come away saying that what she cares about is the politics of the issue, not the issue itself,” Noonan said..
“But even as she’s obsessed with the game of national politics she’s not so far particularly good at it. When she sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, she spectacularly flamed out,” she continued.
The columnist argued that though Harris was a U.S. senator and is not the VP, she’s “relatively new to town” so she can’t really take the “Washington insider” track to more power and influence. She also said Harris’ West Coast pedigree isn’t helping.
“She came from a generation of California Democrats who never even had to meet a Republican, so great was their electoral dominance,” the former speechwriter noted. “It was too easy for them. She only had to speak Democrat, only had to know how they think and put together party coalitions. But half or more of the country is conservative or Republican. She never had to develop the broad political talents to talk to them too.”
Therefore, Harris cannot rely “on her sense of her own personal charisma” and instead must finally “decide to become serious” by putting in the work to learn more about the issues and by delving into her briefing books she reportedly shuns on a regular basis.
“She doesn’t seem strong in public; she seems scattered and unprepared,” Noonan offered.
The former speechwriter went on to brush off claims that criticism of Harris is outsized because she’s a woman of color.
“The reason people watch Ms. Harris so closely isn’t that she’s a woman of color or a breakthrough figure, but that she could become president at any moment the next three years,” Noonan wrote, adding she should make herself “useful” to Biden to make up for skill sets that he lacks.
“To do this Ms. Harris would have to decide to become serious—to inform and immerse herself, meet with party thinkers, study her briefing books,” she wrote. “Her current strategy, to the extent it exists, appears to rely on her sense of her own personal charisma—delighted laughter, attempts to connect personally, to convey zest.”
Harris should also become a lot more humble, Noonan advised.
“Let them say you look chastened: People would be relieved to see you look chastened,” she wrote. “Let them snidely suggest you had previously hidden your serious side. You did. Let them say you’ve been humbled. You should be. So far you’ve got a lot to be humble about.
“Get your mind off yourself, give America a break, get this thing turned around,” she wrote.
