DAN MCLAUGHLIN: The Obamas aren’t saving Kamala Harris. They’re exposing how bad she really is.
Obama would never have looked as flustered as Harris did on CNN and NBC trying to escape those questions. Even when Obama was vague enough to convince people he stood for two opposite things at once, he always had swagger.
Many Democrats must now be wondering if they made a mistake handing Harris the nomination by coronation. Obama is reduced to trying to shame black men into backing Harris, telling “the brothers” that he suspects “you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president”. Biden was seen chatting with Obama at Ethel Kennedy’s funeral; lip-readers concluded that the President told Obama “She’s not as strong as me,” to which Obama replied, “I know … that’s true.”
What if Michelle Obama had been the nominee instead? She’s never shown interest in going through the wringer of running for office, but nobody else could so easily have unified the party as an emergency substitute, and she could effortlessly have run more as a third Obama term than a second Biden one.
That’s a separation Harris hasn’t managed. If Barack Obama is worried about his legacy, perhaps he would have been better off keeping it in the family.
Earlier today from Glenn: The coming Clinton/Obama internecine squabble?