The bar couldn’t be set higher for Vice President Kamala Harris at Tuesday night’s presidential debate.
Not only must she make a favorable, yet imposing; joyful yet deadly serious; thoughtful yet tough first impression for many voters, she also must prove she is turning the page on President Joe Biden’s administration.
As second in command for the past four years, Harris has been “in the room” of high-level national and international decisions.
It’s been an all-business, no-drama affair.
There’s been no questioning the value of vaccines, the honesty and efficacy of our election system are no longer cast in doubt, and the realities of climate change are once again legitimized.
Threats to press the “nuclear button” are no longer intimated.
There’s no confusion as to who our friends or enemies are. There’s no more fawning over dictators like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, or, most recently, Hungary’s Viktor Orban.
And this administration has refrained from attacking the reputations of women, minorities, third-world countries, the press, teachers, veterans, health officials, and the LGBTQ community.
Depending on your viewpoint, the past few years have been either downright boring or refreshingly normal, or as close to normal as we can get these days.
As vice president, Harris has purposely worked behind the scenes. Her job has been to serve the president.
As such, she is not exactly a household name.
That’s in sharp contrast to former President Donald Trump, who ever since his defeat in 2020 has worked to ensure he remains front and center in our collective thoughts.
In the last three-plus years he’s developed his own media platform and gone into selling autographed bibles, digital trading cards, jewelry, pricey sneakers, flags, hats and even bobble-heads.
Never has a president marketed themselves as successfully as has Trump.
Highlighting this difference between the two would be to Harris’s advantage.
