Success has a thousand fathers. Failure has at least a few dozen disgruntled sources willing to spill the tea, as long as it spills in the right direction. For Democrats struggling to explain their dire political predicament, the tea spills in one general direction -- Kamala Harris.
But of course, that misses the mark.
According to ABC News' Jonathan Karl and his new book, Retribution, the problems started when Nancy Pelosi rushed to endorse Harris in the immediate aftermath of Joe Biden's withdrawal from the election. When the Obamas found out, an angry Barack Obama ripped Pelosi in a private call for reneging on a pledge of restraint:
'The Obamas were not happy,' a Pelosi confidant told Karl. 'This person summed up Obama's message to Pelosi as, essentially, "What the f*** did you just do?"'
Pelosi told the former Democratic president: 'That train has left the station.'
The endorsement had come as a surprise to Obama because he and Pelosi had been in 'regular communication' as it appeared then 81-year-old Biden was nearing the decision to drop out of the race, and 'they agreed Harris should not simply be handed the nomination unchallenged,' Karl wrote.
'Therefore, Obama and Pelosi - arguably the two most influential figures in the Democratic Party - had privately agreed to abstain from making any endorsements,' the longtime ABC News reporter said.
First off, let's just parse out the sourcing of this information. This could only come from one of two sources: the Obamas or Pelosi, staff inclusive. As it turns out, it looks like both sides corroborate that this argument took place. Karl's source(s) in the Obama camp insist that this was a friendly conversation, while his Pelosi source(s) characterize Obama as at least annoyed. The latter provided Karl with the f-bomb language to characterize the tone more accurately.
What about the Biden camp? The Bidens have beefs with both camps after the exposure of Biden's cognitive impairment, feeling as though Pelosi and the Obamas gave Joe the bum's rush. Their contribution to this conversation seems both bitter and perhaps an odd whiff of ... vindication?
A senior Biden adviser, who also worked in the Obama White House, told Karl that the real reason Obama didn't want Pelosi to endorse Harris so quickly was that the former president didn't think the vice president could win.
'There's only one Black Jesus,' the senior Biden adviser quipped.
Yikes. Tell us how you really feel.
All of this is vastly amusing, of course, but largely irrelevant -- except for one point, to which we'll return in a moment. Democrats didn't lose the 2024 election in July 2024. They lost it in 2023 when they corrupted their primary process to protect the Biden cover-up from getting exposed. That decision came from everyone in the Democrat Party. They were all complicit in the cover-up -- the Obamas, Pelosi, the Bidens, the DNC, the White House, and especially Harris herself. They all went along with the Sharp As A Tack® narrative, gaslighting Americans who could clearly see that Biden was barely able to function and speak extemporaneously, right up to that moment when Obama had to guide Biden off the stage at a fundraiser hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.
All of this "retribution" feels more like misdirection. All of these Democrats are sniping at each other to distract from the corrupt attempt to use Biden as a sort of Theoden in the grips of a Wormtongue cabal that secretly and illegally wielded executive power through a decrepit figurehead.
There is one relevant point, though, and that's Harris herself. Earlier this morning, Isaac Schorr argued at The Spectator that Harris is the default favorite for the 2028 Democrat presidential nomination. And the reason is ... Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:
She has no equal in the party’s establishment, the cohort of empty suits who would implement a diluted version of her agenda, though. This group seeks to saddle Americans with much of what they’ve already rejected – gender ideology, anti-growth climate policies, and a laissez-faire approach to border security – but without explicitly embracing the socialist label, or the language of the average Middlebury campus activist.
Those who might run in this lane all face significant headwinds. Former mayor and transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg is the most gifted, but black voters are allergic to his smug, McKinsey shtick. Governor Gavin Newsom of California can bob, weave, dip and dodge with the best of them, but his ambition and inauthenticity shines through in every syllable. Senator Cory Booker’s Spartacus act is a running gag. Senator Chris Murphy is Wonder Bread with Iranian flag packaging. Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois is a big nepo-baby whose case for a promotion collapses at the first mention of his state’s largest city.
Should no one else emerge, the Democrats’ failure to build a palatable, center-left bench could lead them, by default, back to Harris. Her existing name recognition – and the months-long astroturf campaign to build her up last year – arguably sets her apart from the field; and there is precedent for coalescing around imperfect establishment candidates. Look no further than 2020, when the entire party got behind Biden to stop Sanders.
My prediction: Nope. Harris can't campaign; she can barely speak coherently. The only way she could ever get to the nomination was in the way that she did -- through an anointing. The party got behind Biden to stop Sanders, but Biden at least could still speak coherently most of the time, and Biden actually represented the center of the party. To win the nomination, Harris would have to compete against more than just AOC (who Schorr overestimates anyway, in my opinion), but also against governors and senators that would outclass her almost out of the gate. Harris would be lucky to make it to Iowa before flaming out, just like she did in 2019. If Democrats plan to rally around anyone as an alternative to the hard Left, it will be Greasy Gavin, not Word Salad Harris.
In the meantime, get ready for a lot more misdirection and gaslighting, dressed up as "retribution."
Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.
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