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Kamala Harris had clearly, finally and decisively earned a piece of the action this week. it sure took a long time Sufficient,
after two years shoretake out the trash Headlines And defending something quite frankly indefensible policiesVice President merges a good news cycle befitting his role helping president joe biden make enter with women—specifically, women of color—and getting them to the White House. So this week, the former senator fasted stop Back home in California to help build what is billed as the world’s largest semiconductor site, a direct product of the successful Biden administration to push $53 billion for new tech builds included in last year’s CHIPS and SCIENCE Act.
Finally, Harris got a chance to play a football in his home end zone. It was a subtle sign that the West Wing is finally beginning to understand that—at most—benign neglect enabled The office of vice president for most of Biden’s term could spell trouble for his chances next year.
When a sitting president runs for a second term, the role of vice president can be a tricky one. It’s like asking voters to cast two ballots: one for the top ticket, and one for the back-up plan. it equals dicier when the incumbent is the president the oldest To try again sometime.
Certainly, Harris is starting from an incredible place. For the past two years, Groove And sarcasm Persuaded him and his team from the West Wing. turnover was pervasive morale flowed more than flowed, and missteps Were amplified by the seekers DIfficulty, Harris, for his part, did some of his own Favor with something extraordinary flutter During interviews and speeches. Biden’s team did that too dirtysaddle him with the politically impossible Work It was unclear from day to day whether the White House would regard it as anything more than an annoying hiccup, even as it tackled the immigration crisis at the US-Mexican border.
Gradually, however, Biden’s team has begun to realize that they may be unable to stay in power if they can’t use Harris in tactical ways — and have pushed her on no-win tasks like immigration. Take him away from and give him places where he can build reliably. Case. Abortion rights, for one, have given her a sweet spot. The right to vote is another. And, as happened in his native California, the up-side of domestic spending plans such as the CHIPS Act could give Silicon Valley workers and tech donors reasons to side with Biden.
All VPs go through this kind of stress, especially if they have political ambitions of their own. Those lacking ambition rarely set up shop on the west front of the West Wing, where the VP’s formal offices are. But usually, gray-haired old men around a sitting president realize that their own destiny is tied to that of the person sitting in the VP’s office; Biden’s team has sat in those club chairs before but somehow missed that Harris is now the heir to her boss’s legacy.
At the grand opening in California, Harris impressively explained how “semiconductors are the brain of modern technology,” and “essential to every electronic device we currently use.”
It was all very bland, but the rhetoric wasn’t exactly needed at the time of Applied Materials’ $4 billion Investment The 180,000-square-foot facility is expected to employ 1,500 construction workers to get up and running, and will then host 2,000 engineering jobs once it opens. It represents the biggest upgrade to US chip capacity of late, and is just one more proof point the Biden team could cite as it prepares to seek a second term next year. And, in Silicon Valley, Harris was finally basking in the victory lap that for more than two years the White House routinely denied its grasp.
It took forever for the office of the vice president to get back in the loop, but as it happens in Washington, in the words of one of its biggest boosters, “It’s better late than never.” The scoreboard really matters when it’s crowded mixture outside a stadium; Everything seen before this is a snapshot that misses the tension of the ongoing competition. At long last Harris getting her dues can only be seen as a sign of a reboot in an administration that has been missed for way too long with their greatest asset stuck in neutral in the driveway.
Harris’ relationship with Biden was awkward from the start. He created Headlines at the start of the campaign by attack on Biden’s record continues desegregation only to admit it was a Feat without substance. Biden’s Pledge Choosing a woman as his running mate left him with a handful of options, and Harris’s moment to plug the Biden orbit was far from spontaneous. The president, clearly, needed Harris far more than he needed, but he smartly bided his time with Biden, and it’s finally paying off.
In a perverse way, Harris has never had more power inside the Cozy Boys. club Biden’s making. If the president is going to forfeit a second term, he Requirements harris and all that represents, the doors that she opens, and the symbolism that depends on her existence. There’s an absolutely zero-percent chance he can win a second term without him, OVP knows this, and is finally starting to show his dominance after two years of patiently watching the team operate in a cloud of dismissive, paranoia. Is. and confusion.
The task at hand is now fixing the fractured relationship between two political teams interested in keeping Harris as a player, both now and in the future. to cross the finish line. Biden will not only have to promote Harris in the short term, but fully embrace that her legacy will be wrapped up in him for the balance of his life.
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write to Philip Elliott at [email protected].
