Adekeye Adebajo | Kamala Harris: In the shadow of Barack Obama

In April 2013, Barack Obama was forced to apologise for describing California’s Kamala Harris as “the best-looking attorney general”, also calling her “brilliant”, “dedicated”, and “tough.” America’s first black president was nevertheless widely castigated for detracting from a woman’s brains by focusing on her beauty.

Harris, the first female US vice president, recently became the presumptive Democratic party presidential candidate after a faltering Joe Biden chose not to seek re-election and endorsed her. If she wins the presidency against Donald Trump in November, Harris would become not just America’s first female president, but also its first of Caribbean and Asian descent.

DREAMS FROM OUR PARENTS

Even as the Democratic political leadership – including, significantly, Bill and Hillary Clinton – enthusiastically endorsed Harris’ nomination, Obama waited a week to do so, demonstrating once again his narcissism and “Head Negro in Charge” syndrome. As the monarchical former president harboured delusions of being a kingmaker, the delay raised unnecessary doubts about Harris’s candidacy. Obama had backed Hillary Clinton in her unsuccessful 2016 presidential bid (apparently in exchange for Bill Clinton’s full-throated endorsement of Obama’s re-election in 2012), rather than support his loyal vice-president, Joe Biden. The Kenyan-Kansan was also reportedly among Democratic party grandees who helped scuttle Biden’s re-election bid.

Harris and Obama have known each other for two decades, and she was the first prominent California politician to endorse his 2008 presidential bid. Both are bi-racial, with black fathers from Kenya (Obama) and Jamaica (Harris) and white (Obama) and Indian (Harris) mothers; both their parents separated when they were children, a period during which the two spent time in Chennai (Harris) and Jakarta (Obama); both became immersed in African-American culture – Harris through the historically black Howard University and Obama through his black wife, Michelle, and black church in Chicago; both showed huge political ambition, publishing political memoirs and deciding to run for president after just two years in the US Senate.

ORATOR AND GRAFTER

But the differences between Obama and Harris are also glaring: he is a natural politician, a charismatic campaigner with flowery oratory though often unmatched by bold action. Harris, in contrast, had to suspend her 2019 presidential bid after a lacklustre campaign which featured poor debate performances, dwindling funds, and staff desertions. She has been widely vilified for being an invisible vice president, with a 39 per cent approval rating, who has spoken passionately for abortion rights but failed to tackle the migrant crisis at the southern border. Eighteen months ago, the New York Times reported on efforts within the Democratic party – rebuffed by Biden – to take her off the presidential ticket.

It is unclear whether Harris can win the votes of the undecided voters in the crucial swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada. Trump’s support is rock-solid among his cult-like Republican base. However, his xenophobic outbursts, deliberately mispronouncing Harris’s first name, and referring to her as a “bum” and “radical-left lunatic” may alienate moderates and women voters already angered by the Republicans’ anti-abortion stance. Harris will have to respond convincingly to Trump’s attacks on the Biden administration’s record on immigration and inflation, while touting successes on employment, the environment, infrastructure, and student debt.

SERVANTS OF EMPIRE

Some naively assume that if she were to become president, Harris – whose husband is Jewish – would change course on US policy towards Gaza. But the Israel lobby is simply too powerful a force in American politics. Despite his previous literary embrace of Martin Luther King Jr and Mandela’s progressive visions, once in power, Obama launched a military surge in Afghanistan, accelerated killer-drone warfare, established US military bases across Africa, and led the disastrous NATO intervention into Libya.

Harris is a similar establishment politician who, were she to win, would also feed the imperial American beast. Africans, Caribbean, and Indians should not expect much from her leadership and must avoid repeating the disappointment of Obama’s early lofty rhetoric of racial solidarity.

Professor Adekeye Adebajo is a senior research fellow at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship in South Africa. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com