We are told that President Joe Biden has decided to drop out of the US presidential race and that he wants Kamala Harris to run for President in his place. “We are told” because the statement came on X, and when it was released “officially”, it did not come on a White House letterhead, but on a personal letterhead with a digital signature, immediately leading to speculation if Biden had become so cognitively impaired that he couldn’t even sign a letter. There is some buzz about US First Lady, Jill Biden—the apparent power behind the throne—needing a lot of convincing before the letter could be released. There is also speculation if Biden himself understands that he has opted out of the race, or that he has opted for Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee for Presidential contest in November this year.
If any of this is true, it will prove the extent of cognitive damage that Biden has suffered, as it happens with very senior citizens, which is understandable. What is not understandable is why Biden opted for this ignominious exit and couldn’t drop out of the race gracefully. Whatever be the spin being given by a friendly legacy media, that Biden behaved in a statesman-like manner by opting out of the race for health reasons, the truth is that President Joe Biden was literally pushed out of the race by a panicking Democratic Party, which was sure of receiving a drubbing at the hands of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance in the Presidential election. Now questions are being raised on Biden’s ability to run a government till the next administration is in place, in January next year. Hence, for the next 5-6 months, the world’s number 1 superpower will likely have a head of state who is not in full control of his senses and who will govern through his family members and close aides.
As for Kamala Harris, the Democrats who support her are hoping that her candidature will bring out the Democratic voter who had decided to sit out the election because they thought Biden was unfit to run. They are also banking on the “America’s first woman President” factor to get 50% of the electorate—the female demography—to vote for her in November. In fact, this could be a decisive factor when it comes to voting, although there is already a buzz that Harris, apart from being underwhelming, is also incompetent. The other charge is that she is far too left, woke and radical for anyone’s comfort. In fact, it’s a bit tough to visualise the leader of the world starting a conversation with heads of state and government with, “I am Kamala Harris, my pronouns are she and her.” That’s mindless and straight out of woke school, but that’s exactly what she has been saying, even as Vice President, because of which she has been mocked even by the liberals. Her performance as Vice President has come under severe criticism. She is being accused of not even trying to do the only job she was given, to sort out the US’ border crisis—the problem of illegal immigration.
Instead, she talked about concentrating on the root cause behind illegal immigration. She is seen as gaffe prone and her critics claim that one of her biggest contributions to foreign policy has been the following gem: “So, Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine…” Ever since Biden’s announcement, the social media platform X is flooded with videos and sound-bites of Kamal Harris’ innumerable gaffes that do not make her look good. But the gender and the colour factors may work for her. She has been identifying herself with the black population, while downplaying the Indian side of her identity—although even among black voters, not many are buying her argument that she is black because she is of Jamaican-Indian descent. Democrats supporting her hope that the first woman President being a “black” will lead to the majority of that voting bloc to opt for her. This is doubly important at a time when large sections of black voters, unhappy with Biden, have been migrating to Trump. In fact, even in the 2020 Presidential election that Trump lost, large sections of both black and Hispanic voters abandoned the Democrats to vote for Trump. However, given that Trump is a hugely controversial figure, there are many who would vote for “anyone but Trump”, and this especially applies to floating voters in general—people who are repelled by the drama that surrounds Trump. So it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Kamala Harris has a fair chance of winning the Presidential election in November.
Thus the world may get a half-Indian American President in 2025—an Indian who would prefer to keep her Indian roots outside of the spotlight. In fact, India should temper any hopes that it may have from the next US President, if Kamala Harris in particular occupies that chair. The pinpricks on human rights that India has been getting, will start resembling cannon balls, primarily because she has to keep her left-loony support base—which goes by the name “progressive”—in the Democratic party happy. It’s unlikely that Kamala Harris as President will be better for India than either Donald Trump or Joe Biden.
