Beyond Vulnerable

Wait... what?

President Biden and I have cancelled $167 billion in student loan debt for nearly 5 million people — and we're not stopping there.

We will continue our work to build an economy that works for every American. Learn more at https://t.co/TOL6mQV0lq. pic.twitter.com/ikYiaOwQdy

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) July 6, 2024

Of course, Ms. Harris had nothing to do with cancellation of student debt, other than possibly encouraging Mr. Biden to do it. The Vice President is the presiding officer of the Senate and casts the deciding vote there in csse of a tie. The Vice President always will do that as desired by the President.

Nonetheless, if Kamala Harris were to replace Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket (as appears increasingly unlikely) and wished to run as representing the Biden-Harris Administration, the GOP would be more than happy to accommodate her.  Republicans and conservative media- and most  media less friendly to the Democratic Party than is MSNBC- would remind voters constantly, as did this piece in February, that

President Biden, facing a political crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border in the early days of his administration, tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to lead a high-profile response that would bet heavily on improving conditions in three Central American countries.

It was known as the “root causes” strategy. The border, administration officials argued, was only a symptom. If the United States could improve economic, security and political conditions in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, fewer people would risk the perilous journey and much of the problem could be solved, they reasoned.

Three years later, the border crisis has only deepened, with record numbers of migrants from all over the hemisphere overwhelming the border, and a president on the defense as Republicans make immigration a key issue in his reelection campaign.

Specialists in migration say the administration miscalculated, choosing a narrow and time-consuming strategy that failed to anticipate the shifting nature of migration.

“It was focused on a long-term scenario and it was focused on countries that are no longer the primary sending countries,” said Ariel Ruiz Soto, a senior policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group.

Today the record number of migrants at the border has been fueled by people fleeing Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti, who together accounted for 583,000 border arrests in the 2023 budget year.

The Biden Administration's record on the border is dismal and the visuals would be epic.  On OANN, Newsmax, and on local stations throughout the country (video below), viewers would be subject to video of individuals streaming across our southern border. And they typically would not be men, women, and children but rather men, unaccompanied by women, thus intensifying the fear fear the videos are to engender.

 

A valid representation of the problem of illegal immigration? No. A problem for which Vice President Harris is responsible? No. Effective? You bet.

If she were to replace Joe Biden, Kamala Harris surely would claim credit for the many accomplishments of the present Administration. However, that door swings both ways- and with the current cranky mood of the American public, the door would likely hit her where she wouldn't like it.

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