It must be tough being Kamala Harris. We might never have heard of her if Willie Brown, the ex-San Francisco mayor who once wielded great clout in California politics, hadn’t given her a start in government in what was, well, let’s just say a carnal quid pro quo. Brown would much later say that Harris wasn’t presidential material, and the voters seemed to agree: Then a California senator, she dropped out of the 2020 presidential race in December 2019 — just as she was poised to lose her home state.
Harris hasn’t been any more alluring as vice president, with many describing her persona as “cringey.” Now, however, she has apparently gotten a personality makeover. Yet it’s not a hit, either. In fact, even the White House now might have dumped her.
Talk of the makeover arose because Harris just appeared in series of videos, created by a PR firm, featuring her talking to kids about space travel. More on that momentarily. But first some background, courtesy of Politico:
For months, KAMALA HARRIS’ allies have insisted her office is not in crisis. So why did she hire a veteran crisis communications expert last month?
LORRAINE VOLES was one of two hires, along with former Obama speechwriter ADAM FRANKEL, reported by both the Washington Post and CNN over the weekend. Both worked for the vice president during the transition, and “offered to be of assistance,” an official from the White House said. A Harris aide said Voles and Frankel began their new roles in August.
Although the White House official didn’t use the word “crisis,” Voles is well known as a public relations and crisis communications expert. She most recently led crisis communications at George Washington University and at Fannie Mae, after serving as a strategist and adviser to HILLARY CLINTON’s 2006 Senate reelection race and 2008 presidential bid. In the late ‘90s, she helped AL GORE craft his message as vice president. Now she’ll help Harris with long-term planning, her policy agenda and with “organizational development” and strategic communications, according to a White House official.
(Hat tip: commentator Monica Showalter.)
It’s ironic that Harris, viewed as phony and artificial, has chosen as a makeover specialist a woman who once advised both Gore, possibly the most “plastic” politician of recent generations; and Hillary Clinton, who’s no more authentic.
Even more hilariously, the public-relations company that worked with Harris to create her videos is a Canadian one known, aptly, as Sinking Ship Entertainment. And here’s its handiwork:
Of course, using kids as photo-op props is par for the Democrats’ course (in accordance with their systemic child abuse). It’s useful, too. Children can “make a battered client look compassionate and motherly (or fatherly), something that’s particularly useful when one has a reputation as a hectoring scold,” writes Showalter.
(It also amounts to the using of the face of innocence to sell iniquity, as destructive programs are manipulatively marketed with the “Do it for the children” line.)
Harris has been criticized for acting (and overacting) in the videos and for talking down to the kids as if they’re six years old, when they look to be 11 to 14. But phoniness is par for (especially “progressive”) politicians’ course.
Consider former Voles client Hillary Clinton’s ever-evolving accents (video below).
Next, since Hillary 1.0 was often a bit stiff and cold, the newer, post-PR firm-intervention iterations were much more animated. This attempt to buck her nature, however, led to her sometimes seeming like the aliens on Third Rock from the Sun when they try imitating human behavior. Just consider the video below, which has become a meme, of Hillary acting “surprised” by released balloons at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
Then there’s the other Voles client, Gore, and his speech transition. A great and very astute friend of mine once observed that while Gore 1.0 spoke fluently without any hitches at all (very unusual and generally an asset), post-PR firm-intervention Gore would sometimes stammer when initiating sentences. My friend’s theory is that this was by design and done to make him seem more human.
Of course, Harris has on occasion confessed her phoniness. For example, consider her response when asked last year by comedian Stephen Colbert how she could become “buddies” with (and the running mate of) Joe Biden after having essentially called him a racist and sexual harasser in a debate. “It was a debate!” Harris said dismissively, while laughing as if Colbert were stupid to even have taken her seriously.
But now, perhaps, she’s not even being taken seriously by the White House. Despite having been appointed in March to be Biden’s “border czar,” Harris was conspicuously absent from high-level border-security talks on Friday between upper-echelon administration figures and Mexican officials. This prompted Showalter to ask, “Has the White House dumped Kamala?”
Returning to the space videos and as an aside, note something about them. While it’s certain that Sinking Ship Entertainment — which “specializes in video production and distribution featuring kids,” informs Showalter — took pains to present a “diverse” group of youngsters, there wasn’t even one white boy among them. It’s yet another example of the Left’s exclusive “inclusivity.”
Anyway, say what you will about President Trump, he never had to, or tried, to repackage himself, and he never played the chameleon based on the audience. Unfortunately, some people don’t mind being deceived if the deceptions keep them, for the moment, comfortably numb.
