William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the USA, was the final commander in chief born a British topic and the primary member of the Whig Celebration to win the White Home. He delivered the longest inaugural tackle in historical past, almost two hours, and had the shortest presidency, being the primary sitting president to die in workplace, simply 31 days into his time period.
Oh, there’s yet one more little bit of trivia concerning the man who gave us the slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too.” Harrison was the final politician to lose his first presidential election after which win the following one (Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson managed that earlier than him). Richard Nixon misplaced solely to win manner down the highway. (Grover Cleveland and Trump are the one two to win, lose after which win once more.)
Everybody else since Harrison’s period who misplaced on the primary attempt to ran once more within the subsequent election misplaced once more. Democrat Adlai Stevenson and Republican Thomas Dewey ran twice and misplaced twice. Henry Clay and William Jennings Bryan every ran thrice in a row and misplaced (Clay ran on three completely different get together tickets). Voters, it appears, don’t like losers.
These are usually not encouraging outcomes for Kamala Harris, who introduced final week she won’t be working for governor in California, sparking hypothesis that she desires one other go on the White Home.
However historical past isn’t what she ought to fear about. It’s the right here and now. The Democratic Celebration is wildly unpopular. It’s web favorability ( 30 factors) is sort of triple the GOP’s (11 factors). The Democratic Celebration is extra unpopular than any time within the final 35 years. When Donald Trump’s unpopularity with Democrats must be having the alternative impact, 63% of People have an unfavorable view of the get together.
Why? As a result of Democrats are mad at their very own get together — each for shedding to Trump and for failing to supply a lot of an impediment to him now that he’s in workplace. As my Dispatch colleague Nick Cattogio places it, “Even Democrats have discovered to hate Democrats.”
It’s not all Harris’ fault. Certainly, the lion’s share of the blame goes to Joe Biden and the coterie of enablers who inspired him to run once more.
Harris’ dilemma is that she symbolizes Democratic discontent with the get together. That discontent isn’t monolithic. For progressives, the objection is that Democrats aren’t combating laborious sufficient. For the extra centrist wing of the get together, the issue is the Democrats are combating for the fallacious issues, having lurched too far left on tradition struggle and identification politics. Uniting each factions is visceral need to win. That’s awkward for a politician greatest recognized for shedding.
Virtually the one motive Harris was positioned to be the nominee in 2024 was that she was a variety choose. Biden was specific that he would choose a lady and, later, an African American working mate. And the identical dynamic made it not possible to sideline her when Biden withdrew.
After all, most Democrats don’t see her race and gender as an issue, and within the summary they shouldn’t. Certainly, each VP choose is a variety choose, together with the white guys. Operating mates are chosen to enchantment to some a part of a coalition.
So Harris’ drawback isn’t her race or intercourse; it’s her incapability to enchantment to voters in a manner that expands the Democratic coalition. For Democrats to win, they want somebody who can flip Trump voters. She didn’t lose due to low Democratic turnout, she misplaced as a result of she’s uncompelling to a altering citizens.
Her gauzy, typically gaseous, rhetoric made her sound like a dean of scholars at a small liberal arts faculty. Excluding reproductive rights, her convictions seemed like they had been crafted by focus teams, at a time when voters craved authenticity. Worse, Harris acquiesced to Biden’s insistence she not distance herself from him.
Such clubby deference to the institution mixed with boilerplate pandering to progressive constituencies — discovered from years of San Francisco and California politics — makes her the proper resolution to an issue that doesn’t exist.
Her alternative to look on Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Present” for her first interview since leaving workplace was telling. CBS just lately introduced it was terminating each Colbert and the present, insisting it was purely a enterprise resolution. However the motive for the printed community’s resolution stemmed partially from the truth that Colbert narrow-casts his costly present to a really small, very anti-Trump slice of the citizens.
“I don’t wish to return into the system. I believe it’s damaged,” Harris lamented to Colbert, decrying the “naïve” and “feckless” lack of “management” and the “capitulation” of those that “take into account themselves to be guardians of our system and our democracy.”
That’s all catnip to Colbert’s ideologically dedicated viewers. However that’s not the viewers Democrats have to win. And that’s why, if Democrats nominate her once more, she’ll in all probability go down in historical past as a solution to a trivia query. And it gained’t be “Who was the forty eighth president of the USA?”
