As the media glowingly covers Kamala Harris’s every little step and spoken word, there’s a long-standing truth in politics of peaking too early.
Harris knows this issue well, having peaked too early in 2019 when she arrived on the DNC debate stage. She was another first-term African American senator with presidential ambitions like Barack Obama. However, Congresswoman from Hawaii Tulsi Gabbard aggressively ripped into Harris’s record on criminal prosecutions when Harris served as an attorney general and district attorney in California.
Soon, campaign infighting ensued, with staff members leaking damaging stories and her poll numbers stuck in the low single digits. Harris saved face by exiting the race in December 2019. At the time, Harris had not endured even one caucus or primary, and the Iowa caucuses were still a month away. [That month, America, under former President Trump’s leadership, recorded a fantastic accomplishment: The United States became a net energy exporter for the first time in over 50 years].
Harris was a Junior Varsity (JV) team member then; she continues to be one today, no matter how ecstatic and adoring the media’s coverage of her is. Disloyalty among staff members is not a trivial issue. According to Axios, much of Harris’ VP staff has turned over in the past 3½ years. Of the 47 Harris staffers listed in 2021, only five still worked for her as of this spring.
Washington Post’s interviews with past staffers revealed that Harris would not read the briefing materials produced by her staffers and then chastise them when she sounded unprepared. Her ex-staffers have complained of the toxic working environment under her leadership. The Post quoted a former staffer:
With Kamala, you have to put up with a constant amount of soul-destroying criticism and also her own lack of confidence. So you’re constantly sort of propping up a bully, and it’s not really clear why.
A junior varsity (JV) team is a secondary-level sports team composed of younger or less experienced players compared to the varsity team of the same sport at a school or club. JV teams serve to develop skills and prepare teams for the big nights. In many high schools, JV teams are more inclusive, allowing more students to participate in sports regardless of their skill level. In a sense, JV teams are the result of school district DEI policies long before DEI became the Democrats’ favorite word.
President Barack Obama crudely used JVs as a metaphor to describe political readiness and talent. He was referring to the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/Daesh) terror organization when the then-President sat down for a lengthy interview with David Remnick of The New Yorker on January 27, 2014. Obama said:
The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a JV team puts on Lakers uniforms, that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant. I think there is a distinction between the capacity and reach of a bin Laden and a network that is actively planning major terrorist plots against the homeland versus jihadists who are engaged in various local power struggles and disputes, often sectarian.
Obama was completely wrong about ISIS, which went on to establish a brutal caliphate in Syria and northern Iraq, terrorizing millions and decimating ancient artifacts. ISIS was no JV team at all, and it took Trump, in partnership with Russian President Vladimir Putin, to destroy the terror organization. No media outlet gives credit to Trump for this achievement.
But the “JV” term has stuck in Washington. As the press fawns over Harris, Obama has yet to endorse her for the nomination. Obama knows.
The problem is that the Biden record is also the Harris record. Harris can’t assume Biden’s assets (campaign staff, war chest, donor list, connections with state party offices) without also assuming Biden’s liabilities. And these are numerous, as we have seen repeatedly in our numerous TIPP polls. Our most recent Bidenflation poll alone is enough to deflate Harris’s campaign and force her on the defensive.
The next big test for Harris is choosing her Vice Presidential nominee. Of course, the press will be glowing in their praise for whoever she picks, but the voters may not. The problem here is what we pointed out in our editorial earlier this week – the Democrats deceived themselves that Biden was a fit, healthy, Trump-beater that they never developed a leadership bench. Not that they could have; for a Party that revels in identity politics, any talk of developing a bench would have created a revolt within Black women’s ranks and the liberal whites who are the main constituencies of the Harris wing.
With Biden having outsourced his administration’s duties to his cabinet, Tony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, and Janet Yellen were constantly on TV, peddling one dismal policy after another. The 2020 campaigners who built a national following – Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Amy Klobuchar – became AWOL.
Harris’s challenge is not only to convince voters that her VP choice is ready to become President on day one but also to help define her pick before the GOP can.
The New York Times published a survey of 251 Democratic delegates. Ten said they would want California Governor Gavin Newsom to be Harris’s running mate. The Constitution prohibits two people from the same state from being on the same ticket.
Other smashing superstars were listed, but not many voters have heard of them. Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania Governor? Mark Kelly, the Arizona Senator? Andy Beshear, the Governor of Kentucky? Roy Cooper, the Governor of North Carolina? These so-called leaders probably wouldn’t even meet the JV threshold.

Meanwhile, Trump is part of the big leagues. He is the only person in the race who has been President for one full term and has real experience running the country. Under Trump, America’s borders were safe, with the lowest levels of illegal immigrants in recent memory. Inflation was low as the economy boomed to catch Blacks and Hispanics along for the ride. There were no new wars during his entire term. There was no lawfare against Hillary. Trump’s judicial appointments became the last gate that stopped liberal activism. Ronald Reagan’s “a rising tide lifts all boats” proved true under Trump.
Of course, Trump overdid his tweets and acted more like an entertainer than a Chief Executive by constantly picking fights with everyone around him so that he would be in the news. The American voter has already baked this cost into a second Trump presidency. Besides, Trump, still not having returned to Elon Musk’s X, has proved to be much more disciplined on Truth Social.
So the Dems’ freshly minted JV Team is going to use abortion and Trump’s “convicted felon” standing to win in 2024? Good luck with that.
Rajkamal Rao is a columnist and a member of the tippinsights editorial board. He is an American entrepreneur and wrote the WorldView column for the Hindu BusinessLine, India’s second-largest financial newspaper, on the economy, politics, immigration, foreign affairs, and sports.
TIPP Takes
Geopolitics, Geoeconomics, And More
1. Israel Seeks Changes To Gaza Truce Plan, Complicating Talks: Sources – Reuters
Israel is seeking changes to a plan for a Gaza truce and the release of hostages by Hamas, complicating a final deal to halt nine months of combat, according to a Western official and a Palestinian and two Egyptian sources.

Israel says that displaced Palestinians should be screened as they return to the enclave’s north when the ceasefire begins, retreating from an agreement to allow civilians who fled south to freely return home, the four sources told Reuters.
2. UAE Urges ‘Temporary International Mission’ For Post-War Gaza – AFP
“This international mission will be responsible for efficiently responding to the humanitarian crisis… establishing law and order… and paving the way to reunite Gaza and the West Bank under a single, legitimate Palestinian Authority,” UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem al-Hashimy said.

It came after Arab heads of state called at a summit in May for the deployment of UN peacekeepers across the occupied Palestinian territories, an idea strongly opposed by Israel.
3. Hamas Leader Dies In Israeli Captivity: Palestinian Government – Reuters
Mustafa Muhammad Abu Ara, a Hamas leader in the West Bank, died in Israeli custody after a deterioration in his health condition, a Palestinian governmental body said.

Abu Ara, who was arrested in October last year, was subjected to torture and deprived of medical treatment, the Palestinian body said. There was no immediate comment from Israel.
4. Pentagon Finds Another $2 Billion Of Accounting Errors For Ukraine Aid – Reuters
In 2023, the Pentagon said that “replacement value” had been used instead of “depreciated value” to calculate the billions in matériel sent to Ukraine.

That correction uncovered a $6.2 billion error, and the Pentagon now says $2 billion more in overstatements have been found. As a result, an additional $2 billion worth of arms can be sent to Ukraine to cover the aid approved by the Biden administration.
5. Russian Drones Attack Ukrainian Power Facilities, Causing Disruptions – Reuters
Russia overnight attacked Ukrainian energy facilities in two regions with drones, disrupting electricity supplies, Ukraine’s national power grid operator said.

Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector have intensified since the spring, resulting in blackouts in many regions and forcing Kyiv to start large-scale electricity imports from the European Union.
6. Syria’s Assad Meets Putin In Moscow – D.W.
Syrian President Bashar Assad voiced his concerns about the “escalation” of conflicts across the Middle East. Putin has long provided military support to Assad.

Though the Kremlin did not provide details on the talks, one potential topic could be the restoration of ties between Damascus and Ankara. Assad and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have hinted at readiness to restore relations between their two countries, which have been severed since 2011, when Erdogan initially backed rebel forces fighting Assad.
7. Russian, Chinese Foreign Ministers Discuss Cooperation On Sidelines Of ASEAN – AFP
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a statement afterward that he discussed issues of cooperation within ASEAN “in detail” with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

The two also discussed implementing “a new security architecture” in Eurasia, according to the statement, which did not elaborate. The meeting came a day after Wang held talks in China with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
8. Russian Deputy Announces Slowdown In YouTube Upload Speeds – RFE/RL
Russian State Duma Deputy Aleksandr Khinshtein announced that the speed of video uploads to YouTube in Russia will decrease by 70 percent by the end of next week. Khinshtein wrote on Telegram that the artificial slowdown is related to the allegation that YouTube “violates and ignores the law with impunity.”

Khinshtein accused YouTube of having an anti-Russian hosting policy that removes the channels of public figures whose “position differs from the Western point of view.” Khinshtein is the first Russian authority to publicly confirm Moscow’s involvement in slowing down YouTube in Russia.
9. Two Men Plead Guilty In China-Backed Scheme Targeting Falun Gong – UPI
Prosecutors said one of the accused was directed by the Chinese official to submit a false whistleblower report to the IRS seeking to revoke the tax-exempt status of a nonprofit organization run by Falun Gong practitioners.

Falun Gong is a spiritual practice that has been banned in China since 1999, and its supporters are considered one of the so-called Five Poisons of the Communist Party, along with the supporters of Uyghurs and Tibetans as well as those in favor of Chinese democracy and Taiwan independence.
10. Japan, China Foreign Ministers Meet Amid Frayed Ties – Kyodo News
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi held bilateral talks for the first time since November 2023. Japan seeks to promote high-level exchanges to resolve disputes between Tokyo and Beijing.

Kamikawa and Wang met as the Japanese foreign minister made arrangements to visit China. Still, it remains uncertain whether the two nations can pave the way to build constructive and stable bilateral ties, given their ongoing disputes.
11. North Korea Hackers Trying To Steal Nuclear Secrets, U.S. And UK Warn – BBC
They say the group – known by the names Andariel and Onyx Sleet – is targeting defense, aerospace, nuclear, and engineering entities to obtain classified information, to advance Pyongyang’s military and nuclear programs and ambitions.

The high-profile warning about this specific group appears to be a sign that its work combining espionage and money-making activity worries officials because of its impact on sensitive technology and everyday life. The U.S. says the group funds its espionage activity against U.S. healthcare entities through ransomware operations.
12. Meta To Be Hit With First EU Antitrust Fine For Linking Marketplace And Facebook, Sources Say – Reuters
Meta Platforms is set to be hit in a few weeks with its first EU antitrust fine for tying classified advertisements service Marketplace with its Facebook social network, people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The European Commission’s move comes more than a year and a half after it accused the U.S. tech giant of giving its classified ads service Facebook Marketplace an unfair advantage by bundling the two services together.
13. Moderate Drinking Won’t Prolong Your Life, New Research Indicates – UPI
Researchers said previous recommendations touting the life-extending benefit of wine relied on flawed scientific research.

Multiple studies have indicated that moderate drinkers live longer than nondrinkers due to the decreased risks of heart disease and other chronic illnesses. This led to the popular belief that alcohol intake, within reasonable limits, can be a wellness tonic.
Republished with permission from TIPP Insights