Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley warns, “A vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Kamala Harris,” suggesting that re-electing the aged and addled president would almost certainly vault the vice president into the Oval Office within the next four years. The alarm from the GOP candidate is resonating; just about nobody wants Harris to be our next commander in chief. As Haley says, the very thought should “send a chill up every American’s spine.” Biden’s campaign is taking heed, prompting the White House to roll out yet another effort to reboot Harris’ “image” — by some counts the third such initiative in the past two years. 
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at Coppin State University in Baltimore on July 14, 2023. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)Vice President Harris, for the Biden White House, is both a blessing and a curse. Without Harris in the wings, the president would have faced even louder encouragement to step aside, inspired by his dismal approval ratings, alleged corruption and declining acuity. Some 44% of Democrats do not want Biden to run again, according to a recent Monmouth University poll. But Democrats are wary; if Biden steps out of the race, Harris, who has even worse favorability than the president, steps in. In that same poll, only 13% of her party wishes her to be the candidate.