Pretty neutral. I think she’d be fine, in the way that any generic Democrat would be fine. I would not expect her to be the TR / Truman / LBJ sort of VP-turned-president, and I don’t expect her ever to be elected in her own right, unless, perhaps, she goes into 2028 as an incumbent and Trump takes yet another run at it.
Harris would I think be a very good president. She an awful candidate though. She could win a re- election better than a first election.
Count me among those who think Biden has a better chance to live out another four years than Trump does and who sees Trump as already demented and Biden more with it than his younger self was!
I do though get that there is concern among more than an few and remain disappointed that Biden did little to raise the public confidence in Harris during this term.
Agreed. No matter how sharp and vigorous Biden remains, prepping Harris to sit in the big chair would be a smart move.
I hope and expect that they’ve been doing that all along, and continue to do so.
What they haven’t been as good at is making that public.
You never know. She might surprise people and really do a great job. These things are hard to predict. Truman certainly was expected to be very memorable. Perhaps we’ll have to make a spot for her on Mount Rushmore one day.
You can add me to the list of people who don’t’ think it’s a given that Biden will complete a second term. I’m fine with that, as long as he’s up and running through November.
To be fair, my first thought was, if they made it public that Harris was being prepped to take over the presidency all of the rhetoric about Biden being too old and close to death would just get worse. The fact that her first and primary job is to be ready for the presidency at a moments notice will be lost on the general public.
That’s a good point.
I was thinking more of making her skills and training public; but there of course is no way to make her training public without making it look like Biden is unreasonably worried about her needing it.
And of course there’s no formal “training for the Presidency course” that all vice presidents are expected to take – let alone one for Presidential candidates, that they should then have to pass. I wish.
(Despite my wishing it, there are two major objections: the lesser one being that it would be necessary to get it into the Constitution, and it’s currently next to impossible to get anything into the Constitution; and the major one being, who’s going to write and grade the test?)
So well put. But I’ll believe it when I see it, and not a day before.
To the OP: She’d be a fine president.
I would assume that succession planning is part of every administration- with the possible exception of Trump’s, since I don’t believe he thinks it possible that he’ll ever die.
To be clear I think it’s a safe assumption to make that Harris is being kept in the loop on important matters. And whatever would happen in a normal administration, preparing a VP to take over the top spot quickly, I’m sure is being done here. I just wouldn’t expect Harris or anyone else to talk about it publicly for the reasons previously stated. It would also run counter to the message that the Biden campaign has been putting out since the beginning of the year.
It just occurred to me I’m not sure if this would count as a hijack or not.
To the OP, if it isn’t clear I think Harris would make a fantastic president. I know she has some “tough on crime” stances that are atypical for a Democrat, but in a general election I think that might be a plus for her. And given her notoriety I think she would be on the short list for Democratic nominees even without the VP portion of her resume. And of course it goes without saying, I would take her over anyone else on the other side of the aisle a thousand times.
I think she’d do what she thinks is best for the country as a whole. I probably won’t agree with some of it, I never do, but she’d do a respectably good job.
I don’t feel even remotely that way about anybody on the republican side of the aisle.
I also think Biden has a much better chance of surviving the next 4+ years than trump, for whatever that’s worth.
I feel pretty relaxed about President Harris.
Cool. President Harris would be a-okay with me.
What kind of prep?
”Kamala Harris is ready to do this job on day one”
— Joe Biden, August 2020
I was hoping back then that he would have avoided the senatorial curse and chosen a moderate southerner, probably former police chief, and mother of three, Val Demings. If he had, I think his ticket would have gotten more votes in 2020, and would get more votes this year as well. But he genuinely wanted someone with deeper high level federal experience for the trite-sounding reason I quoted above. Mistake! Demings would have been plenty prepped long before now, as Harris certainly is.
I meant visibly ready to be President. As far as average people know, she’s not done much of anything.
I’m fine with it. But, as a president with a vacant VP slot, she would be able to nominate a VP who would have to be approved by both Houses of Congress. If either, but especially the HOR is in Republican hands, I expect any such nominee to be Garlanded. (Hey, if Bork can be a verb, why not Garland. That could be…interesting.
She doesn’t scare me. That’s the only barrier she has to pass, given the alternative.
But far more than that I think she has the potential to make some hard (and much needed) changes. I picture her having a “Don’t make me come down there” relationship with Congress. She seems to have a very for-the-people approach to governing, and I trust her to choose judges.
So all good.
Only if the Swedish Chef is saying it… 
His first name works a little better.
Merricked.
On April 12, 1945, Truman was urgently summoned to the White House, where he was met by Eleanor Roosevelt, who informed him that the president was dead. Shocked, Truman asked Mrs. Roosevelt, “Is there anything I can do for you?”, to which she replied: “Is there anything we can do for you ? For you are the one in trouble now.”