If you’re compiling a list of the head-spinning, gob-smacking, I’ve-never-seen-this-before events of the 2024 campaign, here’s one more potentially decisive factor to add: A sitting vice president has become the “change” candidate.
It’s almost a violation of the laws of the political universe. By definition, a vice president looking to inherit the Oval Office has been part of the outgoing administration, and there’s only so much distance that a vice president can credibly put between them and their boss. (Often they try to find a way to praise what has happened, while hinting that things will be different, as when George H.W. Bush urged voters to “choose the horse that’s going the same way,” even as he’d pursue “a kinder, gentler nation.”)
But this time, the sudden elevation of Kamala Harris, along with the identity and character of her opponent, has — for now at least — made her the candidate who embodies change, no matter how little her policies differ from the current president. That this happened by accident rather than design does not make it any less potent as a political asset.
And worst of all for Donald Trump, it deprives him of one his greatest powers. Trump rode to the presidency in 2016 on a promise to smash the status quo. Now he faces credible charges that he represents the past — and there’s a telegenic, younger contender eager to make that case.
The Clinton campaign scoffed at the idea that she could possibly represent the status quo — wouldn’t she become the first woman president? How much more change can you imagine? This was a serious misjudgment. Clinton had been a key White House figure for eight years as first lady, a senator for the next eight, and then was secretary of State. She was a visible, important figure in the highest reaches of American politics for a quarter century.
By contrast, Trump represented nothing but change. He lacked every quality usually associated with the presidency: Ignorant of history, a life solely devoted to personal aggrandizement, famous as a figure on the gossip pages and as a reality TV star. But in a time when large numbers of citizens felt aggrieved by the failures of government to protect their lives and fortunes, the very aspects of Trump that seemed like bugs were more like features. No experience in government? Look what the experts did! A rhetoric of insult and vulgarity? About time someone spoke in plain English!
