If Vice President Kamala Harris wants to win the 2024 presidential election, she needs to take a big chance.
That's according to the Washington Post editorial board which, on Tuesday, charted the path the newspapers' opinion writers believe most likely to lead President Joe Biden's second-in-command to victory against former President Donald Trump in November.
"Harris might ... be tempted to ride a glide path to the nomination, taking few risks," the Post writes "She should do the opposite."
The Post urged Harris to leap at what editors described as "the rarest of political opportunities," to mount a campaign after already winning the anointment of her party.
But they also suggested Harris does not ignore the victories Biden won for the Democrats as president.
"Biden’s approach helped get substantial bipartisan bills over the finish line, investing in national infrastructure and critical semiconductor manufacturing," the Post writes. "He also signed a bill that should have been bipartisan: the nation’s most ambitious climate change policy to date.
"A clean break from Bidenism would be a mistake."
The Post notes Harris' 2020 campaign was marred by a less-than-successful appeal to progressive voters that saw her downplay a tough-on-crime record as a San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general.
The Washington Post's editors urge Harris not to make the same mistake again.
ALSO READ: Do presidents’ popularity increase after assassination attempts? History has an answer
"Harris should both resist activist demands that would push her to the left and ignore the social media micro-rebellion that will follow," the Post writes. "Harris’s pick of running mate could be a revealing early indicator, too. Tapping a politician likely to appeal to the median voter would serve her — and the country — best."
The risk the Washington Post wants Harris to take is one most journalists would demand of their elected officials: that they submit to questioning.
"She could deliver a detailed national address and take substantive questions from journalists, hold a televised town hall to engage directly with voters and give interviews after rallies in battleground states," the Post writes. "The goal is to emerge from vice-presidential muddiness to presidential sharpness."
The payoff, if it worked, would be a new Democratic vision to present to the American public, the Post concludes.
"A change in messenger might help convince people that, say, the president’s handling of the Ukraine war has actually been strong, or that the economy is, in fact, humming," the Post editorial concludes.
"It also allows the Democratic ticket to sketch its vision. The pen is in Ms. Harris’s hand."
