As the year 2024 winds up, does anyone remember Kamala Harris? The US vice president's presidential candidacy was probably the costliest cameo in American politics. She came, she saw, but she didn't conquer. How does one assess the sudden burst into fame and subsequent fading away of the president's deputy, which made her boss Joe Biden the only president who beat Trump, and had the last laugh?

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Harris' forced entry into the presidential race sometime in August was fraught with moral and political disgust and disbelief from the word go. For one, it reeked of conspiracy and backstabbing.

Those who were campaigning for Biden, including Barack Obama, suddenly ditched him. Biden, as per reports, resisted till the last moment. A multitude of media stories were planted against him, focused on his physical ability and mental acuity to run for office, let alone do the job if elected.

Nancy Pelosi and other senior leaders put pressure on him to quit the race just days after his dismal performance at the presidential debate, which made eventual winner Trump look good.

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But if Biden was incoherent due to his advanced age, Harris was incoherent due to her sheer ignorance. That's unforgivable. She was widely derided for making up phrases and 'word salads ' out of thin air to dodge important questions being asked of her. This was most evident in how she answered a question on the Israel-Hamas war and the US position on it.

Also read | Kamala Harris calls supporters not to let 'anybody take your power', netizens ask 'is this a joke?'

The answer was so bad that CBS edited it out (or edited it 'in' depending on who you ask), to make it better than it really was. But the only problem was that both 'versions' ended up airing, probably due to some editorial oversight (or ingenuity?).

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The CBS interview was only one of a media blitzkrieg that the Harris campaign unleashed between August and November. She was everywhere: on news channels, streaming platforms, online and social media. Most of her appearances only served to expose how out of touch she was with the American public and its concerns, even while stressing at every opportunity that she was from the middle class.

The woman card didn't play out either: Democrats had hoped that the abortion ban in much of America in the wake of a Supreme Court judgement would be a big election issue. Harris even tried painting Trump as anti-women, citing his stance on abortion and the hush money case involving porn performer Stormy Daniels. In the final reckoning, none of that washed. 

Trump's campaign deployed several women to speak in favour of him, including some evening TV news regulars who, frankly, were more famous than Harris. 

They openly advocated for Trump's alpha male personality, giving legitimacy to the 'give such a big job to a man' chauvinist chorus. 

Frankly, Harris' Indian and African mixed heritage did hardly anything to bolster her numbers. For one, many African Americans were mighty displeased with her back in the day when she was a public prosecutor in California.

She sent to jail many African Americans and that was a record that couldn't be white-washed. In her appearances before the African Americans, she and other established leaders like the Obamas appeared to be lecturing and even hectoring the crowd.

The ad implied that Black men who do not vote Democrat would not have luck with the ladies boomeranged severely. It appeared to reassert the stereotype that Black males are promiscuous and would rather vote for Harris than not get the girls.

Indian Americans, to whom Harris partially belonged, weren't enthused either by her candidacy or not by the Indian government establishment, given her stance on issues like Kashmir which was seen as anti-India. 

However, it appeared for some time that the media in India was more interested in her candidacy than in America.

The US left-liberal media indeed tried to make her look like the winner. Till the election night, there was smug confidence that the results were a foregone conclusion in favour of Harris.

That misplaced confidence was a result of stage-managed opinion polls in the weeks leading up to the election. Practically every pollster, except the clearly right-wing biased ones, said Harris was winning.

It was not to be.

The studios of left-liberal news channels saw meltdowns as Harris lost state after state after state. None of the expected supporters of Harris voted for her in large numbers: not women, not Blacks.

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Even then, to her credit, Harris did give a tough fight, given how late she entered the race. This makes one wonder: was she given a raw deal, being made to run an unwinnable race? Did the Democrats make her the fall guy, a stop-gap arrangement that they can shift the blame to, in case they lose?

Harris took the defeat hard. 

She didn't address her supporters gathered at her alma mater. She didn't issue a formal concession statement or speech as is customary. The supporters were merely told to disperse, saying Harris would not be making remarks. All this made her look like a sour loser.

Her conduct afterwards left much to be desired. Harris and her camp made statements that appeared to suggest she almost won. There was also an attempt by her surrogates to force Biden out and make her the first woman president of the US albeit briefly, till Trump takes over in January 2025.

Also read | US election: Where did Kamala Harris' campaign money of $1 billion go?

Biden was not going to allow any of this nonsense anymore. In subsequent public appearances, Biden and First Lady Jill appeared to snub or ignore Harris and her husband. Jill even appeared to mock Harris' use of empty words like 'joy' during the campaign. Her banter with Trump when both attended the Notre Dame Cathedral reopening in Paris made the internet wonder if she had voted for Trump.

Some years, some people see the best and the worst happen to them, almost simultaneously. This was the case for Kamala Harris in 2024. What will happen to her political career once she leaves office as vice president in January? Can she win back support, first within the Democratic party and later with the voters? That will take a lot of reinvention. But then, politics is the art of the possible. Isn't it?