The Truths We Hold: An American Journey is a 2019 campaign book by Kamala Harris. Campaign books put out by candidates are boring and vapid regardless of party and ideology and her’s is no different. When Sen. Harris emerged as Good Ol’ Joe’s choice as vice president dozens of KH articles popped up in dozens of venue., I’ve accumulated 40 on my hard drive folder. None of their authors wrote anything that suggested familiarity with the senator’s snoozer.

Can’t blame them. It’s a hardship. But years of studying source materials for Byzantine history has built my powers of endurance, so readers of the this newspaper can benefit from the information gleaned from the copy I found at Farmington’s public library/

Tucker Carlson, Howie Carr and all the usual suspects have been passing along rumors about how Kamala’s intimacies with a certain Willie Brown helped boost her career. Eager for evidence, I checked the book’s index. Turns out Brown does not appear in the book at all. Willie Brown, I should explain, is a phenomenon, a work of art, a force of nature. Even I, a stalwart Republican, am impressed. As its Speaker, he dominated California’s Assembly for 18 years. When a referendum put a term limit on the Speaker office, he moved on to become mayor of San Francisco. He often speaks and writes intelligently, like an actual human being rather than a habitual and incurable politician. Most impressive of all he was once sighted by the California State Police driving a hundred miles an hour down the freeway while reading the Wall Street Journal.

Yet the name Brown doesn’t appear in the book’s index. This man dominated California’s Democratic Party during Kamala’s rise, yet she seems never to have heard of him. So there we are, this absence of evidence should stop and stifle all vile sexist innuendo. (Or am I being ironic?)

Examining the text I found one passage worth noting. When the future senator first visited Howard University she records her delight at finding herself surrounded by people who looked like her. She does not attempt to reconcile this delight with her enthusiastic celebration of diversity elsewhere in the book. When we check the many photos in The Truths We Hold…we find Kamala typically surrounded by people of color (POCs). There are two exceptions, the one with her white husband, and the one with her equally white stepson. This may explain her delight at the exclusively POC crowd at Howard. Even when she goes home the poor woman is surrounded by white people, a hell of a thing.

Sure, she’s a bit phony and so what? The woman’s a professional politician. We all know that real professionals love transparency like a Moslem mullah loves a pork chop.

Enough about the book, let’s evaluate Biden’s selection. First, we can now drop speculation about Elizabeth Warren, Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer or any other CP (Colorless Person). Biden had already made it clear that no male need apply. And a big bunch of Democratic POCs had made it clear that they expected a female POC to become their party’s VP candidate.

So, why the comely Californian? Her presidential campaign was not impressive; raised a lot of money, spent a lot of money, dropped out early. But she stands out among the appropriately tinctured VP prospects for campaigning at all. The New York Times labels her a “pragmatic moderate,” a classification that the Muddy Stream Media (MSM) will adopt. Many voters are comforted “moderate” and “pragmatic.” These are soothing words.

Conservative writers scoff at that label. They point out that Harris co-sponsored Sanders’ plan for universal government health-care, embraces the demented ‘Green New Deal’, advocates decriminalizing illegal border crossing, believes that presidential executive orders can be used to negate the Second Amendment. The NYT crowd may believe that these positions moderate. Millions will disagree. The debate will go back and forth until November.

It’s not obvious that Willie Brown’s dear friend will ever stand out as competent executive, but it may be enough for her to appear more competent than the old fellow at the head of the ticket. Indeed, the expectation that she will be alive and healthy for the next four years. According to the polling a large part of the American electorate expects God Ol’ old-old Joe to assume room temperature, or slip into impotent senility while in the presidency. This vice-presidential pick may turn out to be a presidential pick.

A fresh poll from Morning Consult’s found 85 percent of Democrats and 82 percent of self-described liberals approve of Harris as vice presidential candidate. If, as some argue, Kamala Harris is first and foremost an unprincipled careerist then all the ideological factions can hope they will be able to influence her. The loony left wing of the Democratic Party, however, is not charmed by the pragmatic moderate label. And, being principled in their way, they blame careerism for “right-wing deviationism” in the Democratic Party.

Readers interested in the sudden shift in MSM views of Biden’s new best friend should check this https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/08/13/media-crush-kamala-harris-395020.

The author, Jack Shafer, is not a conservative. He’s a liberal with a sense of humor.

John Frary of Farmington, the GOP candidate for U.S. Congress in 2008, is a retired history professor, an emeritus Board Member of Maine Taxpayers United, a Maine Citizen’s Coalition Board member, and publisher of FraryHomeCompanion.com. He can be reached at jfrary8070@aol.com.