Thirteen years before he ran for president, Barack Obama published an inspiring work of fiction titled “Dreams from My Father.” It raised his profile significantly, and the activist and organizer quickly began rising through the political ranks.
There was only a tiny problem. See, Obama had billed “Dreams from My Father” as a work of non-fiction dealing with his experiences of race and identity in America. And it came across convincingly enough — so convincing, in fact, that it wasn’t until three years into his presidency, when The Washington Post’s David Maraniss (hardly a conservative firebrand) looked into it and found it was a loose roman-à-clef at best, and a work of deft fabrication at worst.
But the key word there is deft. The lies, such as they were, were of the believable sort. The kind of people who liked Barack Obama’s backstory continued swallowing every last word of it, even if it were false, because it was not only inspiring (to them, at least), but plausible.
If only Kamala Harris had taken a creative writing workshop with Obama during his days teaching at the University of Chicago. Because, when it comes to fashioning her own life story, Harris’ believability leans more toward her current boss, President Joe Biden, than her boss’ former boss.
Harris, as you probably now know, gave her first official interview as Democratic nominee on Thursday. The softball affair, even with running mate Tim Walz at her side in case she glitched, was underwhelming. She offered vague policy nostrums but no specifics, a lot of rambling non-answers, and, of course, heartwarming moments of “joy” specifically engineered by interviewer Dana Bash of CNN.
This included the delightfully quaint story about how she found out that President Joe Biden was stepping aside and handing the torch to her as she was sitting down to eat flapjacks with her family — one that brought Kamala to tears as she recounted it.
“It was — it was a Sunday, so, here, I’ll — I’ll give you a little too much information,” Harris said, laughing.
“Go for it; there’s no such thing, Madam Vice President,” Bash assured her.
“My family was staying with us. And — including my baby nieces. And we had just had pancakes and, you know, ‘Auntie, can I have more bacon?’ ‘Yes, I’ll make you more bacon.’ And then we were going to sit — we were sitting down to do a puzzle,” she said, laughing again.
“And the phone rang. And it was Joe Biden. And — and he told me what he had decided to do. And I asked him, ‘Are you sure?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’ And — and that’s how I learned about it.”
“And what about the endorsement? Did you ask for it?” Bash asked.
“He was very clear that he was going to support me,” she said.
