Second banana.

Vice Presidents become president--when the president dies in office.

Kamala Harris is in a bad position, and it has just gotten worse.

A proxy war is underway.

Joe Biden was not VP when he campaigned for the presidency.  He had four years out of office to re-brand himself as a powerful thinker, a leader, a man with a plan to make America better. In fact, Biden didn't do any of those things. He wasted the period, but he got elected president anyway, by backing into the office. He won the nomination because he wasn't Bernie Sanders. He won the presidency because he wasn't Donald Trump. 

Look at the standard, acceptable stance of the VP when the president is making an important speech: Two steps behind and two steps to the side. The body language tells a story of support for the boss. You are Ed McMahon to Johnny Carson. He makes the jokes. You laugh. You never upstage the Top Banana.

That is the burden Kamala Harris carries, and it is showing up now in articles like this by CNN, now dominating their web and broadcast spaces. The knives are out. 

CNN article

The article leads off with an ugly conclusion:

Worn out by what they see as entrenched dysfunction and lack of focus, key West Wing aides have largely thrown up their hands at Vice President Kamala Harris and her staff -- deciding there simply isn't time to deal with them right now, especially at a moment when President Joe Biden faces quickly multiplying legislative and political considerations.

The exasperation runs both ways. Interviews with nearly three dozen former and current Harris aides, administration officials, Democratic operatives, donors and outside advisers -- who spoke extensively to CNN -- reveal a complex reality inside the White House. Many in the vice president's circle fume that she's not being adequately prepared or positioned, and instead is being sidelined.

The sourcing is the big takeaway: "Nearly three dozen" people are talking. It is a proxy war. The long article goes on and on about the West Wing's frustration, Harris's frustration, staff mismanagement, botched administration policy, bad messaging, and more. People are saying she is failing. Others are saying she was set up to fail, a leader "not being put into positions to lead." Biden and Harris will smile and deny there is any problem. Meanwhile, the aides snipe and leak.

Kamala Harris was dealt a very bad hand in a Vice Presidential game already stacked against her. Biden brought presidential dignity and norms back to the White House, but he did not bring the ability to articulate a unifying policy direction. He is frail and inarticulate. The stacked game consists of the requirement that the VP be in a supportive role to the president, whatever his flaws. The bad hand in that game is that she will instantly look sharp-elbowed and disloyal if she does something Biden sorely needs someone to do: Project a Democratic vision that pulls together a governing coalition. Biden needs the help that Richard Cheney gave George W. Bush, and that help made Bush look competent and Cheney look fearsome. Biden cannot do that. If he gets what he needs, a powerful articulate voice, Biden will be defined as weak, not smart, and Harris will be defined as stabbing her benefactor in the back. 

There is no needle for her to thread, no Goldilocks "just right" middle ground of being both leader and supporter. People will be looking to see if she is trying to trade places at the podium, and will be judged harshly if it appears to be the case. It would be "House of Cards" in real life.  

She is stuck, but so is Biden. Therefore, the proxy war.

[Tomorrow: Kamala Harris's path to the White House is for Biden to leave office promptly. The old don't give up power voluntarily, not the Supreme Court, not congressional leadership, not the presidency. It must be wrested from their grasp.]