With Christmas just days away, the past week has felt anything but festive.
Two National Guardsmen killed in an ISIS ambush in Syria. A mass shooting at Brown University. An antisemitic terror attack targeting Jews celebrating Hanukkah on a beach in Australia. And the shocking deaths of Rob and Michele Reiner under circumstances still unfolding.
It’s been one grim headline after another — the kind of news cycle that leaves you exhausted, discouraged, and wondering whether the world has completely lost its footing.
Which is why, just when the national mood couldn’t sink any lower, Axios delivered what can only be described as a darkly comic holiday miracle: Kamala Harris is thinking about running for president again.
Yes. Again.
The Gift Nobody Asked For
According to Axios, allies and donors close to the former vice president say Harris is quietly laying the groundwork for another White House bid, positioning herself as a potential standard-bearer for Democrats in 2028.
If that sounds familiar, it should. Harris already ran once — disastrously — and then spent four years as vice president proving that her 2020 collapse was not a fluke, but a preview.
For Americans exhausted by inflation, global instability, crime, and endless political dysfunction, the idea that Kamala Harris views herself as the solution feels almost satirical. And yet, here we are.
A Record That Speaks for Itself
Harris entered the vice presidency with sky-high expectations and left it with historically low approval ratings. She was handed high-profile responsibilities — immigration, voting rights, diplomatic outreach — and managed to fumble nearly all of them.
Her tenure was marked not by leadership or results, but by awkward speeches, staff turnover, public confusion, and a persistent sense that she was never quite prepared for the role she occupied.
Even many Democrats quietly acknowledge what voters loudly concluded years ago: Kamala Harris does not connect. She doesn’t inspire confidence, she doesn’t unify factions, and she doesn’t perform well under pressure.
And yet, the party appears ready to do this all over again.
Why Democrats Can’t Let Go
The renewed Harris chatter isn’t happening because voters are demanding it. It’s happening because the Democratic bench is shallow, fractured, and terrified of its own activist base.
Party leaders are trapped between progressive activists who want ideological purity and general-election voters who want competence. Harris, somehow, has managed to satisfy neither — but she does check certain boxes that make party strategists feel “safe.”
She’s familiar. She’s predictable. And most importantly, she’s not threatening to the internal power structure.
That’s not leadership. That’s inertia.
Republicans Barely Believe Their Luck
For Republicans, the news landed less like a warning and more like an early Christmas present.
If Democrats truly believe Kamala Harris is their best path forward, they are signaling a stunning lack of self-awareness about why they lost ground with working-class voters, independents, and young people alike.
Harris has already been tested on a national stage — and she failed. Repeatedly. Running her again wouldn’t represent growth or renewal. It would represent denial.
A Campaign Built on Memory-Holing Reality
The most remarkable part of the Axios report isn’t that Harris wants another shot. Ambition is common in politics. What’s remarkable is the apparent belief that voters have forgotten the past eight years.
They haven’t.
They remember the laughter instead of answers. The interviews that went nowhere. The staff exodus. The border crisis. The endless talking points that never translated into action.
You don’t erase that with a rebrand and a new slogan.
Christmas Cheer, Indeed
So yes — in a season dominated by tragedy and chaos, there is something oddly comforting about this news.
Not because it promises improvement, but because it confirms something deeply familiar about modern politics: some lessons are never learned.
Kamala Harris running again wouldn’t be a bold new chapter. It would be a rerun — one most Americans already changed the channel on.
And for now, that might be the only thing worth smiling about.