Borders...

  

Kamala Harris drawing the shortest straws in the White House?" 

President Biden last week again gave the vice president a nearly impossible mission, asking her to lead the administration's battle against GOP-led voter suppression. "It's going to take a hell of a lot of work," Biden told Harris in an extreme understatement. Harris is off to an "unimpressive" start, said Noah Rothman at Commentary Magazine. Three months after Harris took on the border crisis, attempted border crossings are at a 21-year high.

With her aides reportedly "dismayed" she is now seen as the "border czar," Harris has reversed her opposition to border closures to stem the tide — but that quickly brought sharp criticism from progressives.

Harris is already unusually "unpopular" for a veep, said David Harsanyi at National Review. A recent YouGov poll showed her approval rating at 41 percent, and she's "25 points underwater among independents." A highly partisan senator from California before joining Biden's ticket, Harris has become a political liability for her boss: "Voter sentiment regarding Biden's handling of immigration dropped after he named Harris to head up the efforts.

Voting rights legislation is doomed in the 50-50 Senate unless Democrats eliminate the filibuster, which Sen. Joe Manchin refuses to do. Harris the first woman and first woman of color to be vice president already had been given the unenviable job of stemming migration at the southern border, among the most "intractable" and polarizing issues in politics. 

Harris, who went to Central America to address "root causes" of migration, actually requested both assignments, said Cleve Wootson at The Washington Post. But if Biden's "heir apparent" flops, it "could stoke disappointment in the party and diminish her standing."  Just a thought.