National Review Writer Rejects ‘Caricature’ of ‘Exceptionally Skilled’ Kamala Harris As ‘Bumbling Dunce’: She’s ‘Chronically Underestimated’

(AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

National Review senior political correspondent and Washington Post columnist Jim Geraghty  rejected the “caricature” of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris as a “bumbling dunce” on Monday, writing in his newsletter that she is “exceptionally skilled at getting other people emotionally invested in her success.”

Under the headline “The Chronically Underestimated Kamala Harris,” Geraghty submitted that “Harris’s past is littered with older and more experienced men who saw her as easy pickings and came up short on Election Day,” before going through her political career and asking, “if Kamala Harris is as stupid as her critics claim, why does she have the Democratic presidential nomination and a roughly 50–50 shot of being the first female president in U.S. history?”

“Do you know how many ruthlessly ambitious Democratic men and women have desperately yearned to get where she is?” he continued. “How many smart, tough, shrewd, often underhanded and cold-blooded pols have tried to claw their way up the greasy pole and fallen short?”

“The record indicates that whatever Harris’s results are on an I.Q. test or other measure of intellect, she is particularly talented by another measuring stick, one that may be even more important in politics: She is exceptionally skilled at getting other people emotionally invested in her success,” observed Geraghty.

“At every key moment in her career until her presidential campaign, Harris has had bigger, wealthier, more powerful, and more influential names sizing her up and concluding she was the one,” he noted before touting her impressive fundraising numbers and the campaign operation she’s built out after becoming the Democratic nominee.

“If Kamala Harris is such a hapless dunce, how does she keep getting so many other people to work around the clock to elect her?” he asked in his concluding sentence.

Polls indicate that the presidential race remains extremely tight, although there has been some momentum towards Donald Trump in recent days.

For his part, Trump has derided Harris as being “Dumb as a Rock” and called on her to “pass a test on Cognitive Stamina and Agility” because “her actions have led many to believe that there could be something very wrong with her.”