On January 19 of this year Sen. Kamala D. Harris of California joined the 2020 presidential contest with her goal to win the Democratic Party nomination.

“The future of our country depends on you and millions of others lifting our voices to fight for our American values,” she said in the video. “That’s why I’m running for president of the United States.”

She announced on 1/19 as it was also the day our nation honored the late Dr. Martin Luther King, a timing that she said was “very important” to her.  Amid that context, however, Harris played down the role of race.  “When people wake up in the middle of the night, whether it be a mom in Compton or a mom in Kentucky, she’s waking up having the same concerns,” Harris said.

So with that Harris set up shop on the corner of First and Main St.  She brought her chair, table, and game to attract Americans far and wide and hold their interest.  A high single digit percentage stopped by as she broke out the shells and arranged them just so.

Debate one in June almost came and went quietly until Harris pounced on a “sleepy” Joe Biden late in the evening.   Harris, a black former prosecutor, leaped into the cross-talk with a request to speak “on the issue of race.” She then trained her attention on Mr. Biden, and after making clear that she did not believe he was a racist, proceeded to sharply criticize him for having made “very hurtful” comments about having worked with two segregationist senators.  Harris then also recalled Mr. Biden’s opposition to school busing in the 1970’s and opened up about her own history. “There was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day,” she said. “And that little girl was me.”  Her desire to downplay the role of race pivoted.

And after that more folks, reaching into the mid teens percentage wise, showed up as she moved the shells randomly to stump the crowd and stump on the campaign trail.  Attention heightened.

Debate two brought Tulsi Gabbard’s attack of Harris’ record as DA of California. Gabbard singled out Harris’ stance on the death penalty, accusing her of keeping “innocent people” on death row and saying she “blocked evidence” that could have helped them. The tense exchange illuminated a complicated piece of Harris’s record as a prosecutor that has drawn criticism from both sides of the aisle, with some targeting her refusal to seek the death penalty in the killing of a police officer, and others attacking her decision to defend California’s death penalty from a statewide legal challenge.

And after that less folks, now slumping back into the mid single digits, showed up as she begged folks to keep their eye on the most important shell-the only one with anything hidden underneath.

In an effort to remain viable in the race Harris pivoted again.   She re re reformed her Medicare for all stance a third time.  She promised teacher pay raises.  She promised a middle class tax cut.  She even offered to kiss all of the babies, that’s assuming they made it through the “women’s wellness” needs.  And, she put all of this under one shell, or so she said.

But, her presence sunk further.  Fewer and fewer were interested in the shell game.  Her poll numbers sunk to less than 3% of likely Democratic voters.  So, Harris spoke to what she viewed as her main electability problem last week.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris described electability as the “elephant in the room” of her campaign and wondered aloud whether America is ready for a woman of color to be commander in chief.  “Essentially, is America ready for a woman and a woman of color to be president of the United States?” Harris said in an interview with Axios on HBO. “There is a lack of ability or a difficulty in imagining that someone whom we have never seen can do a job that has been done 45 times by someone who is not that person.”

So, Harris perhaps forgot about one Barrack Obama.  She accused her own party of racism.  That’s what “lack of ability or a difficulty in imagining” means.  This is the same party that successfully saw Barrack Obama ascend from virtually nowhere to serve two terms as President #44.  This is the same party that saw approximately 94% of all African Americans vote for Obama in 2008 and again in 2012. This is the same party that shows Joe Biden polling far, far better with African Americans in absolute numbers and percentages than Harris or Cory Booker in 2019.  Was this party not racist when Harris was polling into the mid teens and running third or fourth, but is now?

Hmm.  Her January downplay of race as relevant in this nomination process now seems so long ago and so hollow.

So, yesterday Kamala Harris did the wise thing.  She announced that her run for 2020 was over.

She folded her chair, folded her table, and packed away her shells.  It turns out that once America focused on that elusive, ever moving, one shell of three, all that was under it was a card.  A race card.  She played it.  Then she folded.