Harris needs an Adm. Rickover-like interview

If only Adm. Hyman Rickover – father of the nuclear navy who died in 1986 – were still alive today to interview presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Rickover personally interviewed everyone applying for the nuclear navy to ensure only the best made it into the program. He wanted people who could think quickly on their feet when disaster struck. His interviews were infamous for humiliating candidates to see how they reacted under pressure. If easily flustered, he did not want them anywhere near his nuclear power plants!

In today’s woke world, those interviews undoubtedly would never be tolerated. But, they served their purpose, ensuring a maritime incident accidentally releasing nuclear radiation never occurred.

One question Rickover asked candidates was what they had done to prepare themselves for the nuclear navy. An indirect answer or word-salad response enraged him, causing him to call his secretary into the office. The befuddled candidate listened as the admiral dictated a letter to the president of Chase Bank as follows: “For five years I have wanted a million dollars. Please send me a check for same today. … I have done nothing whatsoever … to earn the money, but send it anyway.” Then, turning to the candidate, with a smug look on his face, Rickover queried, “Do you get the idea?” receiving a sheepish affirmative response.

It is this question Harris needs to address with a straightforward response justifying why she believes she is qualified for the most important job in the world – specially at a time when America is falling apart and may well be on its way to abandoning its global leadership role. As with answers she routinely gives to questions to which she is hard pressed to explain – recently even acknowledged by ABC senior White House correspondent Selina Wang – her response undoubtedly would be lacking.

In 1981, character actor John Houseman, featured in a television ad for a financial institution, uttered the classic line, “At Smith Barney, we make money the old-fashioned way … we earn it.” It is the same way many players enter the political world.

However, while most politicians enter the arena vertically, Harris entered horizontally, evidenced by her sexual relationship with San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown – from which all her political office successes have flowed. In the 1990s, Harris, 29, and Brown, 60, were an item. While Brown was decades her senior, it is difficult to know what endeared Harris to Brown other than her embracing him as her ticket to entering the political arena. Interestingly, in making an embarrassing slip of the tongue recently, Harris’ vice presidential running mate, Tim Walz, may have proven to be more insightful about Harris jump-starting her political career, referring to her as a “prostitutor.”

Helped by Brown, Harris began her career as an Alameda County prosecutor before being elected as San Francisco district attorney in 2004 – serving in the latter role until 2010. She then was elected as California’s attorney general, serving until she won the election to represent her state in the U.S. Senate in 2016.

In her effort to limit gun ownership as the San Francisco district attorney, Harris made a shocking revelation in 2007 as to how legal gun owners should be monitored to ensure their weapons were safely stored.

Commenting about a law she helped draft, she boasted it would penalize owners for improper gun storage saying, “We’re going to require responsible behaviors among everybody in the community, and just because you legally possess a gun in the sanctity of your locked home doesn’t mean that we’re not going to walk into that home and check to see if you’re being responsible and safe in the way you conduct your affairs.”

While her career on the state level failed to give Harris much to boast about, she maintained that same level of non-accomplishment on the federal level as well. During her four years as a U.S. senator, there is little for her to show in terms of legislation passed. Additionally, it is interesting to see what she became best known for as a senator, especially in view of her unwillingness today as a presidential candidate to voluntarily submit to tough interviews. Harris hypocritically made a name for herself in Senate committee rooms for her aggressive questioning of witnesses.

As the tidal wave of illegal immigration continues sweeping across our borders, Harris is a no-show in fulfilling her role as border czar. While she claims there are things she has done in response to her border responsibilities, it is not evident from the migrant traffic we have been experiencing.

When it comes to the economy and inflation, no Harris-friendly interviewer tries to get her to provide a detailed explanation on what she would do. She launches into a campaign-approved script about having a middle-class upbringing, as if that provides her with special insights. Inexplicably, in responding to one question about the economy, she had heads spinning as she started talking about lawns in an obvious effort to get away from the subject matter. Based on such a lack of understanding of issues, it is difficult to think of any presidential candidate in modern history with less presidential appeal!

Ironically, perhaps the one area in which Harris has recognizably been most actively involved is an area where success is measured by death. As an abortion activist, she has been very critical of the finding of the Supreme Court of the United States that the Constitution does not allow the federal government to address the issue and, accordingly, is to be left to the individual states to address.

This has been unacceptable to Harris who wants federal legislation passed allowing for fetus executions. On Sept. 18, Harris held a “Catholics for Harris” rally where she was portrayed as having policies aligned with Catholic principles – obviously without mentioning her radical pro-abortion stand.

We do not hear the term used much today, but in 1969, a book was published entitled “The Peter Principle.” In a nutshell, the book’s claim was, if you perform a job well, you will likely be promoted to the next level of your competency – continuing up the ladder until you reach a point where you fail to perform well. In regard to Harris, she may well have reached that point after leaving Brown’s bed.