Little fun in second place

Visiting France is always perilous for politicians, given how easily populist American buffoons can take potshots at that epicurean nation, still an all-purpose symbol for snobbish elitism. Vice President Kamala Harris found that out to her cost in Paris just before Thanksgiving.

Harris popped into a classy cookware store near the Louvre Museum. Reportedly, she dropped about $600 on a copper serving dish and frying pan.

Quel scandale! Republicans seized on the purchase as evidence that Harris is out of touch with ordinary Americans.

The attack, frankly, was both cheap and absurd for any number of reasons, not the least of which is that you can spend that kind of dough easily on highend cookware on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. And we don’t recall the GOP Twitter account making all these comparisons with “ordinary Americans” when Melania Trump was out shopping, or Donald Trump was off playing golf, costing taxpayers plenty in Secret Service protection.

Defenders of Harris point to stories like the cookware uproar as evidence of sexism, racism or some combination of the two. They also argue that her boss, President Joe Biden, has assigned her to Sisyphean tasks, such as the immigration issue roiling America’s borders.

They have a point, but the harsh reality is that many Americans find Harris unimpressive so far.

She is seen as disengaged, absent and in over her head, an image that first appeared when she was on the campaign trail.

We say her future is in her own hands. As it should be.

Whining about the difficulty of the immigration (or any other) assignment is going nowhere for Team Harris. Vice president is a high office and, given the focus required by the pandemic, charging her with finding a solution to that crucial issue is a legitimate decision made by her boss. If she can solve that one, or at least find a path forward that will improve the current disaster, she will be able to bat away the growing interest in her presidential rival Pete Buttigieg, currently gaining valuable experience as chief of a Department of Transportation flush with federal recovery money and charged with remaking much of America’s infrastructure.

Harris has plenty of time left to prove herself, but her position as vice president should not be an automatic path to the Democratic nomination. And even if you look beyond the gossipy sniping from rival staffers in different West Wing offices, it’s clear that Harris has to improve her performance in office. She will need achievements to which she can point, and so far, we don’t see anything major on that list.