107 Days: A Book Report

A Remarkable Woman

A campaign for President of the United States is an order of magnitude that is hard for me to comprehend. Even under ideal conditions it must be an extraordinary endeavor. In the case of Vice President Kamala Harris, she was dealt a very difficult hand that she played about as well as she could play it. Her book 107 Days chronicles her sprint for the White House in 2024 in a fast paced and compelling narrative that I enjoyed reading.

Kamala Harris has impressed me since she entered my consciousness as a candidate for the United States Senate from California in 2016. Her tenure as a senator was brief and, in my opinion, unremarkable. However, the portfolio of experience that she brought to that office was significant and impressive.

From 2004 to 2011 she was the District Attorney for the City of San Francisco, which is a massive job. From 2011 to 2017 she was Attorney General for the State of California, which is an even more massive job. In both roles she was charged with protecting the folks who needed protection and prosecuting the folks who needed to be prosecuted. Her performance in both roles was stellar. This record of performance resonated with me.

Therefore, when she ran for President in the 2020 election cycle, I was fully prepared to support her campaign. In fact, I attended a rally that she held in Atlanta on the campus of Morehouse College that was enthusiastic and joyous. I also loved her campaign slogan “Kamala Harris: For the People.” I think that effectively captured what was driving her.

Unfortunately, that campaign was unsuccessful. But when then-Vice President Biden, on his way to securing the Democratic nomination in the spring of 2020, indicated that he would select a woman as his running mate, I thought that Senator Harris would be the right choice. She was.

Kamala Harris at the beginning of her campaign for President of the United States. Photo from Harris' Instagram

Shining Moments

During her 107 days sprint for the presidency in 2024 there were three episodes that underscore how well Vice President Harris dealt with an imperfect and extraordinary set of conditions. The first was in the immediate wake of learning directly from President Biden that he would no longer be seeking the Democratic nomination. By asking/insisting that President Biden endorse her candidacy immediately, this left little room for media speculation about his confidence in her and therefore minimal room for maneuver by her potential rivals. It was the power play of a seasoned pro and it was the right course of action under the circumstances.

The second was in the 24 – 48 hours that followed, whereby she and her team executed a series of calls to party influencers as well as potential rivals, to ask for support and to demonstrate her desire and capability to take the reins of the campaign. This was done in an orderly and systematic manner, and it was highly effective.

The third was in her one and only debate with Donald J. Trump. In that high stakes setting she demonstrated poise and confidence, and she was clearly very well prepared. Once she had the former President of the United States of America spouting nonsense about folks in Ohio “eating dogs” it was clear that he was flummoxed by her and no match for her in that forum. Her performance would have made any debate coach very proud.  It made me proud too.

Having stated all of that, what follows is not some fawning piece that heaps unyielding praise upon Vice President Harris. If that is your expectation, I would suggest that you stop reading right now.

However, before I proceed with my book review, I would like to take a detour that is important to me. For this divergence I ask for your indulgence.

Remarkable Women

I would like to seize this opportunity to highlight how my life has been enhanced by some amazing women who have had a lasting impression on me. No, I won’t take the easy way out by highlighting my wife and my mom, even though I would not be where I am today without either of them. Each of them deserves singular praise and recognition for their respective impacts on me.

In this instance I am first referring to just some of the many other remarkable women that it has been my privilege to know.

First, I have literally placed my physical wellbeing in the hands of some very caring and highly talented women. Meaning, my primary care physician is a woman. She is firm and personable at the same time, which I appreciate. My Veterans Administration doctor is a woman. I credit her with saving my life by diagnosing my high blood pressure years ago and prescribing something to address that issue. My urologist is a woman. Let me tell you that you must have high confidence in the person who attends to the family jewels. Enough said on that. And before she retired, my dentist was a woman. I have seen other dentists since, but no one quite like her.  

In short, I am literally still standing in one piece because of these amazing women. And I am very grateful.

Then there are the others.

More Remarkable Women

My last assignment in the military was as a Teach, Assess and Counsel (TAC)  Officer, or leadership instructor, at the US Army Officer Candidate School. Our Senior TAC was Captain Charlotte Frey. Charlotte was tough. In fact, that is an understatement. Charlotte was a bad ass. She was firm but fair and I respected her for that.

Occasionally, between cycles we would work out together. On one particular day in the gym, she was going at it pretty hard. She was in fact wearing me out. At some point I finally said, “Hey Charlotte, you can stay in here with these weights if you want to, but I think I am going to have a beer. You're welcome to join me.” In a classic Charlotte response, she just rolled her eyes at me, and said “Steve, don’t act so crazy,” or words to that effect. And she continued with her work out. I just shook my head and smiled. Then I left. That is just one example of how she rolled. Captain Charotte Frey was and outstanding Army officer. I learned a lot by observing how she operated. And I was honored to serve with her.

After the Army I started my business career on the operations side. It was fine and I was pretty good at it. But it didn’t take me long to realize that the real money was being made on the business development, or sales, side. When I expressed my interest in transitioning, I remember being met with subtle but unmistakable push back from some of “the good old boys” in the corporation. Given that a significant portion of the proposed territory was outside of the confines of Atlanta’s perimeter, they attempted to pigeonhole me as an operations guy. But a sales Vice President named Becky Riley had other ideas.

Becky was amazing. She was very personable but very direct. And her Tennessee accent was disarming. She reasoned that she could teach me the mechanics of being a good salesperson. What she could not teach was the drive and determination that was required to be successful. And the ability to hear the word “no” a lot and yet continue to operate and thrive in a high risk, high reward construct. She gave me the opportunity to prove myself, which is really all that most of us want. Consequently, I made plenty of money for her and a few bucks for myself. Her confidence in me literally changed the course of my professional life. I will always be grateful to her for this.

Then there is Alesia Brooks. Alesia was my Chief of Staff for my eight-year tenure in elective office. And more than that.

She started as a volunteer on my 2016 campaign. I quickly came to appreciate her energy, her talent and her organizational skills. Therefore, a few months before the election, in anticipation of a victory, I asked if she would join me in office. I recall that she was a little surprised that I asked. Which means that she wasn’t expecting to be asked. Which means she was not angling for a future position in my office by volunteering on my campaign. This impressed me even more.

Our accomplishments during my tenure were significant and have been highlighted in other publications. There is no need for a rehash now. None of it would have been achieved without her behind me and beside me.

Personally, Alesia’s most valuable contribution to me was serving as my conscience, or the angel on my shoulder. I have never suffered fools gladly and I hate capitulating to crazy. In short, I have fighter’s impulses. Alesia kept me from indulging those impulses as much as I otherwise would have. This was a great benefit to me which I have come to fully appreciate.

We laughed together and commiserated together many times. And she is one of the few people walking the face of this planet that I can say I totally trust.

I know my own lived experience and my connection to some remarkable women. And I know my own heart. Thank you for indulging me for memorializing my gratitude for those connections.

Now, on with the book review.

Overview

I have read my share of political biographies. All of them are self-serving. It’s just a matter of degree. Vice President Harris’s book is no exception. I guess humility just does not sell books.

On the HBO series Real Time with Bill Maher, the late-night host posited that the Vice President’s book might have easily been entitled: Everybody Sucks Except Me by Kamala Harris. That assessment is entirely too harsh, but not necessarily off point.

Within the book’s pages a fair amount of finger pointing is on full display with much of it directed at key people in the Biden administration. Fair or unfair, it struck me as score settling. It also struck me as an attempt pin a portion of the blame for the loss to Donald Trump on people other than herself.

In any loss in any field of endeavor, there is usually plenty of blame to go around. And it strikes me as totally plausible that at various points during her tenure as vice president and during her presidential campaign that she was undermined by certain folks within the Biden administration.

Even so, I tend to be a “The Buck Stops Here” kind of person. I also believe that humility, as identified by the historian Jon Meacham, is a very important leadership quality, even if it doesn’t sell books. Meacham also identifies empathy and curiosity as important leadership qualities as well, which I happen to agree with.

On a side note, in my view the current President of the United States of America exhibits none of those qualities. But I digress.

I firmly maintain that 107 Days is Vice President Harris' story. She lived it. No one else did. And therefore, she is entitled to tell it any way she wants.

From Whyy.org: Former Vice President Kamala Harris exits the stage after the first stop of her book tour for her new book about her presidential campaign, "107 Days," at Town Hall in New York, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

A Question of Time

A throughline that reoccurs in the book is the assertion that she simply did not have enough time to do what needed to be done in order to win. I accept that premise, but only up to a point.

Being time-constrained can certainly be an impediment. However, time constraints can also induce clarity of purpose. Such constraints don’t leave time for indecisiveness and endless second guessing, which is indeed a benefit.

Since we are nearing the end of football season, an analogy that works for me is the two minute drill. Imagine that it’s the two minute warning and your team is behind by four points. This means that you must score a touchdown to win. A field goal won’t cut it. This situation makes offensive play called straight forward.

With the time constraints that were imposed, Vice President Harris acted. For the most part, her decisions were the right decisions and the actions were effective.

Also, it must be stated that Vice President Harris did not begin her 107 day sprint from a “standing start." Prior to President Biden’s decision to withdraw, she was already running a campaign for re-election as Vice President. Meaning that she was already traveling around the country in campaign mode. A political apparatus did not have to be built from scratch. It was already in place. She certainly had to make some key adjustments. But the basic campaign infrastructure already existed.

I also know that being at the top of the ticket is different from running for the second spot. But on the flip side, the unique circumstances did mean that she was able to avoid stomping through the snow in search of votes during an Iowa Caucus or New Hampshire Primary.

Moreover, the compressed timeframe was certainly not an impediment to fundraising. In fact, it was probably a benefit in that she raised over a billion dollars during that period, which must be some sort of record.

There is one more thing to note. The 2020 Kamala Harris for President campaign started on January 21, 2019 and ended on December 3, 2019. That was a total of 316 days.

The Most Qualified?

Another throughline that permeates the narrative is that being Vice President made her the most qualified person to assume the mantle of President. I think serving as Vice President certainly made her imminently qualified, but not necessarily the most qualified. And recent American history suggests that most voters agree with that assessment.

Absent the President resigning or passing away in office, the last person to be elected President directly from the Vice Presidency was George H. W. Bush in 1988. That was nearly 40 years ago.

In recent decades Americans have demonstrated an affinity for people who have served as Governors. Jimmy Carter. Ronald Reagan. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were all governors. Absent the foreign policy component, being governor of a state is a good training ground for serving as President.

What about serving as a US Senator? Well, it is interesting to note that before Senator Barack Obama was elected President in 2008 the last person to be elected President directly from the US Senate was John F. Kennedy in 1960. That was nearly 65 years ago.

Among cabinet positions, any of what I call “The Big 3” are good proving grounds as well. I am referring to the positions of Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, or Secretary of the Treasury. All are massive bureaucracies which require both leadership and management skills.

It also interesting to note that while the Vice President is a member of that National Security Council, in any crisis situation the National Command Authority does not flow through that office. That authority flows from the combatant commanders in the field, through the Secretary of Defense directly to the President of the United States.  The Vice President is not a part of that command structure.

There is also this. As the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, Kamala Harris had to execute her own search for someone to be her running mate and eventually serve as Vice President. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was one of her finalists. In her telling, Gov. Shapiro had some specific questions/requests/demands regarding how he envisioned the nature of their working relationship if the campaign was successful. At which point Kamala Harris made it clear to him that Vice President does not mean Co-President.

There it is. Vice President does not mean Co-President.

From The Philadelphia Enquirer: Governor Josh Shapiro speaks with press along with Vice President Kamala Harris during their visit to Little Thai Market at Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia on July 13, 2024. Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer

A Personal Quirk of Mine

At this point I would like to share something. Between being born into a military family, having a very religious upbringing (both grandfathers were pastors)  and serving as an Army officer myself, I have a thing about hierarchy, formality, protocol and order. For better or worse, this is how I am constituted. And therefore, this is my caveat for what comes next.

On day one of Vice President Harris’ 107 day odyssey, she received the fateful call from President Biden informing her that he was no longer running. It was a Sunday afternoon, and the call came in on a phone whose number only a handful of people had. That limited universe included the President of the United States.

In the book Vice President Harris recounting answering the phone “Hi Joe." And I must admit that this struck me as odd.

Maybe that’s how it was between them. Maybe in her recounting of the episode, she wanted to convey a level of informality and even parity between them. I don’t know. I can only speculate. But I did have a visceral reaction to it.

All I can say is this, if I was the sitting Vice President of the United States, chilling out at the Naval Observatory (VP’s official residence) on a Sunday afternoon, and a call came in on the “bat phone” from the President, I can’t imagine a scenario where I would answer the phone with the greeting “Hi Barack," or “Hi George,” or “Hi Bill,” or “Hi Ronnie."

But that’s me.

A Poignant Presentation

I was deeply moved by how the Vice President presented the relationship with her family. Both the family that she was born into, and the family that she married into.

This political road is a tough one for those who happen to be related to practicing politicians. And I know Vice President Harris benefited tremendously from the love and support of the people close to her. This came through loud and clear in the narrative.

I was particularly moved by her depiction of her relationship with her husband Doug. Any marriage has its ups and downs. An interracial marriage presents another set of changes. But that didn’t seem to be an impediment for them as they openly displayed their affection for each other while campaigning for the highest office in this country. As someone who has been in an interracial marriage for nearly 40 years, I am sensitive to this issue.

Perhaps we have arrived at a place where this is essentially a non-issue. I certainly hope so. On this front Kamala and Doug are indeed an inspiration.

A Political Future

As expressed by many others an oversimplified explanation as to why Kamala Harris lost the 2024 presidential election distills to racism and sexism. To her great credit the Vice President did not offer this as an explanation or excuse. I respect that.

Having stated that, I have lived long enough to know that racism in America still exists. I have experienced my share. And although I have not directly experienced sexism, I know that that also exists. Even so, reducing the 2024 election results to just that remains an oversimplification.

Exhibit one is Barack Obama. I think racism existed back in 2008. However, that reality and impediment didn’t stop Barack Obama from being elected President and then re-elected in 2012.

Exhibit two is Hillary Clinton. I think sexism existed back in 2016. However, that reality and impediment didn’t stop Hillary Clinton from winning the popular vote by several million votes in that election cycle.

In the case of Vice President Harris perhaps it was a combination of the two that was the impediment. This certainly strikes me as plausible. But the fact is that Kamala Harris got 75 million votes for President of the United States of America in 2024. I assume that at least some of the people who voted for her were white. I further assume that at least some of the people who voted for her were men.

Speculation can and probably will persist. So be it. For me, the bottom line is this: “the seal has been broken” so to speak. Meaning that the notion of a woman and even a woman of color as President of the United States is not only conceivable but doable.

The assertion by some that America is not mature enough or is otherwise not ready for such an occurrence is a notion that I simply reject. And I think it will happen sooner rather than later.

I am glad that I read the book. There is no doubt that Kamala Devi Harris’ historic and heroic run for President inspired many young girls and young boys. As well as many grown women and grown men (including me). And if it is her desire to run for president again, she should. Perhaps the third time will be the charm.  As it was for Ronald Reagan.

I’m just sayin…