Kamala Harris’ New Book Is A Classic ‘Veep’ Joke
During the height of Veep’s run it was funny to point to real-life moments that coincided with plot lines on the show. Veep was excellent at capturing the stupid, evil machinations in Washington that the public was often shielded from. But when Trump entered the presidential primaries, that thin veil between the power hungry pugilism and the polite external veneer fell away for good. And by the show’s end in 2019, reality was outpacing the absurdity of the show.
The genius of Veep, however, is that even when we’ve far exceeded the scope of the jokes, we’ve never left the spirit of them. Today’s iteration? Former Vice President Kamala Harris is releasing a book after announcing that she wouldn’t be running for governor of California. The book, titled 107 Days, is about the shortest presidential campaign in modern history. The launch of the book paired with her decision not to run for governor has most people speculating that Harris is gearing up to run for president again in 2028. It’s hard not to draw comparisons to the very similar book Julia Louis Dreyfuss’ Vice President Selina Meyer published after her own failed presidential aspirations.
It was a running joke in Veep in later seasons. Right after Meyer had an unfulfilling term as vice president, she wrote the book Some New Beginnings: Our Next American Journey, which she’s shown signing in Iowa and is part of her launch of another presidential campaign. The book title is a gag on the many, many ridiculous memoirs written by politicians in the wake of their failed campaigns.
The joke made a reappearance later in the show, too. Selina’s second book was A Woman First: First Woman, recounting her very brief stint as the first woman to be president.
That is one you can actually buy a physical copy of, if you’re so inclined. But maybe you want to save your money for the real-life version. “My new book is a behind-the-scenes look at my experience leading the shortest presidential campaign in modern history,” Harris said in her video announcing the book.
In fact, Veep seemed to predict Harris’ complete game plan, as many on the internet were quick to point out. “Isn’t writing a book after losing, going on a cross country tour, then running for president again exactly what Selina Meyer did in Veep?” one person wrote.
This uncanny similarity is less because Veep could predict the future, and more because the writers were talented observers. There’s nothing surprising about what Harris is doing because that’s the game plan. It doesn’t matter how bad you lost your last election or how much people don’t want you to run again. If you’ve run for president once, you think it’s your birthright to run again.
