Cookie-Cutter Candidates

The Startling Similarities Between Barack and Kamala

Barack Obama and Kamala Harris share a lot of similarities, and I don’t mean in terms of political ideology. It’s almost like there is a “candidate factory” out there somewhere using a cookie-cutter to give us Democrat presidential hopefuls.

Take a look.

• Obama and Harris were both the first-born child to university students who entered into a short marriage and divorced while these first-born children were small. Harris was 7 when her parents separated and 8 when they divorced; Obama only met his father once when he was in elementary school. In fact, Obama’s parents never actually lived together (they never shared an address).

• Obama and Harris both had at least one foreign parent. Barack Obama is the alleged son of Barack Hussein Obama, Senior, an economist from Kenya. Kamala Harris is the daughter of a research scientist named Shyamala Gopalan from the southern part of India. Both of these exotic parents came from the upper stratum of their society.

• Obama and Harris both had fathers who were economists and left-leaning (Obama) or outright Marxist (Harris).

• Obama and Harris both have ties to the United Kingdom. When Barack Obama, Sr. was born (and even when Jr. was born), Kenya was a colony of the United Kingdom. Same with India when Gopalan was born. Jamaica, the birthplace of Donald Harris (Kamala’s father) was also under British colonial rule.

• Obama’s mother, Stanley Dunham, was an active member of the East-West Society of Honolulu, an alleged CIA front and actively engaged in Asian politics. She was pretty involved there since it’s where she met both of her two husbands and she got involved supporting Asian causes. Shyamala Goplan (although 100% Indian) joined a Black student group at the University of California at Berkeley. It was said she made the case she should join because she was colonially oppressed in India (although she was from the Brahmin caste, the highest caste). Although a foreign student from India, she often participated in local civil rights activities.

• Both Obama and Harris have a younger sister named Maya.

• Obama and Harris grew up mainly in the care of a single mother who held a high academic degree and pursued a largely academic career in some kind of research Stanley Dunham was an anthropologist interested in Indonesian crafts, while Shyamala Gopalan was a biomedical researcher studying cancer.

• Obama and Harris both had fathers who were professors or academics.

• Obama and Harris were both educated at prestigious schools outside the United States. Obama was brought to Indonesia by his mother and her new husband Lolo Soetoro when he was just six years old; Harris was 12 when her mother moved the family to Montreal. In fact, Harris did one year of college in Montreal at Vanier College before transferring to Howard University.

• Obama says he worked at a Baskin Robbins as a high school kid, Harris claims to have worked at a McDonald’s while in college. There is no corroborating evidence for this, but who knows. Neither one worked very long at that establishment.

• Obama was president of the Harvard Law Review (first Black person to hold that position) and Harris was president of the Black Law Students Association while at the law school.

• Before ever getting near the political epicenter in Washington, D.C., Obama wrote two autobiographies and Harris one. In 2009, Harris also wrote a book called Smart on Crime, which was recently in the news over plagiarism charges.

• Obama and Harris both launched their presidential campaigns “from out of nowhere.” Obama had a brief stint in the Illinois legislature and then was a junior Senator from Illinois when he suddenly decided he wanted to run for President; Harris, the former Attorney General of California, was also a junior Senator from California when she threw her hat in the ring for the 2020 election. Both launched a presidential run while in their first term in the Senate (this is rarely done). In fact, Harris was only two years in her Senate seat before making noise about running for President.

• Neither Obama nor Harris passed any significant legislation or had any notable achievements in their first few years in the Senate. To put it charitably, these two Senators were best known for their mediocrity. Obama had a terrible attendance record; he was a chronic no-show. Harris was criticized for her brief time in the Senate for not having any signature issues or being a champion of any specific causes.

• Obama and Harris had mothers who died of cancer before they arrived in office (White House for Obama, Vice Presidency for Harris).

• Obama and Harris both identify as Black but they do not share the typical African-American experience. Neither are descended from slaves; in fact, Harris is descended from Hamilton Brown, a slave owner and slave trader. Both were raised by non-Black single mothers. Both attended high schools that were mainly white (Obama at private school in Hawaii, Harris at a tony school in Montreal). Both came from privileged backgrounds; Obama attended an expensive private school in Honolulu and Harris grew up in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Montreal.

• Obama and Harris spent their school years in a country that did not speak English exclusively and both struggled and resisted learning the other language. For Obama, it was Indonesian (which his mother spoke fluently) and for Harris is was French, a language favored in Montreal. Both were forced by their mothers to make an effort to learn the language and the mother paid for their tutoring.

• Obama and Harris were both recognized as being extremely liberal or left-leaning. Both vilify Donald Trump. And both face him politically, Obama had to deal with Trump as his successor and for Harris, Trump is a formidable competitor.

• Obama and Harris have campaigned for each other. Harris met Obama in 2004 and helped his campaign in 2008. Obama helped her recently when he chastised Black men for not supporting her better in 2024.

• Obama and Harris deflect legitimate challenges about their right to run for office with cries of racism.

  • Obama could not produce a long-form birth certificate when he was challenged about being born in Hawaii; eventually one was found but challenged as well. (See our article on the late Loretta Fuddy.) There is speculation that Obama might have been born in Kenya or (interestingly) in Canada. (See our article on the Rubbish Hauler’s Wife.)

  • Harris was born in the United States, but both of her parents were foreign nationals on expired student visas, which opens up the question of what the Constitution means by “natural-born citizen.” Harris is native born (born on U.S. soil) but it is unclear if she is a “natural-born citizen.”

• Obama and Harris both seem to have substance use issues. Obama was famous in school and college for pot (he was part of the “choom gang” in Hawaii, a group o of high school boys notable for getting high on weed). Harris joked about smoking pot as well on a podcast with Charlamagne. Larry Sinclair claimed that Obama did cocaine with him. Harris is sometimes called out by the press for appearing to be under the influence in some public appearances.

• Obama and Harris both own multiple houses.

  • Obama owns three residences, an estate on Martha’s Vineyard, a home in Chicago, and a house in Kalorama, Washington, D.C. His real estate portfolio tops $20M. 

  • Harris also owns three residences. There are two houses in California, one in Brentwood and one in San Francisco, and a condominium in Washington, D.C. She currently lives at 1 Observatory Circle, the six-bedroom official home of the Vice President. Her real estate portfolio is estimated at about $8M.

• Obama and Harris have in public at times claimed to be Christian and even touted church membership, but neither is a practicing Christian in any meaningful sense of the word. Obama grew up in Indonesia, a Muslim nation, and Harris was influenced by her mother’s Hindu faith, although she does not claim to be Hindu.

• Obama and Harris had extensive political networks that deployed immediately to get them into high office. Neither one spent much time “paying their dues.” Obama tapped into the Chicago political machine, Harris benefited from Willie Brown and his California political machine.

• Obama and Harris are both lawyers who married lawyers.

• Obama and Harris both picked unlikely and ultimately disastrous vice presidential candidates. Obama went with Joe Biden, a known racist and corrupt Senator, while Harris picked Tim Walz, a known weirdo who cheered on the George Floyd riots.

• Obama and Harris both have hidden and disturbing ties to Iran that they brush off. Obama’s main advisor (who actually resided with the family during his time in the White House) is Iranian-born Valerie Jarrett. Harris’s national security advisor Philip Gordon is died to Ariane Tabatabai, both believed to be associated with an Iran foreign ministry effort to promote Iran to American politicians.

• Obama and Harris have ties to Sean Combs. In fact, Combs did a fundraiser for Harris the first time she ran for President. In 2008, Combs hosted a “Last Chance for Change” rally in Florida to support Obama. (Combs also endorsed Biden for president, but that’s another story for another day.)

• Obama and Harris both enjoy the Hollywood celebrity culture and count numerous stars, singers, and artists among their friends and supporters.

• Obama and Harris both made short work of Democrat competitors.

  • In 2008, when Obama was gearing up for a run for the White House, he met with ferocious competition by Hillary Clinton. I personally think she could have won the Presidency back in 2008. But then suddenly there was some big pow-wow and Hillary drops out, ceding the race to the upstart. What did they promise her? I think they promised she could be President in 2016, which did not happen to work out (too bad, so sad).

  • Harris was running on the Biden/Harris ticket until she and her friends defenestrated Biden and threw him under the bus after lighting him on fire. Harris not only got Biden out of the race, she stole his delegates and campaign money on the way.

• Obama and Harris are both fixated on Trump, although Obama never ran against Trump as Harris must. However, both Obama and Harris see Trump as the force that will undo a lot of their work.

• Obama and Harris both have two children. For Harris, these are stepchildren who were teens when she married their father. Obama’s two daughters came from his marriage, although there is some speculation that they may not be his daughters at all.

• Obama and Harris are dogged by persistent sex scandals.

  • For Obama, it is about his alleged homosexual adventures both before and in the White House.

  • For Harris, it’s about her adulterous affair with political rainmaker Willie Brown in return for cash, cars, and cushy jobs. (At the time, Harris was in her 20s, Brown was in his 60s and married.)

• Obama and Harris both have vice presidents (Biden and Walz, respectively) who are being discussed online as having unwholesome interests in children. In the case of Walz, there is allegedly a whistle-blower who says he will come forward.

• Obama and Harris both stood up for each other an inopportune times.

  • When Hillary was running against Obama for the Democrat nomination in 2008, the politically smart move was to endorse Obama, yet Harris broke with tradition very early on and started to campaign for Obama, whom she met in 2004.

  • When Biden was running for President and most Democrats were lining up to support him (even if some were holding their nose to do so), Obama stood back, but is now campaigning for Harris.

• Obama and Harris seem to both come from families with money, although they are always quick to point out how poor or at least middle class they are.

  • Obama says he was raised by a single mom, although she handed him off to her parents before he was 10 and never cared for him as a parent after that.

  • Harris repeatedly claims her mother was a middle-class renter who saved up for years and years to buy a house. Yeah, a big house in a tony Montreal neighborhood.

• Obama and Harris are both mixed-race individuals and have funny names. With Harris, it’s her Indian name Kamala (and the constant scolding if you don’t say it just right) and with Obama, it’s not just Obama, it’s the Hussein part. Just eight years after September 11, we elect a guy named Hussein for the White House?

• Obama and Harris are both lawyers but have prosecuted very few cases. Even though Harris was District Attorney in San Francisco and Attorney General in California, few people can name any cases she tried directly. (She ran the office and told others what to do.) The most generous source I could find said Harris actually was sitting at the table in the court room for only nine cases in her life. Obama got his law degree in 1991, “worked as a civil rights lawyer” at a Chicago law firm, and voluntarily surrendered his law license in 2008. I can’t find any cases he tried; I am not sure he ever was in a court room in that way.

Obama and Harris are empty vessels. In the sycophantic Obama biography Rising Star, even its author concludes at the end that Obama is empty, he stands for nothing, he essentially has no north star, no values, no convictions. Likewise with Harris who, early in her career, was recognized for being singularly devoid of any kind of passion for any cause except her own self-promotion. Both Obama and Harris contradict themselves often because they tend to be so malleable in allegiances and interests. Obama called himself “No Drama Obama” yet presided over numerous scandals, not the least of which is Benghazi. Remember when Russia invaded Crimea under Obama? He just let things go. Harris can’t make up her mind if she’s for fracking or against it, for drilling or against it, for an open border or against it. I think it is because neither one of these dark horse candidates who came in out of nowhere came in with a purpose. They came in as puppets. They’re empty suits. They’re told what to do. True, Obama is a better public speaker than Harris, but both of them were chosen because they have a sort of hipster urban vibe. Obama almost pulled it off. Harris was a total flop.

I’m starting to wonder if there’s some think tank somewhere with cookie cutters making our Presidents. Empty suits, lack of values, vacuous minds, celebrity friends. These tragically hip candidates are made to fool us into thinking they’re leaders while the puppet masters tell them what to do. (Remember how Barack Obama was against gay marriage—until he was suddenly for it?)

Alas.