At the time of writing this column, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is currently leading in most polls to win the Presidency of the United States.With only three weeks before the election, the worst thing that could happen for the Harris campaign is a snide, off-the-cuff remark that could sway voters against her. Historically speaking, we have seen this before and it has derailed a candidate.So, on Oct. 17, when the vice president responded to the shout of “Jesus is Lord” with “Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally,” it felt like one of those moments where a small statement could have major effects. What was seen as a funny moment at the time, as the crowd broke into laughter, has changed some as the clip of Harris’ comment has gone viral. Whether she meant what she was saying or even if she was responding to other chants as her handlers are claiming, the clip looks bad.Will it hurt her as much as other candidates? We do not know.What I do know is that trying to be funny has hurt past candidates. In 1884, there was a similar attempt at humor that cost the Republican candidate a chance at the White House. That year Republicans had held the White House for 24 years and there was no reason to guess that would end any time soon. The problem was that the current Republican president was Chester Arthur, who took over the presidency when James Garfield died. Arthur was made vice president as a political compromise within the party and was never expected to actually be president.So, in 1884 instead of running Arthur again, James Blaine, the leading Republican in Congress decided to run himself. I have discussed this election recently. Blaine was accused of corruption while Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland was accused of immorality. In the end, personal corruption was seen as less an offense than public corruption and Cleveland won the day.While Cleveland may have won either way, it did not help the Republican cause when the month before the election Blaine referred to the Democrats as a bunch of drunken Irishmen. What surely got a laugh from the audience quickly turned sour as Irishmen were a rather large voting bloc in the nation and this slight turned the Irish against the GOP.Later in 1920 the Democrats were coming off the 8-year stint of Woodrow Wilson in the White ...
