This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The Democrats in America have a problem: Kamala Harris.

And Charles Lipson, the Peter B. Ritzma professor of political science emeritus at the University of Chicago, wonders if they can get it solved.

In a Real Clear Wire commentary, he wrote Joe Biden’s pick to be his vice president is, in fact, “a living embodiment of the Peter Principle, where people keep getting promoted until they reach jobs for which they are clearly unqualified.”

Typically, a vice president of a sitting president is primed for a run for the Oval Office itself.

However, he explained, “Harris is deeply unpopular with independents, who are essential for electoral success (fewer than one in three voters view her favorably), and she is losing popularity among Democratic Party leaders. They see her ineptitude, listen to her word salads, and watch the polls with dismay. The latest evidence of Harris’ fading position is a sharply critical article in the New York Times, of all places, filled with anonymous disapproval from senior Democrats, many of whom once supported her. Now, they are worried.”

The real problem? Although she’s already considered a “drag” on the 2024 ticket for Democrats, “she’s almost impossible to drop.”

Her black heritage plays a role there, as African-Americans likely will be “insulted” if she’s canceled.

“Normally, voters don’t care much about the vice presidential nominee, even when they aren’t wild about the choices, as we learned in 1988 when George H.W. Bush chose Dan Quayle and again two decades later with John McCain’s surprise selection of Sarah Palin. But 2024 is likely to be different if Biden runs again. He is already the oldest person to sit in the Oval Office, and he is showing his age. Although gaffes have plagued Biden throughout his career, they have grown worse in recent years. There’s a reason he refuses to hold press conferences,” Lipson explained,

That means there’s a higher probability the vice president would play a role.

“It’s a reasonable inference that a man who would turn 86 during a second term in the Oval Office might not be able to finish the job. His vice president would be forced to step in. Polls show voters are not thrilled with the prospect of Kamala Harris doing that,” he explained.

Her failings were evidence when she ran for president in 2000, and her polling was at less than 1% in her own party’s field. Then 2022 didn’t help her.

“Normally, the White House dispatches the veep to crisscross the country, appearing with candidates eager to be seen with such a prominent national figure. Not this time. Although candidates wanted her help in raising money, they wanted it behind closed doors. No joint public appearances, please,” Lipson wrote.

Her background is that Biden appointed her “border czar” and she’s accomplished virtually nothing.

Now, only one in seven respondents has a “very favorable” view of her, he noted.