George Skelton: Natural disasters can destroy a politician's carefully crafted career — or burnish it

Former Vice President Kamala Harris took a wise step toward potentially running for governor in her first action after returning to California.

She visited wildfire victims, volunteers and firefighters and helped distribute free meals to people burned out of their homes.

That doesn’t mean she’s running for anything. It’s highly unlikely Harris has decided whether to seek the governorship of her native state next year when Gov. Gavin Newsom is termed out.

But she acted as a possible candidate should, conspicuously showing concern for disaster victims and demonstrating potential leadership qualities voters demand in major elected officials. Not showing up might have conveyed cold indifference.

Natural disasters can greatly benefit or gravely wound political figures — fairly and unfairly. Whether scoring political points was Harris’ intention or not, she probably benefited.

Harris spent a nightmarish mid-Monday in the nation’s Capitol painfully watching President Donald Trump being sworn into the job she had coveted and listening to an ungracious inaugural address attacking the Biden administration and even her own state.

Then she got on an airplane and flew home to Los Angeles. The last thing most people would have wanted to do immediately after landing is beeline it to a place of misery and hear victims’ sad stories.

So give her credit for trying to comfort people while making a smart political move.

If she runs, Harris would start far ahead because of her resume, including U.S. senator, state attorney general and San Francisco district attorney, her fundraising ability and her name familiarity.

But as I’ve previously written, Harris, 60, should run only if deep down she wants to solve California’s festering problems — with wildfire prevention high on the list.

Anyway, as leader of the planet’s fifth-largest economy, the Democrat might enjoy pushing back against Trump’s anti-California agenda.

Hopefully, Trump’s tour of Southern California’s wildfire catastrophe will evoke some compassion for victims and temper his attempt to extort unrelated water policy concessions from Newsom in exchange for federal fire aid promised by President Biden.

The president basically wants to provide less water for declining salmon and steelhead and more for exported almonds and pistachios — and is holding wildfire victims hostage unless he gets his way.

After the fires erupted, Trump ridiculously blamed Newsom for water hydrants going dry in Pacific Palisades. In truth, there were too many blazes to extinguish and the water system couldn’t keep up, not with hurricane-force winds.

A small reservoir was empty while awaiting repairs. Blame a slow-poke local bureaucracy. But even if that reservoir had been brim full, it wouldn’t have made a huge difference in the overall tragedy.

Trump’s babble about water is so erroneous it often doesn’t make sense.

In speaking with reporters Tuesday, Trump seemed to mistakenly think that California water comes from the Pacific Northwest and that Newsom turned off the valve so none of it flows to Los Angeles. It all runs into the ocean.

In truth, more than 5 million acre-feet of water is pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta each year to the San Joaquin Valley, Central Coast and Southern California.

In his inaugural address, Trump also claimed that California leaders allowed wildfires to burn “without even a token of defense.” That would be news to the thousands of firefighters struggling to contain the blazes.

Newsom has been keeping his head above water by issuing executive orders right and left and authorizing billions of state dollars in emergency relief. No TV news camera can miss him. He’s following the natural disaster playbook for politicians.

Harris took a practice run at California disaster communication and performed smartly, keeping her political options open.