Kamala Harris should have run with Joe Biden, not away from him.

Had she done so, the outcome of the 2024 presidential outcome might have been different. Instead, it was a wipeout.

Rather than embracing Biden and his accomplishments as president, she barely mentioned what took place during their incumbency.

Her campaign was one of smoke and mirrors.

And while she and her political consultants tried to keep Biden in the closet during the campaign, he kept popping out and saying unhelpful dumb things, almost out of spite for being dumped.

It did not have to be that way.

Early on Harris should have ignored her political consultants and leveled with the American people.

She could have done so by praising Joe Biden for his legislative accomplishments as president and at the same time revealed what she would do differently.

Instead, she compromised by saying that while she generally supported Biden, she never got into specifics. When it came to details on policy, Harris was a stealth candidate.

And besides, she said she was not Joe Biden, and her presidency would not be an extension of his.

Mistake.

Whatever you think of Biden, or what he did as president, he did accomplish a few things, whether you agree with them or not.

He did get his American Rescue Plan through Congress and signed into law, along with the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure act to deal with aging roads, bridges and airports. Despite the U.S. Supreme Court, he insisted on forgiving billions in student loan debt, reduced health care premiums for the elderly, spent billions on climate change and got the CHIPs Act passed and signed into law, an act that strengthens chip manufacturing and innovation.

Although his botched withdrawal from Afghanistan was a foreign policy disaster, as was his appeasing Iran as two wars broke out during his tenure, he did strengthen NATO when Finland and Sweden joined and he returned the U.S. to the Paris climate agreement, for what that is worth.

Harris could have pointed to Biden’s successes and promised to build on them.

And instead of ignoring Biden’s blunders, like opening the borders to an immigrant surge of which she was a part, for instance, she could have taken accountability for her role in it and promised to do things differently as president.

If any of her pollsters and political consultants recommended that approach, they are still to be heard from. These are the people who urged her not to hold a single press conference during her entire campaign.

“Look, folks,” she could have said, “Joe Biden was a great transformational president who did a lot for the country. I am following in his footsteps and promise to build on his amazing record of accomplishments. Yes, mistakes were made, which happens in any administration. People will be held accountable for them. We will do things differently as we move this great nation forward.”

Perhaps, in the final analysis she was victimized by her political consultants.

Which reminds me of what Frank Bellotti, the former three-term attorney general — now 101 years old — used to say about political consultants, something which he knew a lot about given his long career.

Bellotti had one win (lieutenant governor) and three losing statewide campaigns (governor 1964, attorney general 1966, governor 1970,) under his belt before he was finally elected attorney general in 1974 and served until 1987.

He did it all by instinct, without polls or political consultants.

He would say, “Shame on me if I need to hire and pay a political consultant to tell me about my business.”

He never did.

However, when he ran for governor in his last campaign in 1990, he ignored his instinct and was finally persuaded to hire a political consultant.

So, he did, took his advice, paid him, and lost.

It rings a bell.

Kamala Harris was not a very good candidate, and maybe the consultants did not have much to work with.  Odds are, though, that she was probably better than her political consultants.

Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com