Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg hit the road last week to sing the praises of Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion “infrastructure” plan, thereby to give the president that much-needed bump in the polls that he’s been searching for so desperately. It didn’t work.

The VP and the transportation secretary tried, though. They took a trip on Thursday to Charlotte, North Carolina, to tell the American people that if they only knew about all the goodies that were tucked away inside the exorbitant plan, they’d see our bumbling, pathetic, 79-year-old president in a whole new light. No dice.

Harris and Buttigieg, in fact, couldn’t even convince folks that they like each other, much less their administration’s “infrastructure” plan. Here’s how the New York Post’s Kyle Smith put it:

Did you see that hug between Wonder Boy President in Waiting Pete Buttigieg and Back Off Little Man I’m Boss Lady of This House Kamala Harris? I’ve seen leprous porcupines get closer together for a hug. Harris and Buttigieg could have danced like that at a Catholic high school in 1957 and the chaperone would have said, “I’ll allow it. If anything, there’s room for two Holy Spirits in between.”

We suspect the two of them are using each other: Harris to improve upon her recent record-low 28% approval rating by being seen with someone more popular and (ostensibly) more competent than she is; and Buttigieg to enhance his stature as the Democrat Party’s successor to Biden by appearing next to the unlikable person he’ll likely be competing against for that honor in 2024.

Standing in front of an electric bus at a transportation hub, Mayor Pete went overboard to praise the veep, and it showed. As The Washington Times reports, “He recalled an Oval Office meeting about the legislation in which the vice president spoke up ‘at just the right moment’ and made comments that were ‘exactly right’ and noted, ‘It’s just one very small example of the countless ways in which her presence has made an impact on this monumental legislation.’”

Yeesh. Why didn’t he just walk over and pat Harris on the head?

The vice president, of course, has made one misstep after another, and her staffers are fleeing like rats from a sinking ship. Her defenders say it’s all been so unfair, though, and that our nation’s first female veep of color has faced a hotter spotlight and sharper criticism than, say, a white male would’ve faced. Woe is Kamala.

As for Buttigieg, he’s certainly better liked than Harris, but that’s not saying much. And his recent decision to take eight weeks of maternity leave instead of focusing intently on our nation’s supply-chain crisis made him seem unserious and over his head. So did his recent dismissal of soaring gas prices, the solution to which, he said, was to simply buy a $55,000 electric car.

It reminded us that Buttigieg is just 39 years old, and that the gay and wildly ambitious former mayor of a small Midwest town is a long way from being ready to take on the toughest job on the planet.