Ah, the saga of Kamala Harris vs. The Big Evil Banks—a tale as beloved as any political bedtime story. Gather around, fine citizens, and let me regale you with a yarn that Vice President Kamala Harris loves to spit-shine and parade at every campaign stop, gala, and press conference. It’s the 2008 foreclosure crisis, and homeowners across America are dropping like flies, courtesy of their friendly neighborhood mortgage lenders. Enter Kamala Harris, then California’s attorney general, decked out in a crusader’s glossy armor, holding banners proclaiming justice for all, flanked by a choir of soon-to-be-slightly-less-foreclosed homeowners.

Yes, folks, Harris’s orchestrated symphony of “taking on the big banks” sounds better than a politician promising to cut taxes and deliver world peace. Back in 2012, she put her name on a multistate mortgage settlement that dished out $20 billion to alleviate middle-class misery. In the political world, that’s basically statutory sainthood. California, her personal fiefdom, scored $18 billion—presumably because she stamped her foot and demanded more than the initial $4 billion she found on the negotiation table. How quaint.

But Harris didn’t stop there. Oh no. She cornered Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s top dog, in a phone chat that was surely as cordial as a cat in a shower. The national settlement followed, promptly touted as a career-defining coup in the glossy chapters of Harris’s autobiography, aptly titled “The Truths We Hold,” featuring a preface by Captain Obvious.

And let’s sprinkle in a bit of political cross-promotion, shall we? Her alliance with Beau Biden, the late Delaware Attorney General, is proof of her national magnanimity, stretching her heroic deeds across state lines and introducing a Homeowner Bill of Rights. Hailed as groundbreaking at the time, the new regulations made mortgage lending slightly less of a free-for-all carnival. “It was like the Wild West,” they said. Thank goodness for Harris, who apparently switched horses mid-gunfight to save troubled homeowners from their loan-shark assailants.

Flash forward, and we find some cracks in this seemingly impeccable façade. Sure, families stayed in homes they were at risk of losing, but it wasn’t all sunshine and lollipops. Less principal reduction was delivered than promised, because what fun is an agreement without a few loopholes?

So next time you see Kamala Harris present this tale of triumph, remember the nuanced reality lurking beneath its glamor. The millions in aid weren’t too shabby, but it’s safe to say this so-called knight didn’t exactly slay the dragon. Instead, we’ve got a few fires burning a little less brightly. Brava, Madame VP. Brava.