Keep the joy.
Tell voters you will solve real problems.
The honeymoon is fun, but it is time to show you can govern, not just celebrate.
Democrats are still giddy. They are "unburdened by what has been" because Biden let go. Meanwhile Republicans remain stuck with a candidate despised by over half of Americans.
The result is love-fest rallies for the Harris-Walz ticket, with not just repetitive, but identical, content. Theoretically, they could keep doing this up to the election. Why not? After all, voters are choosing archetypes, not policy checklists. She looks like a conquering hero. Trump is already confirmed as a crazy crook to the majority of Americans not in the Trump web.
There is a problem. An idea seeped out from Trump and conservative media into general news. The charge is that Harris is avoiding issues that demand clarification because she is too stupid to answer them, and needs, instead, to recite memorized content. In fact, her hesitation comes from the effort to keep papering over over differences within the Democratic coalition. Few Democrats overtly support Hamas but a great many Democrats think that Palestinian civilians, many of them children, are getting a very raw deal from Israel. Few Democrats support "open borders" but a great many Democrats are sympathetic to immigrants who have entered illegally or who are gaming the asylum-claim system. Few Democrats will openly say that higher gasoline prices are a net positive, but most Democrats want to hear that we are doing something about climate, even as they prefer lower gasoline prices. These issues remain unresolved. Democrats are on both sides of these.
Harris sticks to rallies and avoids policy details using words and phrases that Democrats cheer. Clear answers will likely end the honeymoon. As soon as she takes a policy position, some group of Democrats will complain. Interest groups will have a huge audience in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention. We saw the strategy of pro-Palestinian protesters at the Wyden town hall in Medford. The goal isn't to persuade. It is to disrupt. Pay attention to us or we will sink your campaign. Progressive dissent nudged Harris away from Shapiro toward Walz. Harris risks appearing afraid of her own party.
Trump charges that Harris isn't giving substantive news conferences because she cannot answer. It makes whether Trump is a pleasant or law-abiding man irrelevant. It is about the ability to govern.
Where's the beef? Sooner or later Americans will expect to hear Harris articulate Democratic positions. Harris is vulnerable to the complaint that she hides vulnerabilities. After all, she presumably helped hide Biden's decline.
She need not say much, but she needs to declare something on the issues worrying voters. She can say Israel needs to defend itself and that she supports that, but that she urges Israel to exercise far more care. Such a position is generally about what most Americans want.
She can say that a Harris presidency recognizes we have a problem and will stop illegal immigration and asylum-claim abuse. She can say she will push for something we have long needed; bi-partisan comprehensive legislation to solve this problem for real. She can say she welcomes reasonable numbers of legal immigrants. Americans want something done, but not too much, and without being too cruel.
She can say that she is committed to green energy but recognizes that national security and inflation concerns require that we make the transition at a pace that reflects reality. Meanwhile, we should remain energy-independent. It essentially means the status quo, but it would have Harris declare it as the best available choice.
Recall that Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968 while saying only that he had a secret plan to end the war in Vietnam. (His secret plan was to keep fighting the war.) Recall that Trump said he hated Obamacare and would repeal it, and replace it with something far better and cheaper, but he couldn't tell us the details. Americans don't demand details but they want to hear that a president will use the office to address problems.
This sets up a good matchup for Democrats. A new generation president doing what is popular versus a cranky and vindictive old man who won't stop claiming he won an election he lost.
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20 comments:
“I have a secret plan to make the world perfect and everyone in it happy. Trust me.”
That should work.
She commented on needing affordable housing, that working people deserve a wage that they can live on, affordable medicine, a woman’s right to decide what is best for her body- not the government, that corporate greed needs to be reined in, free and fair elections, a country that works with their allies. What she didn’t have to say is that I am not a cognitive impaired old man who is hateful and dishonest.
“It is about ability to govern. It is competent Trump versus "low-IQ" Harris.”
The notion that Trump would be more competent at governing than Harris is intrinsically stupid. Their records speak for themselves, or maybe voters think he actually did build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. His response to the pandemic was pitiful. He dismisses climate change as a “Chinese hoax” whereas she co-sponsored the Green New Deal. He ordered Republicans to kill a bipartisan border bill that she supported, which would have addressed the border crisis. He just wants to use the issue to fuel fear and hatred.
Nor has Harris made any secret of her position on the Israeli/Hamas war: “Israel has a right to defend itself and how it does so matters. What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time. We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.”
Can Harris win with centrist vibes and left/progressive policy positions?
https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/the-democrats-half-hearted-move-to
This may be the reason why positive and joyful is still tied in the polls with Donald Trump.
First woman President...sit down.
Harris has conspicuously avoided holding even one press conference or granting even one sit-down interview with a mainstream news media outlet since taking the baton from Biden almost three weeks ago. That is not sustainable, despite Trump train wrecks like his own meandering, petulant press conference last night.
Sounds like armchair quarterbacking. I doubt if Harris has any fear of being interviewed, and no doubt she will be when her campaign managers decide the time is right. Hopefully they have a better grip on that than we do. Meanwhile, she and her running mate are introducing themselves to those who don't know them and rallying the enthusiasm of those who do.
My guess is that she is taking some time to articulate her positions and research details, which is the intelligent thing to do.
It would work for some voters, unfortunately. It has worked on low-educated TFG voters.
She's gains in the polls every time TFG opens his orange mouth.
Second Black president.
Among TFG's lies at his no-news news conference was that nobody voted for Harris.
Her name was on the 2020 ballot right below Biden's. She got more votes than TFG.
She's won every election she's entered.
President Harris.
Why should VP Harris provide a forum for the hypocritical howling jackals of the Mainstream Media who spent 90 minutes tongue bathing Trump without once asking a serious question or calling him on the multitudinous lies he was spraying around the room ?
As Peter says, “voters are choosing archetypes, not policy checklists.” This election is about America’s core values vs. Trump’s blatant racism, misogyny and contempt for the rule of law.
The notion that Trump might be more intelligent or competent than Harris is as preposterous as his imaginary helicopter crash with Willie Brown. You can’t have a legitimate debate with a compulsive liar, but a “debate” between them might be fun just to watch her fact-check him.
Jennifer makes strong points, VP Harris and Governor Walz are riding a honking big wave of popularity and relief right now. Give them time to complete their tour of Battleground States and let the policy Wonkery begin.
Well said, Mike. I noticed Chris Cilizza whining about the lack of Press Access, as if anybody really listens to has-beens like Cilizza.
If he actually shows up for the debate, which I give at best a 50/50 chance, I'm quite sure there will be none of the bluster and threatening moves like he pulled against Hillary Clinton. If he does, I would hope VP Harris rips off that ridiculous wig and shouts something like This is what Old looks like", even though I know she has too much class for something like that.
"But she hasn't told us her policies," whine the supporters of a felon who has zero policies.
Best comment ever!
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