Watch this short clip of Kamala Harris at a campaign rally on Tuesday:
Vice President Harris: Donald, I do hope you'll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage. As the saying goes, if you got something to say, say it to my face pic.twitter.com/5zykEnU3Dn
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) July 30, 2024
What's important here isn't what she says. It's how she says it. She's talking like a normal person and she's obviously having fun. It's been a long time since we've seen that from a presidential candidate of either party.
So far Harris hasn't really had to navigate any tough wedge issues, like Gaza or immigration. That will come, and when it does we'll find out how good a politician she really is. In the meantime, though, she's building up a lot of political capital just by being excited, buoyant, and playful in the way she attacks Trump. It's a huge contrast to the dour doomsaying of Trump and Vance, and they have no answer for it.
She did address immigration in her speech at her Atlanta rally. What's Trump's retort -- you didn't move faster? She'll just remind him that he asked House Republicans to block it at the height of the southern border surge and they complied, even while he was talking out of the other end of his mouth about how big of a problem this surge was.
A person who talks from both sides of their mouth, will eventually be confronted by it and forced to publicly resolve it. Again, don't be 'splaining for Trump; make him do all the lifting.
And she also addressed Gaza via a written statement. And both of these pieces of communication point to what I think is her best strategy: crisp talking points that sound tough and that, to the greatest extent possible, target Trump (she quite sensibly called out Donnie for sabotaging the bipartisan border deal).
Also, I'm not sure to what extent Harris is going to have to "navigate" (to use Kevin's chosen verb) such issues. She's not president yet, so she actually doesn't have to make these policy calls. Also, do general election candidates have to do press conferences? Trump sure as hell won't be doing any. We'll see, but, I'd say her best bet is too keep her talking points crisp, brief and aggressive in their critique of Trump. And so far she seems very good at this.
".. he asked House Republicans to block it .. "
..and senate Republicans too.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/23/senate-democrats-immigration-border-bill
It's a huge contrast to the dour doomsaying of Trump and Vance, and they have no answer for it.
They've been caught flat-footed. And the timing of all this seems to have absolutely crushed any convention or shooting bump Trump/Vance might have expected. And his running mate? OMG what a disaster. And Kamala's bounce will likely continue for several more weeks as we (1) get the running mate reveal and, (2) go to the convention.
Two weeks ago Trump thought he was going to waltz to 270 electoral votes. So unfair!
Nate Silver: Big uptick for Harris today.
https://x.com/NateSilver538/status/1818659822452998309
His model now gives Harris the popular vote edge, by about 1 %. She is still behind in the electoral college.
And she is just getting started.
Three-sevenths is quite a bit better than one-fourth. It's not half, but it's not three-eights, either. It's important to remember that some of the polls evaluated by "The Model" are from before Biden's announcement when her polling lagged his. Not as many as last week of course, but still some.
it's killing nate to have to report this.
The middle east insanity is probably going to make some news. Israelis kill hezbullshit person in Beirut (maybe) and then a Hamasshole dude in Tehran! How embarrassing. Now is the time for the full scale war everyone seems to want. All those US college students can get on board with the destruction of Israel. Look what they did! I have no idea what Biden / Harris / Trump will say, but they ought to wash their hands of the whole mess and tell everyone over there to drop dead. (Diplomatically, of course.)
Harris is doing fine. She's got my vote.
I will say this... I much prefer them whacking each other's "leaders" than killing children.
Fuck this troll.
the only war i want is the race war. but only because i know my side is going to lose, which means the whites are going to lose.
80% of white people, even the ones who don't want a race war &/or claim to be antiracist, think the whites will win it. & 30-50% of blacks think they will win.
pishposh to all that.
the mexicans are going to win if it comes to a war.
only chance whites & blacks have is if they, once they are down bad versus la raza, go hat in hand to japan begging the yakuza for support in materiel & bodies.
Needs caps, and making sense.
To add to emjayay: You need caps, and write less messages but more coherent.
Love her calling out Trump on debates! Perhaps she is doing this but she should talk again and again about 'law and order' and 'no one is above the law'. Here is what most people care about
1) Themselves
1a. Their financial outlook (inflation, jobs)
1b. Their personal safety (GOOD policing, secure borders)
2) Their families (see 1a and 1b)
.
.
.
128) Anybody else
One of the things that struck me early in the Trump presidency is that he never appeared to be having any fun. There are all those great perks of being President: You can go to the Kennedy Center Honors and sit next to Bob Dylan; you can invite the cast of "Hamilton" to give a private performance for you and a couple dozen friends. He never did any of that. The only things that appeared to give him any enjoyment at all was (a) listening to people suck up to him, and (b) mocking other people. As the man himself would say: Sad.
This is why he sorely needs to develop a dehabilitating painful disease like ass cancer. Something to make him realize that nobody loves him so nobody will come to visit him as he’s visibly shitting his pants or puking his guts post chemotherapy or whatever, and that he’s wasted most of his life and give him lots of time to ruminate on it.
Having had ass cancer, you couldn't be more wrong in your choice. It's not debilitating and is, in fact, highly treatable as long as it hasn't spread too far. Much like what Kevin is going through, it's six weeks of more or less awfulness (no puking for me) and then done.
There are plenty of awful things you can wish on someone, ass cancer isn't very high on the list.
I don't think Trump enjoys music, culture or entertainment in the same way most of us do. He only likes things that will tweak his fantasy image of himself. His favorite pastimes are golf (at his own courses, with sycophants who let him win) and watching himself on TV, and he seems to respond to violent, macho movies featuring the likes of Hannibal Lecter.
He's like Shakespeare's man who has no music in himself:
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night
And his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted.
William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (V,i,83-88)
Thumbs up.
Beautiful.
Nice! I’ll use that in the next play I write.
Kamala was wonderful....I admittedly was not necessarily a fan, but this was perfect, her speech and delivery was exactly what I was looking for...and it was short...17 minutes.
the length of the speech was important because she has to keep her voice and give this very same speech or slight variations thereof for another 90+ days.
I don't mind admitting I was wrong...Ms Harris will sweep to victory and....have coattails.....Traveller
As I read somewhere recently (forget where), among the genuis skills of Trump has been understanding viral marketing - understanding that ex-egghead political obsessives and journos, no one watches full speeches, rather it is clips, outtakes.
If Ms Harris can become a positive viral clip generator, understand that mode of comm (as seems to be emerging), perhaps one of Trump's advantages can be neutralised.
Trump's only "skill", and it may have been by accident, was that he knew he could get away with saying unhinged stuff and lie. Most politicians are more careful, recognizing historical pitfalls. Trump came across as "direct", cause he ignored all of that. Barrelling ahead and the media was left chasing his nonsense.
Trump's primary skill is transforming people's feelings of resentment into loyalty to him as the one who will make 'someone' pay.
And as a conman, he can easily spot the marks. Once the right wing news media got comfortable lying to its viewers/listeners, Trump knew where the sheep were sleeping.
I’ll admit I thought Biden dropping out was political suicide. I’m so incredibly happy to have been wrong. Harris is ON FIRE daily and taking it to tRump like Biden never could. I can’t wait to vote for her.
I predict Trump et al are already plotting to jettison JD in favor of RFK. I believe RFK has declined in the past but would he? hmmmm...
I think that would be an even worse choice. He's be better off picking the worm that RFK said ate his brain.
Trump is grift enough for the wingnut mega-donors, three parasites may be too pricey a ticket.
At least she can stay up past 8:00pm, and doesn't need a nap in the middle of the day.
Kamala has absolutely outperformed my expectations, and the Democrats, for a change, fell in line in about 24 hours. It's amazing that the prospect of of another 4 years of Orange Cheeto and that Couch Fucker can motivate people to do the right (and smart) thing. I sent her a C note last week, and hopeful that $100 I sent to Biden before the debate will be spent on her campaign
It will be, every penny that's left. It's the same organization; they just changed their name. There's no formal nominee yet, so it's really the Dem For President campaign. And unlike the Felon, Biden wasn't siphoning huge fractions of pretty much every donation off toward paying his own legal bills and penalties.
The Dems are running for office. The Felon is, as always, grifting.
Meooooow...Girls just want to have fun..FOR .NOW ! The CONVICED whore monger better be a afraid. Very afraid! Kitties know.
Trump has no sense of humor. It's been obvious for a while, but now Harris is making Trump's deficiency painfully evident to everyone simply by providing a sharp contrast. He has no sense of humor! The closest he ever gets to humor is mockery, and that is NOT the same thing.
Repubs will try to minimize this, but average people are going to see more clearly than ever that there is something fundamentally wrong with him.
He'll never get past running like a scared rabbit from debating her. That image is going to stick.
And, underneath it all, this is really why he wants to surrender to Putin.
It's maximally belligerent gutlessness.
Best thing about the Harris surge? (A lot of blue in the latest polls.) She hasn’t even had the convention yet. An opportunity to bury trump.
Ain't nobody gonna be burying anybody, I'm afraid. We gotta work like crazy for the next 97 days, and even then it's gonna be a nail-biter, not least because the Felon and his minions are doing everything they can to sabotage the entire electoral process.
Important to remember that to pretty much ALL Republicans -- MAGAts and Good
GermansRepublicans -- NO Democratic victory CAN BE legitimate, by definition. Democrats are Other, they are un-American, many shouldn't even be allowed to vote, much less run for office. Republicans will lie, cheat and steal to win, and throughout they will accuse Dems of lying, cheating and stealing.Don't stop now! Donate! Volunteer! GOTV!
It's not will they cheat, it's to what extent.
Lucky for us Trump argued the VP can throw out electoral college votes, aye?
And the Supreme Court said the president is now a monarch.
Yeah, but that's just the Republican strategy. Cause chaos, and delay/deny certification of enough electoral votes that no one gets to 270. It then gets decided by the House, and Republicans win, or the the SC steps in, and Republicans win.
That's the one thing that still has me nervous about this whole thing: the Democrats have only one path to victory: certify more than 270 electoral votes. Republicans just have to cause enough chaos in enough swing states so certification doesn't happen, and then they let the House and/or SC toss it to them.
It's a bit of a conspiracy theory of the race, but that doesn't mean it's not true.
Trump himslef will certainly try that. How many republicans will help by actual criminal actions will be determined by various factors. One of this factors is the actual numbers of votes that each side got (as opposed to eclectors). It makes it more important to get as many votes even in constituencies where the result is guaranteed.
Also makes votes down tthe ballot more important.
From what I've read, that is an explicit and open component of their strategy. Wasn't it LaCivita who said "it's not over" until the votes are certified in Congress?
And yes indeed, if they can cause enough chaos to throw it to the House, or to the SC (and then likely to the House), they will work very hard to do exactly that.
We have to SWAMP them at the polls, so that within a few days the media narrative is firmly set and any attempt to overturn that will be seen widely as illegitimate.
The happy-warrior archetype no longer gets the attention it once did in the Bush and Obama years. Voters like jovial, upbeat presidents who will disembowel our enemies.
Bartcop called W Bush "President Giggle and Kill," encompassing both Bush's mockery of Karla Faye Tucker - a murderer executed in Texas during his governorship - and his enthusiasm for making war.
The last election I can think of where the candidate most like the happy warrior didn't win was Carter-Ford (maybe), or Nixon vs anyone. In 2016, Hillary fit the type better than Trump, but Trump better projects indifference to human life, and he had Comey on his side.
It's remarkable that Trump, sullen and aggrieved, described by even John Bolton as never laughing, has ever had a shot at the presidency. The contrast with Harris will not go well for him.
Hate goes a long way. People love to hate.
Conald's complete lack of any sense of humor or capacity for anything minimally approaching joy has always been obvious. Harris, particularly as a woman (sorry) has to be aware of the situation and not appear to be all joy no substance.
To me golf is a waste of time. I'd rather take a walk in the woods. I could understand a golf fan trying various courses and actually walking around them, maybe with friends. But imagine not even walking and instead driving around the VERY SAME COURSE every frickin' day, day after day and year after year. It's the king surveying his realm or something.
"But imagine not even walking and instead driving around the VERY SAME COURSE every frickin' day"
I also don't like golf, but to be fair it's not like tennis courts or baseball fields change much day-to-day either.
Honestly, this is the first time since Obama that I've felt energy and positiveness from a candidate at this level. It's just so past time for these older pols to hang up their hats (Hi Mitch) and let the next generation take the wheel. Just make 70 a hard cap on all elected offices and SCOTUS.
It's tempting, but you would have lost Nancy's most productive years. Maybe she's uniquely a "super-ager", but few politicians since Reagan have been so effective.
Kevin's point is really well-taken, and I think that's why the "weird" label is sticking. What's the matter with these dudes? They look so miserable in comparison to Kamala, and all they talk about are strange conspiracy theories. They keep saying she's an idiot, and forced upon the voters by shadowy elites, but she sure looks crisp and alert in front of thousands of screaming fans. Who are you going to trust, they ask, me or your lyin' eyes?
The enthusiasm may be akin to Obama's Nobel Prize for Not Being Bush, but considering how fast (what was it, 24 hrs?) Kamala prevented the divisions of an open convention, something tells me it'll hold. Kevin is right that it's often less what you say than how you say it, but behind the scenes it's also the strategy and she's been great on both fronts.