If you read my piece on Monday, you already know where I believe the 2024 presidential race generally stands, after an enormous amount of upheaval in a very short period of time. Echoing some of the points offered in that analysis, I reacted on television to a batch of recent Fox News polling out of four battleground states, all taken after Democrats nullified their primary election results and replaced their nominee. The battle for the White House appears to have level set to a freshly competitive dynamic that still slightly favors Trump, in my view. But Harris has made gains so far, consolidating and energizing a previously fractured and dispirited party, and (at least for now) reversing the Trump campaign's forays into expanding the map:
My @AmericaNewsroom analysis on where the race stands 99 days out — with an expanded review of optimistic & pessimistic scenarios in my @townhallcom piece published earlier: https://t.co/l998VsYKPV pic.twitter.com/HpGKtOKZcK
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) July 29, 2024
The Democrat in that segment went on to argue that Harris will attract independent voters by focusing on "democracy" and "reproductive justice," referring to her as a generational talent. Republicans have a good chance of winning independent voters by simply pointing to Harris' stated record and beliefs, which are far out of step with the American electorate's mainstream on nearly every issue. The top issues of the campaign, according to numerous polls, are the economy and immigration, on which Trump leads. As for Harris' supposedly unique and sweeping appeal, it seems the voters haven't gotten that memo:
Current 538 average on Harris approval, after a weeklong full court press for her. We’ll see how and if things move over the coming month or so. Dems and media shooting for a VP pop & convention bounce in the horserace numbers. pic.twitter.com/hUQqee9EBO
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) July 29, 2024
As noted in the tweet, Democrats and their partners in the 'news' media will parlay Harris' running mate selection, and the following convention, as opportunities to improve her image. They're hoping to pull her into the lead in this race through an avalanche of glowing publicity and propaganda. This framing is hysterical because even if Harris despised the press and vice versa, they would have all come together for this 'honeymoon' swoon the instant she became their party's presumptive nominee. They are united in their shared commitment to defeating for the opposing party:
Kamala Harris has spent her last two years as vice president repairing a difficult relationship with the national media — an investment that paid off when her sudden ascent came with a wave of positive coverage.
— Semafor (@semafor) July 29, 2024
New from @maxwelltani in Semafor Media:https://t.co/i7GTLiJqgT
Part of the reason Harris has a poor job approval rating is that she is, of course, deeply associated with the failed Biden-Harris record over the past two years -- and people can't discern any real achievement she's posted in her Vice Presidential role. She's failed utterly as Border Czar, to the point that they're pretending she never even had that job. So what has she done, pray tell? The answers to that question have been...interesting:
.@BretBaier: What has been Vice President Harris's biggest accomplishment as vice president?
— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) July 23, 2024
SEN COONS: …Something that I think hasn't gotten much coverage is her passion for entrepreneurship, for wealth creation, for securing and stabilizing the middle class…
Coons was clearly caught off guard by that question, sputtering some nonsense about her "passion" for entrepreneurship. She has never been an entrepreneur, of course, and opposes economic conditions that allows them to thrive. The one thing she's reportedly quite good at is creating job openings within her own office, having experienced dramatic staff turnover throughout her career. Various news outlets reported on such ugliness before she became their collective party's standard bearer. There's also this column from 2019:
As many of you know, my family has some long political roots. My dad, J Eugene McAteer, was a San Francisco supervisor and state senator until his untimely death at age 51. I pursued the educational political route and was elected Nevada County Superintendent of Schools for six- four-year terms. Our son, Gregory, loves politics and thought that it also might be his passion. A few years ago, I assisted him in securing a summer non-paid internship with Senator Dianne Feinstein in her San Francisco office. Feinstein’s office was unable to have Gregory start in June but told him that then-Attorney General Kamala Harris was looking for summer interns. Gregory had an eye-opening experience in Kamala Harris’ office that none of us expected. For his sake, the month could not pass quickly enough. Needless to say, he was delighted to work in Feinstein’s office for the rest of the summer.
Senator Harris vocally throws around “F-bombs” and other profanity constantly in her berating of staff and others. The staff is in complete fear of her and she uses her profanity throughout the day. As Attorney General, Senator Harris instructed her entire staff to stand every morning as she entered the office and say, “Good Morning General.” Never once during the month-long internship did Harris introduce herself to our son (as he was only in an office with 20 paid employees) and staff was too intimidated by her to introduce him. The only acknowledgment was a form letter of “thanks” signed by Harris given to him on his last day of service. Gregory was also given instructions to never address Harris nor look her in the eye as that privilege was only allowed to senior staff members. I don’t know about you but this is not the workplace of someone who respects her staff.
Here's another attempt at the 'accomplishments' question:
.@SenWarren on Harris’ biggest accomplishment as VP: She was the "first vice president in history to visit an abortion clinic" pic.twitter.com/v2CpjHnebB
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 24, 2024
Warren's answer is ghoulish. Harris' big achievement was...visiting an abortion clinic? This is a party that is not "pro-choice" on abortion. It is actively pro-abortion. Trump's position is that states can devise policy on this thorny ethical, scientific and moral issue through elected and accountable officials, generally focusing on his opposition to late-term abortion. Harris' position is that taxpayers must fund elective abortions for any reason, on demand, throughout all nine months of pregnancy, including for illegal immigrants. It's a grotesque and inhumane position. On the accomplishments front, it seems as though voters are as stumped as professional Democrats on this question -- in case you missed it:
70% of people cannot name a single Kamala Harris accomplishment from her time as VP:
— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) July 28, 2024
Frank Luntz: "Can you name a single Harris accomplishment or result from the time she was elected VP? 3 and a half years, can you name just 1? 70% cannot name anything."
The other 30% are making… pic.twitter.com/zEeKOGRDVl
The latest push from the Harris campaign and media is to wish away these nationally-televised commitments to ban fracking, once and for all:
She even says, on video, “I have a history of working on this issue” — “this issue” being completely banning fracking. It wasn’t just a one-off flub. https://t.co/r84AJxbAnw
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) July 27, 2024
Her team is now denying that she supports the goal she strongly endorsed, out loud, on multiple occasions. This is what they're going to try to do on a long parade of issues. This sort of media "coverage" is shameless, and Kudos to the CNN reporter who has also told the truth about Harris' defund the police extremism for calling it out:
This is a bizarre framing — it’s not an accusation or allegation. She said it on record numerous times in 2019. The news is that she just recently changed her position publicly. https://t.co/io86ijdMa3 pic.twitter.com/BUlIcE1mtn
— Andy Kaczynski (@KFILE) July 29, 2024
Harris' 2019 and 2020 positions are her own views. Her real ones. Not the ones she's inheriting from the failed incumbent she's replaced at the last minute. And she can't really disguise the radicalism:
radical candidate, terrible policy, supported to appease the people who ignored science and locked your kids out of school for as long as they could get away with https://t.co/zWSK83cvPB
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) July 29, 2024
No wonder some Democrats are quietly worried about how long they can keep the hype machine going:
Behind the public jubilation over Vice President Harris’s swift rise to become their party’s likely nominee for president, Democratic lawmakers are privately anxious about her prospects of defeating former President Trump, acknowledging she is largely untested as a candidate and faces serious challenges...concerns are already bubbling up over Harris’s ability to connect as well as Biden did in 2020 with white working-class and union voters in three states that were critical to defeating Trump: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Parting thought: Kamala Harris has been the de facto Democratic nominee for president for more than a week now. Has she given a single interview? I'll leave you with this:
In 2021, @VP Harris agreed to lead the Administration’s signature effort to expand Internet infrastructure. Congress then provided $42 billion for the work.
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) July 29, 2024
It’s now been 9️⃣8️⃣7️⃣ days since the plan was enacted &
0️⃣ Americans have been connected
0️⃣ Shovels worth of dirt turned pic.twitter.com/ojEdSwaCwV
Tens of billions of our dollars spent, nearly 1,000 days elapsed, and zero results. Just don't call her the internet infrastructure expansion Czar!
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