Jim Hartman
Following President Joe Biden dropping his re-election bid, Vice President Kamala Harris has now surged for the first time into the lead over Donald Trump in the RCP polling average (by 0.5%).
And Trump has seen his vice presidential pick, J. D. Vance, second-guessed by fellow Republicans who worry the Ohio senator isn’t the right candidate to win over swing voters.
After the assassination attempt, Trump became the heavy betting favorite. It was assumed the election had become Trump’s to lose.
Republicans produced a unifying GOP national convention in Milwaukee, making an effective case against the failings of Biden.
Trump could have capped it off with an acceptance speech broadening his political appeal. For 30 minutes he gave a moving account of his near-assassination before devolving into a meandering speech that went on for 93 minutes.
If Trump couldn’t pull himself together to deliver a coherent 60-minute case for his candidacy then, there is no reason to expect him to do so in the months ahead.
This was his chance to show himself to the entire country as the president. Instead, his going off script and raving about whatever enters his mind reminded voters that he is still Trump.
Trump recently veered off-course igniting a firestorm by questioning Harris’s racial identity and attacking Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a supporter.
Vance received unwanted attention after video resurfaced from a Tucker Carlson interview in which he lamented “we are effectively run in this country… by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable in their own lives and the choices they have made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”
He cited Harris and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as examples.
Vance has a net favorability rating of negative 5 percent, lower than any vice presidential candidate in history.
Vance’s selection was urged on Trump by his son, Don Jr. Critics of the choice complain the Ohio senator had never been vetted.
Vance, 40 years old, is the second youngest senator. He’s held office for only 19 months.
Rather than make his vice presidential pick someone like Nikki Haley, who would broaden his appeal and unite Republicans, or Gov. Doug Burgum or Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who would reassure voters, Trump chose Vance whose “new right” populism simply reinforces Trump’s MAGA base.
Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, 60, as her vice presidential running mate. Elected as a moderate in 2018, Walz morphed into an extreme liberal when Minnesota’s legislature became fully controlled by Democrats in 2023.
Bernie Sanders championed the Walz vice presidential choice and opposed the more moderate Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Walz was slow to call out the National Guard to address rioting in Minneapolis after the 2020 killing of George Floyd. It took him three days to deploy troops after looting and arson spread resulting in damages totaling $500 million.
Harris remains relatively unknown to most Americans. However, a fair conclusion from her record is she’s a standard California progressive on most issues, often to the left of Biden.
She has endorsed the spending blowouts of the Biden administration that caused inflation.
As a California senator she co-sponsored with Sanders “Medicare for All” legislation that would outlaw private insurance.
She has endorsed a nationwide ban on oil and gas fracking, which would have cost tens of thousands of jobs and caused power outages like those in her home state.
On policy, Harris is shameless.
She is essentially now saying: You know those policies I stood for that you don’t like? I changed my mind.
Her campaign has blithely disavowed previous stands with no explanation – on fracking, border enforcement, single payer health insurance and assault weapons.
It’s outrageous that she’s getting away with it. The press has a duty to inform the public about who Kamala Harris is and what she really thinks.
E-mail Jim Hartman at lawdocman1@aol.com.