While Donald Trump has been serving fries at McDonald’s, Kamala Harris is licking her wounds after spending the past week or so engaged in what some have dubbed a ‘media blitz’. After taking heat for a lack of media presence (or a policy section on her campaign website for that matter), the VP made several appearances across both ‘legacy’ and ‘new’ media. She’s appeared on the TV shows like 60 Minutes and The Late Show, as well as radio shows and podcasts like The Breakfast Club and Call Her Daddy.
The stop that has garnered the most attention was her sit down with Bret Baier of Fox News. While I admittedly haven’t listened to every second of every appearance, they all seemed to have been pretty softball interviews, with the exception of Fox. Maybe that’s why after consuming more campaign appearances than any sane person should, I feel like I still don’t know where she stands any better than I did before the ‘blitz’.
The whole endeavour felt like such a wasted opportunity
I’ve now watched hours of Harris talking without saying anything. This is not a new skill for a politician, but Harris elevates it to new heights. In her interview with Fox, Harris seemed to have only one answer for every question: Trump bad. I know that ‘orange man bad’ has become a meme, and like all things that become memes, it has been massively overused, but I don’t know of a better use for it than this interview.
While ‘Trump bad’ is red meat for Harris’s base, I can’t see how she or her team think this is a smart approach to take with persuadable voters. I am a firm believer that anyone who won’t vote for Trump based on his personal shortcomings or his, shall we say, unique style of public communication, has made that decision long ago. I can’t imagine anyone hearing Kamala Harris say for the millionth time ‘Trump is a threat to democracy’ and suddenly coming to some sort of epiphany. I think the few persuadable voters left out there are far more concerned with policies, or rather the effects of those policies on the country, than the perceived character of the candidates.
One of the strangest things to come out of the recent media rounds by the Veep is this new refrain about turning the page. While a candidate running on change is not a new or novel concept, it just seems very weird to me when coming from the incumbent VP. Especially when that VP is unable or unwilling to articulate the differences between herself and the current President. I’m aware Harris has a history of being a bit of a weathervane, but with the nomination a done deal, and competing against one of the most disliked presidential candidates in history, I would think she would let voters hear a little more of her actual beliefs and ideas. Which leads me to the question, what was the ‘blitz’ for?
While Harris’s polling had dropped a little in recent weeks, it certainly hadn’t cratered. I can’t envision her camp being fazed by right-wing media calling her out for a lack of media appearances. Legacy media had begun to needle her about it, but they were never going to switch endorsements or produce truly scathing write-ups about her campaign. Joe Biden’s best 2020 campaign strategy was hiding in a basement, and he won handily (by recent election standards). Whatever the rationale, I can’t imagine any of the appearances moving the dial in Harris’s favour. I don’t think she did any kind of irreparable damage to her campaign, but I do think she did more harm than good. Instead of forcefully repudiating some of her past statements, or doubling down on them, she seemed to avoid taking a stance on anything. All her past statements are still fodder for campaign ads, only now her old statements can be stitched together with a new, watered-down, non-committal response. The worst of both worlds.
The whole endeavour felt like such a wasted opportunity. There are persuadable voters out there, even if not many. Harris had a wonderful opportunity to highlight the differences between herself and not only Donald Trump, but between herself and the current president. She didn’t have to come out and blast Joe Biden, or speak ill of him in any way. I find it hard to believe that Biden voters would abandon her if she pointed out different policy choices she would have made as president. Hell, they would probably have respected her for it.
As we enter the home stretch of the campaign, with the race too close to call, I can’t help but feel like Harris blew an opportunity. At this late stage, I don’t think there are a ton of undecided voters, but that makes the few all the more valuable. All signs are pointing to another very close election, so both campaigns should be wooing every voter they can. This media tour by the VP felt like an attempt to woo voters who were already in her corner. An attempt to convince the NYT set that she was, in fact, the candidate for the NYT set. If that fact was ever in doubt, I guess she made the right move. I’m not so sure that was the best strategy, but as a wise man once said: ‘It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for ’em.’
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