The silly season ended yesterday, but the only way she can win is to hope it continues through the election. Those hailing her meteoric ascension should do well to remember that meteors don’t rise. They fall to Earth, either disappearing in a flash in the atmosphere or causing havoc down below.
Perhaps the most stunning development over the past month has been that Vice President Kamala Harris’s rise in the media has barely been reflected in the polls. Despite weeks of the most hagiographic, hero-worshiping coverage imaginable, all the joy and vibes pumped out by shills in the press corps, the Presidential race remains a toss up, with Nate Silver now giving former President Donald Trump a slight edge. This is doubly amazing when you consider these same weeks have been accompanied by coverage of the former President that was as negative as his opponents’ was positive, as if the equation must be balanced and every glowing story about the Vice President required its opposite in some political version of one of Newton’s Third Law of Motion. Whatever the case, the all-powerful narrative was clear: The Vice President’s entry into the race had completely upended it, shifting any and all momentum to the Democrat Party, and the former President was desperate to do something, anything to change that dynamic, as though he were facing some Serpentor-like hybrid of the greatest political talent in history, part George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt. Thus, we weren’t supposed to pay attention to the underlying reality that the former President has been steadily executing his campaign on his own terms, holding rallies, hosting press conferences, appearing for major interviews, and making his case while his opponent appeared to be hiding from hers, disappearing from view after a substance free coronation of a convention, only to resurface a week later for a tightly scripted, equally substance free interview with her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz by her side for apparent emotional support. It’s a testament to the doublethink underlying the entire Harris campaign that expectations for a supposed political superstar were so low heading into the “showdown” with CNN’s Dana Bash that the absence of some major error, gaffe, or meltdown was considered a win. Like President Joe Biden before her, she didn’t have to perform, merely survive to “bolster” her “momentum” according to the same network’s Stephen Collinson and others. As Mr. Collinson described it, “Kamala Harris showed how she plans to deal with Donald Trump and win the presidency in CNN’s exclusive first interview with the vice president since becoming Democratic nominee, avoiding slips that could slow her momentum.” He continued, “The vice president preferred sweeping themes and aspirations rather than detailed policy blueprints and declined to fully explain reversals on issues like immigration and energy. But she was a more deft, disciplined and prepared political figure than she appeared in her short-lived bid for the 2020 Democratic nomination or in accident-prone moments early in her tenure as vice president. Harris smoothly countered questions and follow-ups about her vulnerabilities by pivoting to safer talking points as she failed to do in a damaging interview with NBC in 2021. Harris also steered clear of any obvious errors that would knock her campaign off track and require her to perform damage control in the vital build-up to her debate showdown with the former president on September 10 in Philadelphia.”
Mr. Collinson wasn’t alone in this assessment. Even some Republicans seem to have accepted that the bar for a potential President who hadn’t faced any questions prior to the interview, much less hold a press conference, one that hasn’t received a single actual vote on a national level, is so low that speaking somewhat coherently for barely twenty minutes without drooling on herself was enough. Charlie Dent, a former Republican Congressman, claimed the Vice President “accomplished her objective,” which was “to make no errors” and since “she didn’t screw up,” “that’s a victory of sorts for her.” It was also enough for many progressive outlets to claim we should simply move on — presumably without asking any more questions. The Nations’ Joan Walsh asked, “The Beltway Media Got Its Harris Interview. Can We Move on Now?” She began by describing the strange lead up to the event, “No sooner had Vice President Kamala Harris agreed to the high-profile interview that media factotems had been demanding since she was endorsed by President Joe Biden—a sit-down with CNN’s Dana Bash alongside her running mate, Governor Tim Walz—a new nontroversy arose. Why wouldn’t Harris sit down by herself? Why did she need Walz by her side?” After venting her ire at those that wondered why the Vice President didn’t appear solo for obvious reasons given she seeks to be the most powerful person in the known universe, a job where many who’ve had it claimed you were frighteningly alone as the sole decider, Ms. Walsh insisted “the main issues the Beltway media wanted addressed—how Harris explains her alleged flip-flops since her 2019 presidential campaign, how 24-year National Guard veteran Walz might have misstated his record on occasion—got addressed. Congrats, guys (and some gals). We got answers! It was often tedious. CNN’s Dana Bash did… adequately. She did not indulge in the right-wing tropes against Harris, although her microscopic focus on how Harris has changed positions—on immigration, on fracking—since her unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign felt like Beltway myopia to me. We have millions of young voters who weren’t eligible in 2019 or 2020. Maybe they enjoyed that stroll down memory lane; maybe they tuned out.” This seems a rather odd (dare I say, weird?) way to simultaneously suggest that young voters are too ignorant to be aware what happened a mere five years ago, as if the interview had spun off into an analysis of Rutherford B. Haye’s response to the Great Strike of 1877, and the reasons a candidate would suddenly switch to the opposite view on almost every issue aren’t relevant (note that they are “alleged flip-flops,” whatever that means when the candidate herself admits changing positions). It has, however, become standard practice among progressives, part of the circular logic that allows them to rationalize enthusiasm for the least popular Vice President in modern history, part of one of the least popular administrations, and one they know in their hearts cannot face the tough question the job demands.
Fortunately, there are those that remain at least somewhat rational, don’t appear to have succumbed to the idea that mere survival is enough to potentially catapult a candidate to the Presidency, and were therefore much less enthused. Former Republican pollster and frequent Trump-critic Frank Luntz, for example, tweeted “Kamala Harris was asked a specific question about what she would do on Day 1 if elected as POTUS. Her answer was so vague that it was essentially worthless. Not a good start.” USA Today’s Ingrid Jacques was equally critical, “After waiting weeks to do an interview sans teleprompter, Vice President Kamala Harris left the American people with more questions than answers Thursday night. Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz agreed to a sit-down with CNN’s Dana Bash, but the pre-taped conversation didn’t offer any clarity about what we would see from a Harris-Walz administration. Since President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race in July, Harris’ meteoric ascension to the top of the ticket – and the newfound energy in the Democratic Party – has been fueled by a lot of feelings, but not much in the way of substance.” She concluded, “This interview was high-stakes for Harris. She still needs to explain to voters who she is, what she values and how she would lead the nation for the next four years. She didn’t rise to the moment.” Personally, I would suggest she did far worse than that, committing what could possibly be a fatal self-inflicted wound even if it’s not yet fully apparent. While it’s true she managed to avoid the sort of blood curdling cackle or rambling, lecturing repetition of a phrase four times in a sentence as she did the week before by babbling about a “return on investment,” she responded to any and all questions about her ever changing policy positions by insisting her underlying values haven’t changed, clearly suggesting that she would revert to those policies if and presumably when she could. The Vice President did this despite Ms. Bash providing a much better answer in the question itself. “How should voters look at some of the changes that you’ve made?” She asked. “Is it because you have more experience now and you’ve learned more about the information? Is it because you were running for president in a Democratic primary?” Vice President Harris choose the right option, that she is more experienced and wiser now. Instead, she responded, “I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed. You mentioned the Green New Deal. I have always believed – and I have worked on it – that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time.” She repeated the “values haven’t changed” excuse more several times, making it clear that she remains the same far left, San Francisco politician President Trump has been insisting since she took over President Biden’s failed campaign, Comrade Kamala indeed. Perhaps needless to say, the attack ads rolled out in less than 24 hours because these three simple words encapsulate the impossibility her campaign rests on, the one the media is hoping to hide for the next two months. She was the most progressive member of the Senate, further to the left than even Bernie Sanders. She ran for President in 2020 on a far-left platform, embracing every aspect of the progressive agenda from banning fracking to outlawing gas powered cars with open borders and Medicare for All in the middle, and she proceeded to join one of the most uniquely unsuccessful Administrations in modern memory, complete with rampant inflation, an invasion at the border, and multiple wars around the world. Why would anyone in their right mind vote for those values?
This harsh reality is undoubtedly why the media has also been reverting back to their usual approach to former President Trump, namely that everything’s bad when he does it, regardless of who has done the same before. In his case, we’ve seen politicians of both parties including President’s lay wreaths upon the gravestones of soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery for decades. On Memorial Day 2014, then President Barack Obama visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and delivered remarks, “Today, in small towns across America, in cemeteries throughout our country and around the world, and here on these solemn hillsides, the families of our fallen share stories of the lives they led. Our hearts ache in their absence. But our hearts are also full — full in knowing that their legacy shines bright in the people that they loved the most. Through almost unimaginable loss, these families of the fallen have tapped a courage and resolve that many of us will never know. And we draw comfort and strength from their example. We draw strength from the promise of their children. Today, Michelle and Jill are with 200 brave boys and girls whose parents gave everything they had in service to their country.” President Trump, however, is different somehow. When he was invited to the cemetery by Gold Star families who lost their loved one’s at Abbey Gate in 2021, laying his own wreath and posing for pictures, the media cried foul, offering wall to wall coverage on what a unique scandal it was for a full week. NPR claimed a Trump staffer assaulted a cemetery employee onsite, and the Army, which is supposed to be non-political, but in reality reports into President Biden and therefore Vice President Harris given he’s incapacitated mentally and physically, issued a rare written rebuke. Somehow, for some unknown reason, the media felt that broadcasting pictures far and wide of the former President at the cemetery with the families of fallen soldiers would be a bad look, so bad that the Vice President herself felt the need to get involved on Saturday even though she claimed she was the “last person in the room” when the Administration decided to proceed with their reckless, shameful, tragic withdrawal. She took to X, claiming that President Trump “is unable to comprehend anything other than service to himself.” Veterans, service members and their families “should be honored, never disparaged, and treated with nothing less than our highest respect and gratitude. And it is my belief that someone who cannot meet this simple, sacred duty should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States of America.” Why she would want to draw attention to her own defeat in Afghanistan remains a mystery, but clearly she thought she had her opponent right where she wanted him, caught in the beltway bubble and unable to see the obvious counter punch. The family members of the dead soldiers have an opinion on the matter, and they immediately began posting videos of their own viciously attacking the Vice President with one even insisting he doesn’t know how she can sleep at night. Jaclyn Schmitz, mother of Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, said, “Kamala, your statement is nothing more than a political spin to help you look better in your presidential campaign against Donald Trump. You have never walked a single day in our shoes. Our kids were murdered because of your administration, and you are partly to blame.” Likewise, Coral Doolittle, mother of Corporal Humberto A. Sanchez said the President and the Vice President were responsible for “murdering our kids.” “They called the withdrawal in Afghanistan a success, and for us, it was just sadness and a disgrace,” she added. Others said the same, all backed President Trump as “solemn and in keeping with the reverence and respect that is given to all members of our military that are buried there.”
Rarely, does a politician intentionally step on an avoidable landmine, but it’s not surprising. Vice President Harris sucks, and everyone knows it. The silly season ended yesterday, but the only way she can win is to hope it continues through the election. Those hailing her meteoric ascension should do well to remember that meteors don’t rise. They fall to Earth, either disappearing in a flash in the atmosphere or causing havoc down below.
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 