Why She's Leading

I watched the big CNN interview last night and felt relieved that it went well, or at least that it did not go off the rails. The vice president was calm, relatable, and pretty careful. She wants to turn the page without making it seem she is distancing herself all that much from President Biden. That may require some polishing given Biden’s stubborn unpopularity.

Governor Walz needs a better answer about his erroneous claim to have carried a weapon of war in a war, as part of his National Guard duty, or Trump Swift Boat slime expert Chris LaCivita will turn that into a faux-disqualification. Better to fess up and let it go. Walz is still a very winning personality with a great family story. Besides, is there anyone who wouldn’t watch the debate between Walz and JD Vance?

Anyway, it got me thinking that maybe the poll surge for Kamala Harris doesn’t have all that much to do with her because it’s really a lot more about the guy running against her.

Yes, the Democratic ticket has performed almost flawlessly since Biden’s withdrawal from the race. And yes, the convention in Chicago was spotless despite the hopes of FOX News and its viewers that it would turn into a 1968 redux.

But think about what Donald Trump has done — to himself and his campaign over this summer. From the longest acceptance speech in history, he has moved seamlessly to calling Harris a variety of dumb nicknames. “Kamabla” is my favorite. But he’s also accused her of being dumb, being a commie, or being not as good-looking as he is.

He’s been backing away from a strict pro-life position — a retreat that infuriates evangelicals. He’s selling relics of the suit he wore in his debate against Biden. Everybody get in line for your true relic!

He’s resurrected the QAnon idiocy, reposted a salacious slur against Harris, held press conferences that are really long-winded grievance-filled snoozefests, and added Corey Lewandowski to his team. That’s a surefire way to reignite his campaign.

Not.

There was his insulting statement that the Medal of Freedom, which has gone to presidential friends in many cases, is “much better” than the Medal of Honor, which is awarded to genuine military heroes for valor in battle. He then attempted to turn a trip to Arlington National Cemetery into a campaign commercial, his aides strong-arming a cemetery official out of the way after she told them no photos were allowed. And he was then captured grinning cluelessly as he stood, thumbs-up at the foot of the graves of servicemen.

Oh and let’s not forget the big-name endorsements. Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman, former presidential hopeful, and current stooge for the Kremlin was quite the get. But the really smart strategic move was to strike an alliance with… Capt. Ahab Kennedy. I mean who wouldn’t want a guy on your team like him? Until a few days ago, Kennedy was running for president as an independent. But he dropped out after generating what might charitably be called an “undergroundswell” of support.

Kennedy has acknowledged that a worm ate part of his brain, that he staged an accident in Central Park involving a dead bear cub he had intended to eat, and that he once chain-sawed the head off a whale that had washed up on shore, tied it to the roof of his car and then went on a five-hour drive. Imagine the other motorists!

And this doesn’t even begin to get at Kennedy’s conspiratorial fantasies like the one about Chinese and Jewish people being less susceptible to COVID-19, or that mass shootings are linked to prescription drugs, or that the 2004 election was stolen from John Kerry, or that someone other than Sirhan Sirhan killed his father, Robert F. Kennedy, in 1968, or of course that vaccines can cause autism.

So while it’s true that Kamala Harris is doing well, I would say she has had a big assist from her bumbling opponent.