Team Trump Caught Flat-Footed
What a week it has been....
Last Thursday night, America watched Donald Trump accept his party's presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention. Republicans had owned the news cycle all week long as they put on their quadrennial extravaganza, topped off with a full hour and a half of Trump rambling on about this, that, and the other. Traditionally, presidential candidates get a "convention bump" from all the free media, so perhaps Team Trump was looking forward to skating for the upcoming week, and just riding out the wave that the convention brought.
To put it mildly, this is not what happened. Instead, President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he was dropping out of the race and handing the reins over to his vice president, Kamala Harris. This launched an absolute whirlwind of activity on the Democratic side, as the party eagerly leapt to fall in line behind Harris. No other plausible Democrat even challenged her for the party's nomination, and in a little more than 24 hours she had enough delegates behind her to sew up the nomination (Harris also raised an eye-popping $100 million in donations during the same period). Since then, it has been Harris who has gotten a ton of free (and mostly positive) media attention. Last night, Biden (recovered from his bout with COVID-19) gave a primetime address from the Oval Office to pass the torch to Harris.
Donald Trump, in all of this, is no more than an afterthought. He still has not even settled on a playground-bully insult to call her (the ones he has tried so far have all been either pathetically weak or just retreads of names he had previously slapped on others). Team Trump has been flailing, unsure of how to react to this stunning development and has (so far) been completely ineffective at tearing down the positive image Harris has been presenting all week. It seems almost unbelievable but it's true -- Donald Trump has finally been upstaged.
In the midst of all this, it was actually the Democrats who rolled out a brand-new attack line. Free of Biden as their standard-bearer, they leaned in to pointing out the simple fact (which the media has been largely ignoring all along) that Trump is no spring chicken himself. He's downright old, in fact -- the oldest presidential major-party nominee ever. It remains to be seen whether the Democrats have successfully turned this issue completely around, but it certainly is the height of irony that the issue that just took down Biden could then boomerang back onto Trump.
It is still too early to tell how this is playing out with the public at large. While some polling numbers are trickling in which show Harris at gaining on Trump, it'll take another week before any trends can truly be identified. But the shift in attitude among Democrats is already pretty palpable. People are excited. They are energized. The impact of the past few days has been greater than the sum of the entire campaign Biden had run up to this point, in fact. And Harris (unlike Biden) doesn't have the country to run -- she can get out there and campaign each and every day. Which she has cheerfully been doing.
Of course, the honeymoon period Harris is having now with the public is probably not going to last forever. Sooner or later Team Trump will find its footing again and develop a strategy to use against the vice president. They're sort of randomly throwing things at the wall right now, in an effort to figure out which attack lines will work and which fall flat. They're calling her a radical lefty extremist and trying to blame her for the border situation. They're going to dig up everything she said in her 2020 presidential campaign and try to scare the voters with it all. But so far, their efforts have seemed a little half-hearted, at best. Donald Trump isn't blazing the way with his message, he mostly just seems bewildered by the development (he's still attacking Joe Biden more than he's turned his attention to Harris).
Either Team Trump truly believed (as some are reporting) that Biden was in it for the long haul (and thus there was no need to develop any alternate strategy, just in case) or they were just expecting an easy post-convention week. Either way, the timing of Biden's bombshell announcement completely caught them by surprise.
So far, Harris has been doing a pretty bang-up job of introducing herself to the country. Many had not paid Harris a whole lot of attention for the past four years (which is about par for the course for all vice presidents). But Harris has spent this time improving her political skills. Her speeches now are markedly better than when she made her presidential bid. She has found an issue to be passionate about (abortion) and her authenticity when she speaks of it is notable. Harris has redefined the race as "the prosecutor versus the criminal," which is a rather brilliant way to attack Trump (and force the media to mention it often).
Harris has eagerly embraced her new status as presidential candidate. So far, she has been the one defining the new race for the voters while Team Trump is left in a defensive and reactionary crouch. Harris is high-energy excitement and the new kid on the block, while Trump is licking his wounds and complaining. The contrast is rather dramatic.
As I said, this honeymoon period is not likely to last. But while it does, America sees a youthful and energetic Kamala Harris campaigning to large crowds at high-energy events while Trump has been shoved almost completely off the stage. Harris is doing an excellent job of defining herself in the voters' minds while Trump tries to make up his mind what playground-bully insult he's going to use for her. The message from Harris is that she represents the future, while Trump is stuck living in the past. Harris is feisty in a way Joe Biden just couldn't ever manage, and she is leaning in to her attacks on Trump.
The next few weeks will have the Olympics to distract the public, but after they're over the Democrats will hold their own national convention. They'll get to showcase Harris and the Democratic agenda at the start of the homestretch of the campaign. Replacing Biden with Harris has caused a seismic shift in the dynamics of the campaign, and all the momentum is currently with Harris. If she can transform this momentum into a rise in the polling, then this seismic shift may prove to be decisive. Remember, this all happened in the span of a few days. One week ago Democrats were feeling pretty despondent about their chances of beating Donald Trump as they watched his convention speech. Now Democrats are positively looking forward to the next presidential debate, because of their expectation that Harris will verbally destroy Trump.
What a difference a week can make!
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
Trump isn't just old. He's showing signs of dementia that go beyond anything we've seen from Biden. Biden, to my knowledge, has never started a sentence that trailed off into nonsense syllables, for instance, as Trump has done repeatedly. And even with a stutter, Biden can pronounce four-syllable words, which Trump often has trouble with. Not to mention his obsession with Hannibal Lecter and the problem of being in sinking electric boats in shark-infested waters.
Traditionally, presidential candidates get a "convention bump" from all the free media, so perhaps Team Trump was looking forward to skating for the upcoming week, and just riding out the wave that the convention brought.
I know, right!? Whatever happened to the requisite convention bump? It never happened... and that was by design.
If anyone thinks the timing on the recent events of the presidential election were entirely coincidental, I got a bridge to sell you. The Democrats outmaneuvered the Republicans. More coming. :)
Yep, Joe Biden “practicing effective politics” has once again ran circles around the hapless Repugs.
JD Vance has a net -6% approval-disapproval ratio. Vice President nominees are usually +%19 so good luck with that.
I’d sure looove to know if Joe planned all this out ahead of time. Or was he simply like a star basketball player, patiently “letting the game come to him.”
JD Vance has a net -6% approval-disapproval ratio. Vice President nominees are usually +%19 so good luck with that.
Who was it who said that polls this far out are meaningless and worthless??
Oh yea... It was YOU!!!
Now that the polls are saying what you want to hear, NOW their gospel. :eyeroll:
Yer such a hypocrite, Caddy...
Typical Demcorat…
Hypocrisy. It's not a bug in MtnCaddy's programming. It's a feature.
:eyeroll:
No other plausible Democrat even challenged her for the party's nomination,
Just like no other plausible Demcorat even challenged Basement Biden for the Party's nomination in the primary..
So now, when Headboard Harris tanks just like Basement Biden tanked (as she most certainly will) Demcorats will be sitting there with their dicks in their hands bitching and moaning "Ooooohhhh if ONLY we would have had a REAL primary!!! Waaaaaa Waaaaaa"
Typical Demcorats…
Making the same mistake over and over hoping for a different result. :eyeroll:
Free of Biden as their standard-bearer, they leaned in to pointing out the simple fact (which the media has been largely ignoring all along) that Trump is no spring chicken himself. He's downright old, in fact -- the oldest presidential major-party nominee ever.
So, Demcorats have gone with the ageist bigotry plan.. :eyeroll:
Absolutely NOTHING wrong with being old... Basement Biden didn't tank because he was old...
Basement Biden tanked because he was old, senile, dementia-riddled and couldn't handle life..
If Basement Biden was an everyday citizen, he would be in a nursing home. Or a hospice..
But the shift in attitude among Democrats is already pretty palpable. People are excited. They are energized.
Of course Demcorats are excited. They got a shiny new toy to play with..
What happens when Headboard Harris tarnishes and dulls up?? As she will most definitely do, as her LAST presidential campaign certainly proves..
Now Democrats are positively looking forward to the next presidential debate, because of their expectation that Harris will verbally destroy Trump.
Yea, cuz she did SO well in her LAST Presidential Debates, eh? :eyeroll:
Headboard Harris' ONLY claim to fame in an actual Presidential race is that she stuck the racist label on Basement Biden..
President Trump is going to DESTROY Headboard Harris.. JUST like he DESTROYED Basement Biden... :D
JD Vance has a net -6% approval-disapproval ratio. Vice President nominees are usually +%19 so good luck with that.
And Headboard Harris has a -13% approval-disapproval ratio.... According to a LEFT WING rating site...
So what's yer point? :eyeroll:
Absolutely NOTHING wrong with being old...
That's not what you said before Biden dropped out. Was it a lie then or now? Or is that medicine suddenly bitter?
As for "senile, dementia-riddled" must be projection for you as anyone with more than two brain cells and the ability to watch Biden and Trump give a speech can see it's your guy having pronunciation problems with multisyllabic words and drifting off on weird tangents...
FPC
@poet wrote,
Donald doesn't need any more votes than the ones he got last time. And considering how fired up his people are after he was almost assassinated and made it into one hell of a photo-op, low information voters might just like what they see and not bother reading the fine print.
Trump lost in 2020. The Electoral College wasn’t close and Joe got 81 million votes. So how does Trump just needs to repeat 2020 make any sense?
I’d like to propose Democrats In Array as this evenings FTP subtitle.
Cad,
Trump lost in 2020. The Electoral College wasn’t close and Joe got 81 million votes. So how does Trump just needs to repeat 2020 make any sense?
Hello!!! McFly!!!!????
Because Demcorats have lost MILLIONS of black American voters.. And MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of Hispanic voters...
DUH!!!
Lay off the drugs, son... Reality is MUCH more rewarding...
Jeezus H Christ, FBI Director Wray turned into such a Trump/America hating pussy...
Why in the hell did President Trump nominate such a luser!??
Anyone with more than 2 brain cells to rub together can see that President Trump was hit by a bullet.. You can see the frakin' BULLET HOLE through his ear!!!
And you people wonder why the FBI has got to be defunded!!???
They have turned into nothing but the brown shirt wing of the Demcorat Party!!!
Morons!!!
All of Trump's gains with black and Hispanic voters have been completely lost in recent polls...
Harris won't say if she's pushing Hamas to agree to a cease-fire after publicly pressuring Netanyahu
Harris and Netanyahu met on Thursday
Vice President Kamala Harris publicly pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "get this deal done" and agree to a cease-fire to end Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza, but Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, won't say whether she's also pushing terror group Hamas to relent at the negotiating table.
Harris' remarks urging Israel to make a deal, which came after her "frank and constructive" meeting with Netanyahu on Thursday, were lambasted by former President Donald Trump in public and, reportedly, by Netanyahu in private.
"I think her remarks were disrespectful," Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, told reporters while standing alongside Netanyahu on Friday afternoon. "They weren't very nice pertaining to Israel. I actually don't know how a person who's Jewish can vote for her, but that's up to them. But she was certainly disrespectful to Israel, in my opinion."
Headboard Harris has been on HAMAS' side since day one!!
I can't understand why ANY American of the jewish persuasion would vote for Headboard Harris...
One would surely believe that such hatred against Israel is a deal breaker...
I can't understand why ANY American of the jewish persuasion would vote for Headboard Harris...
One would surely believe that such hatred against Israel is a deal breaker...
I mean, for me personally, it would be as if the Demcorat Party shit on cops..
Oh wait... That is EXACTLY what the Demcorat Party has done... And is STILL doing!!!
:eyeroll:
Yawn. Michale is hiding that he is posting a fox news article. The "Harris won't say" is, per the article in question, "office did not respond." when asked.
Later in the article it has another Harris quote:
"Israel has a right to defend itself, and how it does so matters," Harris told reporters Thursday. "It is time for this war to end. And end in a way that Israel is secure, all the hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity and self-determination."
I agree with that...
You can see the frakin' BULLET HOLE through his ear!!!
Can you really?
Bit of nick there, no hole. I think the FBI had a point finding out if it was a bullet or fragment that hit him for, the very least, historical purposes. I mean the FBI investigator(s) are getting their name on a piece of history, pretty sure they really want to get it absolutely correct. Not that it matters unless Trump is hamming it up, but he would never do that...
how is a deal over Gaza in the south going to happen when Hezbollah just attacked Golan in the north?