Mike, Perhaps it is my "confirmation bias" memory, but I can't recall you at any time publicly scratching your head and questioning why the Harris campaign is doing what it is doing. Beginning with her out-of-the-gate border security ad, up until present, she seems to be doing everything right and utilizing smart and sophisticated strategies. Do you share this assessment, or is there anything the Harris campaign should be doing but is not? Things you would be doing if you were running the show?
I'm convinced that the Harris operation got the memo (and a ton of evidence) to show them that they had to strategically and tactically crash the middle to be competitive here and they're doing it. I've also been very impressed with how fast they've made major adjustments and how shockingly well she has risen to the occasion to meet the moment.
I went to a good friends birthday party in Sacramento Friday night attended by many of the most successful people of her and my generation - all of whom remarking that this looks like a very different Kamal Harris than we've all known. She's been a far better candidate in the past 60 days than in the past decades of her career and we're all glad to see it.
The biggest challenges she faces are the turning around the branding of a party that veered so far left and lost working class voters, non-white voters and now men. Its going to be very hard for a Black woman in San Francisco to change deeply embedded voter perceptions of what those images mean contrasted to what a "President" looks like - but again she's doing it.
Yes, there are definitely things I would do differently but anyone can say that about any race. I think they have done far more right than wrong to this point. Will it be enough? No one knows but I'd rather be running Harris campaign than Trumps right now.
Everywhere you look there are tectonic changes, not just here but in other countries -- some good, some not so good. We indeed are living in "interesting times". So exciting ... and so perilous.
The Harris campaign seems to understand the importance of the Polish American vote in PA. When Donald Trump refused to say he's on the side of Ukraine during the debate, Harris jumped on that opening to appeal to Polish American Pennsylvanians: “Why don’t you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor and what you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch?”
I was surprised and pleased by that comment, because it shows she's clear-eyed about Putin, knows what history tells us about unchecked Russian aggression and because she understands that Polish Americans know what's at stake, too.
Looking forward to hearing your take on NC politics - especially after the republican majority on our state Supreme Court just caved to Bobby Kennedy's demand to be removed from the ballot 4 days AFTER the deadline for changes and after the Board of Elections had already printed millions of ballots. Now, absentee ballots will be late going out, and it looks like taxpayers will have to foot the bill for reprinting them.
great article again, Mike. You know, all else being equal if Kamala had been running the campaign a bit earlier I think they could have tilted this in her favour even more, by changing the messaging earlier instead of relying more on voter harvesting . Of course, "all else being equal" is the key thing there and an earlier entrance by Harris would have come with a whole bunch of other issues. It's good to know that they are on a good track. The polish targeting seems particularly prescient.
If I had to guess, Puerto Ricans live in a greater population density, in ethnic neighborhoods/enclaves moreso than Polish Americans at this point in history. Does that make door-knocking, ballot-harvesting, other ground-game interactions more efficient?
Mike, Perhaps it is my "confirmation bias" memory, but I can't recall you at any time publicly scratching your head and questioning why the Harris campaign is doing what it is doing. Beginning with her out-of-the-gate border security ad, up until present, she seems to be doing everything right and utilizing smart and sophisticated strategies. Do you share this assessment, or is there anything the Harris campaign should be doing but is not? Things you would be doing if you were running the show?
I'm convinced that the Harris operation got the memo (and a ton of evidence) to show them that they had to strategically and tactically crash the middle to be competitive here and they're doing it. I've also been very impressed with how fast they've made major adjustments and how shockingly well she has risen to the occasion to meet the moment.
I went to a good friends birthday party in Sacramento Friday night attended by many of the most successful people of her and my generation - all of whom remarking that this looks like a very different Kamal Harris than we've all known. She's been a far better candidate in the past 60 days than in the past decades of her career and we're all glad to see it.
The biggest challenges she faces are the turning around the branding of a party that veered so far left and lost working class voters, non-white voters and now men. Its going to be very hard for a Black woman in San Francisco to change deeply embedded voter perceptions of what those images mean contrasted to what a "President" looks like - but again she's doing it.
Yes, there are definitely things I would do differently but anyone can say that about any race. I think they have done far more right than wrong to this point. Will it be enough? No one knows but I'd rather be running Harris campaign than Trumps right now.
Hope that helps.
It does, and thank you for the detailed response.
Everywhere you look there are tectonic changes, not just here but in other countries -- some good, some not so good. We indeed are living in "interesting times". So exciting ... and so perilous.
The Harris campaign seems to understand the importance of the Polish American vote in PA. When Donald Trump refused to say he's on the side of Ukraine during the debate, Harris jumped on that opening to appeal to Polish American Pennsylvanians: “Why don’t you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor and what you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch?”
I was surprised and pleased by that comment, because it shows she's clear-eyed about Putin, knows what history tells us about unchecked Russian aggression and because she understands that Polish Americans know what's at stake, too.
Looking forward to hearing your take on NC politics - especially after the republican majority on our state Supreme Court just caved to Bobby Kennedy's demand to be removed from the ballot 4 days AFTER the deadline for changes and after the Board of Elections had already printed millions of ballots. Now, absentee ballots will be late going out, and it looks like taxpayers will have to foot the bill for reprinting them.
great article again, Mike. You know, all else being equal if Kamala had been running the campaign a bit earlier I think they could have tilted this in her favour even more, by changing the messaging earlier instead of relying more on voter harvesting . Of course, "all else being equal" is the key thing there and an earlier entrance by Harris would have come with a whole bunch of other issues. It's good to know that they are on a good track. The polish targeting seems particularly prescient.
You make a good point. But they have been quite impressive in the pivot and seem to be executing flawlessly
If I had to guess, Puerto Ricans live in a greater population density, in ethnic neighborhoods/enclaves moreso than Polish Americans at this point in history. Does that make door-knocking, ballot-harvesting, other ground-game interactions more efficient?
Yes it certainly does. Good observation!