Is The November Election One That Kamala Harris Can Lose?
With 67 days until the November 5 elections, what is new and what do we know?
Some of the most recent polls show pro-abortion Vice President Kamala Harris with a lead over former President Donald Trump by a few points nationally, although polling in the battleground states remains tight as a drum.
Also very much worth remembering is that Harris is part of the Biden Administration and 64.9% of the country believes we are on the wrong path. She will do her best to avoid being linked to pro-abortion President Joe Biden while Mr. Trump will remind people 24/7 of what they don’t like about the past four years: inflation, the chaos at the border, the rising cost of basics like food and big ticket items like buying a house.
It probably is all for show but some of the commentariat is acting as if Harris/Walz should be measuring drapes for the White House. Reuter’s Jason Lange and Bo Erickson tell us, “Exclusive: Harris widens lead over Trump, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds.”
USA Today’s Phillip M. Bailey is already writing about how the election is Harris’s to lose: “The ‘Kamalanomenon’ may not last forever. How Harris could still lose 2024 race.”
Of course, nobody expects CNN’s Dana Bash to ask probing questions when Harris and Gov. Tim Walz sit down for their first substantive interview. Since it’s being taped, the potential for mischief is almost limitless.
Does anyone expect the version shown tonight at 9:00 EST to show Harris/Walz team warts and all? I don’t think so.
And does anyone really believe if Harris were made of presidential stuff that she would insist that Walz be with her? “After refusing to do any interviews and hiding for a month, Harris still won’t sit for a 1:1 interview,” former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said in a post on X. “She is weak and not ready for the job.”
Finally, and to his credit, Bailey writes
One lingering aspect of the current race is how little Americans know about Harris’ overall views.
She has changed positions on key issues, such as building a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, with little explanation. In 2019, she described it as a “medieval vanity project,” but in her acceptance speech at the convention she embraced a bipartisan border deal that includes millions for its construction.
A CBS News/YouGov survey earlier this month showed more than a third of voters still don’t know what the VP stands for, which gives GOP attacks room to fill in those gaps with independent voters.
The lack of an encompassing policy platform − coupled with not doing a one-on-one interview to examine those views − could backfire with the American public, especially if Harris’ honeymoon poll numbers ebb.
Tomorrow, we'll have a lot to say about what Harris and Walz had to say at 9:00 EST on the evening of August 29.
Dave Andrusko writes for National Right to Life, from where this article is adapted.