Commentary
Yes She Can!
- by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, July 23, 2024
Joe Biden was not my first choice, but when it was clear he would be the Democratic party’s nominee, I got 100% behind him, because it was a simple, binary choice between him – a lifelong public servant committed to preserving American democracy – and the opposite.
Kamala Harris was not my first pick, but now that she’s clearly going to be the nominee, I am 100% behind her for the exact same reasons.
In the 12 times I’ve voted for a president, only one of them was my first choice. Luckily, I got to vote for him twice. And if Harris delivers the way she’s starting her 2024 campaign, I’m hoping I get the chance to do so again in 2028.
In other words, yes she can.
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The reasons Harris wasn’t my first choice had nothing to do with her public record, or whether I thought she would be a successful Commander in Chief, defender and protector of the Constitution of the United States, and all the other executive duties associated with being a great president.
It was because I didn’t feel she was telegenic enough to win the presidency in our modern media age when how you look and sound matter more than what you say -- and more importantly, what you will actually do.
More recently, I’ve softened on that view, because she has improved her public speaking skills, but still didn’t consider Harris my first choice, because there were other more telegenic potential candidates.
Based on the first 48 hours of her campaign, Harris has demonstrated incredible command as well as a sincerity I believe will cut through what should be a transparently insincere, performative opponent.
As gifted a performer as Donald Trump is, I think most Americans are growing tired of him. And it’s not just because he’s not aging well, re-running old rhetorical episodes of his reality TV-esque show, but because I think most Americans are just fed up with the BS of it.
Or as J. Walker Smith writes in his Planning & Buying Insider column this week, Americans want a kinder, more boring form of politics that are based more on fundamentals and less on chaos.
Based on what I’ve seen so far, Harris is the perfect candidate to deliver on that.
She also has so far demonstrated some important super powers that will be necessary to defeat Trump, and his MAGA-on-steroids base.
Here are just a few:
First and foremost, she’s the underdog. And if there’s anything Americans – as well as America’s pack mentality news media – like, it’s rooting for the underdog.
Secondly, people underestimate her, and her startling ability to transition her candidacy – including locking up endorsements from a majority of delegates necessary to win the nomination – in just 48 hours is proof of that.
She’s earnest, acknowledging the need to prove herself and “win” the nomination. It’s not being handed to her, she has to earn it.
She’s a pragmatist and her initial campaign pledge is squarely focused on the most important part of the 2024 election: a binary choice between two diametrically opposed American futures: One, in her own words, that is about the future. And the other, which literally has branded itself around the past (ie. “Make American Great Again,” or its updated version, because it didn’t get it right the first time: “Make America Great Once Again). What can I say -- the Trump-Vance campaign isn’t exactly the Tuesday Team.
She’s a fighter. Literally, a former prosecutor who successfully indicted and tried criminals for many of the same crimes Donald Trump has been indicted, or already prosecuted for. (So this contest literally will be one of a prosector vs. an already convicted felon. My only question is why that’s even a choice for so many Americans?).
She “eats no for breakfast.” (Love that quote.)
But the main reason I’m so suddenly keen on Harris’ prospects is because her opponent already has telegraphed his campaign tactics against her, and she has deftly brushed them off. You know, the “laughing Kamala” schtick, the falling out of coconut trees memes, all those superficial character slights that Trump has routinely -- and obsessively -- brandished to disarm opponents in the past.
I know many Americans will continue to eat up like so much red meat, but most of us -- to J. Walker Smith’s point -- are simply bored with it. And we’re ready for some substance, not antics.
So for what it’s worth, “Red, White & Blog” is throwing its endorsement to Kamala Harris.
And while I know that won't exactly turn the tide, and that some initial polling might contradict my logic, I can't wait to see how this campaign escalates. Because as "Mad Blog" columnist Barbara Lippert already noted, Kamala Harris has made 2024's thrilla a little less vanilla.
I'm not ready to label her a "no drama Kamala," because there will be some hot spots up ahead in this campaign, but I'm pretty sure that's how we'll remember her presidency. Both terms of it.
And on that note, we’ll leave you with a boring graphical rendering that Harris -- and many people in the ad biz also -- say she loves: A Venn diagram.
Joe Mandese is the Editor in Chief of MediaPost. You can reach Joe at joe@mediapost.com.
Wow. Telegenics is one of your criteria. That makes me feel good about your opinion. But then, you work in MARKETING. How about judging her on how most American workers are judged, by performance? Her first assignment was to tackle the crisis on the southern border. How has she done on that one??? Yep, crickets....
@D K from Retired: Thank you for raising an easily fact-checkable question and for giving me an opportunity to set the record straight. Here's your answer.
Fact: Harris was never put in charge of the border or immigration policy. Nor was she involved in overseeing law-enforcement efforts or guiding the federal response to the crisis. Her mandate was much narrower: to focus on examining and improving the underlying conditions in the Northern Triangle of Central America—El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—which has been racked by decades of poverty, war, chronic violence, and political instability. The strategy relied on allocating billions for economic programs and stimulating private-sector investment in the region in hopes that these programs would ultimately lead fewer migrants to make the dangerous journey north.
https://time.com/7001817/kamala-harris-immigration/
And she did such a lousy job of that narrower focus, never visting the border and not meeting with border agents in months.
However, she did do a piss-poor job in covering up Biden's mental declines.
Who will her running-mate be? Jussie Smollet?
@Mark Sutton: Seems you didn't read what her mandate actually was (repasting link for you below). It wasn't to visit the border/meet with agents. It was to focus on the root causes of immigration, illegal or otherwise. But I can see why detractors might want to double down on misinformation vs. facts.
https://time.com/7001817/kamala-harris-immigration/
Misinformation? The same Kamala Harris that said Justice Kavanaugh participated in gang rapes as a teenager?
The last time a prosecutor like Kamala Harris was Fanni Wallis, and look what happened to her.
Anyway, as VP, this was Kamala's Harris most intelligent quote:
“So, Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So, basically, that’s wrong, and it goes against everything that we stand for.”
@Mark Sutton: That's right, I used the word misinformation. I'll use it again to fact check your last comment.
Kamala Harris did not say Brett Kavanaugh participated in those crimes. What she said is that she believed a witness who gave testimony under oath alleging it:
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/18/kamala-harris-kavanaugh-accuser-827907
For the factual information, you can read the complete transcript of Kamala Harris' comments here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2018/09/27/kavanaugh-hearing-transcript/
Regarding most intelligent quotes, would you like me to provide any from Harris' presidential opponent. There are plenty to choose from.
Who was this witness? What was his or her name? And what kind of prosecutor believes a witness without any evidence to back up such outlandish claims.
Please choose Biden's most intelligent quotes, preferably from the debate.
Was it where Biden said that he personally defeated Medicare or that there is a scourge of sistsers that are raping their fellow sisters?
Because I could have sworn you were stating that Biden's mental abilities were at 100% right before the debate.
@Mark Hutton: Another fact check, Harris wasn't a prosecutor in the Kavanaugh hearings, she was a lawmaker on a Senate committee. I believe her belief in the witness was based on her testimony. It's your inference that they were outlandish claims.
As is your understanding that I made any statement about Biden's mental state, but seeing as you're asking, I think it is just fine.
But I'm not interested in debating you about that or anything else disparaging you have to say. Just fact checking the misinformed things you are commenting on here.
Joe - I agree with everything you have said. That people are even considering her opposition hurts the brain - there is no choice - Kamala Harris is competent, smart, tough and trustworthy. trump is a whiny meanispirited failure of a man who spews gibberish and hates pretty much everyone who doesnt look like him. he loves Vladimir Putin and, he seems to be bordering on the verge of insanity. He has referred to our war dead as 'suckers and losers, and many of his cabinet from his first term left his administration and have been YELLING from the mountaintop that he is a horrible guy. How do people not see this? I dont ask anymore - all I know is that I am going to work my ass off for Kamala Harris. So we not only win, but win in a huge way.
R.I.P.
@Thomas Siebert from Benevolent Propoganda: Always love your distinctive sense of optimism, Tom.
Hope is not a "strategery," Joe, and neither is perpetual optimism in the face of facts. Only a fool would remain optimistic when it's obvious an occupying regime is locking up and trying to murder the opposition. That's third world stuff.
Incidentally, Here's your President telling America he's put your vice in charge of the border. At the end, she thanks him for the assignment:
https://x.com/Brick_Suit/status/1816125170299593020
She's going to get buried. I doubt she will even be the nominee. Then you can write another endorsement. R.I.P.
I guess we will know with the passage of time...."the significance of the passage of time, right, the significance of the passage of time. So, when you think about it, there is great significance to the passage of time"
A great orator and inspirational leader she is not...
@Thomas Siebert from Benevolent Propaganda: Thank you for sharing the clip. Did you watch it? Biden explicitly states that Harris agreed to accept the role of stemming migration and enforcing it at the countries of origin, not at the U.S. border. And she said she gladly accepted that role.
I already addressed this misinformation, but I'll paste the verbatims below in case anyone else is misinformed by your suggestion that video offers proof to the contrary.
Honestly, I'm not sure why MAGA Republicans are working so hard to label Harris as the Southern border czar, but it was never the role given or accepted. I know that may seem like a small point, but in a time of so much discord and misinformation, I think it's important that we exchange facts -- not opinions or spin.
Harris isn't perfect. I already pointed out she was not my first choice, but I've come around based on her more recent performance, especially the past 36 hours. And I'm sure she's had her share of missteps, because nobody is perfect, but being responsible for illegal immigration at America's southern border is not one of them. She clearly was given and took on the role of addressing the root cause. So why not come up with some facts on that?
The only reason I imagine MAGA Republicans are so fixated on this issue as their Kamala Harris talking point, is that they don't have any others to attack her with. Except maybe the way she laughs, or an incredibly dismissive and racist one that she was a "DEI" hire. WTF?
For anyone still following this, this is the verbatim of what was said in the clip Tom offered as evidence that Harris was put in charge of the border.
President Joe Biden: "The Vice President has agreed, among multiple other things, to lead our diplomatic effort and to work with those nations to accept the returnees and enhance migration enforcement at their borders – their borders."
Vice President Kamala Harris: "Let’s address the root causes that cause people to make the trek."
Sheesh!
Joe Mandese, so how has she done on this?
President Joe Biden: "The Vice President has agreed, among multiple other things, to lead our diplomatic effort and to work with those nations to accept the returnees and enhance migration enforcement at their borders – their borders."
Vice President Kamala Harris: "Let’s address the root causes that cause people to make the trek."
Judging by the numbers still pouring in, and another caravan on the way, I'd generously give her a letter grade of "F."
@D K from Retired: You are welcome to give her any grade you want for anything. Because that's your opinion.
I just don't think you should be spreading misinformation about what she is actually repsonsible for. Because those are facts.
Thanks, Joe, for using the facts to set the record straight on the "Kamala and the border crisis" misinformation being perpetrated by the right. While we're at it we might remember that the most recent bi-partisan congressional efforts to addrss the actual problems at the actual southern border were scuttled by DJT because he wanted to keep the "out-of-control" border crisis as his main issue in the current campaign. One thing we can count on is -- that guy has no interest whatsoever in anything other than himself.
What exactly are you hoping for Tom? Donald Trump uber alles?
@Ken Fadner: Excellent point.
There are many hypocritical elements to this particular MAGA Republican talking point about Kamala Harris' role vis a vis the southern border, and it is worthy of greater introspection and public debate.
Personally, I think the reason they are doubling down on it, is because they don't have anything else they think will stick.
The No. 1 issue for American voters -- the economy -- is doing great. And the latest consumer confidence data shows sentiment has even improved on the only lagging economic issue: inflation.
(Ironically, the No. 2 issue is political extremism and threats to democracy, so obviously, they're not going to touch that one.)
No. 3 is immigration -- due largely to MAGA Republican falehoods and rhetoric -- though that has been waning as a sticking point in recent months, probably because as President Joe Biden pointed out last night, there actually are fewer illegal immigrants coming across the border than during the last administration.
Every other issue is an also-ran, and crime, which is a distant No. 4, also has gone down.
Bottom line is they don't have anything to attack Kamala Harris on except a false fact, or trivial characteristics like the way she laughs.
It will be hilarious if she laughs all the way to a seat behind the Resolute Desk.
@Joe Mandese
Are you going to provide an update article on all of the "news" organizations that are retroactively changing their stories where they all referred to Harris as the border czar? The video footage is endless and cannot be erased from the likes of MSNBC, FOX News, CNN, etc., but the sources you reference have retroactively changed their headlines and stories.
The fact that these organizations are actively changing stories to remove Harris from her role with the border goes against all journalistic standards, it is alarming, and it is literally the characterisitc of state run media.
You're stupposed to be the media industry watch dog - not the media industry lap dog.
When Kamala said, "DO NOT COME" - what was she talking about if not the border?
@Dan Ciccone: Fake News!