MATTHEW CONTINETTI: The Biden-Harris Mental Gymnastics.
Harris last faced serious opposition in 2010, when she barely won the race for state attorney general in navy-blue California. Her 2020 presidential campaign collapsed before Iowa. She has no political base, no signature issue, is not part of a movement, and is best known for her word salads and very online fans.
These inconvenient details have been ignored or forgotten. Instead, an orgy of excitement has accompanied Harris’s rise. With the efficiency of a Malenkov, she locked up the presumptive nomination within 48 hours of Biden’s departure. Her ability to read off a TelePrompTer with an expression other than befuddlement has been rapturously received by her grateful party. Young and impressionable pundits speak of an “Obama moment,” seemingly unaware that Barack Obama emerged as a star at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 and became, with the publication of The Audacity of Hope in 2006, a cultural phenomenon. In 2008 Obama filled an NFL stadium for his Greek-column acceptance speech. Harris has coconut tree memes.
The Democrats and the press may yet make Harris something special, something new. Friendly reporters are doing the grunt work of pretending that Harris had no role in the southern border crisis, revising years-old articles to spread the fiction that she was never called “border czar.” No doubt they will also try to distance Harris from the 20 percent rise in prices during the Biden-Harris administration, from the ongoing wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and the Red Sea, and from the ongoing cover-up of Biden’s infirmity. Perhaps they will succeed.
Harris’s candidacy, after all, has knocked Donald Trump off the front page the first time in a decade. Her earned-media bounce has restored the presidential race to its pre-debate equilibrium: Trump leads, but it’s close. Can Harris and the Democrats keep up the act? She’s an alternate who finds herself the star of the team. She’s facing a political gold medalist. In this competition, there’s no room for error. And the judges? They can be harsh.
“‘You are a slow learner, Winston.’ Said O’Brien gently:”
“How can I help it?” he blubbered. How can I help but see what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four.”
“Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.
QED: Gretchen Whitmer: Harris has ‘more experience than the whole GOP ticket put together.’
And the public should completely forget what those experiences consisted of:
Not least of which, this experience:
THROWBACK: Kamala says she was the last person in the room and was a major part in the decision to pull out of Afghanistan which led to the disastrous withdrawal where 13 servicemembers were kiIIed.
This is on Kamala. pic.twitter.com/2894fFmHNo
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 26, 2024