Staff Reports
The Democratic Party has decided to kick President Joe Biden to the curb, naming Vice President Kamala Harris as their new standard-bearer for the 2024 election. In a twist that could only be seen in a political sitcom, Biden endorsed Harris right after his exit from the race, ensuring she keeps his campaign team, including campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon. This scenario raises questions: is Harris truly the best the Democrats can muster, or are they just stuck in a feedback loop of bad decisions?
Harris’s campaign is attempting to spin a narrative that she’s in a “strong position to win,” boasting about her “popular message” and a supposed solid record appealing to swing voters. They talk about her “pathways to 270 electoral votes,” but one must wonder if they’ve checked the polls lately or if they’re just actively avoiding reality. It’s almost comical to think that a memo proclaiming her prevailing enthusiasm means anything when the consultant buzzwords fall flat against hard data.
Town Hall: This Campaign Memo on Kamala Harris' Chances Sure Is Laughable https://t.co/SCFADxjhhk
— Ian Hansen 🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@IanHansenFeed) July 25, 2024
This same memo took aim at former President Donald Trump, calling him a “convicted criminal” running an “extreme and dangerous agenda,” a bizarre strategy considering he was nearly assassinated just a week earlier. Apparently, Democrats believe that branding their opponent as a threat to democracy while neglecting their own rhetoric about lowering the temperature is a winning strategy. Talk about a classic case of hypocrisy wrapped in political desperation.
The most entertaining part of this memo is its claims on polling. Harris’s team insists she has significant backing from various demographics vital for electoral success. They tout her cachet with Black voters, Latino voters, and various groups, with a net approval rating of +44 among Black voters as one shining example. However, this rosy picture falls apart when looking back at the Biden-Harris winning coalition of 2020, which had a historical margin—92 percent of Black voters supporting them. A +44 approval rating just doesn’t cut it when the bar was set sky-high last election.
As for Latino voters, Harris’s impressive polling numbers seem suspect at best. The memo claims she has an edge over Trump among undecided Latino voters but avoids mentioning her lackluster performance in actual numbers. According to a recent Forbes/HarrisX poll, Harris and Trump are actually tied among Latino voters at 45 percent each. This is a shocking revelation, especially when considering that Democrats generally dominate that demographic by huge margins—a position they’ve apparently squandered in just a few years.
To top it off, there’s repeat mention of Harris having a solid lead among women voters, but once again, data tell a different story. A CBS News poll revealed her lead among women is much slimmer than what the Harris campaign would like to present. If the latest polling data has taught anyone anything, it’s that Democrats may be living in a fantasy world. Without some serious recalibration and a compelling candidate, the notion of Harris outmaneuvering Trump seems as likely as a snowstorm in July.
In short, while the memo from Harris’s campaign attempts to paint a picture of electoral prowess, the sobering reality is that her approval ratings show vulnerabilities, and she’s about to walk directly into a political buzzsaw known as Donald Trump. With a season of campaigning still ahead and the specter of independent voters weighing heavily on the upcoming election, Democrats might want to rethink their strategy before the electoral apocalypse arrives.
