Take a deep breath everyone. We’re almost on the other side.
Almost.
Otherwise, there is no relief to be found anywhere. Not in the polls, which have been very scarce for weeks. Nor with the experts, reluctant to make predictions.
Not even Kamala Harris’s own team – aided by highly biased liberal news coverage and a near-total media blackout when it comes to her husband’s alleged disturbing history with women – can evoke the “joy” of her initial campaign.
“Nauseously optimistic,” says the Harris camp. Although one top strategist told New York Magazine on Friday that emotions are now changing “hour by hour.”
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is trudging along merrily, buoyed by enthusiasm on the ground and stronger polling than either of his previous two campaigns.
We’re almost on the other side. Almost. Otherwise, there is no relief to be found anywhere. Not in the polls, which have been very scarce for weeks. Nor with the experts, reluctant to make predictions. Not even Kamala Harris’ own team can evoke the “joy” of her start to the campaign.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is trudging along merrily, buoyed by enthusiasm on the ground and stronger polling than either of his previous two campaigns.
“We’re wrapping up something that’s been incredible,” he said in North Carolina last week. ‘There has never been anything like it: the demonstrations, their size, the enthusiasm. And we have more enthusiasm now than in 2016 or 2020.”
Still, Team Trump isn’t sure of winning either.
I would call it “controlled optimism,” said a top Trump strategist.
I hate to say it, but it’s looking more and more like the election “vibes” Harris pitched this summer: based on feelings and fun, not policies or facts.
Let’s check those vibes, shall we?
Over the past few weeks, the Harris campaign has been bombarding voters with increasingly desperate emails and text messages. Here’s a sample of what landed in my inbox and on my iPhone:
‘Maureen, is there something, ANYTHING, we can say right now?’
Another: “You haven’t collaborated yet.”
And my favorite message, a real success: ‘Begging on my knees’… for a donation of 20 dollars.
Nothing expresses confidence and strength more than begging!
How distant and distant June seems, that catastrophic presidential debate that marked the beginning of the end for President Biden.
First it was the mainstream media that finally admitted what most Americans already knew: Joe Biden was not in your right mind.
Weeks of turmoil followed: Biden refused to withdraw from the race, insisting that only he could beat Trump, and that only ‘the Lord Almighty’ (i.e. Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi) could convince Biden otherwise.
“I’ll feel like as long as I gave it my all and did the good job (sic) like I know I can, that’s what it’s all about,” he told ABC News.
What a somber and eye-opening moment for the American electorate: this race, which we have repeatedly been told, is the most consequential in history, with American democracy in absolute existential danger… well, not so much.
This election wasn’t about us, and it never really had been. It was about Joe Biden.
A summer of trauma and whiplash followed: Trump, shot in the ear live on television by a would-be assassin, jumped with his fist in the air and shouted, ‘Fight! Struggle! Struggle!’
First it was the mainstream media that finally admitted what most Americans already knew: Joe Biden was not compos mentis. Then came a summer of trauma and whiplash.
He seemed invincible until eight days later, when Biden finally dropped out of the race and the younger, feistier, glamorous and bright Kamala Harris stepped over Biden’s still-warm body and into the Democratic nomination.
The attempted assassination of a former, and potentially future, president suddenly became old news. It is incredible to look back at the only presidential debate, held on September 10, and remember how Harris managed to provoke Trump.
His behavior, affection and accusation against Haitian immigrants… ‘They’re eating the dogs… they’re eating the cats!’ – only reinforced fears about Trump: his age, his ability to hold grudges, his barely concealed anger.
One of his strongest campaign promises, securing the American border, was transformed once again by a racist Trump.
It became a meme, a slogan, a t-shirt. That was the unforced error that would last until election day, until Kamala, under pressure even from her supporters in the liberal media, began giving interviews.
Harris, as far as I can remember, has only answered one political question quickly, clearly and succinctly: this one, posed by CNN leader Anderson Cooper during a town hall question-and-answer session two weeks ago:
‘Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?’
“Yes, I do,” Harris responded. ‘Yeah.’
Otherwise, you’ve stuck to your well-worn talking points. The three:
She is not Joe Biden.
She is not Donald Trump.
She recognizes that Americans are “an ambitious people”; In fact, have you met all of us? I would say no, with “goals, dreams and aspirations.”
The best exchange from that town hall: an undecided voter named Carol, herself a political science professor, asking what law it would be Kamala’s dream to push:
“Well, there’s not just one,” Harris responded. ‘I have to be honest with you, Carol. Um, there’s a lot of work to do, but I think maybe part of where I think about it is that we have to get over this era of slowing down politics and partisan politics. “Establish what we need to do in terms of progress in our country.”
Even David Axelrod, the top Democratic strategist who got Barack Obama elected twice, gave up defending that garbage.
“Word salad city,” he said.
Speaking of trash: Joe Biden lobbed a verbal grenade at Kamala’s campaign last week, seizing on an unfortunate joke about Puerto Rico that a comedian had made at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally days earlier.
“The only trash I see floating around out there,” Biden said, “is his (Trump) supporters.”
That was it: the final gift for Trump, who quickly met his supporters in the battleground state of Wisconsin and hopped into a customized ‘TRUMP’ garbage truck. He put on an orange safety vest and wore it again at a rally, joking that it made him look slimmer.
“I have to start by saying that 250 million Americans are not trash,” Trump said.
Biden’s “garbage” gaffe was the ultimate gift to Trump, who quickly rallied to his supporters in the battleground state of Wisconsin and hopped into a customized “TRUMP” garbage truck.
And so we enter the last hours of this incredible, stressful and unpredictable election. However, there are references, however slight, that point to Trump.
Last week, Harris’ well-funded campaign pulled its ads from North Carolina, a key swing state, likely signaling an expected loss and a diversion of funds toward congressional races.
An Iowa poll sent shockwaves through the Trump campaign on Saturday after it put Harris three points ahead, still within the margin of error, in a state Trump won in 2020 by eight points. but then other The poll, released the same day, found Trump up ten points in the state.
Even the New York Times, which screams that Trump is Hitler, will use the military against his enemies, trash the Constitution, sleep with Putin and Xi, and destroy America forever, has him leading in the crucial states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, however small those clues may be.
If we add to that the refusal of left-wing media outlets like The Washington Post and LA Times to endorse Harris, the proliferation of campaign ads from Democratic candidates promising to work “with anyone, from any party” (code for Trump), and the breakdown of the betting market. in its own way: it seems that the “vibrations” point to a Trump victory.
Not that we’ll know on election night or the next day. Both Harris and Trump have lawyers and are ready to fight. Unless a landslide occurs, we will have to prepare again.
Buckle up, America. This journey may just be beginning.