News India Times

www.newsindiatimes.com – that’s all you need to know Disclaimer:The views and opinions expressed on this page are those of the authors and Parikh Worldwide Media does not officially endorse, and is not responsible or liable for them. Commentary News India Times (July 27 - August 2, 2024) August 2, 2024 4 Are Democrats Really Going To Do This? T he proposition that Kamala D. Harris is the Demo- cratic candidate best suited to defeat Donald Trump is about as believable as the proposi- tion that Joe Biden was mentally and physically equipped to serve as president until 2029. That is to say: Both are obvious fictions. Democrats coalesced around the fiction of Biden’s acuity during the primary season. Now that Biden has dropped out, they are adopting the fiction that “no one is better” (as California Gov. Gavin Newsom put it on Sunday) to take on Trump in Biden’s stead. Any prospect of a competitive nomination process is evaporating as Democratic politi- cians - even those previously mooted as possible Biden replacements should he step aside - stampede to Harris. Does anyone really believe Harris is the Democratic candidate most likely to block another Trump term? Unable to conceal Biden’s infirmity any longer, panicked Democratic leaders forced the president out of the 2024 race. They have a chance to put forward a strong candi- date in a high-stakes election that is likely to be close. If they swiftly coronate Harris, Democrats would be elevat- ing one of the weakest candidates available. Harris has never shown special political talent. In 2010, she came within one point of losing to Republican Steve Cooley in California’s attorney general race, even as Dem- ocrat Jerry Brown defeated Republican MegWhitman by 13 points for the governorship and Newsom defeated the incumbent GOP lieutenant governor by 11. As for her run in national politics, Harris’s support quickly cratered in the 2020 Democratic primaries, where she ran to Biden’s left and dropped out early. Her tenure as vice president, substantially defined by a failed foray into immigration policy, was widely considered mediocre even by friendly media - at least until Sunday. Harris’s service in the Biden administration and avid vouching for the president’s abilities tie her irrevocably to the age deception that just upended the race. Of course, Biden’s mulish insistence on running for a second term almost certainly reflected, in part, the president’s honest assessment of his No. 2. Republican attack-ad makers will feast on Harris’s sundry policy pronouncements, especially from her 2020 campaign. “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking” will play on loop in western Pennsylvania. Im- ages of Harris raising her hand on the debate stage when asked if she supported eliminating private health insur- ance (she later said, amid criticism, that she misunder- stood the question) and decriminalizing border crossing are also potent GOP fodder. On policy, Harris’s offer to voters is essentially: How about the Biden administration, but more left-wing? This, as the public recoils from the effects of Biden policies on immigration and inflation - and as Trump is making a point of moving the Republican Party to the center on abortion and gay rights. The fact that Harris is a weak candidate doesn’t mean she can’t win, of course. In a closely divided party system, either candidate has a shot, and Trump is widely disliked, as is Harris. She has some assets: Abortion, the issue she has championed most successfully, is a Republican weakness. She might prove able to provoke outrageous statements around race and gender from idiotic GOP politicians or influencers. But having just gone through the excruciating process of decapitating their presidential ticket and throwing the race wide open (at least in theory), shouldn’t Democrats want to install not just a candidate who can win but a candidate who is likely to win? The list of more-talented politicians in the party - the familiar-by-now names include swing-state election winners Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Gov. GretchenWhitmer of Michigan and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona - is long (all three have already endorsed her, which more-or-less rules out a challenge). The argument for embracing Harris by acclamation anyway is apparently that the Democrats can’t afford internal discord when the focus should be on defeating Trump. That argument served Democrats badly when they allowed Biden to glide through the primaries with- out a debate. Democrats unceremoniously cashiered their erstwhile standard-bearer out of cold political calculation. Now they’re labeling him a world-historical statesman. Well and good, if that’s what needs to be done. But in their rush to back Harris, Democrats are seemingly abandon- ing that cold political calculation out of a mix of sudden relief and guilt. Remember that the Democrats’ 2016 coronation of Hillary Clinton (complicated only by a nettlesome Bernie Sanders) ended in tears. The competitive 2020 primary yielded a winning candidate in Biden. The 2024 primary, lacking serious competition, was so disastrous its result was just overturned by the party. Now the collective decision is apparently being made to once again nip internal Democratic competition in the bud - to keep marching in lockstep, to eliminate even temporary uncertainty within the party and keep politics stage-managed and controlled at every phase. Perhaps there is an organic brilliance at work here that I, as a non-Dem- ocrat, can’t recognize. Because it looks to an outsider like another manifestation of the same ir- rational political neuroticism that created this mess in the first place. Jason Willick is a Washington Post columnist focusing on law, politics and foreign policy. -TheWashington Post By JasonWillick Photo:TheWashington Post Photo: Demetrius Freeman/TheWashington Post Tony Tribby wears a T-shirt in support of Vice President Harris outside of the White House on Sunday. Trump Risks Losing Voters He NeedsWith Loaded Attacks OnHarris D onald Trump’s campaign is fran- tically revamping its strategy, scrapping moot plans to charac- terize ex-opponent Joe Biden as feeble and testing new attack lines on Ka- mala Harris, who is two decades younger than the Republican nominee. With roughly 100 days until Election Day – and less than two months before voting begins in some states – Trump, 78, has little time to define a Democratic opponent who emerged just days ago. He auditioned new messages, with mixed results, this week on a call with reporters about the US-Mexico border, in TV ap- pearances and his social media platform. Trump has berated Harris, 59, for be- ing the “worst border person in history,” “dumb as a rock,” and a “weak prosecutor” who “destroyed the city of San Francisco.” He’s mocked her laugh and floated two nicknames: “Laffin’ Kamala” and “Lyin’ Kamala.” His allies have called Harris a “DEI” hire, short for diversity, equity and inclusion, and implied she became vice president because she is a woman of color. Harris, for her part, has leaned into her prior role as a prosecutor, saying she knows “Trump’s type,” referring to his felony conviction and other legal troubles. Trump’s litany of complaints about Harris runs the risk of alienating the vot- ers he needs to attract – suburban women, young adults, Black and Hispanic people. Attacks that veer into racism and sexism could also undermine the unity message Republicans sought to project at their nominating convention. “The risk of the Republican messaging is that it could backfire and be perceived as unfair and sexist,” said Alan Abramow- itz, a political scientist professor emeritus at Emory University. The vitriol directed toward Harris shows the extent to which her emergence as the likely Democratic nominee has up- set the 2024 presidential race. For months, the Trump campaign prepped to run against Biden by questioning his age and record on immigration and the economy. Now, in late July, the switch-up has caught the Trump campaign off-guard, forcing it to re-write their messaging. RHETORIC WARNINGS Top House Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson, have warned fel- low party members to steer away from attacks on race or gender, an acknowledg- ment of the political risks they carry. “This election will be about policies and not personalities,” Johnson said Tuesday. Trump has a history of attacking politi- cians of color over their backgrounds. He falsely claimed President Barack Obama was a Muslim who was not born in the US. Trump similarly questioned whether Re- publican primary rival Nikki Haley, whom he called “birdbrain,” was eligible to serve as president because she’s the daughter of immigrants. While Trump’s scattershot attacks un- derscore the changed nature of the race, Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes said the contest’s fundamentals remain the same. “Joe Biden acted like a California lib- eral,” he said. “Kamala Harris is a Califor- nia liberal.” In addition to settling on an anti-Harris message, the Trump campaign must contend with whoever she picks as her running mate. The electoral map is also poised to change with Harris at the top of By Nancy Cook Analysis - Continued On Page 5