You know what yesterday’s beautifully choreographed Biden-Harris roll out reminded me of? One of those old documentaries about D-Day. The landing craft are on the way, and about 5 miles out to sea, the ships parallel the shore, those turrets turn, two giant cannons stick up, and BOOM!. the first devastating shots are fired on the defenses to soften them up.
Well, the Democrats brought their big guns to the launch ceremony yesterday, and it was beautiful to behold. From start to finish, I don’t know how it could have gone any better. Biden and Harris looked comfortable with one an other, and their laudatory comments for each other were warm and sincere. Also, although the room was empty, save for some media. both of them pulled off the difficult task of making it look as though they were talking to a packed room. The arm and body gestures, the head turns, the pregnant pauses between sentences to let the crowd consider. It made it easy to believe there were people in the room that they were actually addressing, and it made it more believable.
Biden was pure Joe. Quiet yet forceful, empathetic and sincere, passionate and confident, he owned the room. He took some beautiful shots at Trump, but also laid out specific visions of how to pull the country out from the burning house that Trump had lit, and get it moving again. His 19 minute speech was pitch perfect for the occasion.
But the star of the show, as I think she was intended to be, was Kamala Harris. Earlier, in the primaries, Democratic voters kept insisting that they were looking for a candidate to go-toe-to-toe-with-Trump. This was an insane attitude from the word go. You get in a wallow with a pig, and you end up filthy. Even Trump’s supporters admit that what irritates them most is his childish behavior in the face of crisis. And Kamala Harris proved it yesterday.
Harris hit the Trump administration with the Democrats secret weapon, reality. I know it doesn’t mean much to a delusional dotard like Trump, but the rest of us seem to notice it when we see it. Her method of attack was direct comparison, and it was devastating. Trump likes to compare his economy with Wall Street, Harris compared it to 19 million out of work, the worst economy since the Great Depression, and a burgeoning hunger and homeless crisis in the country. Trump likes to blame China for the coronavirus. Harris laid 5 million infected people, 165,000 fatalities, and a nation full of kids who can’t go back to school right at Trump’s feet, through his nonsensical ignorance of the virus, and his insistence on snake oil cures, and the magical disappearance of the virus.
But for me, the best part was that Kamala Harris wasn’t there to hand out any free passes. Every damn time she laid bare a Trump atrocity, she laid it at the feet of The Trump-Pence administration. She dragged Trump’s beanpole toady right out into the sunshine, and she shackled him to Trump by the neck. If Pence is this ineffective as the #2, how effective could he be as President? was the unasked question. And Harris’s words were a stern warning to Pence that he might want to make his ICU reservation early, as the virus might make getting a room at the last minute on October 7th a mite difficult.
And obviously the Democratic base loves it. Biden announced yesterday that the campaign had set its best single hour fundraising, as well as their best 24 hour fund raising after the announcement of his pick. I haven’t had the boob tube on yet today, but it will be interesting to see how things have gone since the roll out appearance.
And things on the GOP side? Not so good. Harris has been the odds on favorite all along and even with months of prep time, they have no cohesive, coherent line of attack for her. There has been reporting that some GOP strategists are worried about that lack of a clear message, feeling it shows that the campaign was caught flat footed. Of course Trump called her nasty, but Nancy Pelosi gave Harris a call, to officially welcome her to the nasty woman club. Personally, I think that apart of the problem for the GOP is that, as a woman of color, there isn’t much they can call her that she hasn’t been called before, and that won’t turn even more of those precious white suburban women away from them.
Now the hard part comes, taking it effectively to the finish line in the stunted campaign opportunities of a pandemic world. But what I’m looking for is still a couple of weeks down the road. First, in the days following next Thursday, I want to see what kind of a bump the Biden campaign gets from what should be a very well choreographed virtual convention, if yesterday’s event was anything to go by. And then, the following week, I want to see what kind, if any bump Trump gets from a convention that figures to look like it was put together by a bunch of kids on summer vacation, and acted out in a barn. That alone could put Trump behind an 8 ball that he can’t get away from. Don’t touch that dial.
To know the future, look to the past.before the insanity of the 2020 election, relive the insanity of the 2016 GOP primary campaign, and the general election, to see how we got to where we are. Copies of President Evil, and the sequel, President Evil II, A Clodwork Orange are available as e-books on Amazon, at the links above. Catch up before the upcoming release of the third book in the trilogy, President Evil III: All The Presidents Fen
Follow me on Twitter at @RealMurfster35
It was a good speech. I just know *rump is thinking of firing Pence and laying the blame on him.
The negativity and poison are spewing. We can’t survive 4 more years. Trolls are out in droves, more so now that Harris is on the ticket. I hope 45 fires Pence. But…with the USPS issue the Dems MUST stand up strong and speak out. Silence won’t cut it.
They also can’t flail around wildly either. It’s likely they’re getting the news on the USPS as fast as we are and so need at least a couple of days to get an effective message out there. Quick draws only count if you can aim.
I loved Kamala’s line about the ‘miracle cures’ Donnie saw on Faux Snooz. So true, but I can’t imagine that only Dems get Rx’s, checks etc through the mail. What are the repug yahoos going to do when it’s their stuff that is affected? We have vote by mail here in Oregon, and the State just started paying for the postage to return ballots. I’ve always sent my ballot back ASAP to help avoid all those helpful calls from the party asking if I’ve returned my ballot, but this year I may take it to a county drop box, just to be on the safe side. We haven’t had problems with state officials messing with our systems like many other states that have too many repugs in state office experience, but who could have forseen that something like this would happen to the USPS. It’s the only way tRump could mess with Oregon’s voting system since he doesn’t have enough lickspittles in this state that could help him out otherwise.
As a legit tar heel, one of my fav college ballers was rasheed wallace, who once quipped “ball don’t lie”. Virus doesn’t lie. Global warming doesn’t lie. Planetary isolation with limited resources with the dominant species poisoning their own ecosystem doesn’t lie. Trump lies all the time. Never known the alchemy of ignorance & arrogance to produce anything but evil.