The Harris Head Scratcher

Y’all, I’ll be honest. I begrudgingly watched again last night and I didn’t want to. It took a cigar and glass of bourbon. Obama, Clinton, and Harris are not exactly the people I want to hear from. But, let’s try to be objective here. Last night was the first time in a long time I really thought Donald Trump could win this thing for real.

I have not been optimistic about his chances given his lack of message discipline, ability to light himself on fire, and compulsion to make everything about himself. Then last night happened.

Side note: say a prayer. The kids are going back to school today. Fire up the Andy Williams version of “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” But we are doing this with nervous apprehension given the state of affairs in the country and our state. Prayers appreciated.

Now, back to the show.

Last night, the Democrats played to the base. They opened with a gun control message that could actually get me to put a Trump sticker on my car. Wow was I getting bombarded with texts, emails, and direct messages from friends and acquaintances I know who hate Donald Trump and are now sure they won’t vote Biden.

What John Kasich tried to do on Monday night was completely sabotaged by a message about grabbing guns and raising taxes to fight climate change. The Democrats have had four years to learn how to connect with voters they lost and the only thing they’ve seemed to learn was how to hold them in contempt.

Then Obama spoke.

I realize if you hate Donald Trump, you get pretty excited by Obama. But a lecture on the constitution from that guy was a bit much for me. He likes the sound of his own voice and a lot of Democrats like the sound of his voice, but Bill Clinton made a better case for replacing Trump in two minutes than Obama did by droning on. For the man who lost major cases before the Supreme Court for eight years on core constitutional tenets like not persecuting Christians and free exercise of religion means more than freedom to worship, it was overly hypocritical for him to lecture anyone on the constitution.

It is, however striking that the media this morning is focused on Obama, not Harris. That was the other problem. The Democrats let Obama overshadow Harris, but they had to.

Like America, let’s skip Hillary and move on to Harris.

She never made it to Iowa. Last night showed why. She had to reintroduce herself and talk up Joe Biden, but this is the woman who on stage said she didn’t think he was a racist, he just advanced racism, collaborated with racists, and denied girls like her a bus to school. But he’s awesome now.

Democrats were giddy a few weeks ago that she’d destroy Mike Pence in a debate. She did do damage to an enfeebled near octogenarian. But the only thing she destroyed last night was my will to live if she keeps speaking like that.

What a juxtaposition with Obama. Heck, what a juxtaposition with Jill Biden from the night before. Kamala who?

The speech was not good. It was flat. The delivery was stilted. I kept wondering if a live audience would have been better, but I actually don’t think that was it at all. It just lacked passion. It was not memorable. Today, you’d barely know she spoke given the press coverage.

Lastly, I agree with Josh Kraushaar at National Journal. Democrats are so focused on grievance against Trump, they aren’t really trying to tell voters what they’ll do for them other than they won’t be Donald Trump. They have become a party of secular, cosmopolitan values and are losing their ability to connect to blue-collar, middle-class voters in any uplifting way. That could get them across the finish line this year because of hatred for Trump. But crossing the finish line in that way probably starts a major crack up of the Democratic coalition Joe Biden won’t have the ability to stop.

Clinton, in 1992, was “the man from Hope.” Obama, in 2008, was “change we can believe in.” Biden, in 2020, is “build back better.” That was actually it. What the hell does that even mean? Last night showed the Democrats have no idea other than “he’s not Trump.” They better hope the virus continues because if the economy rebounds at all, Donald Trump really is going to crush them with messaging like that.