David Rowe, American Financial Review
Harris and Walz work through Labor Day while Trump golfs and complains
The Democratic ticket and surrogates were out in force on Labor Day weekend—including Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, President Joe Biden, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, and Gwen Walz. That is a formidable lineup. The Harris-Walz ticket is campaigning like they want to win. Kamala Harris continues to exhibit confidence and positivity as she refines her call-and-response stump speech while courting the labor vote. Tim Walz is on the offensive against Trump, while Gwen Walz is going “full English teacher” on Trump.
Joe Biden gave a spirited pro-union speech that attacked Trump's anti-union history. See Campaign Event in Pittsburgh | Joe Biden. Joe introduced Kamala with a warm embrace and a smile. Harris then gave her stump speech (with variations and riffs). See Campaign Event in Pittsburgh | Kamala Harris.
Donald Trump and JD Vance stayed off the campaign trail on Labor Day--which may be their best strategy to stop the erosion of their support among eligible voters. See The Independent, Harris, Biden court union vote at first official joint rally as Trump accused of ‘dodging’ Labor Day.
But Trump couldn’t help himself and spent much of the day on his vanity social media platform posting statements that appeal to people who subscribe to Truth Social—i.e., Trump's most hard-core supporters. But even on Truth Social, the Harris-Walz campaign was on the offensive, posting a “Labor Day” picture of Harris and Walz in split screen with Trump.
The Harris-Walz portion of the photo was superimposed with the words:
Vice President Harris with union workers in Detroit
Gov. Walz with union workers in Milwaukee
Vice President Harris and President Biden with union workers in Pittsburgh
The Trump portion of the split screen had the following words superimposed:
Does it matter that the Harris-Walz campaign is trolling Trump on his social media platform? Yes. Trump is famously thin-skinned and easily provoked. When provoked, he makes unforced errors—a lot of them. Over the next two months, Trump will continue to remind voters why they are tired of his stale agenda of hate and division.
But . . . as we enter the final two months of the campaign it would serve us well to recall the words of Michelle Obama at the Democratic Convention:
So, no matter how good we feel tonight, or tomorrow, or the next day, this is going to be an uphill battle.
So folks, we cannot be our own worst enemies. . . because the minute something goes wrong, the minute a lie takes hold, folks, we cannot start wringing our hands.
We cannot get a Goldilocks complex about whether everything is just right.
And we cannot indulge our anxieties about whether this country will elect someone like Kamala, instead of doing everything we can to get someone like Kamala elected.
The Trump-Vance campaign has fumbled for an attack line on Kamala Harris for weeks. They have now settled on an attack strategy: pure ugliness and hate. Expect it, ignore it, and focus on registering new voters and urging registered voters to turn out.
It will be difficult to ignore the ugliness, in part, because it will be pervasive—and the media will be complicit by treating Trump's ugly attacks as “politics as usual.”
Elon Musk has turned Twitter into a Trump campaign attack platform against Kamala Harris. Musk is personally posting outright propaganda against Harris. For example, on Monday, Musk posted a picture of Kamala Harris in communist garb with the words:
Kamala vows to be a communist dictator on day one. Can you believe she wears that outfit!?
With his 200 million followers (albeit many of them bots), Musk’s ridiculous ideas will spread like a virus through the hateful MAGA ecosphere.
The good news is that Trump and Vance are “underwater” with favorability ratings, while Kamala Harris has seen a 17-point surge in her favorability rating (to a slight net-positive).
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo explains that the difference in favorability ratings will help Kamala Harris withstand the ugly attacks to come:
[F]avorability is the prism through which all of us see new attacks, new news. The more positive impression we have of a person, the more we see new information about them in glass-full more than glass-empty terms; we revolve benefits of the doubt in their favor. So, it can be both predictive and protective
See Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo, Keep an Eye on Those Favorability Numbers.
I would add to Marshall’s comments that Kamala Harris has momentum, likability, decency, and dozens of other positive attributes that will cause voters to give her the benefit of the doubt—while Trump and Vance are increasingly desperate. Just as Kamala Harris will benefit from the “positive lens” of favorability, Trump and Vance will suffer from the “negative lens” of their mean-spirited, misogynistic, judgmental style.
Here's my point: Don’t wince and cringe with every ugly attack thrown at Kamala Harris and Tim Walz over the next two months. Trust that most Americans see through those attacks for what they are—signs of desperation by Trump. We have two months to drive more voters to the polls. There is no time to worry or fret. As Michelle Obama told us at the Democratic convention, “Do something!”
[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]
