Democratic political consultant James Carville had an important message in today's New York Times.
Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris must abandon Joe Biden's failed policies if she wants to defeat Donald Trump.
It was the most notable of three pieces of advice Carville gave to the Jamaican-Indian presidential candidate – the other two were to allow former President Donald Trump to self-destruct in the upcoming debates and to abandon the crazy policies Harris put forward in 2020.
That rancid neo-Marxist menu has come back to haunt Harris in a video that has gone viral on social media.
“Breaking away from Biden”
Carville said the 2024 election, like the 1992 and 2008 elections that saw Bill Clinton and Barack Obama win, is “effectively a transformational election” and that “whoever is fresh is going to win. … It's very simple: the shepherds of tomorrow will win the sheep.”
But Carville acknowledged that Harris won't have an easy time beating Trump, as she faces “three imperatives” to “make herself count as a freshman on the November ballot.”
The first, Carville said, is to “help Trump hurt himself in the debate,” noting that President Joe Biden's disastrous performance against Trump prompted a coup by the Democratic establishment and ended Biden's campaign.
“We have no doubt that many voters are anxiously awaiting the second round of voting,” Carville wrote.
This time, however, Trump is sure to create the train wreck and Harris will lay the tracks.
I've always believed that one good joke is worth a hundred fact-checks. Overall, Harris has deviated from the usual fear-mongering about Trump. Instead of building him up as a threat to the United States, she has voters laughing and nodding when she says of the former president and his cohorts, “They're losing their minds.” People smile when they think a politician is getting the gist of their opponent, and they love that she calls him weird and insincere, and paints Trump as a tapestry of old-fashionedness. And there are already some signs that her team is gearing up to do just that.
In the September 10 debate, Harris should do exactly what her campaign fears: let Trump be Trump. She should let him speak before her. Not just let him, but encourage him to spout crazy conspiracy theories about the last election. She should use her sense of humor at key moments to get on his nerves and show him he doesn't have her heart. And she should welcome personal attacks as a badge of honor, responding each time, no matter how many times he does it, with a repeat of, “The same old same old platitudes. I'm focused on new ways forward.”
Of course, Trump and his team read The New York Times, which may mean he won't walk into Carville Harris' trap.
Harris will also have to “break with President Biden on policy.”
Indeed, despite Biden's many accomplishments, “for Harris to be considered a rising star, she must clearly and decisively break with Biden on a set of policy priorities that she believes will define her presidency,” he continued.
Carville wants to wrap this up with rallies in battleground states on the first post-debate day, when Harris must lay out “an extensive list of 'new steps forward' policies” that honestly explain why she's abandoning Biden's policies.
“Don't run away from your differences with the president,” he advised. “Embrace them respectfully and in good faith.”
But Ms. Harris also faces “one lingering debt”: the crazy policy positions she took in her unsuccessful 2020 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, which Mr. Carville charitably described as “exotic.” Ms. Harris wants to defund the police and, bizarrely, has argued that illegal immigration is not illegal.
And for years, she has championed the idea of ”fairness,” meaning equal outcomes for everyone.
“As CNN's interview with Harris last week demonstrated, this will likely be a consistent storyline played out against her throughout the campaign,” Carville wrote.
It's crucial that she responds to these attacks with the same answer every time. That rebuttal can be simple: “I learned this when I governed in the White House. Here's my position. You can accept it or reject it.”
The good news is that by doing just that, Harris would demonstrate something Trump lacks: a growth mindset. … After nearly a decade of dealing with a man who thinks he's perfect in every way, a leader who can openly admit that his perceptions have changed will feel like a breath of spring to many voters.
By the way, the CNN debate also revealed that Harris was unable to handle interviews. Sources claimed that the network cut 23 minutes of the 41-minute interview. For example, Harris was unable to explain why she didn't want to ban fracking. She also blamed Trump for the failure of Biden's economics.
An uphill battle
Ms Harris may struggle to convince Americans that she has left behind her far-left ideology, which she quickly dubbed “Camnism”.
Among the policies she supported in 2020 were mandatory gun buybacks to confiscate “assault weapons,” an executive order to implement the policy, and “Medicare for All,” which would eliminate private health insurance.
Harris also advocates for “allocating resources based on equity… because not everyone starts in the same place,” meaning “some people need more, but we all end up in the same place.”
Carville offered no advice. Harris must demonstrate she understands public policy and the latest technology.
For example, she doesn't understand inflation, which occurs when governments print money, devalue their currency, or lend out new money through bonds.
Asked to explain her plans to combat inflation and the high prices of gasoline, food and other goods, Harris said:
This is a problem that puts a strain on limited resources and forces them to stretch to their limits. This is not only a financial issue, but a source of stress for families who carry such burdens on a daily basis. So we take this very seriously. Very seriously. And we know from the history of this issue in the United States that when these prices go up, it directly impacts the quality of life across the country. So this is a big problem and we take this seriously. So this is a priority.
Harris also doesn't understand modern technology: She thinks “cloud storage” means computer data is stored in the air above people's heads.
H/T: The Daily Caller
