How America’s First Woman Vice President Stepped Up

Win or lose, I think by the time exit polls come in this week, there will be real cause to question the poll-driven narrative we’ve been fed since February. Indeed, that’s already happening as Black and Hispanic and young voters are moving to Kamala Harris in recent polls, which is precisely what people skeptical of early polls said would happen months ago.

That technically means that Joe Biden might have been in far better position in the polls than reported — not in terms of favorability, but in a head-to-head with Trump. Still, the debate debacle (which Bob Woodward subsequently disclosed was significantly a reflection of Biden’s stress about Hunter, something I noted in real time) provided the opportunity to switch candidates. And Biden put his ego aside for the good of the country.

He entrusted to his Vice President the fate of the nation.

On June 29, I suggested that if Biden dropped out, whoever replaced him might break through the Double Haters logjam.

There is no chance that Trump will become anymore likeable, honest, or coherent. If someone besides Biden had four months to capitalize on his negatives, it might flip the table. It would eliminate the double haters election. If someone [not] named Biden found a way to make Trump’s malice matter more than his stammer, it might well matter.

Joe Biden has a choice to make about whether he remains the best shot to beat Donald Trump. And one way or another, Republicans will be stuck with a candidate who vigorously acts unpresidential.

On July 21, almost immediately after Biden endorsed Harris (remember this time stamp reflects Irish time), I repeated my Double Haters comment and noted that Harris speaks about choice better than anyone but Gretchen Whitmer (in retrospect I realize I underestimated the Vice President).

On September 1, I described how Harris’ focus on choice was forcing accountability on Trump for one of his most disastrous actions as President.

Kamala’s team has succeeded in making abortion something more: the most obvious item on a laundry list of the ways the far right has tried to take rights (and books) away, a fight for Freedom, one that has enthused millions of younger voters, especially women of child-bearing age.

And so, as I thought it might, Kamala’s focus on choice is one of the things that has remade the race.

[snip]

Thus far in this campaign, a focus on abortion has also provided a way to make visible the patriarchy presumed in most threads of the right wing coalition backing Trump, especially but by no means exclusively Christian nationalism. Lest voters ever forget, Kamala’s campaign keeps rolling out one after another video in which JD Vance demands women get back to the role his Church dictates for them: breeding children.

A number of things — the successful convention, a surge in registration among those women of child-bearing age, polls showing that abortion is the most important issue for a larger number of voters — have led horserace journalists to finally cop on.

[snip]

This is more than agitation.

It is flailing.

Panic.

A recognition that he is losing because of actions he took as President, he is losing because of what the payoff he owed to social conservatives who put him in the White House, a far right SCOTUS, did to women. What NYT journalists with another book contract describe as “head-spinning” is not about branding, it’s about panic because Kamala threatens to hold him accountable for his actions.

No matter how many contradictory statements Trump makes about what a second Trump term would do, there’s no escaping what his first term did do. There are no backsies on Dobbs. There are no backsies on Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. There aren’t even any backsies on that platform granting fetuses protection under the 14th Amendment, even if NYT’s Trump whisperers continue to pretend that didn’t happen.

[snip]

[E]ven as Kamala has already made Trump an equivocating wreck, nine-tenths of the way through his campaign and just in time for low-information voters to witness it, she has only just laid a foundation to build on.

Both before and after the debate, I described how Kamala Harris’ very deliberate and perfectly executed plan to get under his skin made her the protagonist of the campaign.

Journalists missed the Vice President’s clear intent because they treated Donald Trump as the protagonist of this story.

I don’t know how much the debate will affect the direction of the race. Though she struck blow after blow, it was still the 60/40-40/60 result I also predicted. The debate itself is most likely to have an effect for the way it gives Brian Fallon another opportunity to suggest Trump is too weak to take Harris on in a second debate. It might even lead some Trump cultists to wonder — to merely begin the process — of asking whether he really is the loser that Kamala Harris said he is.

But it may do something more important, indirectly.

In August, the press treated Kamala as the story largely because Trump was huddled in his mansions. But they still treated him as the protagonist. Every time he gave the order, they scurried to attend things billed as press conferences which were little different from his rambling rally speeches. He made them props in a fantasy that he had shared more about what he plans to do as President than Kamala Harris, and they were happy to play the role he demanded.

Yesterday, the press got their first chance — likely their only chance — to see the two candidates side-by-side.

And they left with the certainty that Vice President Kamala Harris was the protagonist of that story. Of this story.

Since that moment — since Vice President Harris made her hulking opponent look small on the stage — Trump has utterly failed, day after day, to regain control his emotion. He has lashed out at everyone. Harris, Jews, reporters, everyone who has ever crossed him.

In an attempt to sow distrust and division, he unleashed a flood of disinformation that exacerbated the floods Helene and Milton built.

By mid-October, as record numbers of voters started casting early in-person votes, Harris waltzed into Fox News and caught them cooking the books. That same week, Trump swayed on stage for almost 40 minutes, got embarrassed in a Bloomberg interview, and chose to defend January 6 rather than win Ramiro González’ vote. Charlamagne tha God nudged Harris to use the word fascism.

Sure, there were moments in October where Trump’s increasing fascism fed despair.

Vice President Harris’ response taught a lot of white people the lessons of leadership she learned as a child of the Civil Rights movement.

And she carried on, executing the plan. She and Liz Cheney kept methodically reaching out to women — to the kind of white women who voted against Hillary Clinton in 2016.

As Trump wallowed in his toxic emotions, in the insecurities  being made to look small by a Black women elicited, his handlers allowed him one after another indulgence, all leading up to the potentially fatal one: the Madison Square Garden fascist rally that seemingly confirmed the concerns raised by Trump’s generals. Just as the low-information voters he had been banking on all year started to tune in, Trump’s fascist rally mocked them, recalling back his refusal as President to treat them with respect.

And it wasn’t just the Hispanics that could lose him Pennsylvania. Trump provided an opportunity for key validators like Lebron James to explain, succinctly, that America is still fighting for equal rights.

All this time, pollsters kept contorting their polls for fear of missing Trump voters.

Until Ann Selzer came along and told us what pollsters should have recognized from the start: Women vote. And this year, women will vote for a woman to be the first woman President.

Symbolically, Kamala Harris went to East Lansing last night and refused to even speak of Donald Trump.

Turn the page.

This thing is not over. Harris’ thousands of volunteers have to get out every vote tomorrow.  A flood of bros might come to the polls tomorrow and make that effort meaningless. Harris lawyers have to fight to count every vote — and keep fighting all the way to January if Trump attempts to cheat again.

This thing is not over.

But holy hell, Kamala Harris and her entire team stepped up.

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26 replies
  1. CaptainCondorcet says:

    Stepping up can mean a lot of things, including laying foundations even when you have no idea if the building will ever be completed. Where I live Bad Bunny is exceedingly influential in the 18-24 age bracket. Harris’s team have apparently been in discussions with his PR team since September about what an endorsement could look like. And while it was officially billed as a “support” instead of an “endorsement”, no one should overlook the impact of Bad Bunny himself tweeting a positive clip of Harris in real time as a response to the fascist rally. I doubt he randomly searched the web for clips. Harris recognized her vulnerability with that demographic and worked to see what could be done about it, and it may well pay off in election-altering ways. Whatever my disagreements with Harris’s policies may be, I agree with Dr. Wheeler that Harris and her team stepped up.

    Reply
    • emptywheel says:

      Harris kept saying, over and over, I know I have to earn their vote. And she–and her team–never stopped working for it.

      Reply
      • atriana smith says:

        I remember when Obama pointed to his own (flawless) campaign(s) as an example of his executive and organizational skills. No one had seen a campaign that well thought out and executed.

        Reply
  2. rattlemullet says:

    They ran an almost completely flawless campaign! In my opinion, the campaigns ground game along with that of the democratic party ground game and their tens of thousands of volunteers rocked the vote effort. The volunteers from the pictures I have seen are comprised mostly of women. Mostly it is women who will save this county by their leadership skills and tireless effort to elect Kamala as president. These women are fearless!

    Reply
  3. klynn says:

    Indeed she and her team have stepped up. They understood the assignment.

    Where abortion rights has been on the ballot it won:

    In Ohio with 57% of the vote (56.78).

    In California with 66.78% of the vote.

    In Michigan with 56.66% of the vote.

    In Vermont with 76.77% of the vote.

    That averages out to 64.2475% with those four states.

    There is hope in that average. I’de take that average and run on it and step up.
    https://ballotpedia.org/History_of_abortion_ballot_measures

    Reply
  4. JVOJVOJVO says:

    Kamala is still making the most of every % – Drumpf, not so much!

    As of today, Trump has less than 0.1387 % of his campaign left (1 of 721 days).

    As of today, Harris has almost 0.9345 % of her campaign left (1 of 107 days).

    h/t @emptywheel

    Reply
  5. dannyboy says:

    Her work has paid off!:

    “NYC breaks record with more than 1 million New Yorkers voting early in 2024 election” [ New York Daily News
    UPDATED: November 4, 2024 at 11:39 AM EST] So we now know Democratic Voters are out in force.

    And then there’s anecdotal evidence picked up from Wo[Men] in the bar. I’ve shared observations from NYC pubs over the last few weeks, mostly focused on how strongly woman, and men friendly to them, felt about Vice President Harris.

    My latest observations are of the other side (Neighborhood bar appropriately named The Dive Bar). There, the same guys (it’s almost exclusively male) who were boasting of the Joe Rogan interview HAVE STOPPED TALKING ABOUT TRUMP. The discussion has shifted back to Sports and TV Shows. He’s been exorcised from the conversation. That speaks loudly to me.

    Reply
  6. synergies says:

    Kamala’s campaign has been brilliant with some hiccoughs, mainly in the email & texts category. This last Saturday Night Live guest opening spot was HUGE with the saying “Keep Kamala and carry on.” I laughed. Just how incredible.

    Interesting is the history of the 1939 WW II poster & saying “KEEP CALM and CARRY ON” that has been remastered with new sayings after being found in a book by Stuart Manley a book store owner in the year 2000. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Calm_and_Carry_On

    Also said on the show, “and end the dramala.” : )

    Reply
  7. Savage Librarian says:

    In the Meantime

    Proud of Harris in the meantime
    Proud of Harris, such a pol
    Proud of Harris
    She’s a winner
    And she’s civil
    Proud of Harris,
    She’s a stunner
    She won’t shrivel

    Proud of Harris, she’s so cogent
    She’s so cogent, she’s so clear
    Proud of Harris
    Why, oh why, so proud of Harris
    Fearless, she perseveres

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caExf8y_GVE

    Reply
  8. emptywheel says:

    Watching Harris’ rally in Allentown, a crucial rally. Fat Joe gave a superb endorsement, emphasizing Latino pride.

    As happens, crowd launches into chant of “not going back.”

    I remember that that didn’t come from her. It came from the crowd in one of the early rallies. And she sheepishly let the crowd go.

    The campaign tried to brand “a new way forward.” But it was a lost cause. Not going back.

    Reply
    • Savage Librarian says:

      I remember it as a re-branding effort. I remember it as something she already had said previously. But the campaign wanted to rebrand as forward looking rather than focusing on the past.

      But too many people remember the past and are enthusiastic about not returning. It is a great motivator, for young and old alike, especially women. And I don’t think she was sheepish. More like knowing the audience and going with the flow. But I admit I’m a loyalist with my own built-in reasons for why I have always had faith in Kamala Harris.

      Reply
  9. punaise says:

    It was one of those “where were you when” moments on July 21. I recall exactly: I was listening to public radio, pulling into the parking lot of a CVS after cat-sitting at our daughter’s place. Without hesitation I knew it had to be Kamala; otherwise it would be sh*t show.. She has not disappointed!

    Reply
  10. dmbeaster says:

    But holy hell, Kamala Harris and her entire team stepped up.

    I think her effort outdid Obama’s excellent efforts in 2008 and 2012. Her campaign was more aggressive and took it to Trump. Such a refreshing change from so much Democratic punch pulling rather than punch throwing.
    It was also notable for rolling out so much in such a short time. So many sound decisions, and I loved the message creation and discipline.
    The only thing that I have hated is the constant doom and gloom fund raising messages, which is a past staple. Maybe it works, but who builds momentum by selling fear and disaster to your own side? And maybe its just old consultants using old tricks, but I wish it would stop. The worst was an obnoxious text about how they had sent me six messages and I still had not sent money. This was after I donated, and I got that text twice over time. I have sometimes written back that I am specifically not sending money because of the obnoxious pitch, but that was probably futile.

    Reply
  11. JanAnderson says:

    3 – 4 months? As you know that’s a long campaign season elsewhere. I wonder that after she wins (I’m betting on it), could it become “normal”? :-)

    Reply

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