Democrat political advisor James Carville offered an important message in today’s New York Times.
Vice President and Democrat presidential contender Kamala Harris must jettison Joe Biden’s failed policies if she wants to defeat Donald Trump.
That was the most notable of the three pieces of advice Carville offered the Jamaican-Indian presidential candidate, the other two being to let former President Donald Trump wreck himself during their forthcoming debate, and dumping the deranged policies Harris advocated in 2020.
That menu of malodorous neo-Marxist fare is coming back to haunt Harris in viral video on social media.
“Break From Biden”
Carville says that the 2024 election, like those in 1992 and 2008 when Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were elected, is a “de facto change election” that “will be won by who is fresh.… It’s quite simple: The shepherd of tomorrow wins the sheep.”
But Harris has no easy task ahead to defeat Trump, Carville conceded. Harris faces “three imperatives” to be “the certified fresh candidate at the ballot box in November.”
The first is to “help Mr. Trump hurt himself in the debate(s),” Carville wrote, pointing to President Joe Biden’s disastrous performance against Trump, which led to the Democrat Ruling Class coup d’etat that ended his campaign.
“I guarantee a lot of voters are salivating for a second round,” Carville wrote:
Only this time, Mr. Trump must be the train wreck, and it’s on Ms. Harris to lay the tracks.
I’ve always believed that one good joke is worth 100 fact-checks. By and large, Ms. Harris is diverging from the normal fear-provoking way of going about Mr. Trump; instead of building him up as a threat to America, she’s getting voters chuckling and nodding by saying of the former president and his crew, “They are out of their minds.” People smile when they think a politician has her opponent’s number, and they like that she’s calling him weird and unserious and painting a broader picture of Mr. Trump as a tired old tapestry. And we already have some indication her team is prepping her to do just this.
In the Sept. 10 debate, Ms. Harris must enable exactly what his campaign is scared to death of: letting Trump be Trump. She should let him talk over her. Not just let him but goad him into spouting insane conspiracy theories about the previous election. She should use her sense of humor at key moments to get under his skin and show he’s not getting to her. And she should welcome the personal attacks as a badge of honor. And each time, no matter how many times he does it, respond with this refrain: It’s the same old tired playbook, and I’m focused on a new way forward.
Of course, Trump and his team read The New York Times. That just might mean that he doesn’t stick his foot in the Carville-Harris snare.
Harris must also “break from President Biden on policy.”
Indeed, despite Biden’s many accomplishments, he continued, “to be the certified fresh candidate, Ms. Harris must clearly and decisively break from Mr. Biden on a set of policy priorities she believes would define her presidency.”
Carville wants this done on Day 1 after the debate in a swing state rally. Harris must lay out a “broad list of ‘new way forward’ policies“ that candidly explain why she’s leaving Biden’s policies behind.
“Don’t run from your differences with the president,” he advised. “Embrace them, respectfully and honestly.”
But Harris also faces “one lingering liability”: the lunatic policy positions she advocated during her failed run for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination, which Carville generously described as “exotic.” Harris wanted to defund the police and, bizarrely, claimed that illegal immigration isn’t, well, illegal.
And for years, she has embraced “equity,” meaning equal outcomes for everyone.
“As last week’s CNN interview with Ms. Harris showed, this will be a consistent plotline deployed at her throughout this campaign” Carville wrote:
It’s vital that she give the same answer every time to these attacks. The retort can be simple: I learned from my time governing in the White House. These are my positions. Take it or leave it.
The good news is, by doing just this, Ms. Harris would be demonstrating a capacity that Mr. Trump lacks: a growth mind-set.… After nearly a decade of dealing with a man who views himself as perfect in every way, a leader who can openly admit a change in her understanding would feel like a breath of spring air for a lot of voters.
That CNN debate, by the way, also showed that Harris can’t handle an interview. An insider alleged that the network cut 23 minutes of the 41-minute interview. Harris couldn’t explain, for instance, why she no longer wants to ban fracking. And she blamed Trump for the failures of Bidenomics.
Uphill Battle
Harris might face an uphill battle to persuade Americans that she has tossed away her far-left ideology. It was quickly dubbed Kamunism.
Among the positions she supported in 2020 were mandatory gun buybacks to confiscate “assault weapons,” an executive order to execute that policy, and Medicare for All that would eliminate private health insurance.
Again, Harris has advocated “giving resources based on equity … because not everyone starts out in the same place,” which means “some people need more, so we all end up in the same place.”
Carville didn’t offer one piece of advice. Harris must prove that she understands public policy and modern technology.
She does not, for instance, understand inflation, which is caused by the government’s printing money, devaluing currency, or loaning new money into existence through government bonds.
Asked to explain her plan to reduce inflation and high prices for gas, food, and other commodities, Harris answered this way:
That’s about having to stress and stretch limited resources. That’s about a source of stress for families that is not only economic but is on a daily level something that is a heavy weight to carry. So it is something that we take very seriously. Very seriously. And we know from the history of this issue in the United States that when you see these prices go up, it has a direct impact on the quality of life for all people in our country. So it’s a big issue and we take it seriously. And it is a priority therefore.
Nor does Harris understand modern technology. She thinks “cloud storage” means that computer data are stored in the air above people’s heads.
H/T: The Daily Caller