The Armchair Election Consultants

There is seemingly no end to the advice that VP Harris and Gov. Walz are receiving from election advisors in the media. At Vox.com Christian Paz recommends abandoning soundbyte attacks on Trump and Vance in favor of something more positive:

The attacks may be sticking — hardening the preexisting views many Americans have toward Trump, Vance, and the national Republican brand.

But they’re no substitute for a forward-looking, positive case in favor of Harris and Walz, according to new polling conducted by the Democratic firm Blueprint and shared with Vox. What must come next is an effort to define Harris by reintroducing the electorate to her track record before becoming vice president and leaving behind the politics and acrimony of the Trump-Biden era.

The new report reveals an interesting and slightly counterintuitive sentiment among American voters at this point in the race. Voters are relieved that there is a new option available for them to pick and feel a “breath of fresh air” — but they don’t really know Harris.

Specifically, beyond hearing attacks on Trump and Vance, they want to hear a positive, uplifting platform from Harris. They are ready for optimism, to hear why she wants to be president, and — even more fundamentally — just learn who she is. Plenty of voters have heard of the vice president, but many don’t know much about her past, her accomplishments, and her life experience, Blueprint’s chief pollster Evan Roth Smith told me.

At Financial Times Chris Giles counsels nearly the opposite:

Some things are unambiguous, among them that Kamala Harris is a better Democratic presidential candidate than Joe Biden. And the US election is still very close. Other matters such as the economic record of the Biden administration are subject to nuance and ambiguity ill-suited to a vicious presidential campaign. Harris should not put the economy at the centre of her campaign.

It is not that the Biden administration’s economic record is poor, but it is complicated. For a start, the public are not convinced by US economic strength. Responding to the long-running University of Michigan consumer sentiment index, even Democrats barely report above average confidence, while the period of high inflation pushed the reading well below long-run norms for independent voters and Republicans.

He goes on to explain that Americans really don’t like inflation.

Walz was the right pick. Walz was the wrong pick. VP Harris should quickly redefine herself. She shouldn’t redefine herself at all. Whatever the advice you can probably find someone giving it.

I will refrain from offering any advice. Although I am certain that some of those expressing jubilance are genuinely delighted that Kamala Harris is 2024’s Democratic standardbearer, I suspect that there is also a certain amount of relief that the 2024 election will not be a rerun of the 2020 election with a less energetic, less mentally capable Joe Biden at the top of the ticket.