During Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, Democrats perfected an electoral path known as the “basement strategy.”
The idea is pretty straightforward. Keep your candidate locked up, tied down, and generally out of the public eye except for carefully scripted events and speeches delivered entirely on a teleprompter or only face interview questions that have been provided in advance. In other words, spend your time with friendly media and avoid any actual journalists who might ask you hard but reasonable questions.
In 2024, with the Kamala switcheroo and mass-media brainwashing underway, the same strategy is taking shape. Vice President Harris has, to this point, dodged all meaningful interviews and ably avoided answering for her administration’s abysmal record on the economy, the border, foreign wars, and a slew of other failures.
The result is a race that is tightening as Democrats come back to the fold now excited to vote for an empty candidate who was previously known as the most unpopular vice president in modern history, according to CBS News:
Boosted by Democrats, younger and Black voters becoming more engaged and likely to vote, and by women decidedly thinking she’d favor their interests more, Vice President Kamala Harris has reset the 2024 presidential race.
She has a 1-point edge nationally — something President Biden never had (he was down by 5 points when he left the race) — and Harris and former President Donald Trump are tied across the collective battleground states.
Looking ahead, voters are also defining why the next few weeks could be critical.
On one hand, Harris has additional edges with the wider electorate that Mr. Biden did not: she’s leading Trump on being seen as having the cognitive health to serve, a measure that was of course central to the campaign before Mr. Biden stepped aside.
And on policy generally, Harris is seen as a little different from Mr. Biden, opening some possibility of defining her stances for the electorate now, either way.
Harris is the shiny new toy on the national stage and the media is working overtime to sell her candidacy as the second coming of Barack Obama, or something.
While the sugar high for Democrats hasn’t yet worn thin, the reality for Kamala Harris is that her party and her administration have had multiple failures since Joe Biden took the Oath of Office in 2020.
For example, on the economy, voters agree that their financial situation would be better under a new Trump presidency compared to Harris:
What about the border? It’s no secret that Border Czar Kamala is not known for her strong enforcement of immigration law:
The national top-line number is somewhat irrelevant compared to the individual swing states. If Harris can’t pick up at least +3 or more nationally, she’s still drowning in the states that matter and likely to lose the Electoral College:
The fact that Harris is only statistically tied with the former president in places like Michigan and Pennsylvania speaks not only to Trump’s strength but Harris’ ingrained weakness as a candidate. Voters must decide if they want more of the Biden-Harris lack of accountability, inflationary economic policies, and a “lead from behind” view of the world compared to the America-first economic powerhouse Trump delivered in his first term.
The question is whether this is the high water mark for Harris or if she’s able to keep pushing the basement strategy to the max over the next few weeks. With her Vice Presidential pick happening likely today, there will be a new round of Democrat enthusiasm for the media to keep prodding and cultivating.
August is typically a bleh polling month for presidential politics. Many voters are vacationing and can’t be bothered with paying close attention to the presidential race. How many of them will tune back in after Labor Day and be shocked to find Joe Biden’s no longer the Democratic nominee? It seems implausible but, then again, it still amazes me how little some people pay attention to what their government is doing to them.
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