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The Kamala Sucker Punch
“The bad news is that Kamala Harris does not have the same baggage as Joe Biden”*
That’s what J.D. Vance told a roomful of donors at a private event after he described her choice as Biden’s successor. This was after he described the news as a ‘sucker punch’ to the Trump campaign. It’s recorded by the way.
Someone might want to tell Vance to shut his mouth, but like his running mate, he would be unlikely to comply. Virtually all his true thoughts seem to end up on the record somewhere.
But what the above quote tells me is that the only strategy the Trump campaign can imagine is an underhanded attack plan where they dig up conspiracy-friendly background stuff, blow it out of proportion, and repeat it until everyone wants to vomit.
It is an interesting way to see the world, but one I am very happy I do not share. That sentiment may contribute to Kamala Harris’ own campaign strategy. So far, the constant and ridiculous string of attacks doesn’t seem to faze her whatsoever. And that is her strength as a candidate.
Not only do they seem to have no negative effect, she seems to be enjoying herself.
I need to flashback to Trump’s 2016 campaign where he was the underdog. Part of what got him elected and helped him build his cult is that the guy seemed to be having fun. In retrospect it was a narcissist’s dream. Everywhere he went he could say anything he wanted and the crowds went wild.
Basically he had nothing to lose. But that is not the Trump of today. He literally has everything to lose. If he can’t regain power he will inevitably face the courts for felonies far more serious than the 34 he has already been convicted of. And those 34 still loom, no matter how much he pays lawyers to stall his sentencing.
The Trump of 2024 is not the smiling Trump of 2016. He is scared and bitter, a growling, snarling, incoherent fear monster, but that fear is for his own freedom. A man whose actions have almost caught up with him and he knows it.
All this is why Kamala Harris’s laugh is so much in the forefront of Trump’s attack. It seems to infuriate him and he wants it to scare everyone else too. But it doesn’t. Instead, we take pleasure in it…
