Vice President Kamala Harris continued her message to the uninformed Thursday night, and it might be enough to get her in the White House. The concern for Republicans is the need to sway the uninformed voter. Can they do it? Jeff Hunt isn’t so sure.
“How do you reach an uninformed voter who’s going to vote completely on feelings after watching last night? I don’t know if Donald Trump has an answer for that – I don’t either,” Hunt, a Salem radio network show host, said on American Family Radio Friday.
Harris, the newly minted Democratic nominee, addressed her party’s convention last night with the same light-on-policy approach that has marked her campaign so far.
Leading Republicans have encouraged former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee, to stay on the policy message in campaign speeches. But is that the right strategy? Will it reach the feel-good voter who Harris spoke to in her convention address?
“If you were already an informed voter, you’d be a conservative,” Hunt told show host Jenna Ellis.
Harris’ speech light on specifics
Campaign strategy
"I think Kamala Harris nailed the speech from the standpoint of what is the strategy of her campaign – and the strategy of her campaign is to run on nothing; to act as if she had nothing to do with the last nearly four years of leftist government and neo-Marxist ideology that they have permeated our entire government with." "I predict she will do the bare minimum of debates, maybe no more than one. And they will continue to dress up as if it's Halloween, acting like they're moderates when in fact this is the most left-wing, socialist presidential ticket that has ever been nominated by a major U.S. political party." Gary Bauer, chairman |
Harris spoke of a “new way forward,” bemoaning a divided America and promising a future of unity and progress.
She shared her personal story and continued a week-long theme of red flag warnings of a second Trump presidency. Harris fired up the base with Jan. 6 talk, saying he “sent an armed mob” to the U.S. Capitol and encouraged attacks.
She emphasized personal freedoms and democracy and called for voters to join her effort to achieve these things that all Americans hold dear … but didn’t tell them how they’d reach those goals.
The Daily Mail said Harris’ speech proved she is a “chameleon” as she attempts to be transformed from “everything radical left’ to running on “vibes.”
Veteran Fox News political analyst Britt Hume told viewers Harris missed a great opportunity to share her plans with a broad-based audience.
“This obviously is a night that more people than have ever seen her before will see her in one event, and what we're witnessing is at least an attempt at political alchemy,” he said.
The immediate priority for Harris is image control, said the veteran journalist, not border control.
“It wasn't very long ago when Kamala Harris was regarded – certainly in Washington, where she'd been a senator and then vice president – as something of a laughingstock,” Hume noted. “She was given to these sudden outbursts of sentences that were put down by a lot of people as 'word salad.' She said some truly inane things. There's no doubt about that.”
In those days Harris talked about policy.
“She composed [a pretty radical record] through statements she's made and things she's supported …," Hume continued. "In fact, she described herself as a radical. That's all now to be set aside. [We're told] we should forget all those things. This woman we thought was kind of a silly person and kind of a giggling lightweight is presented now as 'Mamala' and this wonderful family woman who's never hesitated to reach across the aisle. The question is, will anybody buy it?"
The Obama machine has geared up again, emphasizing 'feelings'
Hunt believes the Harris campaign can pull this off by presenting America’s “gal pal” to uninformed voters with short attention spans. He compared Kamala Harris 2.0 to the Barack Obama campaign of 2008 – a success tactic that laid the foundation to Democratic governance for 12 of the last 16 years.
Related op-ed: On Israel, Harris parallels 2008 Obama on marriage
“I feel like I'm reliving 2008 all over again," Hunt shared. "We had an unknown senator who people complained was the most progressive senator with no serious experience, but that didn't matter because they ginned up in people this idea that he is likable and friendly. 'Hope and change' and that marketing effort that was put together to get Barack Obama elected … this is the same machine.
“Now it’s kicking in to get Kamala Harris elected … and I'm terrified because I don't think Republicans ever came out with a way to really stop Barack Obama. That same exact machine is getting Kamala Harris elected. Nobody has any idea really what she stands for. She has no experience. She's just kind of this feel-good candidate.”
Harris was buoyed this week by the queen of good feelings, Oprah Winfrey, the billionaire former daytime talk show host.
The blind trust of communism
Ellis, a former Trump attorney, said Trump is right to label his opponent “Comrade Kamala” – but she argued that’s not enough. According to Ellis, the former president needs to lay out in clear terms why communism is a bad thing.
“He has to go further than that in practical terms for the economy, the border, for the average American who pays taxes, who doesn't want to have not only wealth redistributed, but debt redistributed, so that we're all under this notion of equity …. I don't think that people actually understand what Comrade Kamala means,” she explained.
A lack of policy specifics requires voters to follow the government with blind trust … the same trust that communism requires, according to Ellis.
“It's the exact same type of thinking that runs in the radical elements of the Leftist, of the Communist, the Marxist and the Islamist. She's doing the exact same thing," she stated. "This appeals in some weird way to the low-information voter who's just going to tune in, feel good about watching Kamala Harris, and feel like, ‘Wow, she's just my gal pal.’”
