GUEST COLUMN, Dick Morris
You only get one chance to make a first impression and Vice President Kamala Harris is squandering hers.
She’s coasting off Trump’s questioning of Harris’ bona fides as a Black candidate — and the ensuing media backlash — she has failed to use the opportunity of her introduction to the voters to push a message.
Identity politics are not a message.
It’s not enough to be a member of a minority protected class, female, or whatever.
You have to be better at doing something important, than the other side is — like controlling immigration, fighting crime, or stopping a recession.
The Democrats don’t have a message.
All the big issues — the economy, inflation, unemployment, immigration, and crime — skew Republican. There are very few issues on which Democrats are more trusted than Republicans.
And those that are out there are pretty esoteric — climate change, gun violence, racial bigotry, homophobia — and are not going to catch on and be the key election issues that could propel Harris to victory.
It’s not enough to exploit Trump’s mistakes.
Harris needs to articulate a program to deal with the main concerns of voters.
Targets of opportunity are no replacements for good messaging.
And, with news of the stock market crash that spooked financial markets, fear of a recession is becoming a dominant issue (And Republicans, particularly Trump, are more trusted on this score).
Broadly speaking, the majority of voters agree with Trump on the issues and applaud his accomplishments even as a sizable minority don’t like his personality.
But that’s a tradeoff Trump can make every day and still win the election.
By hammering on mistakes Trump makes or ill-considered remarks that escape his lips, Harris has not identified a path to victory, just a path to irrelevance.
