Trump’s Deficiencies Are Not Kamala’s Qualifications
In the WSJ, Holman W. Jenkins complains that he still is looking for a guarantee: What assurance is there that Kamala Harris’s real judgment is intact, especially when she’s speaking nonsense? With scant evidence, he denies thinking Kamala is an idiot.
Still, by this point, it would be nice to have evidence—to hear her say a policy- or issue-related thing in a way that suggests a well-informed person looking realistically at the world.
Hidden in Plain Sight
It is true, Donald Trump botched “chance after chance” to settle his committed support. Trump failed to reveal himself as the “confident four-year veteran of presidential office who no longer needs to shout, entertain or hyperbolize,” a disappointed Jenkins argues. According to our discouraged author, this is what he keeps looking for from Ms. Harris.
During the debate, Harris delivered stylized zappers with studied indifference. Many zingers were familiarly false, such as claims that “Mr. Trump called neo-Nazis fine people or promised a bloodbath if he wasn’t elected.”
Notably, (Harris) didn’t repeat her claim that, after a White House briefing on Jan. 28, 2020, (Trump) failed to warn America about Covid. … There’s a reason, though, a sensible government official like Angela Merkel waited until March 11 to speak frankly to the German people about the virus.
Jenkins wonders if Ms. Harris knows what that reason is. During that time, Ms. Merkel managed to connect with Germany’s citizens.
On Tuesday, Harris resisted the Full Monty, but Kamala nevertheless recapitulated her implication that somehow America suffered Covid because of Mr. Trump. Now, though he was “soft on China,” is a typical Harris cynicism since the Biden-Harris administration has embraced Mr. Trump’s tough-on-China policies.
The one thing it hasn’t done is forcefully pursue the Trump-promoted lab-leak hypothesis, which Ms. Harris seemed to want to associate herself with on Tuesday night.
Harris missed several chances: The 1st was her CNN interview. # 2 was Tuesday’s debate.
Trump seemed unable to defend himself from her predictable attacks. Why wasn’t he able to rest his case on three years of peace, prosperity and rising wages until Covid arrived?
Kamala Harris deserves kudos for provoking Trump, although admittedly a circa 2017, AI chip could have triggered Trump. Yes, it was a coup to get him talking about illegal immigrants eating America’s pets, but Ms. Harris and her handlers didn’t seem to have a plan to elicit it.
Worrisome: Vibes of Joy Lacking
Kamala exhibited a ruthlessness, without any distracting signs of searching intelligence. Her conviction is based on grounds that Trump exhaustion is all she needs to pave her way to the White House. Worrisome.
Like most voters, Jenkins wants assurance that Harris will know what to do when confronted with a novel and dangerous set of circumstances. Will she be able to implement an incisive, realistic judgment?
Here resides the big risk of her “vibes of joy” campaign, which could yet keep the race close.
Who Is Kamala Harris
Americans have a tough choice to make this November, and Kamala superfluous effort, coupled with how she came to the nomination, makes voters jittery. “Who is Harris” still hasn’t been answered.
What Voters Want
Voters are looking for that twinkle of original, liquid shrewdness that a president must bring to matters landing on the desk in the Oval Office. Jenkins pictures Kamala in such a situation. Then he tries to imagine words from Kamala’s mouth and whether they show a mastery of risk and opportunity. Jenkins has a hard time doing so.
Donald Trump has spoken millions of public words; there are memoirs and histories of his presidency. Along with chaos and eccentricity, the record shows him capable of being shrewd, realistic. He authorized Operation Warp Speed. He changed Iran’s every calculation by killing Soleimani but then didn’t respond to Iran’s response, saying he had made his point. (Trump) apparently understood that even unrealistic threats voiced by a U.S. president can complicate China’s thinking over Taiwan and Russia’s over Ukraine.
Dealing with Real World Complexities
Amid Trump howlers and absurdities, which exceed even those of a standard politician, he once had ways to let us know there was more to Trump. His long and public record of successful and unsuccessful risk-taking in business lent confidence that he possessed situational awareness to navigate real-world complexities and produce tolerable outcomes.
Navigating situational awareness and producing tolerable outcomes is what Jenkins seeks from Ms. Harris.
There, however, is good news.
Kamala Harris can’t be worse than Mr. Biden (according to Jenkins) if America had been forced to weigh another term by a president who can hardly show himself in public and perhaps functions only as a husk for the policies and political calculations of his aides.
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