Imagine that. A CNN host actually admitting on-air that Donald Trump will "probably win" in November if the election is about policy. That's a big "if," mind you, but still, The Most Trusted Name in News™ allowed those unthinkable words to be spoken by one of its hosts. I only partly jest.
In fact, CNN host and political commentator Michael Smerconish said on Friday that Trump holds a significant advantage over Harris on policy.
When you look at the data and when you ask people whether they appreciate, I'll say the Biden-Harris record or the Trump record, they look back favorably on the Trump years.
To Smerconish's point, as RedState reported on August 15, Silicon Valley, long a Democrat stronghold, has been showing growing support for Trump. Investor and entrepreneur Joe Lonsdale told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that Harris's policies would "break everything."
What you're seeing is you've gone from almost none of Silicon Valley supporting Trump in 2016, a little bit more in 2020, and now I'd say probably half of the leaders I know who are builders in business are realizing, wait a second, there's this kind of crazy, dangerous, far-left radical stream in our society. It's going to break everything.
It's going to stop us from being builders, and we need to support the side that's going to let our civilization thrive.
When Bartiromo asked Lonsdale whether Harris's mostly unknown policies could be the factor driving Silicon Valley toward Trump, he didn't hesitate to respond.
I've been watching her for 20 years. And I think we've seen that she does not know how to ever push back on the far left. She raised her hand with [Vermont Sen.] Bernie Sanders to get rid of health insurance. She said she'd end the filibuster to get the Green New Deal passed. I mean, we could all say we don't know what she's going to do.
She has a weaker foreign policy. People around her who are writing op-eds with Iranian spies, who are not pushing back on Latin American socialists… she's not going to ever push back on the bureaucracies or the corrupt NGOs that ruined California that parties are giving money to in D.C.
But — and it's a big BUT — as Smerconish said:
[Trump's] got to rein in his worst instincts. He deviates too much from that script when he looks at the audience and thinks they‘re getting bored.
That element exists. "If the race is going to be about personality," Smerconish said, "he loses."
Is Smerconish right? That remains to be seen. If the demographics of those who vote for him in November don't expand beyond those who supported him in 2020, that could be troublesome.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC) — not exactly a favorite of Trump Nation — holds the same view on both counts. Graham believes that Trump can win if he focuses on policy — what he calls the "Key to the White House" — but also that the former president could lose if he "doesn't stick to policy." Graham told NBC’s “Meet the Press” last Sunday:
President Trump can win this election. His policies are good for America, and if you have a policy debate for president, he wins. Donald Trump the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election.
I’m looking for President Trump to show up in the last 80 days to define what he will do for our country, to fix broken borders, to lower inflation.
A nightmare for Harris is to defend her policy choices. Every day we’re not talking about her policy choices as vice president, and what she would do as president, is a good day for her and a bad day for us.
Love Graham or otherwise, he makes a fair point, as does Smerconish, who also surprisingly said:
Let‘s not forget, the Republicans had a great convention. I thought they were note-perfect and, so too, the Democrats.
Yeah, well, the Democrats only had a "note-perfect" convention if you define "note-perfect" as the greatest gaslighting effort in the history of American politics, laden with lies, and combined with zero details about the policies a President Harris would inflict on this country.
The Bottom Line
This election is Trump's to lose.