After Democrats did their job of burying Weekend at Bernie’s and the media did its job of memory-holing Trump’s heroic response to the assassination attempt against him, one would have been completely reasonable to have expected clear sailing ahead for the system’s newly chosen candidate, Kamala Harris. What was then largely considered a great GOP convention had effectively been rendered moot, not just ancient history, but totally irrelevant ancient history and Republicans still had to face the barrage of Harris’ honeymoon period, a running mate selection, and the bad guys batting at the bottom of the inning with a Democratic convention and the inevitable fawning media coverage taking place a mere two months before the election.
To their credit, Donald Trump and his team knew they would take some incoming fire and that there wasn’t much they could do then about the Harris polling bounce that would inevitably occur because of it. That’s just the nature of politics. The party in power gets to have their convention last, and replacing a walking corpse with someone with a pulse is obviously going to have its merits. To their detriment, Trump and his team should have known or at least strongly suspected that they would never face Biden in general, and the messaging, especially during the GOP convention, should have reflected that. It was also a strategic mistake to agree to debate Biden so far from the election. Sure, it was easy pickings, but it also gave Democrats the political cover they needed to finally rid themselves of their albatross.
So I guess it’s over, right? Time to prepare ourselves for President Mamala and the inevitable next step towards being forced to live in the leftist hellscape they’re hellbent on creating? I’ll answer that question by quoting the great Lee Corso: “Not so fast!” We may not be in the best position, but the good news is like a bloodied boxer who has taken a few punches yet isn’t finished yet, we’re still standing, and now it’s time for our side to launch a few of our own haymakers. At this point in an election cycle like this, that’s the best we can ask for.
Much of the reason this race is still close is due to typical Democrat ineptitude, of course. The Tim Waltz pick may have seemed smart to some at first, but as has already been somewhat reflected in the narrowing gap between his favorability and unfavorability numbers, the more Americans learn about this leftist lunatic, the more they aren’t going to like. If you like the direction of that trend, you’ll love it when JD Vance - a pick that is aging like fine wine - gets done making mincemeat of him in the upcoming vice presidential debate. It’s going to be glorious.
And despite the fawning media doing everything possible to pretend otherwise, the Democratic National Convention was just as much of a snoozefest as Kamala Harris’ closing speech was. Sure, it moved the needle some, but not as much as Democrats hoped and Republicans feared. As of now, Harris’ polling lead average stands at 1.5%, much smaller than Biden’s almost 8% lead this time four years ago. I’ve stated it before, but it bears repeating that 2020 was still razor thin, meaning that Trump likely only needs to enter November behind by four points or less to have a shot. And as of now, when Democrats have fired most of the bullets they have left to fire, he’s still in the race.
Obviously, and this is the wild card, Trump has got to do his part. Eliminate the unforced errors, keep on message, keep the attention on Kamala and her loony policies, use the RFK Jr. endorsement to court voters who might not otherwise consider him, and focus on the swing states upon which this election will hinge. He also needs to decisively win the debate (or debates). Despite what’s really going on between her ears, her handlers will have Harris fully prepped and ready to roll, and it won’t be the easy pickings it was against Biden. Defeating a female candidate who has suddenly risen from an obscure, inept vice present nobody liked to a feminist icon and savior of the planet will take a different approach, and Trump had better be ready with facts instead of bluster. It’s going to take some tact and skill, not a steamroller.
The bottom line is that Trump survived an assassination attempt, has thus far managed to dance through raindrops and avoid multiple attempts to use lawfare to imprison him, and, despite Kamala’s honeymoon, running mate selection, and fawning media coverage of the DNC Convention, is still very much in what is still a winnable presidential race. Let’s hope he can finish things off in what promises to be an entertaining final two months.