We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

Few people noticed this story in The New York Times, but they should have. 

Not because it says anything shocking–no sane person thinks the Fascist Hitler Stalin Mussolini Seal Team Six Trump-hating tactic would really work. 

Advertisement

Rather, what it reveals is that Kamala Harris’ campaign has collapsed so badly that even the most rabid fans of Kamala Harris see that her final message to the voters is a disaster. 

First, let me explain to you why we are seeing what appears to be a leak from Future Forward, the main pro-Harris Super PAC. It’s not that outsiders are spilling the beans; it’s that Super PACs are not supposed to be in contact with the candidates or their campaigns directly, so the legal way for one to contact the other is by putting things out in public like “memos” that inevitably reach the other guys. 

While it may be the case that insiders are trying to distance themselves from a possible (probable?) loss, our seeing this need not imply that. It could just be that Future Forward wanted Harris campaign strategists to see what their focus groups were telling them. 

And what they are telling them is that the Harris message is not working. 

The leading super PAC supporting Vice President Kamala Harris is raising concerns that focusing too narrowly on Donald J. Trump’s character and warnings that he is a fascist is a mistake in the closing stretch of the campaign.

Mr. Trump’s former White House chief of staff, Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly, said last week that Mr. Trump “falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure,” a remarkable caution from such a top-ranking official, which Ms. Harris and her team immediately echoed and amplified.

In an email circulated to Democrats about what messages have been most effective in its internal testing, Future Forward, the leading pro-Harris super PAC, said focusing on Mr. Trump’s character and the fascist label were less persuasive than other messages.

“Attacking Trump’s Fascism Is Not That Persuasive,” read one line in bold type in the email, which is known as Doppler and sent on a regular basis. “‘Trump Is Exhausted’ Isn’t Working,” read another.

Advertisement

I could have told them that without spending a zillion dollars on focus groups. It is a message of desperation, not persuasion. The Harris campaign has run out of gas, and nobody there is willing to say anything of substance, put Kamala Harris in a place where she might get probing questions, and they are so afraid of people seeing her alone that she is surrounded by surrogates all the time. The Obamas, Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce (who is going through the motions). 

Even Bill and Hillary have made appearances. When Hillary Clinton is a palatable alternative to your candidate, you are in deep trouble. 

“Purely negative attacks on Trump’s character are less effective than contrast messages that include positive details about Kamala Harris’s plans to address the needs of everyday Americans,” the email read.

Chauncey McLean, the president of Future Forward, issued a rare statement to The New York Times downplaying the significance of the Doppler email.

“Don’t over-read this,” he said. “This is just one of our regular emails sharing testing results from thousands of pieces of earned and social media content. It shows people that the most effective way of using Trump’s words and behavior is tying them to consequences in voters’ lives. That’s what Kamala Harris does every day by comparing her to-do list with his enemies list, for example.”

Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, Ms. Harris’s campaign chair, said on Sunday on MSNBC that it has “real impact” that people close to Mr. Trump have spoken out against him.

Advertisement

No, it doesn’t have “real impact” because we have heard it all before. 

As for Kamala Harris? Well, we HAVE heard she comes from a middle-class family, so there is that. 

Campaigns and super PACs cannot directly coordinate strategy so sending messages via emails such as Doppler is one way they can communicate via quasi-public channels.

But the email’s warning reflects an underlying split among Democrats about what constitutes an effective line of attack against Mr. Trump, and how to persuade the small group of uncommitted voters to cast ballots against someone whose aberrant political and governing behavior has become familiar to them over nine years.

Ms. Harris’s team had made it clear immediately after the Democratic National Convention that they planned to switch from the message that President Biden had used most, that Mr. Trump is a unique threat to the country. They argued that making Mr. Trump smaller in the minds of voters was crucial. In her convention speech, she called him an “unserious man” but warned that restoring him to power would have “extremely serious” consequences.

In the last few weeks, Ms. Harris’s message on the campaign trail has been more in keeping with Mr. Biden’s earlier warnings about Mr. Trump as an unstable opponent. “Unhinged, unstable, unchecked,” all appear on the screen of one recent Harris ad.

The problems Harris’ campaign face can be boiled down into one: Kamala Harris. She has no message, no charisma, no argument, and is an incredibly poor judge of everything. She is grotesquely incompetent. The Democrats may actually have done better to have stuck with the brain-dead candidate over the objectively stupid one. 

Advertisement

Joe is at least somewhat entertaining. Not in a good way, but in an interesting way. Kamala is just stupid and dull.