Empress Kamala s New Clothes – WSJ

This week s political headlines were eerily similar in feel to those of early July, following that momentous Joe Biden-Donald Trump debate. It s the feel of a Democratic Party realizing (again) that the looms really were without thread, that their nominee exposed to the nation is looking a bit bare.

Democrats start to hit the panic button. Kamala Harris Is Making the Same Mistakes She Made in 2019. Democrats grow anxious. Ms. Harris struggling to break through with working class and struggles to differentiate herself from Biden and struggles to answer questions and generally . . . struggles. Kamala Harris Could Be in Trouble.

Pray tell, how? Weeks ago, Ms. Harris was the standard-bearer of joy, freedom and opportunity, the juggernaut who exudes quiet prowess and humiliates her opponent and delivers a debate knockout and runs a brilliant campaign and dominates among voters. The Gen Z Meme Queen whose party had woefully underestimated her raw talent.

These superlatives came from the same partisan press corps that insisted Mr. Biden was fine until it couldn t. The same media that before the Biden debate warned against Ms. Harris s enormous liabilities until it got stuck with her. The same press corps that is now discovering that even unrelenting hagiography can t make up for those Harris weaknesses.

Her problem like Mr. Biden s comes from finally being seen. She outperformed Mr. Trump in their debate a month ago, though she did it by saying nothing of consequence. She s since embarked on a media blitz, and in doing so confirmed the wisdom of all those advisers who fought never to let that happen. Recent weeks have shown a candidate whose answer to every question is canned, memorized, substance-free. Twice this week alone she flubbed softballs designed to let her discreetly break with the unpopular current president. The View : Would you have done something differently than President Biden? Ms. Harris: There is not a thing that comes to mind.

via www.wsj.com

Kimberley Strassel.