link should work for everyone https://www.wsj.com/articles/kamala...jeei1w8pyc3&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink In Her Campaign Debut, Kamala Harris Steers Left The implicit message of her first big campaign rally: Swing voters? Who needs ’em. By The Editorial Board Updated July 23, 2024 at 6:03 pm ET Does Kamala Harris think she’s going to win this election by firing up the Democratic base? That’s a serious question after watching her first campaign rally since President Biden’s sudden withdrawal from the 2024 race. On Tuesday outside of Milwaukee, Ms. Harris was introduced by an “educator” with a doctorate who said that thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration, “I had almost all of my student-loan debt forgiven.” And if that plank of progressive big government doesn’t appeal, Ms. Harris has others. The VP said she sees a future where “every worker has the freedom to join a union,” and “every person has affordable health care, affordable child care, and paid family leave,” and “every senior can retire with dignity.” The promise is that Uncle Sam will deliver it all. She also pledged to sign federal laws to ban “assault weapons” and override state abortion limitations. This is a strange strategy. Ms. Harris is talking as if she’s running in the Democratic primaries and trying to beat California Gov. Gavin Newsom for her party’s presidential nod. In reality she leapfrogged that fraught step and is going straight to the general election. Mr. Biden’s abrupt resignation has handed her the great gift of the presidential nomination without the necessity of having to appeal to Democratic primary voters. Ms. Harris might enjoy more freedom to maneuver than any major-party nominee in a generation. This gives her a rare opportunity to reintroduce herself to voters as she wants them to see her. What Ms. Harris stands for today is largely undefined, and she has about 100 days to answer the question. But one of her vulnerabilities in November is that voters might view her, not without reason, as more of a left-winger than Mr. Biden. Her record in the Senate included supporting Bernie Sanders’s bill to outlaw private health insurance. She could instead be taking the opportunity to build a defense against what is surely the coming GOP assault to define her as a California progressive. Yet in Milwaukee she sounded as if her main political task is to get Democrats enthused about finishing the pieces of Mr. Biden’s Build Back Better agenda that failed in the Democratic Senate. That means more government entitlements for healthcare, child care, and more progressive culture war. Swing voters? Who needs ’em. Perhaps she will grow into her candidacy and realize that her challenge is to put some distance between herself and Mr. Biden, broaden her appeal past her old California constituents, and talk directly to “double haters” and moderates in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and other states in play. Here are some ideas. She could swear off the tax increases that progressives always want to enact. She could say the Administration made a mistake on the border and pledge to fire Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. She could reverse her past support for a ban on oil and gas fracking, while arguing that consumers need low energy prices, and by the way the shale revolution means that the U.S. is no longer at risk of energy blackmail from hostile petrostates. She could say something nice about school choice, which would be a throwback to the Democratic Party position once taken by Barack Obama and Sen. Cory Booker. Perhaps Ms. Harris is a true progressive believer and will run as one—in which case no one will be more delighted than Donald Trump. She also said in Milwaukee that she’d “stop Donald Trump’s extreme abortion bans,” while claiming that Mr. Trump is planning to cut Social Security and Medicare. But if voters don’t believe this, given how prominently Mr. Trump has moved the GOP on abortion and entitlements, what does Ms. Harris have left? Appeared in the July 24, 2024, print edition as 'Kamala Harris Steers to the Left'.
I knew it had to be something like this. I have several liberal friends and none donated to kamala after the announcement. In 2008 I knew several who donated to Obama. See 2008 felt genuine. This with kamala feels very forced but there are fools believing she is this popular
Serious question - what's wrong with anything she said in the first 3 paragraphs? I'm dumbfounded how people wouldn't want those things...
The WSJ finds it surprising and far Left they a Democrat would be running on affordable healthcare, affordable childcare, the ability to join unions, and seniors retiring with dignity? I’m pretty sure nearly every Democrat would run on those. Even Trump ran on having the best most affordable health care plan. (Just wait two weeks and he’ll tell you what it is) Also the US increased energy production under Biden and it is unlikely that Harris would change that policy.
Yes most of those poll very well. This was one of the main reasons why many Democrats were pressuring Biden to end his campaign. Many of Biden’s policies polled very well and Democrats for running for Congress and Governorships in those issues were out polling Biden. The fear would be that concerns about Biden’s age would drag the whole party down.
One of the reasons why Harris quickly consolidated Democratic support is that the Biden campaign was the “Biden Harris” campaign. She is in that ticket so inherits the funds and other infrastructure.
Her first full campaign speech. The campaign theme is emerging as the "happy warrior", promoting a positive and bright future for all Americans, in contrast to a person that has been found liable for sexual assault and fraud, representing anger, madness, a dark vision for America, and selling out the country to billionaires. Kamala Harris holds first campaign rally: FULL SPEECH (youtube.com)
I can't wait until we put this behind us and we can get the actual race rather than all the posturing the Republicans are trying to do for now. Get over it, Kamala is going to be the candidate.
Trump is like a never ending night of darkness and aura of evil, where you feel something bad is going to happen. He's really the one closing the curtains when he sees the sun starting to shine, bringing back the darkness to put the spotlight on himself. He wants that more than anything else.
I'm also quite sure Americans do not want to go back to a time when insurance companies could deny you coverage for pre-existing conditions.
I'm wondering why someone so deep in his far right views didn't just move to Russia or some other country with far right leaders instead of bringing that toxic mentality here.
ATW, this is just factually so wrong, it's funny. And it's actually over $100M now. As far as "transferring" Biden/Harris donations to Harris/TBD, that's all well within the FEC rules. But as expected, Trump is doing his usual frivolous lawsuits, intended more for messaging than anything else. A message that is, as I said, so wrong, it's funny and seen as another desperate attempt by them to slow down the momentum of this fast, record-breaking campaign coming together. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cxx2d25l634o Democrats have poured more than $100m (£77m) in donations into Vice-President Kamala Harris' presidential bid since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday, her campaign says. The tally was boosted by what her team calls a record 24-hour period of fundraising - $81m raised. During that timeframe, more than 888,000 people donated sums of up to $200 each, according to progressive donation platform ActBlue. Donors who had pulled back their funding over concerns about Mr Biden’s age have said they now intend to resume their support for the party. The surge in donations in the 24-hour period after Mr Biden quit the race was the single biggest for online contributions to Democrats since 2020, according to the New York Times. That was when ActBlue raised $73.5m after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. The new funds mark a significant turn for the Democratic party, which had seen support erode from major donors after Mr Biden’s poor performance in June’s presidential debate against Donald Trump. Grassroots funding from small donors had also diminished, according to Biden campaign insiders cited in US media. But soon after Mr Biden’s announcement to drop out of the race and his endorsement of Ms Harris’ bid for the White House, Democrats went online to contribute at a startling pace. “Grassroots supporters are energized and excited to support (Ms Harris) as the Democratic nominee,” ActBlue wrote on X. Win With Black Women, a group of black women leaders, held a Zoom call with more than 44,000 participants on Sunday night to throw their support behind the vice-president. The group said it raised over $1.5m in three hours for her presidential campaign. Joe Cotchett, a San Francisco-based political fundraiser for the Democrats, told NBC News that donors “are now ready to dig into their pockets". Among them is Gideon Stein, president of the Moriah Fund and a donor for the party, who told the US news outlet that he would resume his funding after having paused it because of concerns over Mr Biden’s electability. Several high-profile political donors have also indicated their support for Ms Harris as the Democratic party nominee. Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, called the vice-president "the right person at the right time". "I wholeheartedly support Kamala Harris and her candidacy for President of the United States in our fight for democracy in November," he said in a post on X. Another big name political donor, Alexander Soros, the son of philanthropist George Soros, said Ms Harris was "the best and most qualified candidate we have". But others, like entrepreneur and investor Vinod Khosla, called for an open process at the convention and "not a coronation". "The key still is who can best beat Trump above all other priorities," he wrote on X. Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, known to be a Democratic megadonor, previously told the New York Times Biden should step down as the Democratic party nominee. "Dem delegates need to pick a swing state winner," he wrote on X on Sunday following Mr Biden's announcement.
Swing voters hate those ideas. Nothing says "Who needs swing voters?" like suggesting elderly can retire with dignity.
True but the way it was spun the last couple days was "omg look at how much money Kamala is raising! Republicans are scared! She's so popular and energizing the party!" Some of that could be true but it's over exaggerated, and the raised money meme was essentially a lie
