PLAINFIELD, Ind. — No two elections cycles are the same, as Donald Trump can now attest that 2020 was vastly different than 2016 when he won, and ditto for Joe Biden between his victory four years ago and his unplanned retirement today.
For continued Election Day success, a good candidate retools the message to seek more supporters.
Last Tuesday night, Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump debated, sparring over the issues of abortion, Ukraine and whether Ohio immigrants were eating pet cats and dogs.
President Bill Clinton used to advise, “Win the future, win the election.” In their closing statements, Harris and Trump presented their visions for America.
What some 67 million Americans witnessed was the 21st century version of Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America” that Harris presented and a reprise of Donald Trump’s “American Carnage” where he remained focused on his 2020 grievances and a “stolen” election (it was not).
“You’ve heard tonight two very different visions for our country,” Vice President Harris said. “One that is focused on the future and the other that is focused on the past and an attempt to take us backward. But we’re not going back.”
She presented "a vision of that includes having a plan, understanding the aspirations, the dreams, the hopes, the ambition of the American people, which is why I intend to create an opportunity economy, investing in small businesses, in new families.”
Trump offered this: “We can’t sacrifice our country for the sake of bad vision. But I just ask one simple question: Why didn’t she do it?” he said of securing the southern border, his most salient of policy point that the former president waited more than 90 minutes to broach.
“We’re a failing nation. We’re a nation that’s in serious decline,” Trump continued. “We’re being laughed at all over the world. What these people have done to our country, and maybe toughest of all, is allowing millions of people to come into our country, many of them are criminals, and they’re destroying our country.”
What Americans saw and heard during the second most consequential presidential debate in history (the first, on June 27, forced President Biden out of the race) was the further ascension of Vice President Harris, who has had the best presidential rollout ever over the past eight weeks. Harris has presented a striking contrast to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 flop.
Trump, according to CNN’s Chris Wallace, “looked old” as he hunched over the podium, squinting and scowling. Harris delivered her points to the people by looking directly into the camera. Her body language and her hand and facial gestures showed how incredulous she was at Trump’s responses.
And she trapped Trump with remarks about his rally crowd sizes. “First, let me respond as to the rallies,” the baited Trump said. “She said people start leaving. People don’t go to her rallies. There’s no reason to go. And the people that do go, she’s bussing them in and paying them to be there.”
Then he shifted to the dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio.
“What they have done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country,” Trump began. “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. [The people] that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country.”
When moderator David Muir said there was no confirmation of this story from the Springfield city manager, Trump said, “Well, I’ve seen people on television.”
Harris responded, “Talk about extreme. If you want to really know the inside track on who the former president is, if he didn’t make it clear already, just ask people who have worked with him. His former chief of staff, a four-star general, has said he has contempt for the Constitution of the United States. His former national security adviser has said he is dangerous and unfit. His former secretary of defense has said the nation, the republic, would never survive another Trump term.”
Republican pollster Frank Luntz said that Harris didn't win the debate so much as "that Donald Trump lost. The conversations about people eating dogs and cats … repeatedly missing the opportunity to focus on inflation and affordability, and the complete inability to present his point of view.”
Republican strategist Karl Rove said in his Wall Street Journal column, "There’s no putting lipstick on this pig. Mr. Trump was crushed by a woman he previously dismissed as 'dumb as a rock.' Which raises the question: What does that make him?"
Appearing on a panel at the Indiana State Medical Association convention Friday night in Plainfield, I made this observation four days before the debate:
“I’m going to go out on a limb here. I don’t think the presidential race is going to be that close. I’m going to use Stuart Stevens’ metaphor, that the Trump campaign is a paper bag full of water that will break in late October, just like it did for President Jimmy Carter in what had been a close race against Ronald Reagan that ended in a GOP landslide. Not only will Harris benefit from this 1980-style dynamic of the undecideds heading her way, if that occurs she will pull in a Democratic House and Senate.”
Howey is a senior reporter and columnist for State Affairs/Howey Politics Indiana. Find him on X @hwypol.
