For all that President Biden seems to have been forced, by the opinions of his fellow Party-members, to a certain degree this may have been his most sagacious political maneuver ever. Consider this (vague) timeline:
- Mt. Trump is shot. He shows a bit of gumption, no doubt due to being a blowhard.
- Rep Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) proclaims …
“President Trump survives this attack — he just won the election,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) told POLITICO in a brief interview shortly after the shooting.
I’m sure some Trump supporters credit God for his survival, although exactly which one would not be clear.
- Mr. Trump appears at the RNC and delivers a speech that could have advanced his cause, but, by all reports, his initial attempts to call for unity collapsed into an unsurprisingly selfish, all-about-him replay of all his false claims. Opportunity blown, as his connection with much of America is tenuous.
- Still, President Biden loses a point or so. Points are precious, as they’re generally hard to gain in this political era.
- Yesterday, President Biden removes himself from the ticket in favor of Vice President Harris. And … Mr. Trump is so yesterday.
Yes, intended or not, this is how to jerk the focus of the media away from Mr. Trump and place it on the Democrats and their presumptive nominee, VP Harris. She’s already attracting a tidal wave of donations, and a summary of her expected strategy is devastating: prosecutor versus felon.
Polls are ambivalent, but if Harris can turn in a credible performance, day after day, I expect independents will gradually begin shifting to Harris. Trump, after all, is an ugly character with multiple felony convictions and a reputation for sexual assault and, via Dobbs, endangering women. The trick will be to get men to quit gravitating towards an idiot, which is a male tradition, and either not vote, or vote Harris.
This balance of this campaign should be unique.
