"It's been a whirlwind" -- The fastest two weeks in American political history
A scent of victory is in the air for Democrats for the first time in this campaign
Think about this for a moment: A little over two weeks ago, it was obvious that something was deeply wrong with the Biden campaign and Democrats in general. There was no energy behind Biden, while every time Trump appeared at a rally, he was triumphant and seemingly on his way to victory in November.
And then, over a single weekend, everything changed.
Joe Biden announced on social media on Sunday, July 21st — days after the end of the Republican National Convention and little more than one week after Donald Trump was injured by a gunman in Butler, Pennsylvania — that he was suspending his campaign. Twenty minutes later, he endorsed Vice President Harris, who had been told of his decision early that morning. Harris immediately assembled her innermost staff at her residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington D.C. and began the process of calling Democratic Party leaders and major donors. She would make more than 100 calls that Sunday. That evening, more than 44,000 Black women organized a Zoom call in support of Harris, kicking off days of record breaking digital fundraising. By the next morning, the heads of every state Democratic Party had announced their support. That afternoon, Harris appeared before campaign staffers in Delaware and gave a rousing speech promising to continue Biden’s legacy and “finish what Joe started.” Within the short space of 32 hours, Harris had enough commitments from Democratic delegates to cinch in the nomination.
The next day, appearing as the party’s presumptive nominee, she was in Milwaukee, the same city that had just hosted Trump’s convention, at a fired-up rally with a rapturous, adoring crowd that cheered nearly every line of her forceful, energetic speech. The words “energy” and “enthusiasm” began appearing in stories about Democrats in the press. Insta-polls started showing Harris pulling abreast of Trump, and just nine days after Biden dropped out of the race, a poll by Bloomberg/Morning Consult said Harris had “wiped out Donald Trump’s lead across seven battleground states, as the vice president rides a wave of enthusiasm among young, Black and Hispanic voters.”
Democrats had a new candidate and a new race. Donald Trump reacted the way he always does to bad news – with confusion, anger, and appeals to racism, misogyny and xenophobia.
This week, more bad news lay in store for the panicked Trump campaign. A new poll conducted by Gary Segura, who specializes in the Latino vote, found Harris ahead of Trump by 55 percent to 37 percent among Latinos in the battleground states of Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, Georgia, Wisconsin, and North Carolina. The poll was conducted July 23-26, just after Harris took the reins as the apparent Democratic Party nominee.
On Monday, Axios reported a new push by the Harris campaign that would broaden the field of states that are usually contested by Democrats in presidential races. Axios stated that the Harris campaign was prepared to spend “piles of cash” and put into the field “an army of enthused volunteers” that “could put Georgia, Arizona, and North Carolina back in play, forcing Trump to spend in states he considered safe.”
By late Monday, Harris was declared the Democratic Party nominee, an official poll of the convention delegates having produced the virtual votes of 99 percent of them.
This is an excerpt from my weekly column in Salon. To read the rest of the column, follow this link.
Think about this: When was the last time you saw genuine joy at a political rally? And, we should never forget that we have Joe Biden to thank for some of this joy. Few politicians are willing to step back for the common good.
Amid all the enthusiasm and joy everyone witnessed in the Walz introduction last night, the NYT has to of course try to dampen enthusiasm. The lead story this morning, headlined as Dems strategy to put a liberal in Carhartt's to talk to rural voters and "obscure" a liberal record, immediately descends into a hit piece by Lisa Lerer. The second lead story trumpets Walz's '95 arrest for drunk driving, as if this is a new revelation and how critics are "questioning his fitness to serve." What critics, where?? It's finally sinking into me why so many people here have cancelled subscriptions. This isn't equal coverage, it's a bare attempt like Fox to resuscitate a failing campaign.