Toward the end of August, the difference between the tactics of each of the major campaigns for president was pretty stark. Kamala Harris’ campaign dedicated just 8% of their ad buys to “attack ads” against Donald Trump.
That makes sense, because what it seems like they’ve been mostly relying on could fairly be called “Operation Let The Man Talk Himself To Death.” They don’t really need to make attack ads. He does it for them.
Trump, by contrast, blew a whopping 57% of his spending on attacking Harris.
And in honesty, that makes sense too, since they don’t have the kind of material to use against her that they might have had against Joe Biden. She was a better than decent Vice President, a damn fine Senator, and has had a pretty solid record without scandal in her entire political career.
For example, while Kamala could mention in passing the documented checks written to keep Stormy Daniels quiet about Trump’s affair with her, he has to stretch a past relationship of Kamala’s into something it wasn’t.
(For the record, for anyone out of the loop: The rumors of Kamala “sleeping her way to the top” stem from a relationship she had with married former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who Harris critics say gave her political appointments in exchange for sexual favors. In fact, Brown had been separated from his wife for 13 years before he met Kamala, and she didn’t hold a single political job in California until 8 years AFTER their relationship ended. —Ed.)
Trump’s campaign told the Washington Post that “We have a defined candidate—everyone knows everything about the person. There’s lots of new information about Kamala Harris that people just don’t know.”
That’s true. Everyone heard Trump brag about sexually assaulting women before the FIRST time they voted for him.
And sure, there probably is plenty about Harris that people don’t know. Heck, before the Democratic National Convention, we didn’t know that she met her husband Doug on a blind date. We don’t yet know the extent to which women concerned with reproductive rights are excited to see Harris take over.
So while Kamala’s campaign paints her as the underdog in this race, Trump will seek to portray her as scheming and conniving. Democratic strategist David Axelrod told WaPo that “She’s not made herself a kind of symbol, she’s not made herself a historic candidate. She’s simply running as someone who has the experience and the values to move the country forward and to deal with the problems that people are most concerned about, and I think that’s a wise strategy.”
Trump’s campaign spokeswoman, was plain about her team’s plan. “Our focus every day is on ensuring the American people know Kamala’s dangerously liberal record and see her for who she is. A phony, radical, San Francisco liberal who would further spiral our once great nation into a sanctuary for illegal immigrants and a nightmare for law-abiding Americans.”
Let’s see how that strategy works out for them.