5 things Kamala needs to do to win

July 27, 2024 44 Comments

Well, almost no one was expecting this, Vice President Harris.

You are thisclose to getting the Democratic nomination for President, making you the torch bearer of the youth (compared to the other guys), and the next woman to try to shatter the glass ceiling.

I am here to help.

Unlike the loyal Democrats who support you and will tell you only things you want to hear, I am a disloyal Democrat and will tell you the unpleasant truth, as I see it. 

Being as you are a far Left progressive Democrat female, you are likely to hear this as mansplaining, because progressives have conditioned themselves to think of other people solely as the product and captives of their gender, race, ethnicity, or zip code.

This is a fallacy. People are much more complicated than that. Even men.

What qualifies me to give you advice, other than male ego? 😄

I have been a professional journalist for more than 60 years, and I have been lied to by politicians, restaurateurs, actors, TV anchors, retailers, manufacturers, cops, priests, and even public relations people. This has given me a potent bullshit detector, and an ability to read social and political situations. (Not so good at math, I concede.)

I grew up in the projects, so I know how everyday Americans think. I went to college and through my newspaper jobs was exposed to the upper class, and elites, and I know how they think.

I’ve been deeply immersed in politics for as long as you have, but I have been studying both Democrats and Republicans, unlike most of those around you. 

Since I do want you to win, here are my suggestions, based on reading political tea leaves, learned experiences and gut.

1- Get rid of the cackle. That is probably the No. 1 thing the Trumpsters use to attack you. They say you sound like you are high on Cosmopolitans. 

Me? I think it is sincere, unlike the wholly manufactured Hillary Clinton cackle, which emerged occasionally alongside her fake drawl when talking in Black churches.

I think you are actually a happy person, someone ebullient and easy to make laugh. You’d be a good audience for Joe Conklin.

But it doesn’t work for you. It makes you sound a little deranged, and, well, unserious. I do not think it is gender specific, but I can’t think of a male politician with a similarly explosive laugh. If necessary, pop a Valium before public appearances, but lose the laugh.

2- Don’t respond to the name-calling. As I explained in another column, Donald J. Trump can’t help himself. Name-calling is part of his brand, like stink is a skunk’s. And it isn’t sexist or misogynist, because he calls men the same kind of names.

Resist the temptation to answer in kind and call him Tubby, no matter how urgent the temptation. Let your surrogates get into the knife fights. 

3- Lay off referring to your race and gender. Democrats have a bad reputation as whiners. OK, so does Trump. When he loses, he blames it on “rigged” elections. When Democrats lose they blame it on race, gender, religion, or some other kind of phobia. 

It’s obvious you are a person of color and a woman. (Unlike progressives, I know what a woman is.) 

The average American is tired of hearing Joy Reid talking points about race and gender. Don’t go there.

4- Select a “normal” running mate. Note I used “normal” in quotes, to denote sarcasm. What I mean is, pick someone without built-in enemies.

What I said a minute ago about race and gender — of course there is a percentage of the electorate who will not vote for a woman. A Gallup poll found only 6% who would not vote for a woman for president.

I could not find polling reporting the percentage of whites who would not vote for a Black candidate, but it is some number.

Some, maybe many, Democrats say Hillary lost because of sexism. Actually, she lost because she took Wisconsin for granted. Hillary actually won a majority of Americans’ votes. Why blame sexism rather than her being not a very good candidate?

So, yes, I admit there is some sexism, but it is not determinative. Same with racism.

And there is  some anti-Semitism, and there is some homophobia, so steer away from Josh Shapiro and Pete Buttigieg. 

Nothing against them, but if you add the sliver of Jew haters and gay haters to women and nonwhite haters, you lose enough support to cost you the election.

Ditto a woman for VP. America may swallow one female chief executive, but not two. Not yet.

5- Don’t deny you are the “border czar.” This isn’t Orwell’s “1984.” You can’t erase history. There is videotape, newspaper clippings, and even a House resolution that use the phrase. Instead, concentrate on how much illegal crossings have gone down in the past few months. 

So that’s it. One bonus point: the pantsuits.

Love ‘em. Keep ‘em. 

44 thoughts on “5 things Kamala needs to do to win”

  2. A different opinion, please:

    Please do not overlook the most important issue for us in this election which has nothing to do with a candidate’s sex or parentage. Nothing.

    Everything to do with which candidate, (and it may not even be Kamala as the Democrat,) is best suited to be Commander in Chief of the USA in troubled times.

    If we had a Margaret Thatcher, she could win. Nothing to do with ones sex.
    But Biden’s personally selected DEI nincompoop Kamala?
    We are not electing a high school class president!

    The hidden power broker Democrats pulled a bait and switch, completely against the constitution and against their mantra of “saving democracy,” and autocratically and undemocratically, like the Soviet Politburo, anointed Kamala, who has no leadership abilities to be Commander in Chief. Surely anyone putting country before political party agrees?

    Our most important duty is to elect a Commander in Chief, to strengthen and to protect our country.

    Gardner A. Cadwalader
    Philadelphia

    2. Your use of terms like nincompoop and DEI makes you a swine, pal. This woman was a Senator and a tough DA and I’ll wager she is quite a bit smarter than you, genius. Your opinions suck, as do you.

  3. Like Biden Harris cannot think on her feet. If she wants to win she will have to read scripted speeches from a teleprompter. She must avoid the press at all costbecause if she tells the truth about her far left progressive agenda she will lose in a landslide. Her record is out there for all to see. The people who pay attention know who she is. It’s the uninformed easily brainwashed dummies who will determine this election.

    1. Agreed. However, it is these uninformed easily brainwashed dummies, along with the anti-American Mainstream Media that Obama is relying on for his fourth term of the utter ruination of the United States of America.

  4. If this woman wins, she will continue the destruction of the greatest nation on earth. Forget party, forget race, forget gender — this candidate (If she becomes the candidate, and I believe she won’t) she is just another far left America hater. If we are, indeed, a nation under God, and if He is watching
    over us, she will (in Reagan’s words) end up on the ash heap of history. If not, then America will.

  5. Stu, found your comments informative; however reading the majority of the comments that wanted to rail against every Democratic, I think you recreated the Tower of Babble!

    1. You are spot on Joe M. The maggats are out in full force today. They will continue to lie and say hateful things against Vice President Harris and who she picks as a running mate because they are running scared. They believed they had the election all but won when President Biden said he was not withdrawing from the race. They now know this is not going to happen.

      1. If Biden never debated Trump he would still be running. And nitwits like you would vote for him. Because your not very smart.

          1. Pedantic, schoolyard comment. (You forgot the period at the end of YOUR sentence, also a grammatical error. But who’s checking papers here?) Pedantic.

    2. Mine is an open forum. There is no IQ, political, religious, gender or ethnic test.
      I don’t block or censor, although I have been strongly tempted.

  6. Kamala Harris has a record that speaks for itself. A vote for her is anti American in my opinion. Just look at the regular assholes who post here that are defending her. It’s hard to believe that we have a majority of people who are as dumb as them.

  7. Picking a canidate is one thing, personal attacks is another, democrat or republician or if you want to vote for yourself is your right. Degrading is childish, proves nothing, and shows nothing.

    1. Grow up. One of the problems with this country is we have to many snow flakes like you. People insult each other all the time. Get over it.

      2. You really do not care who you insult, do you Daniel? You are so blinded by hate you do not even know what the hell you are saying or who you are replying to.

        1. I don’t hate anyone. But everyone knows the hate America group who post here. And you are by far the biggest asshole.

  9. Well,the point I was trying to make, this being an open forum. Nobody really has to be demeaning, or insulting to anybody. I’m no Angel and I got mad, really mad when I was accused of being things that I’m not. I’m not buying into it anymore. Politics is one thing. You are for whatever party that you choose. I worked for the city, I was a committeeman, and I didn’t even see this go on at the poll’s. I just didn’t think it would really come to this, okay I’m for Trump, I don’t see any real way that he can lose, unless somebody can really build a strong platform, not on sex, not on race, but on how to run this country. I don’t see Kamala Harris doing it, nothing derogatory, I just feel she doesn’t have the experience, or the backing to do it. Plain and simple.

  10. Daniel, you’re a real trooper hanging in and commenting on this post. Personally, I think it’s a waste of time and energy. However, I do believe most people who follow Stu and remain silent here agree with you, for the most part. And they will vote for Trump

    1. Tom, don’t go by the comments you see here. The active comment people are a TINY fraction of my subscribers, the precise number being private info I do not disclose.

  11. Kamala Harris is on record wanting to abolish ICE (which she compared to the KKK), letting criminals like the Boston Marathon bomber and rapists vote, ban fracking and offshore drilling, defund the police, provide US taxpayer subsidized healthcare to illegals, and ban private health insurance.

    While the left is trying it’s hardest to recast Kamala Harris as a moderate Democrat – quietly scrubbing her public record over the past 5 years – her actual positions have always been radical.
    And in multiple speeches and interviews, Harris insisted America needed racial ‘equity’ as well as ‘equality.’ In other words, she endorses ‘equality of outcomes’ over ‘equality of opportunity.’

    She Supported Bailing Out 2020 Rioters
    Accused rapists, repeat offenders, and rioters alike benefitted in June 2020 when Harris encouraged her social media followers to donate to a bail fund dedicated to those arrested for their months-long, $2 billion siege of cities like Minneapolis. The vice president later lied about her involvement in the money-raising scheme.
    She Put Other Countries’ Borders Before Her Own
    Harris traveled thousands of miles away from the U.S. border invasion she was tasked with handling to deliver “peace and security” to the borders of Ukraine, which “is a country.”
    She Proudly Enabled the Jussie Smollett Race Hoax
    Harris called the staged hate crime an “attempted modern-day lynching.” She did not apologize even after Smollett was found guilty of felony disorderly conduct and making false police reports.
    She Sponsored Legislation That Would Codify Abortion Through All Nine Months
    As a senator, Harris was a proud co-sponsor of the original version of the “Women’s Health Protection Act,” which sought to codify abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.
    She’s Openly Anti-Catholic
    As a senator in 2018, Harris smeared Brian Buescher, a nominee for the U.S. District Court in Nebraska, for his affiliation with the famous Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus and its historically pro-life views.
    She Refuses to Oppose Abortion Until Birth
    Harris famously refused to say which abortion limits she supports in a September 2023 sitdown with CBS’s Margaret Brennan.

    1. I thought that was me you ignoramus. Make up your mind. Freeze, Bogart, Joe M, Craig — ignore him. He is stupid enough to continue to use “your” instead of “you’re” even though I’ve corrected him numerous times. You can tell how the elementary school education stuck. As far as his opinions, I don’t even bother. It is a waste of time to talk to a cult member who only parrots the Rupert channels and calls us all names — even Stu. And yet here he is opining on Stu’s blog. It is rather curious. As Craig says, a miserable person.

  12. The people who back Harris don’t know these things. If they did they would never vote for her. You can’t make people pay attention to what’s going on. Hopefully the people that know what’s going on outnumber the easily led idiots and the hate America crowd.

  13. Stu,

    I discovered your site last fall, and I really enjoy reading your posts. As you know, (quality) writing about anything political that doesn’t fall along the predictable party lines is impossibly rare, and it calls for acknowledgement. It’s entertaining and refreshing. Thank you. Also, I’m not from Philly, but rest assured that the urban bicycling joke extends far beyond PA.

    I’m a mid-50s white guy, I have never voted one party consistently, and I have never wasted a dime on a political contribution. I voted Trump in ’16 and Biden in ’20. I understand both party platforms, and I think most people know enough of them to the point where more detail won’t change their minds. I’ll be voting Harris this fall, and I’m not changing my mind, either. Trump is an embarrassment. I’ll just leave it at that. I also think the party will discard him like a cigarette butt the day his amazing fundraising ability ends.

    It is my opinion that Harris will win, barring something unforeseen and catastrophic. She’s not really qualified, but an election is about popularity and not qualifications (right, Don?). She’s younger, intelligent, and energetic. Trump has done absolutely nothing that would change a voter’s mind in many months. He’s not going to do anything new between now and November, either, except introducing new childish insults and possibly sounding even more incoherent. The way I see it, now that Biden is out and he already picked up the 6% “no woman” and X% “no black” votes, Trump’s potential vote totals have nowhere to go but down.

    Thanks again, Stu. Keep up the great work.

    1. Welcome, M., and you are alike like me — not beholden to a single party.
      I’m glad you like my work and invite you to invite your friends to take a look.

    2. M., I found your thoughts to be straight to the point and honest. I am in agreement with you on what you have said.

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