The great campaign reset of 2024

The decision by President Joe Biden not to seek re-election has forced both the campaigns of former President Donald Trump and the Democratic Party to recalibrate their messaging. So far, it has been a mixed bag.

As of this writing, polling indicates a tight race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. The current polling average from RealClearPolitics puts support for Trump at 47.7% versus 46.5% for Harris.  This is much closer than the 3.1% lead Trump held over Biden at the time the latter dropped out of the race.

We have seen the Democrats try out novel lines of attacks on Trump and his vice presidential pick. This includes a line of attack revolving entirely around calling Trump and Vance “weird” and reminding voters of Vance’s past remarks against Trump. This includes Vance’s past characterization of Trump as “America’s Hitler.” Needless to say, the current political moment is a weird one indeed.

We have also seen Vice President Harris reverse herself on past policy positions she touted as a candidate for president four years ago. Once a supporter of a federal jobs guarantee and a ban on fracking, Harris has since announced she no longer supports a federal jobs guarantee nor a ban on fracking.

As a candidate for president four years ago, she was an outspoken critic of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying of the agency that “we need to probably even think about starting from scratch.” According to reporting from the New York Times, she no longer thinks “starting from scratch” is the way to go.

And on the major issue of health care policy, Harris was once a backer of socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All proposals. But she now, according to recent reporting by CNN, no longer supports a single-payer health care system.

The common link here is that Harris is running away from progressive positions of her very recent past.

Politically, Harris no doubt understands that running far to the left makes it that much harder for her to prevail and would put down ticket Democrats in trouble.

What’s unclear is how much of Harris’ positioning is earnest and how much is just playing the game. If Harris has indeed abandoned a progressive approach to economic policy, in favor of something more center-left, that is certainly an improvement. But if it’s just strategic positioning to get to the White House at any expense, that’s a cynical play indeed. Since it’s Kamala Harris we’re talking about, either is totally possible.

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump has foolishly stepped in it by going after Kamala Harris’ ethnic background.

Trump’s appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists, where he rambled on about Harris’ identity as the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, did him no favors.

It just reminded Americans that Trump’s speaking style and approach to politics is, in some sense, quite weird indeed.

Trump certainly had every reason to feel confident against the elderly President Biden. But his decision to select wildcard populist J.D. Vance as his vice president and make a fool of himself won’t make it easier for him to get re-elected.

With a new presidential race before us, we are sure the race will get even more weird.