Our most recent book is Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. Less than 48 hours after Biden's withdrawal, Kamala Harris became the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee.
There isn’t any serious person or analysis that finds Harris to be “by far” to the left of Bernie Sanders. But, even if there were, degrees of leftness or rightness are not especially useful in prosecuting a political case against a major-party nominee. Indictments of a candidate’s support of particular bad policies or opposition to particular good policies, however, really have to be answered. Harris has taken wrong—and unpopular—positions on everything from race-based college admissions to “Medicare for All” to the First Amendment. She has a pretty bad record on Trump’s hallmark issue, immigration, but Trump and his team cannot advance the conversation past the question of whether it said “border czar” on her business card (in part because the candidate gets distracted by his need to deliver disquisitions on Hannibal Lecter). Trump could do a Buzzfeed-style listicle of Harris’ three or five worst policy positions and hammer those home in a hundred speeches. But he is too lazy to do the modest work involved.
ABC poll has Harris winning the election on the strength of strong margins on mental and physical health, honesty, and values.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 18, 2024
Trump still favored on the economy & immigration.https://t.co/FYkzI8XSwx pic.twitter.com/mHiyeKVd16
