Donald Trump, the incredible self-immolating Republican US presidential candidate, made his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris’ job much easier as she prepared for the long-awaited economic policy speech that she delivered on Friday.
One valid criticism that became a fixture as Republicans fretted about the lead Harris has taken against Trump in some swing state polling – and as Democrats worried about whether the momentum will continue – was the lack of any clear articulation about her plans to address inflation and other economic threats.
Whether Trump deserves it, American voters have more confidence in him than Harris on the economy, so she was exacerbating one key weakness by avoiding the subject after US President Joe Biden cleared the way for her to run.
She delivered a list of proposed actions that have so far received mixed reviews, including a pledge to stop grocery “price gouging”, higher tax credits for those with children and US$25,000 for qualifying first-time homebuyers. Depending on your ideological viewpoint, these measures are either a dangerous mix of price controls and deficit-expanding political tactics or necessary and welcome relief for middle class Americans.
The point is that she offered solutions that fell within the realm of normal economic discourse. We wouldn’t usually use the term normal to evaluate economic platforms, but – as with much of what the top of the Republican ticket have offered – Trump’s own policy prescriptions can only be described with the word that Democrats have used effectively against his party: weird.
Trump’s own solution for price gouging on groceries? Drill for oil. How does that work, exactly? Just search for it and you’ll find a bizarre series of words that are impossible to paraphrase, but make great material for America’s late night comedy hosts. It’s hilarious until you connect that idea to the record high temperatures and other forms of devastation caused by climate change, an issue that is now serious enough in voters’ minds to swing elections.
The same head-scratching followed Trump’s display of two differently sized breath mint dispensers to serve as exhibit A in his assertion that the Biden-Harris administration is responsible for inflation.
Regardless of how Harris’ economic pledges affect her polling, Trump has lowered the bar that she needed to clear to attract independent and centrist voters, if not keep her momentum intact, with comments that validate Democratic attacks on him.
The overall narrative of the past few head-spinning weeks of election intrigue has been defined by surprise over how quickly Harris jumped ahead of Biden in terms of polling against Trump, and how slowly Trump has been in altering his angle of attack in response to the new dynamic.
Doug Sosnik, who spent many years as a Democratic strategist and is best known as a top adviser to former president Bill Clinton, summed up the point that Trump is missing.
Sosnik said in an interview with Politico that American voters were “looking for anyone else to run. If the shoe were on the other foot here and for whatever reason, Trump got out and [his former primary opponent] Nikki Haley got in the race and was running against Biden, I think she would have an overwhelming advantage over him.
When it comes to economic stewardship, we’re still only getting sketches from Harris instead of fully rendered plans, and we’re still in the dark on her foreign policy. On these fronts, Harris might not be as much of a break from Biden.
But the optics and polling suggest that many voters feel that Democrats have delivered the change that Sosnik said Americans are looking for.
It’s still too early to say Harris has the same chance of winning that Trump had when he was running against Biden or when he brandished his fist after the assassination attempt against him. The result comes down to the Electoral College, which gives more weight to rural parts of the country, where Trump has more support.
But if Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance can’t manage to pivot away from policy prescriptions that Democrats can highlight as further evidence of their abnormality, we won’t need to worry that the White House will be fully opening the fossil fuel floodgates to solve all of America’s problems.
Robert Delaney is the Post’s North America bureau chief
