Cagle World

Half a century ago, the famed presidential biographer James MacGregor Burns voiced this warning about the Electoral College: “It’s a game of Russian roulette, and one of these days we are going to blow our brains out.”

We’ve since done that twice. Popular vote loser George W. Bush marched us into a disastrous war in Iraq, based on lies about non-existent weapons of mass destruction. But he was just the appetizer. The execrable entree was popular vote loser Donald Trump, who’s still wreaking havoc and plotting an authoritarian restoration.

I’m well aware it’s a waste of time to rail against the insipid way we pick our presidents – we’re obviously stuck with a process that was rightly denounced by the American Bar Association decades ago as “archaic, undemocratic, complex, ambiguous, indirect, and dangerous” – but this is my quadrennial complaint. And it’s been stoked anew by all the reminders that the Harris-Trump contest will be decided by a mere seven of the 50 states.

If life was fair and democracy was real, all votes would be created equal. That’s how it works in most western nations, where the candidate with the most votes wins. What a simple concept.

Instead we have this ridiculous contrivance, a remnant of the racist powdered-wig era, which currently gives the voters of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina more clout than all other voters everywhere else.

At last check, 65 percent of Americans feel the way I do (according to the pollsters at Pew), and it’s easy to see why. The injustices are endless – more so than ever, thanks to our deep red/blue divide. If you’re a Democrat living in, say, Alabama or Texas or Oklahoma, your presidential vote is worthless. If you’re a Republicans living in, say, California or New York or Illinois, your presidential vote is worthless. A blue voter in red Indiana said it well this week in a tweet: “It’s pretty pathetic that I know ahead of Nov 5th my vote won’t count because of the Electoral College. Oh, I will definitely vote but the Electoral College will make me silent. I hate our system!”

The system was concocted by the founders. They had to cut a deal with the southerner slaveholders who feared domination by the more populous North. James Madison, the chief architect of the Constitution, later wrote that many of the founding fathers liked the popular-vote concept, but the slaveholding states did not – because they had fewer voters than the slave-free states. The deal, which gave us the Electoral College, ensured that smaller rural states would have disproportionate clout. They get the same number of U.S. senators (two apiece) as the big states, and that inflates their electoral votes.

Madison himself wasn’t happy with the Electoral College rules; he blamed “the hurrying influence produced by fatigue and impatience.” They left us massive disparities all over the map. One random example tells the tale: Wyoming, with 581,381 people, gets three electoral votes (two senators and one House member), while Pennsylvania, with 13 million people, gets 19 electoral votes (two senators and 17 House members). Do the math. In Wyoming that’s 193,000 people for each elector; in Pennsylvania that’s 684,210 people for each elector. These injustices, replicated nationwide, violate the principle that all votes should count the same.

It was outrageous in 2020 that Joe Biden defeated Trump by a decisive seven million votes – but still would’ve lost if only 44,000 votes in three swing states had swung the other way. It was outrageous in 2016 that Hillary Clinton outpaced Trump by three million votes – but lost only because 77,000 votes in 3 swing states went the other way. And this kind of injustice goes both ways: Lest we forget, way back in 2004, a switch of just 59,388 votes in Ohio would’ve handed the presidency to Democrat John Kerry – even though President Bush beat him in the national popular vote tally by 3.5 million.

Here in 2024, it’s the same old shell game. Conditioned as I am to our system’s absurdities, I assume that Kamala Harris could bury Trump in the national vote and still flunk the Electoral College.  I assume that unless she wins by at least four percent nationwide, she’s toast.

The will of the people should determine who gets the nuclear codes. That’s fairer than the Electoral College, which was fervently denounced back in 2012 as “a disaster for democracy.”

That surfaced in a tweet. The guy who typed it was Donald Trump.

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Copyright 2024 Dick Polman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at [email protected]

The showdown Tuesday night – pitting a devotee of democracy who aspires to be our next president against a groupie of autocracy who aspires to be our last-ever president – was more delicious than an ice cream sundae with cherry on top.

Thanks to a shrewd performance by Kamala Harris, one that surely exceeded Democratic dreams, Donald Trump was reduced to the most imbecilic parody of himself. He was the neighborhood lunatic who wanders the street in his bathrobe screaming at trees.

Perhaps men are too emotional to be president.

If there’s any justice in this world – if a modicum of sanity still reigns in this country – this race should have ended once and for all when Trump was asked why he blocked a tough bill that would’ve put thousands of new agents and officers on the border

Instead of answering the question, he lost his mind: “Look at what’s happening to the towns all over the United States… A lot of towns don’t want to talk about it because they’re so embarrassed by it. In Springfield (Ohio), they’re eating the dogs! The people that came in. They’re eating the cats! They’re eating – they’re eating the pets of the people that live there!”

The guy is a poet. He is E. E. Cummings on acid:

They’re eating the dogs

They’re eating the cats

They’re eating

They’re eating the pets of the people

Given the dearth of evidence for that soliloquy, I have to wonder whether our “undecideds” would really consider putting this demented fool in charge of anything more taxing than a lemonade stand. Repeatedly, Harris put bait in the water and, repeatedly, he took it, like when she casually mentioned people leaving his rallies early out of boredom.

“People don’t leave my rallies!” Trump bellowed. Then he recycled one of his August delusions: “People don’t go to her rallies! There’s no reason to go! And the people that do go, she’s busing them in and paying them to be there!”

The terminal narcissist wasted precious time still insisting he won in 2020. When it was pointed out that he lost 60 court cases, he said they were all thrown out on “a technicality,” whereas those of us who were alive at the time well remember that judge after judge (including some Trump appointees) ruled that his lawyers had presented zero evidence of stolen or fraudulent votes.

“Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people. So let’s be clear about that,” said Harris, who eyed his string of rants with puckish bemusement. “And clearly, he is having a very difficult time processing that.”

It was also fun when Harris baited him about his global reputation, and he responded by saying Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister of Hungary said “the most respected most feared person is Donald Trump.”

Yes, his character reference was an autocrat who’s been systematically destroying democracy in Hungary. Harris nailed him for that too: “It is well known that he admires dictators, wants to be a dictator on day one according to himself…And it is absolutely well known that these dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again because they’re so clear, they can manipulate you with flattery and favors.”

The old loon spilled so much blood, it’s a miracle he didn’t need IV fluids. Harris pounded him for repeatedly trying to sabotage Obamacare (he’s still hawking his non-existent health plan: “We’ll come up with something, we’re working on things”). She hammered him for his long racist track record, starting with his refusal in the 1970s to rent apartment units to Black families. When he recycled his standard lie that the crime rate is “through the roof” (the FBI says it’s going down), she twisted the stiletto: “This is so rich – coming from someone who has been prosecuted for national security crimes, economic crimes, election interference, has been found liable for sexual assault, and his next big court appearance is in November at his own criminal sentencing.”

And when he started to obsess (yet again) about President Biden, she gently reminded him: “You’re not running against Joe Biden, you’re running against me.”

One of her tasks last night was to sell herself to voters who are still getting to know her. While Trump as always stayed focused on himself, she spoke to the voters’ hopes and dreams, highlighting her plans to expand the child tax credit to $6,000 for new children and create a $50,000 tax deduction for start-up businesses.

Will this debate prove consequential, swing the “undecideds,” and spare us a MAGA restoration? Given what happened in 2016, I’m done with predictions. But I keep thinking about what she told Trump: “You’re not running against Joe Biden, you’re running against me.”

I bet he knows that now.

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Copyright 2024 Dick Polman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at [email protected]

It’s the most perilous circus act of all time: An overweight wacko is trying to keep his balance by waddling on a high wire.

That’s Donald Trump doing battle with the abortion issue. What a spectacle it continues to be.

At last count, he has taken four or five or six different positions. This is not a surprise, because he’s stuck between his MAGA base (where forced-birth zealots want to ban abortion entirely) and the American mainstream (where there’s landslide support for reproductive freedom). And it’s not a surprise that Trump keeps wobbling hither and yon, because, lest we forget, his only core conviction is saying whatever he thinks will help him win and keep him out of jail.

Granted, all candidates “evolve” from time to time – Kamala Harris no longer endorses a few positions that she took five years ago – but, on the issue that’s galvanizing women in 2024, Trump is the runaway winner of the Flip Flop Follies.

Position 1: Way back in 1999, when he was first exploring a presidential bid,he told NBC News, “I just believe in choice…I am strongly pro-choice…I am pro-choice in every respect in as far as it goes.”

Position 2: In 2011, at a conservative conference, he did a 180 and announced that he was “pro-life.”

Position 2(a): In a 2016 town hall, he said he was a pro-life extremist. Anyone who seeks an abortion should suffer consequences: “There has to be some form of punishment.” He was then asked, “For the woman?” And he replied, “Yes.”

Position 2(b): He reversed himself shortly after that event, saying that women should not be punished (“The woman is a victim”), but that the doctor should be punished.

Position 3: In 2016 he promised to appoint Supreme Court judges who’d overturn Roe v. Wade, and thus cancel nationwide reproductive freedom. He kept his promise, Roe was overturned two years ago, and now says he’s “proudly the person responsible.” (He also has said that “all legal scholars” on the left and right applaud the death of Roe, which is a blatant lie.)

Position 4: In 2018, while he was president, he signaled his support for a national abortion ban – which he’d sign if Congress brought it to his desk. But during a CNN event in 2023, when he was asked (five separate times) whether he’d sign such a ban during a new term, he refused to answer (five separate times): “What I’ll do is negotiate, so that people are happy…I want to do what’s right and we’re looking…It’s what I do in life, I negotiate…I’m looking at a solution…I’ll look at all the different ideas.”

Position 5: Last week, freaked out by his slide in the national polls – one of which says that reproductive rights is the number one issue among women under age 45 – Trump suddenly posted this on social media: “My administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.”

Position 5(b): To demonstrate how great he’d be for reproductive rights, Trump suggested the other day that, as a Floridian, he might vote for a November ballot measure that would protect abortions up to 24 weeks – because, as he explained, Florida’s new draconian law banning abortions after six weeks is unacceptable. In his words, a six-week cutoff is “too short.”

Position 5(c): Cleanup in the MAGA aisle! His handlers showed up with mops nearly a day later, canceling position 5-b, insisting that he would not vote for Florida’s abortion protection measure even though he still thinks the six-week cutoff is too restrictive. (He always brags that overturning Roe is great because it returns the issue to the states. Then he criticizes the most zealous states.)

You still with me?

This is what The New York Times calls his “strategic ambiguity” – yet another media euphemism – but we can call it what it is: flop-sweat desperation, flip-flopping on a high wire without a net.

Is it really possible that a guy like this can win a national election in a year when 62 percent of Americans oppose the overturning of Roe (recent Washington Post-ABC News poll), when 67 percent of independents favor federally-guaranteed abortion rights (recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll), when 65 percent of Republicans agree that abortion issues “should be managed between a woman and her doctor, not the government” (recent Axios/Ipsos poll)?

In August, Trump actually claimed that “we have taken the abortion issue largely out of play.” Good luck with that. Denial is his last refuge, a thin shield against the impending storm.

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Copyright 2024 Dick Polman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at [email protected]

For decades, Republicans have monopolized and marketed the f-word – freedom.

Ever since Ronald Reagan, the f-word has been central to their brand, a handy way to trumpet their support for “small government.” Their enemy was “big government” – in their view, the meddling feds in Washington who regulate the private sector and thus curb the freedoms of the private sector. One of their most vocal congressional groups is called the House Freedom Caucus, and a longtime activist group was called FreedomWorks.

But Democrats have made inroads thanks to the blue party’s relentlessly laudable efforts to seize the f-word and reframe its meaning. With Donald Trump’s takeover of the GOP – notably, his success in crafting a right-wing Supreme Court that loves corporate power and hates reproductive rights; and his attempts to wreak democracy by overthrowing an election loss – Kamala Harris has plenty of room to maneuver. Freedom, in her view, is about breaking the shackles of MAGA extremism – a message that can arguably galvanize the Democratic base and lure independent swing voters, plus some persuadable Republicans.

During Harris’ 38-minute acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, she invoked the word 12 times. After citing MAGA’s hostility to reproductive freedom, she said: “In this election, many other fundamental freedoms are at stake. The freedom to live safe from gun violence in our schools, communities and places of worship. The freedom to love who you love openly and with pride. The freedom to breathe clean air, and drink clean water and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis. And the freedom that unlocks all the others – the freedom to vote.”

One night earlier, running mate Tim Walz said: “When Republicans use the word freedom, they mean that the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office. Corporations – free to pollute your air and water. And banks – free to take advantage of customers. But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love. Freedom to make your own health care decisions. And yeah, your kids’ freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall.”

One of Walz’s most memorable slogans – “None of your damn business!” – sounds like a libertarian conservative message of yore.

But, on the Democratic freedom front, perhaps the best line of the convention was delivered by Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, a gay co-parent of twin sons. Cleverly repurposing a pro-gun slogan, and mindful that Trump’s Project 2025 and the Supreme Court’s theocrats are hostile to the LGBTQ+ community, Nessel flashed her jewelry and said, “You can pry this wedding ring from my cold, dead, gay hand!”

Democrats didn’t discover the freedom theme overnight. It started to percolate in 2022, shortly after the Supreme Court tossed Roe v. Wade and imperiled the freedom of women to control their own bodies. A special House election was held that August in an upstate New York district that was thought to be reliably pro-MAGA, but, lo and behold, the Democratic candidate, Pat Ryan, scored an upset victory by highlighting the abortion issue. Here’s how he framed it: “Freedom was on the ballot…We centered the concept of freedom…Patriotism to me means, when your fellow Americans’ rights are being taken away, you stand up and fight.”

But, in 2022, the most prominent candidate who hammered that theme was the guy who aspired to be governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro. “Let me tell you something, it’s not freedom to tell women what they’re allowed to do with their bodies. Right?,” Shapiro said at the DNC. “It’s not freedom to tell our schoolchildren what books they’re allowed to read. That’s not freedom. It’s not freedom to tell workers they can work a 40-hour week, but they can’t be a member of a union. That’s not freedom. And it sure as hell isn’t freedom to say, ‘you can go vote, but (Trump) is gonna pick the winner. That’s not freedom…We’re for real freedom.”

At a post-election press conference, Shapiro said freedom 14 times in five minutes.

Presidential campaigns aren’t dominated by the minutiae and nuances of policy. Values and broad themes are what resonate most with voters. We won’t know for another 70 days (and perhaps longer, God forbid) whether Harris’s freedom theme is a winner, but she (and we) can thank the MAGA movement – and its authoritarian ambitions – for putting the f-word totally up for grabs.

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Copyright 2024 Dick Polman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at [email protected]

Amidst all the damage Donald Trump has wreaked on the supine GOP, one political felony stands out: By narrowing and shrinking its ranks to assorted cultists, dolts, and insurrectionists, he has ceded the American mainstream to Kamala Harris.

She had only one month to get her act together, an unprecedentedly herculean task all by itself, but the aging criminal made her job easier. Thursday night, in a fervent acceptance speech that plucked at our heartstrings and sang to the better angels of our nature, she capitalized big time and captured the flag.

She laid claim to the all-American virtues that MAGA has left on the table – in her words, “freedom, opportunity, compassion, dignity, fairness and endless possibilities.” Plus “optimism and faith.” Plus patriotism (“I love my country with all my heart”). Plus fealty to democracy, not to foreign dictators. Plus respect for our military (“I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world…I will always honor and never disparage their service and their sacrifice”). Plus “the rule of law.” Plus “free and fair elections.” Plus “the peaceful transfer of power.”

Plus “country over party.” Let’s linger on that one.

All week long, Democrats sent up signal flares to disaffected Republicans, urging them to join with Harris to save the American experiment. Harris, in her speech, buttressed that invitation, accepting her party’s nomination “on behalf of every American, regardless of party.” She said we should view each other “not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans.”

Granted – and I can say this, having watched and/or covered every convention since the 1980s – virtually every presidential nominee makes rhetorical overtures to the opposition. But this convention was unique. A parade of Republicans and MAGA drop-outs were given air time, typically in prime time, to prosecute the case against Trump and invite old allies into the fold.

Dems rolled out the welcome mat for Stephanie Grisham, a former Trump press secretary, who told the national audience that her ex-boss “has no empathy, no morals, no fidelity to the truth,” and denigrates his own followers as “basement dwellers.” Dems welcomed ex-Mike Pence aide Olivia Troye: “Being inside Trump’s White House was terrifying, but what keeps me up at night is what will happen if he gets back there.” Dems gave podium time to Jeff Duncan, a former Georgia Republican lieutenant governor, who addressed his “Republican friends at home watching. If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, you are not a Democrat, you are a patriot.”

And Dems gave a prominent speaking slot, on the climactic final night, to ex-Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard: “My fellow Republicans…Democracy knows no party. It’s a living, breathing ideal that defines us as a nation. It’s the bedrock that separates us from tyranny…If you think those principles are worth defending, then I urge you, make the right choice.”

Generations of Republicans have flocked to candidates who flex strength on the world stage. Trump, given his penchant for groveling to dictators, has ceded that ground to Harris as well. One of her tasks last night was to pass muster as a credible commander-in-chief. Republican-leaning voters (perhaps enough to swing a district or state) may well have been pleased to hear passages like this, delivered with badass fervor:

“I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists. I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un, who are rooting for Trump. Because they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors. They know Trump won’t hold autocrats accountable – because he wants to be an autocrat himself. And as president, I will never waver in defense of America’s security and ideals, because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs.”

This race is not a slam dunk, despite all the blue exuberance of the moment. But now that Harris has cornered the market on the key American verities, she can potentially expand her electoral map – charting a victory path through the Rustbelt and the Sunbelt, and making a play for North Carolina, which has gone red for decades except for Obama in 2008. Harris has long been underestimated, but no longer.

As for Trump, he was reduced to phoning the friendly co-hosts at Newsmax and babbling this: “Caracas was a very unsafe city, and now it’s safe. In fact, some day the three of us will have to go there – let’s bring your husband with us also, right? – and we’ll bring some of the other people that are with you because I like the people that are with you.”

Great idea! To avoid being eviscerated by a Black woman in the impending debate, Trump has 18 days to flee to Venezuela.

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Copyright 2024 Dick Polman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at [email protected]

Tim Walz is the kind of guy Democrats have long needed on the national ticket.

Fairly or not, Dems have long been perceived as coastal elitists who can’t emotionally connect with flyover country. But here’s this two-fisted pep-talking plain-speaking duck-hunting neighbor-helping school-teaching pigskin-loving flannel-wearing hunk of homespun Americana, and it’s no wonder the delegates went wild at the climax of the third night of the Democratic National Convention. They know what they’ve got.

Maybe it’s too soon to write that the Walz are closing in on Trump and his cultists. For now, I’ll simply point out that Kamala Harris’ running mate is the stuff of MAGA nightmares: A salt-of-the-earth heartland everyman who can tell you whether a three-quarter-inch PVC pipe is the right size for you.

So it’s no surprise the MAGAts have been frantically trying to tear Walz down – witness the smears of his 24 years in the National Guard, the blatant lie he has stocked tampons in Minnesota schoolboys’ bathrooms, the blatant lie he redesigned the Minnesota flag to look like Somalia’s, etcetera – because they’re rightly terrified he will help Harris nail down the crucial “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Most terrified of all is Trump, who phoned into Fox News Thursday morning to say Walz has been a “terrible governor” – which is funny, because in 2019, when Trump named new appointees to the Council of Governors, a panel that advises the feds on security issues, one of the governors he chose was…Tim Walz.

When Harris gave Walz the nod, lots of pundits fussed over his ideological credentials or lack thereof – was he too progressive for the ticket or not progressive enough? – but that’s not the way most persuadable voters think. They want to know whether a candidate is a real person with real lived experiences, someone they can viscerally bond with. And given the centrality of football in popular culture, Walz should have no problem boosting his relatability rating. Indeed, his short blunt convention speech was packed with Knute Rockne rah-rah. Even his pointed reference to Project 2025, MAGA’s fascist blueprint, was framed in the language of the locker room:

“Some folks just don’t understand what it takes to be a good neighbor. Take Donald Trump and JD Vance. Their Project 2025 will make things much, much harder for people who are just trying to live their lives. They spend a lot of time pretending they know nothing about this. But look, I coached high school football long enough to know, and trust me on this: When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re going to use it.”

And soon after, the rah-rah:

“You might not know it, but I haven’t given a lot of big speeches like this. But I have given a lot of pep talks. So let me finish with this, team. It’s the fourth quarter! We’re down a field goal! But we’re on offense and we’ve got the ball! We’re driving down the field!…Look, we’ve got 76 days. That’s nothing. There’ll be time to sleep when you’re dead! We’re going to leave it on the field! That’s how we’ll keep moving forward!”

Not so long ago, Democrats would’ve dismissed that kind of rhetoric as insufferably corny. Now they know it’s an asset. They’re working to position themselves squarely in the electoral center, at a dire historic moment when everything about democracy is on the line, and it certainly didn’t hurt when Gus Walz sprang to his feet and yelled “That’s my dad!”

If Kamala wins this election, Tim may be America’s as well.

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Copyright 2024 Dick Polman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at [email protected]

Donald Trump, the demented felon, is scrambling for something, anything, to slow the Kamala-mentum threatening to engulf him. His current shtick, amplified by his lightweight running mate and his MAGA media enablers, is to assail Harris for failing to chat at length with the press corps he hates.

Three weeks into her sudden candidacy, she has yet to hold a news conference or sit for interviews. Trump thinks he knows why. During his lovefest with fellow oligarch Elon Musk, he slurred: “She’s not smart. She’s not a smart person, by the way.”

The dolt who thinks Harris’ crowds are fake and windmills cause cancer is obviously ill-qualified to judge anyone else’s intelligence. Indeed, right now, Harris is smart enough to know she doesn’t need to fence with the Fourth Estate.

Seriously, why should she?

She and Coach Walz are packing their rallies, raising piles of money, and stomping Trump’s eggshell ego. And in the scant time since Joe Biden stepped down, she has been quite busy behind the scenes – little things like picking a running mate, uniting the party, talking with donors, stoking grassroots support, crafting a stump speech, planning next week’s national convention, fleshing out a platform.

Rest assured, Harris will meet the press on her own timetable. With the wind at her back, she has that luxury.

Does the average targeted voter give a hoot that Harris hasn’t conducted any interviews? Nope. The polls tell the story. She has surged to the lead in three key swing states – Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. One new survey says she’s more trusted than Trump on the economy, reversing the traditional GOP-leaning metric. She’s even reportedly tied with Trump in North Carolina, which went red in 2016 and 2020.

All told, you’d have a tough time finding a targeted voter who’d say, “I won’t support her until she sits down with The New York Times.”

Harris’ priority this month is to connect with the non-MAGA electorate, and her efforts are paying off. The gatekeepers of the press will have to wait.

As a former political reporter on the campaign trail, I found it a tad painful to write that last sentence. But reality wins out. In our fractured communication environment, there are endless ways to engage directly with persuadable voters, and for persuadable voters to engage with each other – starting with TikTok, targeted texting, tweeting, and interactive Zooming. Especially the latter: Win Black Women, White Dudes for Harris, Latino Men for Harris, Republicans for Harris (70,000 on this week’s call), Dead Heads for Harris, and more. She’s moving up without sitting down for interviews.

Granted, at some point soon, she’ll need to answer valid questions. Why has she changed her position on health insurance (when she briefly ran for president in 2019, she supported the elimination of private coverage)? Why has she changed her position on fracking (pro-ban then, anti-ban now), a key issue in crucial Pennsylvania? Does she differ with Joe Biden on how to handle the Israeli-Palestinian impasse? Should voters believe her current tough-on-the-border TV ads, given her previous stated belief that undocumented immigrants crossing the border should not be charged with crimes?

But I get why she’s wary to engage the press at this time. Her answers on policy will inevitably be sliced and diced and endlessly parsed on page one – whereas Trump’s delusions, fascist rants, and jaw-dropping ignorance (courtesy of climate change, “you’ll have more oceanfront property”) are rarely highlighted because, hey, Trump is Trump and it’s old news that he’s nuts. When Harris leaves the room after her first news conference, the tired old mainstream media bias for “balance” will kick in; reporters always endeavor to demonstrate they can be tougher on Democrats.

Hence, her strategic August rollout: Introduce herself to persuadable voters on her own terms, stoke Democratic base enthusiasm to the max (especially at next week’s national convention), sustain pedal-to-the metal momentum in the polls…and then meet the press. That way, she’ll be sufficiently cushioned when she inevitably takes some hits.

That’s the plan, and thus far it’s working. As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, why fix it?

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Copyright 2024 Dick Polman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at [email protected]

His poll lead has evaporated, his foe Joe has abdicated, his veep choice is a national joke, the ascendent opposition ticket is kicking his capacious rear, and with each passing day it seems more likely cornered old criminal Donald Trump will spend his remaining golden years fighting to stay out of jail.

How’s he holding up these days? Not too well, it would appear. Confronted with the reality of Kamala Harris and her America’s Dad wingman, Tim Walz, Trump hasn’t the faintest clue what to do. His sole rally this entire week is in reliably red Montana. His basic recourse is to melt down on social media and flee to the safe space of “Fox & Friends.” Someone in his inner circle really needs to step up and get him the mental health care he badly needs.

For starters, he just can’t quit Joe. He’s so nostalgic for the bygone days of a Biden matchup that he’s typing his demented fantasies for all the world to see. Earlier this week on “Truth” Social, he wrote about a non-existent “big movement” to bring back Biden, who in Trump’s mind would crash the Democratic National Convention and take the stage for another debate.

In his saner moments (grading on a curve), he’s trying to move on from Joe. He had lots of “thoughts” (grading on a curve) about the “Kamabla”-Walz ticket this week when he phoned in to the Fox & Friends couch mates, knowing full well that those lickspittles would let him rant and ramble with nary a challenging query. And that’s how it went.

For instance: “This is a ticket that would want this country to go communist immediately, if not sooner.” According to the voices in his tooth fillings, it is apparently “communist” to feed hungry school kids, offer people health care, offer paid family leave, offer child tax credits, expand background checks for gun buys, promote renewable energy, and allow women to make decisions for their own bodies.

For instance, referring to Tim Walz: “He is not where the country is, on anything.” The Fox hosts sat there, mute and enraptured. But it just so happens that the aforementioned “communist” policies – staples of the Harris-Walz agenda – have landslide majority support in the polls. This is the center of gravity in America now.

He also said that Walz is terrible on “security.” Which is a fascinating observation, given the fact that in 2019, when then-President Trump named some new appointees to the Council of Governors, a panel that advises the feds on security issues, one of the governors he chose was…Tim Walz.

Trump also said “the stock market will collapse like in 1929 if they’re elected,” which is the same thing he said about Biden, baselessly, on Oct. 22, 2020. The only reason he’s recycling his old doomsday mantra is because he has nothing new to say.

Meanwhile, Harris and Walz filled a Wisconsin arena to the brim. But Trump is on the case. He thinks he has found something to turn the tide. He has dispatched J. D. Vance to attack Walz’s 24-year service in the National Guard (accusing Walz without evidence of ducking service in Iraq), which is a tad odd as tactics go, given the fact that Trump faked a medical condition to avoid military service and said that STDs were his “personal Vietnam.”

The convicted criminal, who faces sentencing in New York on Sept. 18, has no idea what to do, and it’s joyous. There may be anxious times in the next 90 days, but for now, it feels so good to feel good again.

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Copyright 2024 Dick Polman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at [email protected]

In the days ahead, various instant experts on social media will second-guess Kamala Harris’s decision to pick Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate and fume that she didn’t choose Josh Shapiro. They’ll say that she blew the chance to lock down swing-state Pennsylvania, and that she caved to the lefty agitators who’ve denounced Shapiro’s criticisms of pro-Palestinian protesters.

Fine.

The time for grousing is now. Then it will behoove everyone to pull together, with all deliberate speed, and stick a fork in the fascist felon once and for all.

The first rule, when choosing a veep, is “Do No Harm.” Fairly or not, Shapiro had baggage. With the clock already ticking toward November, the Harris campaign didn’t want to spend precious energy on defense, defending him against the mud (“Genocide Josh,” etcetera) that’s been hurled his way. This is the time for forward action, not distraction. Shapiro will be stumping for the ticket non-stop anyway.

And here’s what forward action looks like:

Without missing a beat in the campaign messaging, Walz will bring to bear his vast experience and translate them into everyday language, especially while stumping in the crucial Rustbelt states, and certainly in the Pennsylvania “T” counties. He has the vibes to relate to rural and working-class voters, having grown up in rural Nebraska, serving for 24 years in the National Guard (including a deployment in Europe after 9/11), attaining the rank of command sergeant major, and earning three Army medals. He was a public school teacher in Nebraska and Minnesota. He was a football coach. Cast as “America’s dad,” he cancels the “elitist” Democratic stereotype.

Is he fit to be president in an emergency? Unlike the callow JD Vance (who’s been an elected official for all of 18 months, and who’d be decimated in an autumn debate), Walz served in Congress for 12 years (winning repeatedly in a rural Republican district) and has run Minnesota for the last five years, racking up the kind of policy wins that progressive Democrats covet: a child tax credit plan that’s designed to drastically cut child poverty; the safeguarding of reproductive rights; free universal school meals; paid family leave; legal protections for gay and transgender citizens; expanding background checks for gun purchases (despite being a hunter); a string of police reform measures (including restrictions on chokeholds) that he signed after Minneapolis police murdered George Floyd; and he capped the price of insulin three years before Joe Biden did it.

Meanwhile, the Trump propagandists are scrambling for a way to attack him. Tuesday morning they said he’s a “radical leftist” because – get this – he has “suggested stricter emissions for gas-powered cars.” They’ll need to do better than that. Matthew Dowd, a former pollster for George W. Bush, said it best this morning: “Walz fits so incredibly well to the voters Dems need. Progressives can win if they are aligned with voters’ everyday values. And Walz is.”

Most importantly, Walz can speak plainly and effectively about the grassroots concerns that animate most voters. And he’ll stick a shiv in the MAGA ticket when called upon, because, as we’ve seen already, Walz has cojones. He’s well suited to keep our eyes on the prize – a blue presidential election, and the final defeat of a sociopathic hate-fueled convicted criminal who’s been found liable for sexual abuse and financial fraud and whose criminal indictment for fomenting a violent coup is alive and well, coming soon to Washington courtroom.

Why did Kamala Harris pick Tim Walz? Because she wants to win.

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Copyright 2024 Dick Polman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at [email protected]

If you’ve been wondering about the convicted criminal’s mood, now that his campaign to stay out of prison has been trumped by a decent opponent, you need only watch his sitdown this week with the National Association of Black Journalists.

It’s beyond me why anyone in his gang thought it’d be a great idea for him to vent his anger and racism in such a forum, but I’m glad he did it. Just mic him up and let him bray.

MAGA Kool-Aid imbibers will tell themselves he aced this latest test, but I’ll venture to guess that mainstream Americans who revere pluralism and grasp the concept of biracialism will find his critique of Kamala Harris to be insulting and ignorant:

“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black,” Trump said. “She was Indian all the way and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she became a Black person.”

I’m tempted to quote Mose Allison, who famously sings, “Your mind is on vacation/ And you’re mouth is working overtime.” But that’s too gentle. Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist on CNN, said it far better: “He did crap the bed. The only question is whether he’s gonna roll around in it or get up and change the sheets.”

Let’s fact-check Trump, although it shouldn’t be necessary: Harris didn’t “all of a sudden” make “a turn” and become a Black person. She attended Howard University and joined a Black sorority, like, 40 years ago. Her Jamaican father was of African descent; her Indian mother was of South Asian descent. Why is that so hard to grasp?

Trump’s on-stage riff was a cinch to decode. He basically said that if you’re not white, you are by definition a shape-shifting grifter who’s not really American. That totally jibed with his general disdain for African-Americans (they like me for my sneakers! they like me for my criminal convictions because they get convicted too!). Which explains why folks in the audience either booed him or laughed at him.

Rachel Scott of ABC News nailed him for his racist attitude with her very first question: “You have pushed false claims about some of your rivals – from Nikki Haley to former President Barack Obama – saying that they were not born in the United States, which is not true. You have told four congresswomen of color, who were American citizens, to go back to where they came from. You have used words like ‘animal’ and ‘rabid’ to describe Black district attorneys…You’ve had dinner with a white supremacist at your Mar-a-Lago resort. So my question sir, now that you are asking Black supporters to vote for you: Why should Black voters trust you, after you have used language like that?”

Well, he didn’t like that. The questions are a lot tougher in the real world; they’re not simpering softballs served up by lickspittles like Laura Ingraham. So the event was roughly one minute old when Trump basically lost control.

“First of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner. You don’t even say ‘Hello, how are you.’ Are you with ABC? Because they’re a fake news, terrible network,” Trump said. “I have been the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln. That’s my answer.”

Trump didn’t just advertise his racism. He also highlighted his lawlessness.

When asked about his pledge to pardon those who stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election results, Trump tried to change the subject by denouncing last week’s pro-Palestinian protesters near the Capitol. But Scott dragged him back to the Jan. 6 rioters: “Would you pardon those people?”

“Oh, absolutely I would,” Trump responded. “If they’re innocent I would pardon them.”

“They’ve been convicted,” Scott shot back, prompting the audience to laugh at Trump again.

That caused Mr. Law and Order to claim that the rioters had suffered too much order, because “they were convicted by a very, very tough system.” Too tough, he said, because “nobody died that day.” Which should be news to the families of the people who died that day.

Shortly after that exchange, Trump’s handlers cut off the interview. Even they had seen enough.

Some observers think the Black journalists were wrong to host the guy in the first place. I disagree. As ex-Republican strategist Tim Miller says, “(This) interview is a great example of why the people who demand that we deplatform Trump are wrong. People should see this! A grumpy, cruel, hard-of-hearing, race-baiting asshole having to actually answer for his track record in an environment outside of his comfort zone.”

More please! Every voter he repulses brings us one step closer to a bluer America.

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Copyright 2024 Dick Polman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at [email protected]