Who Will Make the Last Mistake in This Flawed Campaign?

“The only trash I see out there are his supporters,” he said President Joe Biden on Tuesday evening, referencing a comedian’s comment at former President Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally. Biden said this during Vice President Kamala Harris’ speech at the Ellipse, visible from White House windows, in what his campaign described as his “closing speech.”

Calling half of the US electorate “trash” is clearly political malpractice. By accepting that this is white house the press office and a liberal Politico reporter added an apostrophe, and an apology on behalf of Biden aired on X about an hour later.

But these misleading attempts seem unconvincing given the barrage of comparisons made by Democrats, including from Harris’ running mate in Minnesota. Governor Tim Walz The Trump rally was a 1939 Madison Square Garden rally held on behalf of the pro-Nazi German American Bund.

In fact, this rally was held in a former Madison Square Garden that was demolished in 1968; The current arena was the site of the 1976, 1980 and 1992 Democratic National Conventions, all of which I attended.

Of course, as Axios’ Alex Thompson quickly noted: “Officers in both parties immediately saw (Biden’s comment) as a throwback to Hillary Clinton’s ‘basket of deplorables’ comment from 2016.”

The difference is that Clinton only insulted half of Trump’s supporters, while Biden appeared to insult them all.

Responsive Democrats understand this. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro Apparently surprised by a CNN reporter’s question, the teenager responded: “I’m giving you my new reaction to this matter. “I would never insult the good people of Pennsylvania or any American if they chose to support a candidate that I did not support.”

The Trump campaign immediately emailed supporters: “You are not trash!”

Biden’s “garbage” comment a week ago Election DayHe addressed Harris’ “closing argument” and said: “I don’t believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy. … I will give them a seat at the table.”

Biden’s comment stings because it is indicative of the disdain and hatred that many Democratic politicians and voters feel toward their fellow citizens who support the other party’s candidate. But this is probably not the first grave error made by either side’s campaign during this contentious campaign.

The “garbage” comment was clearly a response to the comedian joking at the Trump rally that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage.” Puerto Rico actually has a landfill problem, but anyone who does not review or approve the comedian’s text would be committing political malpractice.

Democrats hoped to take advantage of the situation in the only target state with many voters of Puerto Rican heritage; but polls have shown that a much lower share of Latinos than blacks are offended by arguably derogatory comments.

Republican strategists hope Biden’s words will increase their side’s enthusiasm advantage; And that’s reflected quite clearly in early voting in Nevada and perhaps Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina.

Beyond individual incidents, it can be argued that both campaigns made fundamental errors that would prove fatal if whichever lost. At rally after rally, not just at Madison Square Garden, Trump’s campaign ran the risk that invited speakers, and perhaps more likely the candidate himself, would make statements that were politically damaging or could be interpreted that way, and not just by Democrats. A hostile press.

Trump’s disjointed sentences, in which he “weaves” his ideas, as he puts it, leave him vulnerable to malicious misinterpretation; such as the argument Biden is still peddling about not condemning “neo-Nazis and white nationalists” in Charlottesville. 2017.

Harris’ campaign, by contrast, has been careful to subject its candidate to only a handful of tough or wholly unsympathetic interviews, and even there she hasn’t always been prepared with politically adept answers.

For example, when the women on “The View” were asked how they differed from Biden, they said nothing came to mind. Despite being a seemingly healthy and relatively young age of 60, Harris has made fewer public appearances than any candidate in the past five campaigns — except Biden in 2020.

Voting for president is a person’s most personal choice, and Harris’ strategy of making subtle responses and refusing to make more than cursory statements about changes to her radical 2019 campaign stances risks losing votes that another Democrat might win. If Trump runs the risk of revealing too much of himself, Harris risks revealing too little.

It seems pretty clear that these perhaps unwise risks were driven by the candidates, not their managers. In retrospect, lighter decisions may seem unwise; Trump’s campaign in Democratic-leaning New Mexico; Harris promoting a rally with Beyoncé in Houston where the singer did not sing; Both candidates are fawning over proposals such as no taxes on tips and expenses and trade policies likely to trigger new inflation.

If Harris loses, it would seem like an obvious mistake for the crippled Biden to vacate a second term as president at age 81, paving the way for a largely unsupervised and inexperienced Harris to succeed him. If Trump loses, it might seem obvious that it was a mistake for Trump to insist that he actually won in 2020 and, at age 78, toss out all of this year’s primary competition.

It’s tempting to conclude that Trump can’t beat any Democrat other than Harris, and Harris can’t beat any Republican other than Trump.

All this shows that it is unwise so close to the election to be sure that your candidate has made his last mistake, or that the opposition’s last mistake will be absolutely decisive.

National Review’s Dan McLaughlin tweeted on October 29: “It’s not insignificant that the worst, stupidest, most important things that could happen in this election have yet to happen.”

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here should be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

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