Amy Walter Discusses Harris's Campaign Challenges

In the middle of a critical week for the presidential race, Geoff Bennett hosted NPR’s Tamara Keith and Amy Walter of the cook political report in his recent podcast to discuss the dynamics at play as the democratic national convention unfolds. Most notably, Harris is being introduced to the nation’s largest audience yet, with all of the media’s eyes on her. Recent polls show that she is narrowly beating the former president nationally and tied in the battleground states, suggesting a decisive moment in her campaign. Although the main focus of the discussion is Harris’s case, other revelations related to her campaign are required to provide full context.

As Amy Walter points out, it is a difficult task Harris has at hand. On the one hand, the rising vice president has yet to separate herself from the outgoing President Biden, whose legacy she must accept and adopt. On the other hand, voters by and large have not seen Harris within the administration, with only about a third of voters suggesting she has played a somewhat important role. This state of affairs provides Harris with a unique opportunity to present her voters with a vision of her presidency that is unique and distinct in its outlook, while embracing and extending Biden’s.

According to Tamara Keith, the case Harris has put forward is precisely that, though she overstates the challenge at hand by noting that her campaign’s tone degrees greatly from Biden’s. Turning to a more positive message with much less emphasis on the recent past and present, Harris seems to be adopting a continuist policy regarding the Build Back Better plan, which President Biden has been so keen on promoting, and Harris seems to perceive as her next primary challenge due to its absence.

The discussion also visited other Republican factions, with the disgraced but not defunct Trump/Vance campaign playing a central role in the conversation. Although they focused on the tracking data, it is possible to remember that both Republicans and former President Donald Trump, in particular, focused on heated attacks calling Harris a villain of the economy and public order as she boarded the first plane she could find back to Washington. The week in question is critical for both parties, with Democrats hoping to capitalize on the first opportunity for a real convention to celebrate and enhance the image of a sitting vice president, while Republicans are likely to challenge her credentials by closely linking her to the failures of the current Biden administration.

The next several weeks are going to be busy, with the increasing bipolarity of the electorate and both parties doubling down on policy stances that maximize their share of the vote. Mrs. Harris has the opportunity to make the most of these developments, for she is not as dependent on the successes of the last eight years as her rival, nor bound by systemic limitations and the Republican need to exaggerate to scare off intruders. The stakes are high, but the position of the Vice President and her she-campaign provides the best of both worlds.