Sunday, August 11, 2024

Does He Have A Point?

At his Thursday press conference, Trump characterized Kamala as “dumb", “incompetent". and “low IQ." In his Friday Montana rally, he introduced the montage linked above that reprises well-known clips from interviews or statements she's given over the past several years. They suggest she's dumb, incomptent, and low-IQ.

This isn't new. Politico noted a week ago,

Donald Trump broadsided Kamala Harris in a string of derisive social media posts on Saturday, focusing his attacks on the vice president’s intellect after a week that saw her both out-fundraise him and surpass him in some battleground state polls.

In a succession of Truth Social posts after calling off his planned ABC debate with Harris, Trump called Harris “low IQ,” “dumb,” and said she lacked the “mental capacity” to debate him.

Respectable opinion is nervous:

Republican nominee Donald Trump has called her "crazy," "nuts" and "dumb as a rock." Republicans in Congress disparage her as a diversity hire. Right-wing activists and trolls have smeared her online with racist, sexist and sexualized barbs.

. . . The demeaning racist and sexist attacks threaten to distract from the Republican Party's concerted effort to focus on Harris' policies.

. . . The tension suggests Trump campaign efforts to tie Harris to President Joe Biden's record – particularly on immigration, crime and the economy – risk being overshadowed by personal attacks that show no signs of slowing.

But I wound up paying closer attention to Kamala's manner in the montage embedded above. For instnace, at 1:17,

Caribbean nations . . . island nations . . . in the Western Hemisphere . . . that is where the Caribbean is. . . we are also in the Western Hemisphere . . . they are our neighbors.

She isn't just tossing off superficial chatter here, she's struggling. She seems to know she's expected to display some level of gravitas; she's really working hard to come up with something, and the best she can do is try to sound like she's got something to say, but she can't quite make it -- and she knows it, too. There's a deep insecurity behind this persona.

I keep coming back to the X post I quoted from Mark Levin on Friday:

One thing I've come to realize abouit Trump is that people discount what he says as hyperbole or bombast, when actually he's displaying a certain level of insight. There's a predictable pattern: he blurts some uncomfortable truth, and the Wall Street journal wrings its hands and says this time he's gone too far, we've got to get back to the issues. What would Mitt Romney do? Well, Mitt Romney would be polite and lose the election.

The problem is that the same people who covered up Biden's cognitive deficit are fully aware of, and covering up, some sort of deficit with Kamala as well. It may well have something to do with low IQ, it may have something to do with drug use, or something entirely different -- but there's a problem, we're being gaslighted, and Trump is correct to point it out. And in fact, if there's a deficit, that's an issue. Even Pelosi finally indirectly admitted it was an issue with Biden, why isn't it an issue with Kamala?

This also goes to Trump's campaign strategy. We're in a season where every B-list pundit is running a piece on My Advice To Donald Trump, when let's face it, he's gotten where he's gotten since January 2021 without the help of any B-list pundits. They've been in a snit -- and the pro-Harris pundits are gloating -- because he's eased off on the rally schedule for a couple of weeks. All he's done is let the Harris campaign self-destruct with the choice of Walz as running mate, while he and Vance call out Kamala's inability to take questions from the press -- because she has a low IQ or something.

And for some reasoon, the legacy media is starting to ask why Kamala can't take questions. This actually sounds like a pretty savvy strategy to me.

posted by test @ August 11, 2024   1 Comments