{"id":2337629,"date":"2024-09-06T04:37:01","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T08:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/harris-walz-avoiding-the-press-isnt-a-savvy-campaign-strategy\/"},"modified":"2024-09-06T04:47:57","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T08:47:57","slug":"harris-walz-avoiding-the-press-isnt-a-savvy-campaign-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/harris-walz-avoiding-the-press-isnt-a-savvy-campaign-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Harris, Walz Avoiding The Press Isn&#8217;t A Savvy Campaign Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fharris-walz-avoiding-the-press-isnt-a-savvy-campaign-strategy%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2337629&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article critiques Vice President Kamala \u2063Harris&#8217;s lack of \u2063clear\u200b policy\u2064 positions as she campaigns for the presidency, highlighting\u2064 concerns raised by media \u200cand \u2063political analysts\u200d about her ability to articulate her platform. The author\u2063 emphasizes that \u200dHarris \u200ddoes not have any substantial policy \u2063details\u2062 on\u200b her website and has frequently avoided\u2062 rigorous debates and press interactions,\u200b leading to accusations of cowardice. They express frustration over her\u2064 communication style, suggesting it is\u200b vague and sometimes\u200c nonsensical, and indicate that her campaign has largely focused on oppositional stances rather than proactive policy solutions. The \u2062piece\u2062 notes that both Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, have avoided taking meaningful stands \u2064on pressing issues, contrasting their approaches with other political figures,\u200c particularly former President Donald Trump.\u200d The \u2063overarching tone suggests\u200b that a lack of transparency and engagement with the electorate undermines \u200bthe democratic process and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wealthy-left-wing-donors-funding-fake-grassroots-campaign-against-house-gop-washington-examiner-2\/\" title=\"Wealthy left-wing donors funding fake grassroots campaign against House GOP - Washington Examiner\">leaves voters uninformed<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The New Republic, a publication I can vaguely recall from my youth (when people last cared about it), is saying the quiet part out loud: &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/kamala-harris-doesn-t-policy-100000833.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAG0ADnFnAfhafOvYyvG-xriFYebk3BSq4pbH5nTZJnW-ygyesNpuJzYnRTQbFZL7n2Ixmpd5hSUGHJQT-sp7F60wFAd1ira4CRaIDpiUdLEuofBuFIGvqDm8kZ8GMfSi_gUaEd5fzpEG65qUmR9Zdtfh3mZ2PebJRbzPqAfoX92h\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kamala Harris Doesn&rsquo;t Need Policy to Win<\/a>.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>This might be a true statement, but coming from the media, Kamala&rsquo;s policy, or lack thereof, ought to be examined as a matter of public interest. Which is to say that the question they should be asking is not whether Kamala can win an election without talking about policy but whether she <em>should<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Kamala Harris still doesn&rsquo;t have a single policy position listed on her <a href=\"https:\/\/kamalaharris.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">website<\/a>. Even Mark Penn, a former top adviser to Hillary Clinton, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Mark_Penn\/status\/1831416975312278015\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">is appalled<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>One interview. One debate. Some rah rah stump speech you read over and over. And voila you have a 50 per cent chance of being president. <\/p>\n<p>Good gig if you can get it. No 3 debates. No 2 years of primaries, coalition building, no detailed policy development, and no <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-the-legacy-media-convinced-americans-that-andrew-cuomo-was-a-hero\/\" title=\"How The Legacy Media Convinced Americans That Andrew Cuomo Was A Hero\">daily press briefings<\/a>. Or tests of leadership. <\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s only the most important job in the world with a $6 trillion budget and thousands of nuclear weapons. <\/p>\n<p>The right thing would be 3 debates, real detailed policy briefings, and full availability to answer questions so the electorate could vote on an informed basis. That&rsquo;s what real democracy demands.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Then again, it seems obvious that there&rsquo;s a clear reason why Kamala Harris isn&rsquo;t being subjected to debates, primaries, detailed policy explanations, daily press briefings, etc. She&rsquo;s famously terrible at all those things. Maybe it&rsquo;s more accurate to say Harris is bad at explaining herself in almost any public forum in a way that doesn&rsquo;t make her sound completely vapid, but it turns out that all these tests of leadership hinge on that.<\/p>\n<p>And the lengths to which they are going to ensure she doesn&rsquo;t have to answer questions are officially comical &mdash; see her recent <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/09\/03\/us-news\/kamala-harris-slammed-for-dodging-press-with-headphones-so-fake\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">bizarre<\/a> boarding of a plane where she had her headphones plugged into her phone, <em>while still holding her phone up to her ear<\/em>. Either she really wanted to send a strong visual signal that she was on the phone and therefore unable to take questions or she&rsquo;s an idiot who doesn&rsquo;t know how phones work. Come to think of it, these explanations are not mutally exclusive.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, explaining yourself is the <em>bare minium<\/em> of what stewarding democracy, nuclear weapons, and trillions of dollars demands, but Harris&rsquo; handlers have decided that even doing that much is too risky. And what&rsquo;s the word for people who refuse to take risks for selfish reasons, even when the welfare of others depends on it? It would be fair to say that everyone involved in this campaign, starting with Harris herself, is a total coward.<\/p>\n<p>Penn is also being generous when he says that she&rsquo;s done &ldquo;one interview,&rdquo; in that she still had Walz along for the ride, was given absurdly favorable treatment by CNN&rsquo;s Dana Bash, and still The New York Times had no choice but to conclude that &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/08\/27\/opinion\/harris-walz-interview.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">A Vague, Vacuous TV Interview Didn&rsquo;t Help Kamala Harris<\/a>.&rdquo; (This <a href=\"https:\/\/rumble.com\/v5dgpss-video-exposes-differences-in-cnns-dana-bash-interviewing-jd-vance-vs-kamala.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">video contrasting Bash&rsquo;s<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-colorado-case-over-lgbt-discrimination-and-freedom-of-speech\/\" title=\"Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Colorado Case Over LGBT Discrimination And Freedom Of Speech\">hostile treatment<\/a> of J.D. Vance and her hand-holding in the Harris interview ought to end Bash&rsquo;s career, but CNN is clearly back in the business of <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/09\/03\/media\/brian-stelter-returns-to-cnn-2-years-after-he-was-fired-during-network-shakeup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">encouraging unethical media double standards<\/a>.) Last month, even CNN acknowledged your basic media interview was a forum where she was &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Heminator\/status\/1821579209426522185\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">historically vulnerable<\/a>.&rdquo; But doesn&rsquo;t democracy demand she be able to acquit herself in a room with hostile foreign leaders, let alone cheerleaders like Bash?<\/p>\n<p>Any defense of Harris not opening her mouth for the next two months basically starts and ends with the fact that there&rsquo;s almost nothing she can say to help herself. To the minor extent that her campaign has talked about policy, it&rsquo;s to oppose unpopular policies supported by &hellip; Kamala Harris. The Harris campaign recently <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AlexThomp\/status\/1831329006815236110\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sent<\/a> out an email noting she &ldquo;does not support an electric vehicle mandate.&rdquo; When Axios&rsquo; Alex Thompson &ldquo;asked if that meant she would veto or sign the bill she co-sponsored in 2019 [with] such a mandate for manufacturers,&rdquo; Harris declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>At least regarding EVs, Harris said <em>something <\/em>about a policy. In the past, Harris has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/white-house-releases-list-of-president-trumps-accomplishments-and-it-is-historic\/\" title=\"White House Releases List of President Trump\u2019s Accomplishments \u2013  And It Is Historic!\">supported legislation<\/a> for reparations, and now her campaign is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/nation\/2024\/09\/03\/kamala-harris-reparations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">refusing<\/a> to say whether she supports them or not. (Aside from the obvious controversy surrounding the policy, it&rsquo;s an interesting question &mdash; because guess who&rsquo;s the only living president, let alone <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/08\/22\/opinion\/kamala-harris-family-jamaica.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">presidential candidate<\/a> in this election, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/donald-trump-only-american-president-ancestors-slaveholders-reuters-2023-6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">who has no ancestors who were slaveholders<\/a>?)<\/p>\n<p>Harris&rsquo; running mate, Tim Walz, who has <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/08\/30\/walz-says-he-lied-about-going-to-war-because-he-struggles-with-grammar\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lied<\/a> about being in combat and specifically <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/08\/13\/the-ignominy-of-master-sergeant-timothy-walz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">left<\/a> the military after he found out he would deploy in a war zone, is about the most classic embodiment of a coward one could imagine. In fact, &ldquo;coward&rdquo; is exactly what the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-13805963\/Tim-Walz-Megyn-Kelly-military-record-National-Guard-veterans.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">soldiers who served with him in the National Guard are calling him<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Suffice to say, he hasn&rsquo;t suddenly found a spine running for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hunter-biden-defector-emails-pipeline-to-obama-admin-seen-as-currency\/\" title=\"Hunter Biden Defector Emails: &#039;Pipeline&#039; to Obama Admin Seen as &#039;Currency&#039;\">vice president<\/a>, either, given this recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xCxiJuLcpyM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">exchange<\/a> at the Minnesota State Fair:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s your reaction to the six hostages being found dead in Gaza?&rdquo; an unnamed reporter is heard asking Walz while he greeted supporters.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;All right,&rdquo; he said without answering and then turned around to leave. &ldquo;Thanks, everybody!&rdquo; he said as he waved his hand goodbye to the crowd while walking away.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>You don&rsquo;t even have to stake out a position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict &mdash; but you absolutely should &mdash; to at least say you&rsquo;re upset by the tragedy that occurred and express concern for the families! Then again, forget peace in the Middle East; all you have to do is ask Walz if he&rsquo;ll take <em>any <\/em>substantive questions and <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/GrageDustin\/status\/1831381568579084304\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">he goes ghost<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The electoral contrast here is pretty stark. On the question of Trump&rsquo;s courage, besting Harris may be a low bar, but it would have been a more complex answer a few months ago. Now? <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/ArtWorks-Decor-Assassination-Attempt-Stretched\/dp\/B0D9FVSJP5?th=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Res ipsa loquitur<\/a><\/em>. On the policy front, just yesterday Trump &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/politics\/policy\/trump-to-adopt-elon-musks-proposal-for-government-efficiency-commission-e5c05514?mod=hp_lead_pos1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">outlined a suite of economic proposals in a speech<\/a>&rdquo; that involved his corporate tax rates, plans to reduce regulation, and &ldquo;a government efficiency commission to be headed by Elon Musk.&rdquo; At least one of Trump&rsquo;s economic proposals has been so politically potent &mdash; no taxes on tips &mdash; that Kamala Harris outright stole it to keep the powerful casino unions in Nevada on the Democrat Party reservation.<\/p>\n<p>J.D. Vance, aside from fearlessly doing hostile media interviews and acquitting himself very well, is about as fluent in discussing policy as politicians come. <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ZaidJilani\/status\/1831723030801772986\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">As Zaid Jilani notes<\/a>, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hilarious how JD Vance dropped a whole <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JDVance\/status\/1831701121758589425\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">policy manifesto in a Twitter reply<\/a> and Kamala Harris can&rsquo;t describe one policy in this level of detail in a televised interview.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Of course, you might ask yourself, &ldquo;What choice does Kamala Harris have?&rdquo; Well, say what you want about Barack Obama, he wasn&rsquo;t afraid to go out on the campaign trail and convince people he was a pragmatist who had disavowed his association with a menagerie of anti-American radicals. He made real arguments to convince voters, whether or not we&rsquo;re all worse off because he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/beltway-confidential\/1053957\/politifact-rewrites-its-own-history-in-obamacare-lie-of-the-year-decision\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">brazenly lied about major policies<\/a> and ultimately acted on his radical tendencies once in office. But Harris is no Obama, and she has neither the guts nor the skill to even try to convince people she&rsquo;s something she&rsquo;s not.<\/p>\n<p>If Harris is this fearful of even talking about herself, let alone what she will do if we entrust her with an awesome amount of power, obviously she shouldn&rsquo;t be president. And yet the press and the entire Washington establishment are still championing her. After all, someone who lacks courage isn&rsquo;t about to change the way Washington works, and it&rsquo;s working out pretty well for a bunch of rich partisan elites. The people in the rest of the country may be struggling, but who cares about what democracy demands?<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Mark Hemingway is the Book Editor at The Federalist, and was formerly a senior writer at The Weekly Standard. Follow him on Twitter at <b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/heminator\">@heminator<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New Republic, a publication I vaguely remember from my younger days when it had more relevance, is openly stating that &#8220;Kamala Harris Doesn\u2019t Need Policy to Win.&#8221; While this may be accurate, the media should scrutinize her policies\u2014or the absence of them\u2014as a public concern. The real question isn&#8217;t whether she can win an election without discussing policy but whether she should.<\/p>\n<p>Kamala Harris still has no specific policy positions listed on her website. Even Mark Penn, a former senior advisor to Hillary Clinton, expressed his shock: one interview and one debate could give her a 50% chance of becoming president. This seems like an easy path\u2014no need for multiple debates or years of primary campaigning, no detailed policy discussions or daily press briefings. After all, it&#8217;s only the most significant job in the world with a $6 trillion budget and thousands of nuclear weapons at stake.<\/p>\n<p>What democracy truly requires is thorough debates and comprehensive policy discussions so voters can make informed choices. However, it\u2019s clear why Kamala Harris isn\u2019t being subjected to these processes; she has a reputation for struggling in such situations. It might be more accurate to say that she often fails to articulate herself effectively in public forums without coming across as shallow\u2014a crucial aspect of leadership assessments.<\/p>\n<p>The lengths taken to avoid scrutiny are almost laughable; for instance, during her recent boarding of a plane where she appeared confused about how phones work while trying to signal that she was unavailable for questions. This raises questions about whether she&#8217;s simply trying too hard or genuinely lacks understanding.<\/p>\n<p>Explaining oneself is fundamental when managing democracy and vast resources like nuclear arsenals and trillions in taxpayer dollars; yet Harris&#8217;s team seems convinced that even this minimal requirement poses too much risk. Those who shy away from risks for selfish reasons\u2014especially when others&#8217; welfare hangs in the balance\u2014could rightly be labeled cowards.<\/p>\n<p>Penn&#8217;s claim that she&#8217;s done &#8220;one interview&#8221; overlooks how heavily favored she was during it by CNN\u2019s Dana Bash; even The New York Times noted that \u201cA Vague, Vacuous TV Interview Didn\u2019t Help Kamala Harris.\u201d Last month CNN acknowledged that traditional media interviews have historically been challenging for her. Shouldn\u2019t democracy require candidates to handle tough questions from both supporters and critics alike?<\/p>\n<p>Any defense of Harris avoiding speaking out over the next two months essentially boils down to acknowledging there&#8217;s little beneficial information she could provide herself with at this point. When her campaign does mention policies at all, it&#8217;s usually just opposing unpopular ones she&#8217;s previously supported\u2014like an electric vehicle mandate which they recently stated she does not endorse despite co-sponsoring legislation promoting it back in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Harris has also previously backed reparations legislation but now refuses to clarify where she stands on it\u2014a particularly intriguing dilemma given her unique position among presidential candidates regarding ancestral ties to slavery.<\/p>\n<p>Her running mate Tim Walz exemplifies cowardice as well; he faced backlash after dodging questions about sensitive issues like hostages found dead in Gaza instead of expressing any empathy or concern\u2014a basic expectation from someone seeking high office.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast with Trump\u2019s recent bold economic proposals\u2014including tax reforms and regulatory changes\u2014Harris appears increasingly outmatched on both courage and policy knowledge compared with other politicians like J.D. Vance who articulately discuss their platforms even under pressure from hostile media outlets.<\/p>\n<p>While some might wonder what options are left for Kamala Harris given these circumstances\u2014the reality remains stark: unlike Barack Obama who confidently campaigned despite past associations with controversial figures by making compelling arguments aimed at voters\u2019 concerns\u2014Harris lacks both the confidence and capability necessary for such engagement.<br \/>\nIf she&#8217;s afraid even just talking about herself\u2014and what she&#8217;d do if elected\u2014it raises serious doubts about her suitability as president yet mainstream media continues supporting her candidacy because those lacking courage won\u2019t disrupt Washington&#8217;s status quo which benefits elite interests while neglecting broader societal struggles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274,"featured_media":2337630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-05-155044.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[35835,4021,40260,27318],"class_list":["post-2337629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-campaign-strategy","tag-harris","tag-press-relations","tag-walz"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-05-155044.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/274"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2337629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2337630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2337629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2337629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2337629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}