Harris's misguided debate prep

Her exclusive focus should be on crossing the presidential credibility and acceptability threshold with swing voters, not attempting to bait Trump into an eruption.

Reportedly, one of the things Kamala Harris is working on in her debate preparation is ways to get under Donald Trump’s skin and trigger a Trumpian-scale eruption.

I think that’s strategically misguided.

There is one important political objective Harris could accomplish in the debate: Firmly crossing the presidential credibility and acceptability threshold for swing voters in swing states.

Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be a necessary step this late in the campaign for a vice president who became the nominee for the big chair. However, Harris was largely under the radar for the Biden administration, and didn’t fare too well when she was in the spotlight. She wasn’t vetted or tested during a lengthy primary contest, instead being thrust forward as the substitute after a consensus formed among voters that Joe Biden wasn’t up to a second term and among Democratic activists that he was a sure loser to Trump. 

So, although Harris has gotten off to a rousing start and united the party behind her, among swing voters she still has some convincing to do that she’s ready for the job and preferable to the alternative.

There’s little doubt that, in the debate, she will show command of the issues. She studies her brief.

But she also needs to show gravitas, to be convincing to swing voters that she is a plausible president and commander in chief. And she needs to provide assurances that she won’t govern as a crazy California liberal.

Harris maximizes her chances of achieving that by answering the questions directly, and answering as if addressing the American people directly – not so much in the form of debating Trump.

In fact, Harris advances passing this credibility and acceptability threshold for swing voters if she seems to have moved beyond Trump, ignoring him except to the extent his record or conduct is directly relevant to the question being answered. Treating Trump’s political act as stale, as Barack Obama described it at the Democratic Convention, will do more to cause swing voters to view her as plausibly presidential than attempts to bait Trump, even if successful. 

If Harris were to exhibit command of the issues and gravitas in demeanor and approach, the contrast with Trump would be sharp with or without an eruption. Trump won’t study his brief. He will be, at best, superficial on the issues. He’s only capable of demagoguery and grievance politics. He’s always had difficulty staying on point. These days, he has difficulty ever getting to the point. 

I don’t know what Harris’s debate preppers are cooking up to bait Trump. But it seems entirely unnecessary and counterproductive. Trump will be Trump. He will likely erupt. The would-be insult comic will come out. And if it doesn’t, Harris’s command of the issues and gravitas, if on display, will still reach swing voters as an important contrast with Trump. 

Harris doesn’t need to prove that she can stand up to Trump or go toe-to-toe with him in a partisan brawl. She needs to show that she’s better than him, as a person and as a trustworthy leader for our country. 

Attempting to bait Trump is, in considerable part, playing his game and on his turf. And it isn’t showing the presidential competence and gravitas the debate gives Harris her biggest opportunity to display to swing voters in swing states. 

Making that case should be Harris’s exclusive focus in the debate. And, if she did that, I suspect it would frustrate Trump more than anything clever her debate preppers can concoct to bait him. The one thing Trump can’t stand is not being the center of attention. She should make the country, not Trump, the center of her attention. 

There are plenty of other ways and opportunities to make the case against Trump. There is nothing else remotely equal to the opportunity in this debate for Harris to cross the presidential credibility and acceptability threshold with swing voters in swing states.

Reach Robb at robtrobb@gmail.com.