An Incredibly Long Post About Kamala's First Week At The Top Of The Ticket
I cut out 2k words about the veepstakes because my robot-slave copy-editor ChatGPT was passing out.
Let us recap the week that was. We will use an arbitrary point system to add spice and verve. Points are added and subtracted throughout. They are graded from the POV of someone who wants Kamala Harris to win the election. Finally, the points are added together. If this novelty is well received, it might be continued in future columns.1
Kamala’s First Week As New Biden
She looks great! (+1) It’s been a while since I've paid attention to her, and she looks good. (+1) Compared to the old mummies that have dominated our political lives for the last few years, she is a welcome relief of youthful vigor and coherence! (+3)
Kamala has had a wonderful rollout. (+3) She moved quickly to consolidate endorsements in just the first few hours after Biden dropped out. (+1) She apparently made 100 calls that afternoon. In most situations, you’d be like, “ok, well, is that a lot for someone in the most important political moment of their life? Who can know?” But in this one, we have a very direct comparison: In the two weeks after his disastrous June debate—the one which would ultimately prove lethal to his political career—Joe Biden made a grand total of 20 calls. (+5)
No one else challenged her. (+6) This one wasn’t the biggest surprise in the world. (-2) She was obviously the favorite, and only some weird polls would have really changed that. (+2)
She raised roughly a gajillion dollars. (+3) Money is always nice. (+30) Everyone loves money. (+45) The only people who don’t love money are communists. (+10) This capitalist money surge would have happened to anyone who replaced Biden on the ticket. (-3) But the Kamala team deserves a bunch of credit for making it clear she was that person almost instantly. (+3)
More important than the topline figures are the number of new donors, ones who hadn’t already given. Last I heard, it was 1.1 million. (+2) But that was days ago. (+1) Those are people who are newly activated by Kamala and, importantly, have more room to give. (+1) A lot of the Biden/Kamala money chest is from donors who are maxed out. (-1) (Obviously, most donors don’t max out, but it’s still a positive sign. There are new Glengarry leads.) (+1)
Overall, this demonstrated a real change in the enthusiasm gap. (+3)
Kamala’s first speech was sort of a pseudo-speech because it was technically just a chat with the campaign staffers, but they let in the news cameras. (+1) It was really good! (+2) She sounded smart, happy, and confident. (+1) Biden called in, and they had some cute back-and-forths. (+1)
Then the Right spent days having a little conspiracy theory that Biden was dead. (+2) It is always nice when your political opponents devolve into hysteria. (+2)
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