Harris has figured out how to smother Trump's tired old show

It's driving her poll numbers up, and driving him crazy!

Vice President Harris realized something very quickly, perhaps even before she announced her presidential run: In addition to his promoting an authoritarian agenda that would upend democracy, Donald Trump, a television performer and entertainer by trade, had devolved into a really crappy, tired old show, filled with bad shtick that he repeated endlessly.

Even his own supporters were walking out of his events before they were over, and that reached an apex at his laborious, endless, and ultimately disastrous speech accepting the nomination at the Republican National Convention.

Upon launching her campaign, Harris electrified the base of the Democratic Party. It’s true that much of this was about relief at having a great chance at beating Trump.

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But it was also about Kamala Harris. She was excited and upbeat, energetic and gleeful, and positively filled with joy. And "joy,” in fact, has become a hallmark of her campaign, as her VP running mate, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, thanked her for “bringing back the joy” at his introductory speech in Philadelphia before 14,000 people Tuesday night. The next day in Wisconsin, Harris called the campaign “joyful warriors.”

Harris has given people something to feel good about, something to connect with that is bigger than them and bigger than her—and bigger than Trump. It’s a sense of purpose that’s not just about beating Trump. She talks a lot about “freedom,” taking a former GOP talking point and turning it on its head, and she talks about “the future,” laying out policy agendas on health care, gun violence, education reform, paid family leave, and other issues.

Of course, the dangers of Trump and the threat to democracy are still there in the speeches, as is, to a great degree, the focus on Project 2025 and the attempt to dismantle our government. But it’s all woven into something else that is both hopeful and actually a lot of fun.

That’s where she’s keenly aware that she’s competing against a worn-out entertainer and needs to put on a fresher, brighter, more engaging show to overshadow him. The attacks on Trump—and JD Vance—are part of the show, a hilarious mockery that simultaneously underscores the GOP’s creepiness and its serious threat while dismissing them as weirdos who should never be near the levers of power.

That is the opposite of President Biden’s approach in his 2024 campaign, vowing to make the entire campaign about Trump, focusing on Trump as a threat to democracy in a very serious and somber tone.

That worked for Biden in 2020, when, at that moment, we were in a very treacherous situation: Trump was actually the president, actually making decisions, actually attacking allies, and actually allowing millions to die. The COVID pandemic set the tone for that very terrible time.

But that approach wouldn’t work very well in 2024, ironically in large part because of Biden’s great success in taking us out of that moment and allowing us to live experiences that are not currently dire. This is not to criticize Biden specifically for his approach to the '24 campaign. I’ll take the hit too, as I didn’t see it as sharply. People aren’t currently experiencing the horrors of Trump. They could only be warned of them. And too many Americans have amnesia, while Trump’s faithful supporters are still out there and plentiful.

Focusing all the attention on Trump now only feeds him and makes him grow bigger, especially since he doesn’t have the platform of the Oval Office as he did in 2020 and needs to rely on others to build him up. But if you make him and his outrage the story, he often dominates the news and drives the narrative. (And I’m speaking here only of his political opponents responding to his attacks; the corporate media should of course be focused on Trump’s lies and corruption, exposing him, though as usual they’re doing a terrible job.) Trump had learned over many years how to bait people into doing this.

But he tried it with Harris last week, attacking her racial identity at the National Association of Black Journalists convention, and it eventually fell flat. That’s because she didn’t take the bait. She curtly addressed it as disrespectful and then called it “the same old show.”

By the next day, attention shifted to Biden’s monumental act of diplomacy in getting Americans freed from Russia in a prisoner swap. Trump was gone from the homepages.

Indeed, the old show was tired, and even supporters were growing weary too. Trump had wanted Harris to engage, defend her identity, and go back and forth for days. He wanted to control the story and lead the show.

Harris instead decided to put on her own show, focusing on creating a positive and hopeful movement, as President Obama did. And now you understand one reason why she brought on Tim Walz, who is perfect for the moment.

In addition to his policy achievements and his rural progressive background, he’s a quirky, likable—and happy—showman himself, who of course launched the brilliant “weird” label for Trump, Vance and the GOP, which has been eaten up by the media. He keeps people engaged and has a refreshingly positive demeanor. But he can land a hard blow with a funny line, like getting JD Vance off the couch or discussing crime being up under Trump even without counting the crimes Trump committed himself.

The net result is packed arenas as Harris and Walz are on a battleground state blitz tour, while Trump is gasping for oxygen in the media from Mar-a-Lago, nowhere on the front pages. His energy level is clearly very low—he had no events scheduled all week in any battleground state—and there are reports that he’s worried, asking why Harris is raising so much money and surging in the polls.

Not taking the bait from him only creates a virtuous cycle: He then says crazier things to get attention—like his bizarre prediction that Biden would show up at the Democratic National Convention to take back the nomination and debate Trump again—which only further sinks him, and then says even more outrageous things after no one takes the bait, and on and on. The media can’t stay focused on his outburts—and this is key—because the energy and activity of the Harris-Walz campaign are more alluring right now.

Harris seems to have discovered that the way to beat Trump, at least in the media and at most in the election, may be to flood the zone with your own spectacle for the content-hungry media while ignoring Trump’s tantrums even as you make sure to stay focused on his dangerousness. So far, it’s working.