You Think California will Come Up in the Debate?

Trump, Harris. (Photo: Trump Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks; Harris (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

With only a day or so before the first – and possibly only – debate, Kamala Harris is practicing now by shoving a thumbtack into her palm to remind her not to say “California is a country in Europe with buses on which the wheels go around all the way to the moon and that’s why the experience of time is like now and the future.”

As to Donald Trump, he is reminding himself why he has come across (to the undecided voter, at least) better than last lime – stay quietish, wait for your moment.

One assumes that Trump’s Harris debate prep stand-in, former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, has spent much of the practice time trying to be as incomprehensible as Harris. Tough gig, but if she has done it right she will help Trump to calmly deal with the bumbleglitch that is Harris.

One of the most obvious – and easiest to answer – questions is: will anyone mention California?

The answer, of course, is yes but the two candidates will approach the Golden State in very different ways.

Harris’ overall message on the woeful condition of her home state – a state she has helped govern into the ground over the past two decades – will be a combination of “I didn’t do it, it’s not bad, only the national media lies about is California (but not about me,), we’ve been working together to improve the already wonderful fifth largest economy on the planet, and we stand for fweedom.”

The fweedom Kamala will reference is not the actual freedom to have your own thoughts and exercise your rights inherent as a discrete individual in a larger society. Instead, it’s the ability for anyone to revert to a dependent juvenile self-loathing funk but be able to drug and/or cut and/or steal and/or hate their way out of it at taxpayer expense.

Not only will Harris lie about California, she will lie about herself even more. That’s because, even though a multi-flipper, she will be portrayed – no matter what – as a transformative figure of justice.

Of course, the former “border tsar” has released the following ad on Fox News here.

In other words, the lying and the hypocrisy will know no bounds Tuesday night.

Harris will also not debate California facts – If asked, she will deny finagling the ballot tile of Proposition 47 to make it more amenable to voters, and she will somehow  claim to be “tough on crime” when she helped create today’s San Francisco.

Harris will also – if she remembers – to pivot from her usual public human mode to her protector mode. Besides the fact that – putting aside the  black and Asian and south Asian and Jamaican and what have you –  she actually qualified on the national stage, as it were, for projecting seriousness during Supreme Court Justic Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing,  Her “cross-examination” was hailed, even though everyone knew it was based on lies.

She will – if she’s smart – try this tactic again Tuesday. She is more comfortable in that role and she will focus on Trump’s alleged convictions/charges/civil cases.

And her team has already said they are going to try to “get under” Trump’s skin.

But that does bring risk: theoretically, it’s her big strength, even though asking tough/irritating questions is supposed to a strength and if it goes mongoose versus cobra sideways, then she should be by all rights doomed.

The cobra always loses.

Of course, she won’t. Short of going Joe during the debate, her performance – no matter what it is – shall be regaled as wonderful, put that nasty rich white guy in his pace, understands everyday Americans, etc.  

That’s why Trump has to hold his power and wait until the moment – and it will occur – when she says something truly incomprehensible and then look into the camera and repeat his best line from the Biden debate: “I don’t even think she knows what she was saying.”

Everyone got that line – everyone agreed with that line – that line was true – that line ended the Biden presidency.

Trump needs to highlight California and Harris’ ascension to power. Up until about eight weeks ago, Harris was being dismissed by the very progressive/deep statey DC media as a lightweight, at best.  Just a few weeks before Biden shuffled his political coil, there were calls for him to remove her to have a better shot at getting re-elected.

Harris will have had every answer drilled into her head by know, a fact Trump can take advantage of. One or two “nice” shots to push her out of her script and she could go very off the rails.

Trump has to remember that he is not debating the issue of the day with a possible president – he must remember he is dealing with a petulant child.  And that is another difficulty – come off as too mean and the audience turns on you.

We’ve all seen the parent disciplining the kid in the grocery store – it’s very uncomfortable.

But if Trump can hold powder, strike with national and California facts in a timely fashion, then the Kamala that will be seen on the stage will be the one everyone in California knows: the girl who had an affair or two to get where she is.

By the way, how is P. Diddy these day, Kamala?