Positives win, negatives lose. That’s the subject of “The Riff.”
Positive versus negative. Positives always win. Negatives always lose. Optimism beats pessimism.
Kamala Harris’ closing arguments are incredibly negative. You have to look hard to find any positive at all.
She mentioned Donald Trump 24 times in her speech at the Washington Ellipse on Tuesday night – and they were none too complimentary.
Instead of charting a new course, she went backwards, and basically gave a Donald Trump hate speech. It’s nothing but trash talk. While 1,000 feet away, Joe Biden called roughly 80 million Trump supporters ‘garbage.’
And here’s what Mr. Trump had to say about that today in North Carolina:
FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP: “Joe Biden finally said what he and Kamala really think of our supporters, he called them ‘garbage.’ And they mean it. … My response to Joe and Kamala is very simple – you can’t lead America if you don’t love Americans.”
So, Kamala’s giving us the old “threat to democracy” riff.
But people have heard it before. They’re sick and tired of it. It hasn’t worked for several years. It’s not gonna work now. Calling Trump all the usual names and lying about an alleged Trump abortion ban or outlawing IVF, or the socialist saw about making the rich pay their fair share, or the bunk about a 20% national sales tax.
None of that’s going to work. It just won’t. That’s how she planted her feet inside the Beltway with six days left in the election – and it’s going to get her nowhere.
Typical middle-class families of all colors and ethnicities would like to know: “Kamala, what are you gonna do for us?” And her tepid response, as usual, is: price controls, rent controls, unconstitutional handouts to minority groups, and more entitlement spending without work requirements, breaking the federal bank even more.
But none of that fits the kitchen table anxieties that are the key issues in this election, alongside the open border catastrophe.
Apparently, she did mention that she would deport criminals, which is something new and different for her. But, then again, why didn’t she do it the last four years? And, hence, what kind of credibility does that have?
One of the key problems for Kamala is simply this: Voters do not want a second Biden-Harris term.
It’s too expensive to buy a car, too expensive to buy a home, real wages are falling, mortgage rates are soaring, the affordability crisis continues. The crime wave from illegal immigration is pervasive. The foreign wars seem endless. There must be a change.
TRUMP ANNOUNCES SUPPORT FOR TAX BREAKS FOR FAMILY CAREGIVERS
But, for many years, Donald Trump has consistently argued a different course – of lower taxes, shrinking government, stopping the regulatory wet blanket, energy independence, “Remain in Mexico,” building the wall, starving the Iranians, negotiating an end to the Ukraine-Russia war, ending unfair trading practices, defending America, and ending the cultural woke war against common sense middle-class values.
Those are all positives. They would move the country in a completely different direction.
Kamala Harris is probably the least policy-savvy presidential candidate in memory. Mr. Trump is the most policy-savvy candidate in memory.
And he has built a new Republican coalition around his policy vision to reignite America.
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Here is that coalition in his own words — again, today speaking in North Carolina:
TRUMP: “We’ve brought together veterans and union members, soldiers and steelworkers, farmers and autoworkers and patriotic moms and dads of every race, religion, color and creed. Right? We’re welcoming historic numbers of African Americans and Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans and Arab Americans. And we’re uniting Christians and Jews and Catholics and evangelicals and Muslims and Mormons and everyone who simply want one thing. They want one thing. To make America great again.”
As I said, positives win, negatives lose. And that’s not garbage.
That’s “The Riff.”
This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the Oct. 30, 2024, edition of “Kudlow.”
