Ignore the Media Haters. The ‘Harris Honeymoon’ Is Far From Over

They’re baaaa-ack.

Well, actually, truth be told, they never left. They are America’s political media elites and they are still up to their old shenanigans, focusing on the wrong thing, distorting the facts, and time and time again getting it wrong.

Their latest target is the Kamala Harris campaign for president. Apparently, they are deeply uncomfortable with the fact that it is going so well. They view this as a challenge, it seems, or perhaps see her rapid ascendancy as a sign they are doing something wrong.

So, the same people who thought it was worthwhile to speculate on why Hillary Clinton was wearing so many pantsuits instead of focusing on the fact that she was running against a corrupt lunatic are now writing probing columns and articles seeking to pick apart or undermine Harris’ success. Even though she too is running against a loonier more dangerous version of the same madman. Even though the “why” of Harris’ success really ought to be a bigger story than trying to manufacture bogus stories about why it allegedly cannot last.

Photographer Disproves Trump’s Kamala Plane Crowd ConspiracyCLEAR AS DAY

Corbin Bolies, Matt Wilstein

In just the past few days, you have seen Politico run with a piece about “tensions” with the Harris campaign as it did the inevitable and brought on new staffers to replace a team that had been put together to serve a completely different candidate in a completely different kind of race.

You have seen so-called pundits pick up on the silly assertions of JD Vance that Harris is not speaking to the media even though she has been on constant public display ever since her candidacy began. She has given many addresses during that time, she has spoken to the press frequently—as her opponent has been hunkered down doing precious little except posting nutty conspiracy theories on social media, lying at a rate worthy of an Olympic medal during one interview with a friendly journalist, and ranting about things that did not happen with people who did not do them.

You’ve got media bigwigs suggesting it is now time for her to change her campaign style to something more “serious” despite the fact that a) her campaign has been serious and substantive from the outset and b) her campaign has been a phenomenon, by many metrics one of the most successful launches we have ever seen in American politics. More substantive? Time for “more meat on the bone?” What?

In every speech she has given she talks about principles and policies. About guaranteeing women bodily autonomy. About reducing gun violence. About lowering the costs of drugs and stopping corporate price gouging. About defending voting rights and democracy. About fairer taxes. About defending ourselves against our enemies worldwide. About preserving our alliances. About the need for an immediate ceasefire and the return of the hostages in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

What is more in each of these cases she is not speaking in floating generalities or outright lies like her opponents. She is talking about signing a law guaranteeing women’s reproductive freedom. She is talking about universal background checks and an assault weapons ban. She is working right now within the administration on a new wave of negotiated drug price reductions.

When she mentioned not taxing tips it was not “copying” a Trump suggestion, it was to make a point—that she would do it in a way that would help service industry workers whereas he was talking the talk as a way of creating a new loophole for his hedge fund buddies. On Israel-Gaza or Ukraine she is not offering the idiotic coded blather of Trump. His statement that he would end both wars quickly means more suffering for Palestinians in Gaza and Russian victory in Ukraine.

What is more when they say “Where does she stand on the issues?” they ignore the fact that she is running on the very clear, very accomplished record of the Biden-Harris administration. Further, she is running on direct, detailed, specific opposition to the Trump campaign’s Project 2025.

In fact, the reality is this: The Harris-Walz campaign is not the big vibe soufflé that some commentators are making it out to be. It is a detailed, already very policy-rich campaign that poses both a very clear vision for the future and the reasons to oppose the hugely dangerous and destructive policy proposals of her opponents. The story is not about some sugar high following the entrance of a “new face” (who has been around for years) in the race. It is about the enthusiasm people feel for having a candidate that can bring an end to the Trump-MAGA threat and deliver on the promise of a better future for all Americans.

But not only are they missing the point of just what the Harris campaign really is or why it is so consequential, in so doing they are also failing to adequately cover the fact that Trump is demonstrating daily that he is even more unfit than before to hold high office, that the threat he poses to the country and the world is growing daily, and that he is already setting the stage to contest in possibly illegal and violent ways his likely loss in November.

Because her pantsuits. Because her emails. Because, holy Hell, haven’t we seen this damn movie before? The same folks that first said Hillary was a slam-dunk winner in 2016 and then did everything in their power to undermine her while minimizing the threat posed by Trump, the same ones that wrongly downplayed Trump’s ties to Russia, the same ones who sought regularly to normalize him as president, the same ones that said Biden could never achieve his ambitious agenda as president, the same ones that predicted the red wave in 2018 and got almost every post-Roe interim election pick wrong—and the same ones who have underestimated Kamala Harris for the past nearly four years—are at it again.

What is encouraging however, is that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have connected with the American people in a way that has enabled them to seemingly bypass and tune out the choruses of professional and wannabe kibitzers.

In just three weeks, they have completely obliterated what remained of the credibility of these folks—you know, the ones who said that she shouldn’t be Biden’s successor. That America could never embrace a woman candidate of color. That she could never unify the fractious Democratic Party. That the Biden to Harris transition could never be handled smoothly. That she had to pick this VP candidate or that one. That this campaign would be just like her 2019 abortive run for president. That perhaps maybe something among their litany of erroneous takes on her vice presidency might be right.

No, we’re getting more of the same old B.S. from so-called journalists who think their job is to be “evenhanded” rather than reporting the facts, who mistake their Georgetown cocktail party conversation conventional wisdom with what the American people feel, think, need and want.

But it seems that perhaps the biggest story of all is that this time around we know it is B.S., this time around a big and growing chunk of the public seems to be tuning out the real “third party” in American politics—the media elites—because they realize they don’t know what the story is, they are more committed to winning clicks and eyeballs than to reporting the facts, and that when they do a see a story they very often get it wrong.

So this time around, it appears the American people have decided to choose reality instead of reality TV. Which could very well mean that the “end of the honeymoon” being predicted by a lot of these ink-stained galaxy brains will never really come because it’s not a “honeymoon” at all.

Instead, it could very well be an early but convincing sign of an historic choice the American people are preparing to make—a choice to embrace hope and reject disaster, to back a leader who cares about them rather than a traitor/rapist/felon who cares only about himself.