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All eyes were on the debate stage in Philadelphia last night for the long-anticipated showdown between President Trump and VP Harris. Going into the debate, both the polls and the general energy of the political moment suggested that the candidates were about even. Trump’s post-assassination attempt bump had long since given way to aggressively astroturfed media hype for Kamala’s “brat” summer, whose season has come to a rather pathetic and anti-climactic close. Those looking for the debate to dramatically alter the energy and dynamic of the race, as Biden’s fatefully disastrous debate did, are likely to be disappointed.

In the final assessment, Trump was high energy, leaned into key issues of importance to the base (immigration), and came across better on the most important issues, such as the economy. Despite flagrant interference from the pathetic moderation panel, Trump came out ahead with a modest edge, but Kamala didn’t totally bomb, meaning the end effect does not dramatically alter the course of the debate in any significant way. The fact that despite the media trying to recon this into a win for Kamala, average voters don’t seem to think of it that way suggests our earlier analysis of the 2024 dynamics holds well—namely, that Kamala’s advantage is in running as a chameleon democrat, and the more people are exposed to her, the less people like her.

Revolver:

As an AG, Kamala signaled a tough posture by going after marijuana and the parents of truant kids. As a senator, she was the most liberal person around. When she ran for president, she couldn’t figure out if she was an identity politics gremlin, a far-left crusader, or a centrist coalition builder. As vice president, she’s been shuffled from issue to issue and doesn’t even want to own a particular one.

In a normal election, this would be bad. It’s why Kamala flopped in the primaries—there was nobody who organically liked her over some other Democrat.

But this isn’t a normal election. Instead, Kamala has simply been airdropped into the race, with no debate to be had and only three months to go. And that means Kamala’s very chameleon-like nature is actually something of an asset.

It’s sometimes pointed out that, in the polls, “Generic Democrat” or “Generic Republican” will outperform a candidate with an actual name because voters can simply use the “generic” label to fill in their ideal candidate. In this unusual, abbreviated election, Kamala might be pulling that off. She has no real expectations. Democrats can treat her as a fantasy blank slate. Kamala is the generic Democrat, and in a short race, that’s helping.

In fact, Kamala has taken advantage of her chameleon status to shape shift and steal some of Trump’s signature policies, such as no tax on tips. Trump alluded to this in the debate by suggesting she doesn’t even have policies to disagree with and then taunting that sometimes he thinks he should send her a MAGA hat.

Trump wisely went on to hammer Kamala-Biden on inflation, arguably one of VP Harris’ greatest vulnerabilities.

The discussion of Biden-Harris’ colossal and expensive botched execution of the Afghanistan withdrawal was also a high point for President Trump.

Trump also had the edge on foreign policy. His remarks and approach were consistent with our advice to the Trump campaign to lean in on the notion of Trump as a peace candidate. This contrasts quite readily with Kamala Harris, whose verbiage was littered with encomiums to NATO, vapid praise for Ukraine’s Zelensky, and most bizarre of all positive references to arch neoconservative war mongers like the disgraced John McCain Dick Cheney, the latter of whom (unsurprisingly) has publicly endorsed VP Harris.

Here’s what we had to say about Trump’s foreign policy advantage in our viral strategy piece.

Revolver:

If there is one issue where Donald Trump’s presidency has been entirely vindicated, it’s foreign policy. For four blissful years, America embarked on no new wars and wound down the ones it was already embroiled in. Then, as soon as Trump left, it all went to hell. Now, the new quagmires in Ukraine and the Levant are consuming even more money than the Afghan war was, and America is teetering on the brink of yet another war, this one with Iran. The less said about Taiwan and its threat from China, the better.

Trump would do well to deliver a simple promise to the American people: As president, he’ll end the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and save America the hundred billion dollars a year going into those money pits. A vote for Kamala is a vote for war, while a Trump vote is a vote for peace.

Not only is this a winning issue on its own, but elevating the Ukraine issue will accentuate the strongest aspects of Trump’s vice presidential pick. JD Vance was one of the only people right there with Trump from the very beginning opposing America’s Ukraine involvement. Meanwhile, a vote for Kamala is understood by the public as a vote for more war funding, handled by the woman who can only explain the conflict at a first-grade level.

[…]

An emphasis on Trump’s role as a peacemaker has considerable corollary benefits when it comes to ending the Ukraine war in particular. As we proved in our classic series on Color Revolution professionals, the specific subset of deep state operatives who are obsessed with continuing and escalating conflict with Russia is the same subset of the ruling class most singularly obsessed with undermining Trump. The bizarre fact that so many of Trump’s detractors and so many of the operative witnesses in his sham impeachment trials are so-called “Russia experts” in the national security space. This group, obsessed with both Russia and Trump, effectively tried to kill two birds with one stone by supporting the absurd and dangerous view that Trump was somehow supported by Russia, and therefore efforts to undermine Trump, including censorship, could be considered “national security” imperatives. In short, apart from the geopolitical interest and humanitarian interest in ending the Ukraine war, there is the enormous benefit that this issue strikes directly at the hornet’s nest that has been so instrumental to the deep state’s war on Trump supporters domestically.

Trump was on fire when the subject of immigration came up, pointing out the utter and tragic failure of VP Harris and Biden to allow over 20 million criminal aliens into the country, many of whom are violent and antithetical to the very conditions of civilized life. Trump explicitly mentioned the Venezuelan gangs taking over Colorado, as well as the recent scandal involving Haitian migrants devastating towns like Springfield, Ohio. With characteristic panache, Trump referenced the Haitian migrants’ savage eating habits.

Finally, we should note that Kamala doubled down on the Fedsurrection hoax, reaffirming her absurd view of January 6 as the worst terror event since the Civil War (she does this on the eve of 9/11, no less!). Most damning of all, Kamala Harris doubled down on a lie that she was only in the Capitol on January 6th and yet again refused the opportunity to say she was in the DNC during the discovery of the alleged MAGA pipe bomb. Revolver’s Darren Beattie has been pointing out for years how bizarre it is that Kamala’s narrow escape from the January 6 pipe bomb—what you would think should be the Dems and Kamala’s number one talking point about January 6th—is in fact their most carefully guarded secret.

Revolver:

Nonetheless, the recent spotlight on Vice President Kamala Harris invites renewed attention to perhaps the darkest and most damning question surrounding the entire Fedsurrection lie: why, against all seeming political interest, would Kamala neglect to mention the fact that she was in the DNC building when the pipe bomb was discovered and removed? Indeed, given how desperate the Democrats have been to hype up January 6th into a “domestic terror” event, to the point of outright fabricating stories to fit this tortured thesis, why would Kamala Harris (or Biden) not publicize the fact that she nearly lost her life to the ostensible MAGA pipe bomb? Put another way, why is Kamala Harris’ narrow brush with the DNC pipe bomb not the Democrats’ top January 6 talking point rather than its most carefully guarded secret? To this day, Kamala Harris refuses to publicly acknowledge her presence in the DNC building!

The importance of getting to the bottom of this dark secret in the aftermath of the assassination attempt against Trump. Indeed, Kamala’s dark January 6 secret in relation to the pipe bomb implicates the highly politicized and corrupt US Secret Service—the same agency that “conveniently” allowed a man with a rifle on a roof less than 200 yards away from President Trump.

READ MORE: Kamala Harris Is Hiding Something Big Involving January 6, Pipe Bombs, and the Secret Service

At the end of the day, debates like this are won or lost in the post-mortem analysis battles. We have to counterbalance our assessment that Trump gets the slight edge with the profoundly low expectations set for Kamala. Indeed, it is quite possible that the fact that she meets the bare minimum conditions of plausibility compared to Biden means that, in a certain sense, she came out ahead. We will have to see how it plays out, but our assessment remains that the underlying dynamic of the race is unchanged, and Trump has the edge on the issues that matter most, especially to undecided voters, and that there is an element of visceral dislike toward the eminently unlikeable Kamala that works as a significant intangible in Trump’s favor, especially after public displays such as we saw last night.

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