Who Is Sabotaging Kamala Harris' Campaign?
Houston Rally A Second Bait And Switch With Beyonce
Somebody in Kamala Harris’ campaign must not like her very much.
How else do we explain a repeat of the infamous “bait and switch” regarding Beyonce making an appearance at the Democratic National Convention? Yet Kamala Harris’ Houston rally was exactly that—another bait and switch.
While Beyonce did appear, she only spoke for 5 minutes and then turned the stage over to Kamala Harris.
Kamala Harris supporters waited for more than 12 hours to see the superstar at a Houston rally Friday night. Instead of hearing the superstar sing "Freedom," which is now inextricably connected to Harris' campaign through her first campaign video ad and which is blared at rallies, they listened as Beyoncé gave a moving endorsement for the presidential candidate.
USA Today gave the “polite” framing of Beyonce’s appearance.
Steve Watson at Modernity News was far less charitable.
The Kamala Harris rally in Houston last night was billed as a Beyoncé concert. Everyone, including the media, believed the singer would perform after the announcement was made earlier in the week, but all she did was walk out and make a barely audible speech for a few minutes. Then the rally descended into complete chaos.
What is absolutely certain, however, is that corporate media across the board reported the day before the rally that Beyonce would in fact be performing at the rally.
That was the headline on The Mirror.
According to reporting on Today.com, Kamala Harris’ campaign was telling people Beyonce was going to perform at the rally.
Pop superstar Beyoncé will appear with Vice President Kamala Harris at her event in Houston, Texas on Friday evening, according to three sources familiar with the plans.
Beyonce is also expected to perform, according to one of the sources, who has direct knowledge of the preparations.
Even just hours before the rally began, USA Today was reporting that Beyonce was going to be performing.
Vanity Fair also promoted Beyonce’s appearance as a performance.
There can be no doubt but that the expectation was being set that Beyonce would be singing at the rally.
There is little doubt but that Kamala Harris’ campaign was the source of the hype that Beyonce would be singing at the rally.
Beyonce did not sing at the rally.
Based on some of the videos taken at the rally, that did not go over well.
More than one video clip appears to show the audience booing and disrupting Kamala’s speech.
It would appear the audience was not happy at being denied a Beyonce performance.
Yet the campaign’s self-sabotage over this rally did not begin by misleading corporate media and then the public over Beyonce’s “appearance.”
Perhaps the larger sabotage began when the rally was planned in the first place.
Why is Kamala Harris—the Democratic candidate—campainging in Texas at all this late in the race?
Remember, this is Texas—a state which has long been a Republican stronghold. While Democrats are striving mightily to turn the state blue, this is not the election where that will happen. Not one single poll in the RCP aggregate has ever showed Kamala Harris to be even within striking distance of winning the state.
Even a Beyonce concert was not going to give Kamala Harris anywhere near the boost she needs to take the Lone Star State.
At the same time, Kamala Harris has been slipping dangerously in the battleground states, and now trails in all of them.
Nor is this a new twist. She has been sinking steadily in the battleground states throughout October.
A rally in Texas will do little to change Kamala Harris’ fortunes in that state. A rally in Pennsylvania could change her fortunes in that state tremendously. If she doesn’t do something to change the momentum in that state, she is likely to lose.
An appearance in Wisconsin would could be the make-or-break move for Kamala Harris in that state, as that is perhaps the tightest race among the battleground states.
With less than two weeks to go before the election, both candidates need to think tactically about where they campaign and how they use finite campaign resources.
For Kamala Harris, a campaign rally in Texas this late in the race is simply not a good use of her finite resources. Frankly, a rally in Texas for Donald Trump would also be a suspect move—Trump has far more to gain or lose in the battleground states, just like Kamala Harris.
Harris’ campaign staff has access to all the public polling data I do—and all of their own internal polling data besides.
Kamala Harris’ campaign staff can read a map just as I can, and should be able to do the Electoral College match just as I can.
Yet Kamala Harris’ campaign staff, with this Houston rally, not only made boneheaded choices regarding how it was hyped to the media, they made boneheaded choices even deciding to hold a rally in Houston, Texas, in the late stages of the campaign.
Remember, Texas has never been a “battleground” state. It has for decades been reliably GOP, just as New York and California are reliably Democrat and have been for decades.
One reason Trump has been overtaking Kamala Harris in this election is because Kamala Harris’ campaign staff has a seeming fondness for bonehaded choices when it comes to planning out her next moves on the campaign trail.
With Kamala Harris making boneheaded choices such as these, it can hardly come as a shock that Donald Trump is in the lead. At this point in the campaign Donald Trump is simply the stronger candidate with the smarter campaign.
The only reason they do this is to draw people to her rallies to make it look like she has more support than Trump. People have caught on to this unless they are totally ignorant!
Harris is taking more of a beating from Biden and Obama.