trump off the CO ballot

[Meadmaker]

To answer your question... I was asking you. I have no idea what a generic voter is.

To answer for me, nothing would make me vote for Trump, so the question of ad effectiveness is moot.

Come to think of it, we had been talking about independent voters here. The voters who are going to decide this election.

You seem to be placing what normally might be considered legitimate policy options way over towards extreme Trump territory. That's not where independent voters reside.

I don't understand what you are saying here.

I also don't know where you think independent voters reside.

Harris is required to walk on eggshells with independent voters while Trump can be as extreme as ever because, well, everybody knows that's how he is?

Seems like very biased thinking.

It seems like a simple observation of voter behavior and reactions. I don't like it any more than you do, but it's reality. Kamala Harris and her campaign tream need to be aware of it and campaign in ways that actually reach independent voters, instead of in ways that they think ought to reach independent voters.

I don't knwo what you think that would look like. I see what the campaign actually produces, and some of it is pretty bad. (I'm thinking especially of the "man enough" ads, and the recent attempt to win black male votes by promising access to crypto currency.) Some of it is pretty good, in my opinion, but it doesn't seem to be getting through. When it comes to polls, prediction markets, and other indicators, it really seems like she has lost ground over the last few weeks.

[Meadmaker]

Harris is required to walk on eggshells with independent voters while Trump can be as extreme as ever because, well, everybody knows that's how he is?

Seems like very biased thinking.

I want to revise my response.

I think Trump's bombastic rhetoric hurts him with independent voters, but it's not enough to turn most of them away from him, and towards Kamala, because they don't really like Kamala, either. "Walking on eggshells" is the last thing that she needs to do to change that, though. She needs to take firm stances that will convince voters that she's not as bad as Trump.

Recently, her approach has mostly been to emphazize just how bad Trump really is, but that can only take her so far.


As an aside, I do think that an even bigger issue with independents is, as TA said, the economy. There's a limit to what she can do about that. I think we give too much credit and too much blame to politicians, especially presidents, on the state of the economy, but we do. If people think the economy is bad, they vote against the incombent, or the party of the incumbent. If she can convince voters that she isn't responsible for inflation, or that she really has good ideas about the economy, she will also win. However, I don't think she can. Her basic approach on the economy is to give away money. That sells with her base, but it turns off a lot of independents.