People who took summer vacation the day of the last presidential debate may not believe their eyes when they watch the next debate.
Tuesday’s debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is the culmination of 75 days of complete and unprecedented campaign chaos — and the start of a 55-day race through equally uncharted waters to Election Day.
“It’s like running a 5K after riding a Tilt-A-Whirl: The world is spinning and you have to quickly figure out which end is up,” said Democratic strategist Jared Leopold.
In the 2.5 months since Trump and President Joe Biden faced off in late June, some fundamental aspects of the race have been upended as one candidate was replaced and the other nearly killed.
The parties have created new national figures from a pair of fellow vice presidential nominees: Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Trump’s criminal convictions, which are expected to dominate much of the campaign thanks to a July 4 Supreme Court ruling, do not appear.
Best vote In a generation, third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. saw his numbers collapse, and he dropped out of the race and is backing Trump.
The parties even changed the rules of the debate The Harris campaign then pushed (unsuccessfully) for open mics during all debates Biden’s team opted to turn off the candidates’ microphones when it was not their turn.
Craig Snyder, a Philadelphia political operative and author of the new presidential campaign novel Guile, said fiction writers can’t get away with something as unpredictable as the reality of this year’s election.
“The facts of the 2024 campaign will probably not be covered as fiction. It’s unbelievable that so many unprecedented events could happen one after the other,” said Snyder, a Republican who runs Haley Voters for Harris, a group of Nikki Haley supporters supporting Harris. “But for all the improbable plot twists, we’re in what could be one of the most important political debates in American history — perhaps second only to the last — and yet more of a race back to where it all started. a year ago – closed!
Now, in the prime of the campaign, after the conventions and as early voting prepares to begin in some states, the real campaign between the two candidates actually facing off in the general election finally begins in earnest — raising the stakes for the first time on Tuesday. and potentially an argument between two people who have never met in person.
“What happens in these nights lives on. Just ask Joe Biden,” Republican strategist Matt Gorman said. “Kamala wants to get out of here screaming. Expect the Harris campaign to add something to the campaign or start a story they hope to continue for weeks.
Now, the Democrats have a younger candidate with a fundraising advantage and a big crowd — a stark contrast from a few months ago — but Trump remains Trump, even as some allies insist he’s a changed man. his life in mid-July Rally in Pennsylvania.
“This debate is essentially a funhouse mirror of the first debate: Trump is still the same, but now Harris is lined up against him, he looks much older, sounds more incoherent, and seems drastically out of touch,” he said. Caitlin Legacki, Democratic strategist.
And, Legachki said, Harris can now speak more effectively about abortion — a key Democratic issue — than Biden could, given his personal concerns about the issue.
The former president and current vice president, who are out of actual office, are each pseudo-incumbents, trying to act as change agents while preserving the achievements of their time in the White House.
This dynamic has clouded the policy agenda for both candidates, who have not provided details on critical policy areas and have made contradictory or at least ambiguous statements about old positions.
At times, Trump has been reluctant to switch his opponent, initially insisting (and hoping) that Biden would return to work from time to time. Freudian slips naming his opponent Biden.
Democrats, meanwhile, have woken up from the agony of the Biden era — but have their own growing pains under the new administration.
After Biden’s poll numbers plummeted in the month following his disastrous June 27 debate, Biden announced on social media that he was stepping aside and giving Harris his endorsement and the $96 million his campaign had in the bank.
The news has been published And Biden was recuperating from Covid-19 at his beach house brought euphoria and good “vibes” for Harris through July and August as he won the nomination, defeated Walz and rallied the party at its national convention. But there is some evidence that he has taken to the debates as he faces growing criticism for avoiding reporters and offering scant details of his policy agenda.
Harris’ campaign only posted a policy page on its website on Monday. And the platform his party adopted at its convention last month was written before Biden withdrew and was left unedited to avoid reopening fraught issues like Israel’s war in Gaza.
And despite the vibes and the improved numbers, Harris tells supporters he’s still ‘reduced’ against Trump with surveys usually shows the results Within the margin of error and all signs point to an extremely close election.
“Any way you look at this race, it’s a blowout,” pollster Richard Czuba, founder of Lansing-based Glengariff Group, said of the recent race. Detroit News-WDIV-TV poll Michigan voters repeat what virtually every pollster says in virtually every poll.
To top off the past 75 days of chaos, America now gets 55 days of unpredictability with little precedent in modern history.