Kamala's own campaign is downplaying debate expectations

Harris Aides Worried She’ll Be ‘Handcuffed’ by Mic Rules

“Kamala Harris had planned to object, fact-check and directly question Donald Trump while he was speaking during their debate next week. But now, with rules just finalized to mute the candidates when their opponents speaks, campaign officials said Harris advisers are scrambling to rewrite their playbook,” Politico reports.

“And since the debate rules about muted microphones mean she is unlikely to have many clear back-and-forths with him, many close to her team figure she should not try too hard to create moments like her viral ones questioning Jeff Sessions and Brett Kavanaugh as a senator.”

First of all, I am not sure that Harris's "viral" moment questioning Kavanaugh was considered a positive thing for Harris. She basically asked Kavanaugh if he has spoken to anyone at a particular law firm about the Mueller investigation. Kavanaugh suggested that he was not familiar with either the law firm or who might work there and asked if she had a specific person in mind that she believed he might have spoken to. For about five minutes there was a circular back and forth with Harris demanding that Kavanaugh answer the question and Kavanaugh suggesting that the question was not specific enough to answer. There was an objection raised by a Senator that the question was not only vague, but that there is no way anyone would know who every member of every law firm would be, especially around Washington DC where law firms are a dime a dozen, some have hundreds of attorneys, and people are moving between them like flowing water. As pointed out by legal experts such questioning would not have survived the first objection in an actual court and a judge would have ordered a prosecutor to offer up the person she was accusing him of speaking with, rather than ask vague questions that are impossible to answer.

The idea was to try to play if off as something that made Kavanaugh look guilty as he was obviously not going to categorially deny a question he did not understand or have enough information to answer. At one point Harris decided that by not answering the question he was admitting that he did speak to someone at the law firm. At the end of the day, Kavanaugh had not spoken to anyone, and Harris had no actual information suggesting that he had spoken to anyone at the firm in question. It was all a backhanded play to make it look like he had and was afraid to admit it. Only people who care very little about right and wrong and facts and lies would have seen this as a good exchange for Harris. It was Harris being dishonest and tacky, trying to trip up a much superior legal mind.

So now that it looks like they must focus on policy instead of playing games. The fact that this is requiring them to completely rewrite their strategy at this point just goes to show how far they are willing to go to avoid talking about the issues. It also shows exactly how desperate they were to change the rules to accommodate the strategy. My guess is that they truly believed that their home turf debate hosts would just cave to their demands or that Trump would be easily goaded into agreeing to change the rules. They were using childish playground tactics in order to turn the debate into a series of childish playground tactics.

But this is apparently the best that Harris can offer. Weak on policy, but someone who believes she is capable of "creating a moment" to carry the day in some non-tangible politicized manner. Much like the "I'm talking" deal she used against Mike Pense, so often that she came across as almost a bully. But of course, a minority women can be as rude as she wants to a White male and the press will think it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. But if Pense had fought back even a little, then he would have been crucified for mansplaining or something. Like the dog owners who think it is cute that their 5 lb. Pomeranian growls and lunges at the 110 lb. Rottweiler. But, of course, they would sue to have the Rottweiler put down if their yappy irritating little dog got too close and got hurt by the Rottweiler.