Strategy of the 2024 race? Kamala is failed and weak, while Trump and Vance are weird.

These appear to be the TPM for each side of this race? One has to assume this has been run by focus groups? Does suggesting a male wears eyeliner really work to change someone's vote?

Maybe it is just me, but failed and weak seems like a bit more of a vote deterrent than weird. But perhaps there is a method to the Harris madness, or perhaps it is a necessity?

Obviously Trump is pushing his strengths against the perceived weaknesses of Harris. Trump has been successful most of his life, and he projects strength in almost every situation. Trump has been the GOP nominee three times and upset Hillary in 2016 in spectacular fashion. Meanwhile, Harris dropped out of the 2020 nomination fight without a delegate, was chosen as Vice President because Biden promised to choose a woman of color, and then became the Democratic nominee by coup. She has done less to earn this nomination than any candidate in our nation's history.  I can see why voters would be swayed by this fundamental difference. Trump has fought through how much to be where he is? Harris was appointed the nomination without earning it.

While we can bicker and argue over the semantics of Harris's role as border czar, the truth was that she was given the task of overseeing the border issues (her only known task) and she failed miserably. She was an uneventful and deeply unpopular Vice-President. It is not a stretch to define her stint in that role as a failure.

On the flip side, Harris and team seem to believe that calling Trump and Vance "weird" will turn the election. Imagine the same group of people who cannot get enough of transgenderism and want drag queens reading books to children, demanding that Trump or Vance might wear eyeliner is a disqualifying issue to run the country? The only way this makes sense is if they feel it necessary to attempt to dent the masculinity of the two men who are likely and rightfully seen as alpha males. I would have expected the opposite. That Harris and her team would be attacking the so called toxic masculinity of the GOP ticket. But perhaps her own focus groups are telling them that voters are looking for that sort of strength and bravado at the Presidential level, and this is making the Harris team feel some sort of need to undermine that reputation. How tough can they be if they wear eyeliner when on television (which is pretty common for those who are on television, even men).

Meanwhile, what portions of the Trump Presidency are Harris and her team going to attack? The only attack I heard from Biden was to blame Trump for Covid and the loss of jobs when the country shut down. Not only is that dishonest, but it likely never played well to the public. Most people now remember the Trump presidency more fondly than they did in 2020. Most now remember the economy, the lack of war, and the general stability as a good thing. The late night tweets seem irrelevant (as they always should have). Better late night tweets than two ongoing wars, with new threats everyday of new ones.

So here we are. Failed and weak against weird. It doesn't really make much sense to me, but whatever you have to do, huh?