Harris Vs Trump 2024 US Presidential election - read the warning in the OP posted 18/09/24

Interesting you mentioned knock on effects, one of the reasons I heard for European nations being reluctant to supply arms to Israel is because they end up dealing with a migration crisis every time something goes wrong in the middle east, whereas the US gets to sell guns and bombs wherever they want and sit behind several thousand kilometres of ocean

Personally I'm very much in favour of a more closely integrated EU and I'm of the opinion that democratic nations looking to join should be helped and not strung along like the Western Balkans have been

However, it's worth remembering that not all of the world looks fondly on European militarism. Ask some of the former members of the British, French, Belgian or Russian empires how they felt about their former overlords and you'll usually get a string of curse words in their native language as a response

I'm not sure the USA is doing much better, can't imagine they've a lot of fans in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria or all across the Middle East at the moment

However, I will say the Americans have historically tried to practice a rules based system, whereas other nations are more of a take what they want at gunpoint attitude

My suspicion is under Trump, the US would shift back to a more transactional approach with the first question for any geopolitical action being "what's in it for us?"

Or perhaps more specifically, Trump asking what's in it for him

This is what happened the last time he was president

Not what I asked but thanks anyway. More link dumping without any original thought.

It seems to me that the voting practices of the average US presidential election voter need a refresh from just supporting the two major party candidates, that they are being denied a good range of thinking candidates due to the overwhelming power, grip even, of both the Democrats and the GOP on the electorate. The polarising effect of the present situation in the US is not one one would expect in a democracy.

I assume that what posters here say does not have an interference effect on US voters. I'd like US voters to think for themselves on what are important national issues instead of supporting candidates like Trump and stop supporting the industry that seems to have sprung up around the Presidential elections. Bin the soundbites and look at the policies.

You haven't watched it, don't be telling fibs now.

Meanwhile, trump is giving a press conference at the moment banging on about Harris not working at McDonald's, claimed he was beating Biden by 21 points, claiming that Harris is hiding while she is literally meeting zellenskyy.

Just the cogent speech patterns lacking from Harris eh?

The rhapsody.

Another blinder of a comment.

@MisterAnarchy how does this sit with you?

Trump is sure he can do a deal between Russia and Ukraine quite quickly. I reckon that would involve closing down the federal purse strings to Zelensky and instructing the DOD not to supply Ukraine [or allied nations] with weaponry bringing in stricter end-user TAC's. I'm surprised to hear on the news that Zelensky and Trump are to meet after Speaker Johnson slammed the door on the one he & Zelensky were to have. Maybe Trump didn't like being upstaged by Johnson after Zelensky met both party leaders from the senate.

If Europe did what Trump wanted and increased its defence spending I reckon he'd be happy, for a day. Imagine the look on his face though if Europe reduced buying US armaments and bought elsewhere, and the US arms trade started having to close factories in the states and knocking on his door to say domestic sales wont do.

If he thought long-term like Putin, where does he see Putin doing a land-grab after he'd taken what he fancied in Europe?. China? not on your nanny. But he doesn't do long-term planning, no siree… he leaves that to people he knows in the US intent on crippling the US Govt on the basis of pet theories.

And yet those who claim to be oh so concerned about Kamala Harris sidestepping questions are strangely silent.

Latest Bloomberg polling of likely voters has Harris slightly ahead in all swing states.

Ahead by 5 in Pennsylvania.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-09-26/harris-holds-thin-lead-over-trump-in-swing-state-poll-election-2024?leadSource=uverify%20wall

Fox news polling shows momentum going to Harris. It is from last week but noting it given it is a Republican leaning source.

The trends show Harris equalling or slightly ahead of Bidens 2020 performance. Trump equalling or slightly behind his 2020 level.

The new Fox News national survey finds a 3 percentage-point shift among registered voters in the 2024 presidential contest since mid-August. Trump had a 1-point advantage last month, while Harris is ahead by 2 points today: 50%-48%. For reference, in July, Trump was ahead by 1 point over President Biden. Each of those differences falls within the margin of error.

In swing states Georgia - this is recent poll:

In a head-to-head matchup, Vice President Kamala Harris tops former President Trump by 3 percentage points in a Fox News survey.

https://www.foxnews.com/official-polls/fox-news-poll-harris-ahead-trump-3-points-georgia

Whilst good news do you believe her performance at interviews such as mentioned above is the level she needs to be at in the final 4 weeks?

Personally I think she needs to be doing better - I don’t care about any politician fudging answers - that’s what politicians do- but I think Harris’ issue is that she’s taking the bait on smaller issues questions going too much down into the weeds and getting tied up in knots -

as president there’s only so much she can do and a lot of the questions asked of presidential candidates are simply out of their control - if the question is about the economy, there has to be just a few key Democrat policies that can touch on any economy related question -she needs to bring whatever question back to 3-4 key aspects of these policies and repeat repeat repeat these answers- but even these answers need to be clear- I don’t think they are.

Does it matter at this stage? Maybe it doesn’t but you won’t want the criticism in 4 weeks time to be about lost chances of landing key messages. Seasoned politicians are great at appearing to answer questions with great sounding answers whilst not really answering them - I don’t think Harris has this skill but that’s because most of her working life was as a prosecutor not a politician - a different skill set .

If there are dumb voters out there still fence sitting thinking Trump or Harris, I just don’t think those answers will resonate - but given how close the polls are, she still needs to reach these people. If she can’t say what she’ll do, at least attack Trumps policies and create some fear around what America will be like with his policies - fear is great for getting people off fences 😀

I'm in two minds on this.

There's probably a case to be made to tighten up the message.

On the other hand…

"If there are dumb voters out there still fence sitting thinking Trump or Harris, I just don’t think those answers will resonate."

If there are such voters, I don't really know what would resonate with them, and actually maybe the Harris team don't think getting too detailed on policy will work on them either.

do you believe her performance at interviews such as mentioned above is the level she needs to be at in the final 4 weeks?

Personally I think she needs to be doing better

Compared to who? There seems to be a duality in how performance in interviews is measured. I'd argue if this was a fair fight, you could compare interviews by both candidates using similar metrics but in this race you can't. Trump does an interview and spouts nonsense, tells lies and rambles, then Harris does an interview, speaks clearly, deflects one question and people say she could do better.

It's like comparing a Red Bull Soapbox race candidate and a Maclaren F1 car and saying "yeah, the Maclaren is professional looking, but I feel it could have gone an extra mile".