Blue Panic

Democrats are worried about their candidate:

Nearly two dozen Democrats told Politico that they’re worried that Harris’s overly cautious, risk-averse strategy might hurt her campaign as it heads into the final 30 days. They believe her reluctance to hold more substantive interviews and her light campaigning schedule could prove to be a significant liability in the closing stretch of the race. “There’s a time at which you just have to barnstorm these battlegrounds,” former Obama advisor David Axelrod told the outlet. “These races are decathlons, and there are a lot of events, and you have to do all of them because people want to test you.” “It’s the most difficult oral exam on the planet for the most difficult job, and part of that is just that spontaneous — town halls, all kinds of interviews, and not just friendly interviews. OTRs where you interact in a substantive way with people, all of those things are valuable,” Axelrod continued. “And I would be doing them if I were her.”

Democrats acknowledged Harris is performing better than Biden and the excitement surrounding her candidacy has increased the party’s cash advantage. She’s also put the Sun Belt swing states back in play. But they’re also growing more distressed that a campaign insisting Harris is the “underdog” is running like she’s protecting a lead. While the plan is for Harris’ travel to ramp up in October, the vice president has spent more than a third of days since the Democratic National Convention receiving briefings from staff and conducting internal meetings, or without any scheduled public events, according to a POLITICO review of her travel. That excludes days with known official side business, like her late September meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the president of the United Arab Emirates, at the White House, last week’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and briefings she received at FEMA’s headquarters in Washington earlier this week.

According to the report, Kamala has devoted just over half of the remaining days of the campaign to holding rallies, delivering policy-focused speeches, and participating in events with labor unions and other public-facing activities, including visits to small businesses in key swing states. Remarkably, she has also spent nearly half of her time since the DNC in Washington, pretending to be presidential and in charge.

Except that neither she nor anyone else seems to be...