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Notes -
Kamala's VP pick is in: Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota. Shapiro was apparently off the board because of some botched case from a decade ago. Although Walz is an unknown to most American voters, he conveys "midwestern good vibes" and seems like a pleasant enough white guy. Probably will be harder to go after than JD vance. Any minnesotans got any cool stories about him?
I wonder what attacks on their campaign are most likely to stick. There is no record for the future, just vibes. Maybe the best attack on that is that she caves to pressure, especially from leftists? This sort of attack seems better to match the amount of agency she is projecting herself as having, and allows you to show why that's bad.
Debates soon would be good. Once they start actually taking positions, then you have positions to attack.
I'd just attack her for all the positions she took in 2020. If she wants people to believe she didn't mean the things she said repeatedly on video, it's her job to convince them.
And presumably she needs to say “and this is why I changed my mind.” If she just says “well I was campaigning” then she admits she was lying either then or now and which is it.
And if she can change her mind on so many issues in such a short period of time, that per se is a worrying thing. Sure, changing your mind on one thing or the other is a good thing. It shows you are willing to update. But changing your mind on like 5 or 6 major things in a few years when you are a major pol?
I do think the flip flopping will be one of the best lines of attack against her.
In her case, she’s very lucky to be running against Trump who changes his positions with the wind.
Is that true? With Trump, he seems relatively consistent. He is anti immigration, favors protectionist trade policies, skeptical (but not exactly hostile) towards foreign alliances and foreign wars, likes lower taxes, doesn’t care as much about spending, and supports reduced regulations.
That has been pretty consistent since he has been on the scene. Where was the flip flopping?
The most recent was on the Tik Tok ban which he rallied for then turned against.
Yeah agreed. That is a flip flop. But that also seems like a rather tertiary issue (can’t imagine it is a top ten issue for voters per polling). On the big issues he has been very consistent (and that isn’t always great because on some of those positions he is wrong).
On the big issues, Harris vacillates.
The Tik Tok thing is a core representation of how Trump thinks and makes decisions though. He supported banning it on what seemed like a whim, a rich investor who seems to have some financial connections to China made a big donation, and then Trump came out against the ban. He repeats this pattern over and over. He seems uniquely and obviously prone to self-enrichment and therefore a completely untrustworthy on major issues like China, both to domestic people but also importantly to international partners.
Some other obvious flip flops/inconsistencies that come to mind with 10 seconds of thinking:
Here are some more details: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/22/trump-policy-flip-flop-00164538
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