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The polls suggest that many Democratic voters feel better about the new and untested candidacy of Kamala Harris than they did about the old and enfeebled candidacy of Joe Biden. But the polls cannot measure the off-the-scale enthusiasm for Harris and new running mate Tim Walz that is appearing every day in some of the nation's biggest media outlets.
Sometimes videos are more effective than lists. Look at this compilation of media figures marveling at what a "happy warrior" they believe Walz to be. He's America's coach or he's America's dad or both. And he's not at all weird, like some other people. "Everybody likes Tim Walz," says one talking head. "Hope, optimism, joy," says MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, characterizing Walz. (You might remember that not all that long ago, Scarborough was assuring us that Biden was super sharp and on top of things as president.)
For those experiencing the most irrational exuberance, the operative word of the Harris-Walz campaign is "joy." A New York Times analysis of the campaign brought the headline: "Harris Used to Worry About Laughing. Now Joy Is Fueling Her Campaign."
Joy is fueling her campaign? You bet it is — no less a figure than Walz himself declared that Harris "emanates the joy." MSNBC went along to declare that Harris and Walz "campaign with joy." The Washington Post reported that the two Democrats have "seized on a joyful message." The New York Times, again, announced that Harris and Walz are running a "joyful campaign."
In Harrisworld these days, joy is everywhere — in food, in clothing, in campaigning, in everything. NPR loved Walz's "folksy fashion sense — Carhartts and camo." And everyone, just everyone, loves Walz's apparently voracious, just-folks appetite. "Tim Walz loves food," declared the Atlantic. Corn dogs, cinnamon rolls, his very own "Turkey Trot Tater-Tot Hotdish" recipe, and more, all washed down with prodigious quantities of milk. It all brings joy, the Atlantic declared — "cold milk on a hot day; a perfectly cracked egg; a steaming casserole dish full of G od knows what." By being so joyous about food, the publication concluded, "Harris and Walz are making theirs the candidacy of terrestrial pleasure and straightforward abundance."
A person who is not quite so seized by joy as the Democratic ticket and its cheerleaders in the press might ask something about the price of food. Prior to the wave of joy, a huge increase in the cost of feeding a family during the Biden-Harris years, a crippling burden for many, had been thought to be perhaps the Democrats' greatest political liability. Now we're all enjoying terrestrial pleasure and straightforward abundance — if you can afford it.
Meanwhile, Harris is still staying away from any difficult questions about…anything. She did actually talk to her press corps on the record briefly yesterday, but the reporters mostly asked her to comment on former President Donald Trump, which was the easiest sort of thing they could ask. You can read the transcript here — it's short.
One courageous journalist did say to Harris, "Madam Vice President, there's been a lot of questions about when you're going to sit down for your first interview since being the nominee. Do you have any update on that?" Harris answered, "I've talked to my team. I want us to get an interview scheduled before the end of the month."
Before the end of the month — how generous of the vice president. Considering that there are two weeks left in August, that means you might still be waiting a while before Harris deigns to speak to a reporter. And that, apparently, is just a one-on-one interview with somebody. What about a real-live press conference, in which Harris would take questions from many journalists? Like Trump did recently for more than an hour? No word on that.
When former Obama adviser David Axelrod warned Democrats against becoming too infatuated with Kamalamania. "There's a lot of irrational exuberance on the Democratic side of the aisle right now because there was despair for some period of time about what November was going to look like," Axelrod said on CNN. Now, precisely what Axelrod warned against is happening every minute of every day, not just among Democrats but among their allies in the media. For the moment at least, no one wants to do anything that might spoil the joy.