NewsNation Chief Washington Anchor and On Balance host Leland Vittert was a foreign correspondent for four years in Jerusalem. He gives you an early look at tonight’s 7 p.m. ET show. Subscribe to War Notes here.  

Programming alert: President Joe Biden speaks tomorrow night from the Oval Office at 8 p.m … his second prime-time Oval Office address in as many weeks. Will anybody care? Watch? 

Political reality: Former President Donald Trump is beatable. How big of a price do Democrats want to pay for it? 

Vice President Kamala Harris and her Democratic supporters claim (maybe sincerely in their belief) that Trump poses an existential threat to our republic; surely they aren’t acting like it.  

Harris could effectively win the presidency tomorrow by announcing Liz Cheney or Nikki Haley as her running mate – add to the list Mitt Romney or Chris Sununu. What about Brian Kemp?  

• “West Wing” episode: Aaron Sorkin got laughed at for his New York Times piece over the weekend suggesting Romney as secretary of state, but the mockery betrays a larger truth.  

Harris and Democrats want to underpay for the presidency.

• Thus, they show they don’t really believe all the talk of Trump ending the republic or that they are saving America.
• If they sincerely believed in America and the threat of Trump, they would overpay … and promise a true unity government to move America back to the center and give the vast majority of us in the middle what we want. 

Underpaying: Doubling down on moving farther to the Left shows a Democratic Party that wants to give up as little as possible (underpay) while claiming the very most is at risk. Both can not be true. 

If democracy is at risk, then one should OVERPAY politically to save it. 

Watch tonight: George Will tonight on what Harris could but isn’t doing to save America. 

Bonus coverage: Our friend Chris Cillizza writes, “Donald Trump is *totally* beatable.” 

Full Deification

As we predicted, the media went from having a full freakout over Biden dropping out to an all out happy dance over Harris’ ascension.  

Full campaign mode: Even CNN is in on “Brat” Summer – as explained by “Glamour” magazine.

Bari Weiss writes about the problem as “the noble lie.”

Stories like Russian collusion, “the laptop is fake,” “wear a mask,” “get a vaccine,” “Biden isn’t old,” “the virus just came from a bat,” all benefited one side. The media turned them into gospel, just like the narrative of “Kamala Harris is the next JFK” that they are doing now. 

Put another way by Scott Jennings, who is quickly becoming a conservative thought leader: 

• “The people who told you 3 weeks ago that Biden was sharp and riding unicycles and juggling flaming bowling pins while writing 100 bills at a time behind closed doors are now telling you Kamala Harris is the greatest politician of the modern generation. Analyze accordingly.”

For example, from MSNBC today: “Blinken did not endorse Vice President Harris but praised her as a ‘leading voice’ for American foreign policy.” 

• Watch what Blinken says about Harris: “She’s been a leading voice in our administration. What I’ve observed is someone who asks penetrating questions, cuts to the chase, and is focused on the interests of the American people.”
  • Really? Are we talking about the same person? 

Please click here for Harris’s doublespeak on Putin invading Ukraine, saying sanctions would deter him. 

Fair question: If I had an interview with Harris, what should I ask?

• “As president, you could be in charge of protecting Europe and you have forcefully made the case that stopping Putin protects Europe. Should Putin succeed in Ukraine, what five NATO countries would you be most concerned about him invading next?”
  • Cheat sheet: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Poland

Jump the shark:

• Blinken calls Harris a thought leader on foreign policy 
• Look forward: Will the surgeon general now say Harris can individually cure cancer? Maybe Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will name her the next Warren Buffet.

Let me play out the storylines over the next 100 days or so. 

• The afterglow of Biden dropping out goes into the Olympics: All we know is Harris is great. 
• Her VP pick: Harris is reaching across the aisle – this is the next generation. 
• Next is the DNC: Harris is greater, Democrats are unified. All the talk of riots in Chicago doesn’t materialize because she brings together moderates (through her VP) and progressives (through her speech). 
• The campaign starts before Labor Day: Trump is old, and Harris is barnstorming 
• Will Trump’s sentencing in NY business records case take him off the campaign trail?
• Through Labor Day, Harris gets ready to debate Trump. She’s the prosecutor that will take it to him.
• The debate: Harris the prosecutor baits Trump … Trump is a racist.
• Can Trump recover from the debate? Maybe he peaked at the convention. 
• How big of a victory can Democrats win and demand all Republicans to “accept” losing?

Timeline: The calendar is shaping up to significantly favor the Democrats.

You will note none of these storylines include anything about inflation, gas prices, the border or crime. Or any of the issues that matter. 

Thought bubble: For as much as the media loves talking about suburban women swing voters, they don’t spend a lot of time covering the issues those voters say matter the most. 

Race war: If all of the above doesn’t work, MSNBC’s Joy Reid warns Black voters will look “real crazy” if they don’t vote for Harris. Can you imagine if a Fox News host said that about white people voting for Trump … yikes!!!! 

Coronation Risks

The above creates a real danger for Harris, whose 2020 primary campaign failed miserably. As Ronald Brownstein writes in The Atlantic, “Her path to victory depends on re-creating the sort of electoral coalition that carried the 44th president into the White House.”

• But her team isn’t Obama folks who understand appealing to the center — they are Hillary Clinton’s people and Harris’ own California team.
  • Both of them are used to playing the “I’m with her” message and the idea of how progressive we can all be in a one-party state … that’s not a winning recipe for building a coalition around a message of hope for voters. 

More from The Atlantic: “Democrats Are Making a Huge Mistake.”

• “The error is not the choice of Kamala Harris. It is the sudden rallying behind her.”

Look back to 2017 when Team Clinton found their woman for 2020. 

• Michael Sainato writes, “Harris’ meetings with Clinton’s donors signal that they are rallying behind her as the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee. Harris has emerged as a leading figure in the Trump Resistance.”

Harris’ protected existence and kid-glove treatment by the media over the past 3 1/2 years will come back to bite her.

From Axios: “In April 2022, Harris was the guest for a dinner at D.C. news mogul David Bradley’s home — a salon-style event Bradley hosts with Washington journalists and newsmakers. 

• “Harris’ anxiety about the dinner was such that her staff held a mock dinner beforehand, with staffers playing participants, according to two people familiar with the event. 
• “Harris aides even considered including wine in the mock prep so Harris could practice with a glass or two. 
• “They ultimately decided against it.”

Salon dinners in Washington are second nature for most backbench congressional members. The idea that the VP needed practice sessions shows just how difficult basic retail politics are for her.   

• Just watch this clip of her yesterday off prompter — authenticity isn’t her strong suit. 

Thought bubble: Democrats run the very real risk of seeing Harris for what they want her to be:

• A skilled politician in the vein of Obama who finishes Biden’s DEI-based transformation of America with massive government spending on climate. 
• Reality check: Instead, she is the 2020s version of Hillary Clinton.  

It might work: Who said 2020 full-DEI mode doesn’t exist anymore? As far as I can tell, the below isn’t satire.

• “White Women Have 100 Days to Help Save the World,” Shannon Watts writes.
• She continues, “Since the 1950s, a majority of white women have voted Republican in all but two presidential elections. But if we mobilize, we can help elect the first woman, a Black and AAPI woman, as President…White women voting for Republicans, even when it appears to be against their best interests, is a complex phenomenon influenced by privilege, systemic racism and sexism, religious affiliations and, of course, the patriarchy. 

Buyer’s Remorse

Buyer’s remorse: The earlier logic about underpaying also applies to Trump’s pick for vice president.

• Trump could have ended the election at the convention by picking Nikki Haley. Instead, he’s got a real fight because he wanted to underpay and picked JD Vance. 
• And JD Vance’s first few solo rallies leave A LOT to be desired  
• Tim Alberta writes in The Atlantic, “A campaign that had been optimized to beat Joe Biden must now be reinvented.”

• New polling shows JD Vance has woeful favorability ratings. Harris can run to the middle with her VP pick, but Republicans are stuck with MAGA and MAGA-plus.
• Republicans are going to have to make it about the issues, and it’ll be near impossible to shake the Project 2025 connection.
  • Jamie Dettmer writes in Politico, “With Biden out, Vance may be the wrong pick for Trump…The former president has an electability problem among women, and his pick for vice president only compounds it.”
• Quinnipiac University polled favorability ratings for Harris and Vance:
  • Kamala Harris: 37% favorable, 51% unfavorable, 11% haven’t heard enough about her;
  • J.D. Vance: 29% favorable, 37% unfavorable, 34% haven’t heard enough about him

Netanyahu Wild Card

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to Congress tomorrow. They’ve already locked down the Capitol because of pro-Palestinian “protests,” aka riots. 

• Thought bubble: It almost sounds like an insurrection is coming. 
• Who they are supporting: Hamas is out with a new video threatening the Olympics.

Netanyahu will meet with Biden and Harris (who is skipping his speech) and Trump (at Mar-a-Lago)
Look back: Last time Netanyahu played in American politics (2016), he lost.

Tune into “On Balance with Leland Vittert” weeknights at 7/6C on NewsNation. Find your channel here. 

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of NewsNation.