OPINION:
The way the presidential candidates are wrapping up their campaigns could not be more different. Former President Donald Trump is ending on the positive message that he will solve the country’s problems. Vice President Kamala Harris, increasingly desperate, is repeating her rant that Mr. Trump is bad.
It’s generally true in politics that it’s better to motivate people to vote in favor of ideas rather than against something. This should tell you that Mr. Trump thinks he’s ahead while Ms. Harris knows she’s behind.
Everyone who will vote in the Nov. 5 contest has lived through both administrations. Under Mr. Trump, people remember low inflation, a more secure southern border and a more peaceful world. With Ms. Harris serving under President Biden, the economy crumbled, inflation reached 40-year highs, the border was effectively erased and the world caught fire from military conflicts in which the United States is involved.
Since she has no accomplishments, she can’t run on her record. She has also been unable to differentiate herself from Mr. Biden and has comically changed her position on many important issues, making her incapable of presenting a coherent message.
To this day, a sizable percentage of voters say they would like more information about Ms. Harris, which is incredible for a candidate who has already spent about $1 billion on television ads and holds the second-highest office in the land.
She is closing with a message of complete negativity, packaged as an all-out assault on Mr. Trump. She is merely regurgitating everything Democrats have been saying about the man since he announced his run for president in 2015. They have been repeating the attacks, most of them made up or exaggerated, every day for the last nine years and have had assistance from an allied and willing media each step of the way.
There can be no voter who is unaware of the Democrats’ assaults on Mr. Trump, and it is hard to believe that there’s a living soul anywhere who has not already formed an opinion of him.
And after all of that, in the final stages of Mr. Trump’s third campaign for the White House, the Real Clear Politics average of polls shows him with a lead in all seven battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The only possible conclusion to reach is that the Democrats’ nine-year screed against Mr. Trump has been the most colossal messaging failure in political history.
And what’s Ms. Harris’ reaction to this epic strategy fiasco?
More of it, of course.
Mr. Trump’s recent visit to a suburban Philadelphia McDonald’s encapsulates the entire campaign dynamic. He worked the french fry station and the drive-thru window at a franchise in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, partially to highlight Ms. Harris’ claim to have worked at McDonald’s while in college and partially to demonstrate that he is in touch with the concerns of working people.
The wildly successful campaign event generated millions of dollars’ worth of media attention, but the reaction from the Harris campaign and many journalists revealed how effective it truly was: they all hated it with the fury of a thousand suns. The sniping and criticisms from the left dragged the visit out to become a three-day story, keeping the message of the event in front of voters, which can only help Mr. Trump.
But the significance of the day did not occur inside that McDonald’s. It occurred outside, along the street, approaching the building.
Thousands of Trump supporters had gathered spontaneously. The people — thousands of them — applauded and screamed as they voiced their support for the candidate they believe best represents their hopes and aspirations for improved lives.
The ecstatic crowd of Trump voters was living, “USA”-chanting proof that a negative messaging campaign lasting almost a decade had turned out to be a disaster. Instead of driving Trump voters into the shadows as intended, the attacks had driven supporters into the open with feelings of pride instead of the shame that Democrats had hoped to instill.
Mr. Trump says he can cure what ails the country, and there’s plenty of evidence that voters believe it. Ms. Harris’ relentless attack on Mr. Trump is not working, and it’s clearly the only plan she has.
• Tim Murtaugh is a senior adviser to the 2024 Donald J. Trump for President campaign.
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