Presidential debate, round two

OPINION:

Since being appointed to stand in President Biden’s place as Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris has dodged nearly every question asked of her — except important media inquiries about her preferred ice cream and snack food. That changes with Tuesday night’s debate.

Aside from one highly edited interview session, Ms. Harris has yet to provide insight into her stance on significant issues. The closest Ms. Harris has come to presenting a detailed policy position on her campaign website is the “privacy policy” page that informs visitors that her website uses cookies.

We can also conclude that Ms. Harris is a big fan of cookies. Her YouTube page features an old video in which the then-2020 Democratic primary contender watched with anticipation as a high school student baked a family cookie recipe. Riveting stuff.

Future generations aren’t likely to look back for inspiration from this election. In our nation’s earliest days, accomplished men considered it beneath them to ask the public for their vote. That changed in 1840 when William Henry Harrison kicked off the practice of holding massive public rallies in his successful campaign against Martin Van Buren, the incumbent Democrat who shunned such events and expected his record to speak for itself.

While Ms. Harris does have a track record, it’s not an encouraging one. As border czar, she has allowed a flood of illegal immigration so extreme that blue-city mayors begged the White House to do something to stop it. 

As heir to “Bidenomics,” Ms. Harris shares responsibility for the one-two punch of high interest rates and high inflation that has hurt the average family’s finances over the past 3½-plus years. It’s even worse than portrayed, as the Labor Department has been cooking the numbers to salvage the Biden-Harris administration’s image.

The agency releases overstated employment numbers so Ms. Harris can claim jobs are being created, and then weeks later the same figures are quietly revised downward. So far, a shocking 1.1 million jobs have been subtracted from the previously claimed jobs growth between April 2023 and last March.

Such numbers demonstrate that the majority of Americans were better off when Donald Trump was president. Despite his brash approach to politics, Mr. Trump was savvy in steering the federal bureaucracy in ways that lightened the twin burdens of taxation and regulation. Freed from these hindrances, the economy flourished — even after accounting for the massive overreaction to COVID.

Mr. Trump will surely make these points — whenever he’s not being interrupted by ABC News anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis, who will be running defense for Ms. Harris. The former president’s debate skills are not in doubt, considering the result of his 2016 Republican primary debate performance, which drove establishment favorites such as Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio out of the race.

Likewise, after Mr. Trump destroyed Mr. Biden in the first presidential debate in June, the incumbent selected by 14 million Democratic voters was exiled to semi-permanent vacation on the beaches of Delaware. A more delicate touch will be required to dispatch Ms. Harris without being portrayed as a bully by Democratic media allies.

Although Mr. Trump isn’t known for delicacy, his freedom is at stake in this run against a Democratic machine determined to lock him up. He has every motivation to rise to the occasion and remind the country that better times lie ahead.