Conservative: Harris’ Boom Might End With a Bust
With polls showing “booming” support for Kamala Harris, “GOP strategists might take heart in what could be called the Harris boom-and-bust cycle,” notes the Washington Examiner’s Byron York.
In her 2020 presidential run, she briefly “shot up from back in the pack to close to the lead, only to disappear just as quickly.”
Her “brief boom came after a Democratic debate,” but “with increased exposure after the debate, voters got a closer look at her” and “didn’t really like what they saw.”
“A significant part of Harris’s rise appears due to new support from independent voters,” and “it is those voters who might become disillusioned with Harris.”
“So look for Democrats to keep Harris under wraps as long as possible.”
Liberal: Kam and Tim Are No Moderates
Kamala Harris’ handlers “know the more voters view her as a moderate and close to the center of American politics, the better her chances of winning the election,” explains The Liberal Patriot’s Ruy Teixeira.
The “moving-to-the-center” strategy includes “disavowals,” avoiding “embarrassing questions” raised by her “policy reversals” and using Gov. Tim Walz to “help them reach the working class.”
Yet, in his 2022 governor’s race, Walz “lost white working-class voters in his state by 8 points.”
More, “An attempt to move to the center that does not involve actively embracing centrist, moderate positions” clearly “may fall short of its political goals.”
So “Donald Trump, with all his unattractive qualities and unforced political errors, is likely to remain competitive through November and, let’s face it, could easily win.”
Eye on Africa: IMF Promotes Repression in Ethiopia
It is incredibly “shocking that leaders of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) just approved a four-year, $3.4 billion relief package” for Ethiopia’s government led by Abiy Ahmed, contends Mesfin Tegenu at The Hill.
Activists working “for real democratic reforms in Ethiopia have been pleading with the world bankers to hold off on any bailout until the regime agrees to respect human rights.”
Instead, “the IMF extended a lifeline to the Abiy government after it agreed to a major monetary reform — floating its currency, the birr.”
The US government “is both a major source of funding for the IMF and the World Bank and those organizations’ chief influencer,” so Americans’ tax dollars “are now propping up the shaky rule of an African strongman who will use these funds to continue drone strikes against his own citizens, and boost a military-linked to brutal door-to-door massacres in villages” across Ethiopia.
From the right: Jews in Denial Over Kamala
Playwright David Mamet notes at Unherd that “the Democrats have become the party of antisemitism.
“Obama and Biden’s policies have given money and arms to Iran, and withheld congressionally mandated military aid to Israel — and yet Jews vote Democratic.”
Why? A “concern with social justice” derived from “a warped understanding” of the Bible; the idea that the “murderous savagery” of groups like Hamas is “the result of misunderstanding,” not evil.
No: “Our problem is not public opinion — but denial.” Kamala Harris has all but “announced that, under her administration, the United States will abandon Israel,” yet “American Jews will support her.”
But “I believe that a Jew who votes for the Democrats is a damned fool.”
Wars watch: How Joe Prolongs Wars
“Watching the recent developments in the defensive wars of our allies Ukraine and Israel, it’s hard not to wonder if both could have already achieved their goals,” observes Commentary’s Seth Mandel.
Kyiv’s invade-Russia gambit is aimed at “disrupting the shape of the war”; otherwise, “time is on Russia’s side.”
And Hamas may at last finalize a cease-fire deal because its “back is against the wall,” after Israel “obliterated” its leadership and “routed” its forces from “key battlegrounds” — over Team Biden objections.
“Our allies want to negotiate from a place of strength not weakness. Tying their hands only prevents that from happening. A lot less blood could have been spilled to get them to this point.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board