It's a funny thing about Kamala Harris' ever-evolving daily schedule. She's apparently headed to the Border. It's amazing what a Trump +5 New York Times/Siena poll in Arizona will do to her campaign's motivation to stop the bleeding the immigration issue is causing to her presidential ambitions.

In addition to the sudden border trip, Harris is reportedly expected to do a sit-down interview with Wisconsin Public Radio, because apparently, she's concerned about underperforming in the Badger State compared to Joe Biden in 2020, and needs to convince more of her Democratic base to turn out. And a little later in the week, Harris is reportedly going to attempt another economic vision speech. 

Harris' campaign, although flush with cash, is madly attempting to plug holes in the dike, but they do not have enough fingers and toes to stop the leaks breaking out everywhere. It's getting bad enough that her surrogates are beginning to flounder and lose their cool in interviews on her behalf. 

Contrast that to Donald Trump's campaign. He's conducting rallies and press conferences in swing states. His running mate, J.D. Vance, is also drawing large numbers in swing state rallies of his own, and acquitting himself very well in television interviews as well as press conferences. Harris' running mate, Tim Walz, is showing why his selection as vice president was a horrible choice. He can't really do long-form interviews, will not grant press conferences, and commits gaffes in every rally he holds. 

On Monday, the Harris/Walz team appeared at no public events. J.D. Vance held a rally in North Carolina. Donald Trump did retail politics at a Sprankle's neighborhood market in Pennsylvania, helping cover the grocery bill for a mother of three. 

President @realDonaldTrump helps a mom of 3 pay for her groceries ❤️🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/33ifPk2cXI

— Margo Martin (@margommartin) September 23, 2024

When's the last time you saw Kamala Harris or Tim Walz walk into a supermarket that wasn't cleaned out and stocked with bused-in supporters first? It hasn't happened. Trump also conducted a press conference in Smithton, PA before holding a rally in nearby Indiana. 



This is really the great vulnerability for Harris, right? She's the sitting vice president. Every day from the White House Press Room, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reminds the press corps that Kamala Harris is joined at the hip with this guy, the current President of the United States.

Just in case you're wondering what the "president" is up to pic.twitter.com/f1YtIgeFr4

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 23, 2024

Every day of Joe Biden's continued descent into senility is a more damning indictment of Kamala Harris. You'd think someone possessing even a modicum of leadership skills would be able to persuade an aging, addled president that they should implement her economic agenda now in order to show that she is doing something rather than talking about what she'll do, but only if you vote for her first. Biden doesn't seem like it would be too hard to convince him of anything these days.

Kamala Harris is skipping the traditional pre-election roast at the Al Smith dinner. Donald Trump will be there, though. Her campaign continues to project a defensive posture in every facet of her campaign. They will not consent to a Fox News debate. What little interviews are granted are to perceived friendly outlets in local markets, hoping that she doesn't screw up too badly, and if they're lucky, maybe catch a viral moment tailwind. 

But perhaps most telling about her campaign is how her surrogates are trying to stand in the breach where she as the candidate will not. Adrienne Elrod, the Harris/Walz campaign spokeswoman, appeared on MSNBC last Friday with Peter Alexander. It was a friendly interview on a friendly network. It was the most favorable interview parameters possible for a Democratic campaign. And then the 'how is Harris going to lower costs' question came at her.

WATCH: Pressed by MSNBC, Harris spokeswoman Adrienne Elrod says Kamala can't be any more specific about how she'd lower the cost of living because she's only "been in the race for about seven weeks." pic.twitter.com/yWGDomOrjd

— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) September 20, 2024

There's no plan. There never was a plan. There won't be a plan, other than to spend money and blame Republicans for the resulting hyper-inflation that will follow. Notice the excuse Elrod offers - she's only been a candidate for seven weeks. She's been vice president for just shy of four years. How in the world can this be acceptable as an excuse for an absence of an economic agenda as early voting is underway? Here's how.

On Bill Maher's Real Time program on HBO Friday night, New York Times conservative columnist and Never Trump charter member Bret Stephens was on the panel, along with MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle. 

Bret Stephens asks Stephanie Ruhle why Kamala Harris has not done interviews and stated clearly what her policy positions are. Ruhle responds that 'We don't live in Nirvana':
Bret Stephens: "I'm an undecided voter. I'm not sure I want to vote for Kamala. My fear is that she… pic.twitter.com/y80j8kDIWh

— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) September 21, 2024

It's not just that the media doesn't have the intellectual curiosity to press the Harris campaign for details on her agenda. According to Ruhle, regime media specifically does not want to know what her agenda is, even if she has one. That's not the ground on which they want the election to be fought. They only want the election to be a referendum on Donald Trump, which is the only way they believe Harris can win. Byron York explores this incredulous concept in-depth in the Washington Examiner here. 

Following up on the Ruhle theory of how to view the contest, another veteran Never Trumper, Tom Nichols, goes one step further. In his view, undecided voters who are holding out until they learn more about Harris' economic vision for the future aren't actually undecided voters. They're secretly Trump people trying to walk Harris into a trap. 

Saying it again: "Undecideds" who say "but I want to hear more about her policies" are not undecided. They want Harris to walk into an unwinnable policy debate with the media while Trump rants like a madman, so they can rationalize not voting for her. /2https://t.co/bOQFj4ab8U

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) September 21, 2024

I believe there still are undecided voters out there to be persuaded, even though they might be a small cadre of the electorate. But to consciously pretend they don't really exist in a 50/50 country where the previous election was decided by 43,000 votes over a combined three states doesn't strike me as a winning strategy. The candidate who convinces, not alienates the few remaining people who have not made a choice will probably be the winning one. 

Ian Sams, another Harris spokesperson, appeared on another friendly network, CNN, yesterday with Pamela Brown. He was asked to clean up the 'are you better off than you were 4 years ago' problem for Kamala Harris, and issued his own word salad.

CNN: Kamala was asked at the debate if Americans are better off now than 4 years ago, and she refused to answer. So, are they?

HARRIS SPOX IAN SAMS: *incoherent word salad*

CNN: You didn’t answer the question.

SAMS: She has a plan to bring costs down.

CNN: But they went up. pic.twitter.com/nfbjfibQcN

— Captain Christopher Faucher (@CaptainFaucher) September 23, 2024

Again, these are interviews with current Harris surrogates on friendly networks - networks run almost entirely by people who are Democrats themselves that both hate Donald Trump and will put their thumb on the scale for Kamala Harris. And Sams still cannot give a satisfactory answer on the question, because Kamala Harris can't give a satisfactory answer. In the 1996 film Multiplicity, Michael Keaton tries to use clones of himself as a time multiplier. The problem is that when the clones start cloning themselves, the derivatives are infinitely dumber than the original. If Kamala Harris at the top of the Democratic pyramid is a word salad trainwreck whenever policy questions are asked, the surrogate sare going to be even worse. 

There was, though, an interview with a Harris surrogate on Fox News Monday. It went about as well as you would expect. 

🚨Watch this Kamala Harris surrogate absolutely implode when @SandraSmithFox asks her what is Kamala’s plan to lower prices:

Sandra Smith: “What is Harris’s plan? We’re waiting.”

Kamala surrogate: “There’s a lot of aspects to it in regards to looking at in online. Let’s talk… pic.twitter.com/NMpjLaJdql

— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) September 23, 2024

This is actual journalism being committed by Sandra Smith, and Kelly Hyman is not happy about it. She literally runs away, but not before challenging Smith's woman card for not allowing her to filibuster her way through the interview. 

It's easy to mock all of the performances of these Harris surrogates, but it's hard to really blame them. They're having to defend an indefensible position - explaining what Kamala Harris has in mind for January 20th, 2025. Nobody knows, including Harris. You'd think that would be of importance to people going to vote. 

If Donald Trump stays on offense, talking about how the future can be a lot better than the present, he'll win. If Kamala Harris' defensive argument, 'we can't go back to when things were better off 4 years because...Trump' is successful in keeping enough leaking water trapped behind the dam, she'll win. 

On the whole, I'd rather be on offense at this stage of the game than on defense.