You don't get what I'm saying.
I don't know if you ever listen to the Hacks on Tap podcast -- but it's a really good one to listen to you if you want to get a sense of the conventional wisdom among political strategists (both D and R) who are supportive of the political establishment and opposed to Trump and the populist movement.
The main hosts are David Axelrod and Mike Murphy (and they have other, mostly D, political gurus on). I like to listen to it because these guys are smart and shrewd political strategists -- and, more importantly, I think they do a fairly good job at laying out where they're at rather than just spinning on behalf of the Dems. Spin is useless, it's an attempt to shape thinking rather than convey it.
Anyway, here's something Axelrod said on the latest episode that gets at what I'm talking about:
And the second thing that worries me is…I think that people have made a judgment about Donald Trump. If this were just an up or down referendum on Donald Trump, I don't think he'd get elected. And he still butts up against his ceiling, which is under 50%.
The questions they have are about her because she's brand new. And they haven't completely. This is the key thing. And so, I would be more in the contrast mode between with her and him. And I'd give them a little more information about her probably around middle class economics and basically being a battler for them. And around abortion rights. And I would be doing contrast, contrast, contrast. So, their judgment is they gotta pummel Trump here for the reasons that Plouffe told you.
Axelrod's point is that the more the narrative is about Trump and not Harris, the worse it is for her.....even if it's in the context of friggin' Hitler. There's nothing anybody can say about Donald Trump that is going to move the needle. It's fully moved.
She needs to close the sale on herself. And the more she or her surrogates are focused on going after Trump, the less they're doing what she needs done.