I’m moving your comment here, @WEnchanteur so that I can break my “no politics” rule on this blog just this once.

You wrote:

Wow! Best day of the year. I wish I could be american. I’m even less pessimistic than usual, at least for the world outside my doomed country.

Last July, shortly before the second round of elections in your country France, @WEnchanteur, I was discussing with an esteemed colleague, Marine Le Pen’s shot at winning. In my opinion, the celebration of her party’s astounding victory during the first round was premature, and her chance of success was nil. Knowing un petit peu of French politics, I anticipated that the left-wingers and your president Emmanuel Macron would form an unholy alliance to defeat Ms. LePen’s National Rally. This preemptive move was nothing new; it had been done before. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” and all that.

In a way, the final push of this 2024 U.S. election is similar to yours, but in reverse.

It was former President Trump who formed an alliance — or “unity” party as they would soon call it — with unlikely bedfellows. He gained the endorsements of Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard, who were all Democrats before they weren’t, lol. With these additional members, and his already solid guys on his side, like JD Vance, Vivek Ramaswamy, Scott Pressler, Charlie Kirk, and Harmeet Dhillon, Trump was able to forge a formidable alliance where all the teamplayers could be sent out — individually or in groups — to communicate his vision and goals for the future of the country.

Hate him or love him, he has policies which his “emissaries” delivered effectively to the voters, so the voters could have something to chew on, dive in, relate to, agree with, and rally around.

That to me is key. I know where he stands on issues so I can act accordingly.

In comparison, one thing that dismayed me about Ms. Harris is her sheer tone-deafness. Poll after poll after poll indicated that majority of American voters were concerned about the following issues:

+economy, specifically the record high inflation,
+ILLEGAL immigration and border security,
+foreign policy or geopolitics in Ukraine, China, Russia, Israel, Middle East
+law and order (with all due respect to the Californians here, the rest of the country didn’t want a California-cation of their world.)
+the ideology and practice of DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion). People wanted meritocracy.
+inclusion of men in women’s sports and women’s safe spaces (the bathroom!)
spread of transgender insanity in schools,
+CRT (Critical Race Theory) in schools,
+Voter ID/election integrity, +censorship =/= freedom of expression, +abortion/pro-life, and +energy independence.

But instead of convincing the voters that she understood the urgency in tackling their fears and concerns right NOW, Ms. Harris:

a. shifted blame onto the Orange Bogeyman aka Trump (this strategy didn’t work because folks already KNEW that he wasn’t a saint and LIKED him despite his flaws)
b. diverted attention on stage to some Hollywood celebrity (Who cares if Taylor Swift, Cardi B, Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce, and Rihanna endorse her? These women have a track record of making poor decisions in men! Their discernment process is questionable.)
c. tossed a vapid word salad in her interviews (“The work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of, many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen.”)
d. cackled as if she found everything a big joke (she lacked gravitas)
e. all of the above

For a former prosecutor, she’s so frustratingly inept and unprepared to make her case to the people that I cringed whenever I heard her unscripted responses in interviews and official functions. Perhaps it was my fault because I had high standards and expectations of her. Given her legal background, I expected her to be able to think on her feet and persuade people of the rightness of her cause.

Instead, she flopped like a dimwit in the spotlight. For instance, when she was asked on a TV show if she would have done anything differently from President Biden during the past four years, she answered, “There is not a thing that comes to mind, in terms of… and I’ve been part of most decisions that have had impact.”

🤦🏼‍♀️

If this administration had been polling at 51, 60, 70, or 80% approval rate, then her answer was stupendous. Brava! But she seemed to be oblivious to the fact that majority believed the country was on the wrong tracks. Instead of distancing herself from Biden’s incompetence, she coupled herself to his failed policies. Her answer was astoundingly stupid.

Do you see what I mean by “unprepared”? I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt and blame her faults on tone deafness, but I always had a niggling sense that laziness, false sense of superiority and plain low I.Q. all play a part in her vacuousness.

If she could blunder such a softball question from an adulating TV host, how could she then be expected to hold her own when dealing with Putin, Xi, Netanyahu, Khamenei, Kim, and whoever Sinwar’s successor is. (Sinwar was the former leader of Hamas.) Even with advisors beside her, she can’t cackle her way out of negotiations. And frankly, I don’t want a repeat of that disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal….

Moreover, if she could flub such an easy question, how could she handle tougher questions in times of crisis? Her response, for instance, to the disaster in Western North Carolina when a hurricane swept away communities was inept. I found myself chuckling when the Governor of Florida gave her a verbal smackdown. He called her out for politicizing the situation, saying, “She’s been Vice President for three and a half years. I’ve dealt with a number of storms under this administration. She has never contributed anything to any of these efforts.” 🤦🏼‍♀️

But her inaction/absence didn’t come as a big surprise to me since her response to the crisis in the Southern border was non-existent, too.

The way I see it, she consistently flopped, and flopped so hard despite being propped up by media. It must be noted that this media which is touting her as the next best thing since sliced bread is the SAME media that had colluded to cover up Biden’s deteriorating mental faculties all these years.

In all honesty, @WEnchanteur, if we had someone with Le Pen’s mental acuity and leadership running for office, I would cast my vote for the first ever female President. But to promote VP Harris to the highest position in the government merely because of her sex and skin color, especially when her professional incompetence appalls me so, is anathema to me. As you know from my reviews of kdramas, I never go for “feels,” “chemistry,” “hysteria,” or “vibes”. I prefer an objective, reasonable, justifiable, common-sensical, and even nuanced approach to dramas in both the reel and real world. Unfortunately, I didn’t find her qualified to be the leader of the free world.

Pax!