Kamala Is Better Than Biden-- But Is That Too Low A Bar?

Kamala Harris had a good debate, dramatically playing the race card against Biden. He certainly deserved it. She on the other hand, doesn't necessarily deserve all the acclaim she's getting for how she handled it. But she's getting lots and lots of acclaim-- and a flood of money and great polling numbers. The RealClearPolitics national polling average :

• Status Quo Joe- 27.0%
• Bernie- 15.2%
• Elizabeth Warren- 13.8%
• Kamala- 13.4%
• McKinsey Pete- 5.2%

And the 4 post-debate national polls arr show her with big momentum and solid in the top tier. She ties Elizabeth Warren for 3rd place with 12% in the Morning Consult poll, overtakes Warren (11% to 9%) to hop into 3rd place in the Harris X poll, overtakes Bernie and Warren and vaults into second place (with 17% compared to Bernie's 14 and Warren's 15%) in the never-very-credible CNN poll, and does even better in the Quinnipiac poll (20% to Bernie's 13%, Warren's 14%) and closing in on Biden (at 22%). And here's the first post-debate poll) fro Iowa-- Suffolk:

• Status Quo Joe- 24%
• Kamala- 16%
• Elizabeth Warren- 13%
• Bernie- 9%
• McKinsey Pete- 6%

CNN attributes her big bounce to how well her experience as a prosector played out when she went after the hapless and doddering Biden, an easy target. That she had not one single idea of her own didn't matter at all to Democratic primary voters. She couldn't even make them sound like her own. On stage; it was all about bernie ideas and using Bernie's words. Off stage, her team ran around cleaning she wasn't serious about any of the left wing stuff and no one has to worry. It's not like Biden's "nothing will change" cluelessness, but... close enough.

Debates are hard. Candidates are on an overcrowded stage. They get to speak only in short bursts. The questions are somewhat unpredictable. And pundits analyze every word, gesture and facial expression.

But criminal trials are harder. The prosecutor must convince 12 ordinary people from all walks of life of a defendant's guilt-- unanimously. Try getting any 12 people to agree on anything unanimously-- what kind of pizza to order for lunch, for example-- and you'll understand how hard that is.

And the prosecutor must convince the jury beyond a reasonable doubt, the highest burden of proof in our legal system. One significant slip-up, and the case is lost. Prosecutors must question unpredictable witnesses and respond to unexpected twists, on the spot. Along the way, judges enforce strict rules of evidence and procedure, while razor-sharp defense attorneys slash away at every word out of the prosecutor's mouth.

As such, good prosecutors learn to read an audience and to think and speak on the fly. Harris displayed the savvy of an experienced prosecutor during the first debate. She knew exactly when to hold steady and when to attack. She sensed when to ratchet up the drama-- most memorably when she told her own story of being bused to school, culminating with the indelible line "that little girl was me"-- and when to pull back (for example, Harris made clear that she thinks former Vice President Joe Biden is not racist or ill-intentioned, but simply out of touch). Beyond the moments of high drama, Harris stuck determinedly to her central campaign message about working for middle class families, just as a skilled prosecutor lays out and then reinforces the core theory of a case for the jury.

Very early this morning,  a new ABC New/Washington Post poll was released showing the same trends:

The poll results show most Democratic primary voters think Biden is the most electable (45% to Bernie's 18%), Bernie has the most new ideas (tied with Warren's 27%), and that Harris stood out in the debates (41% to Warren's 26%).

But... when will Democratic primary voters start finding out what a really dreadful prosecutor Kamala actually was? We've been talking about that since early this year. Yesterday Democracy Now got down into it in a big way, showing their listeners what a non-progressive prosector she was. Listen to this: