Harris, Trump Court Traditional Opposition Stronghold

(Editor's Note: The following opinion column does not constitute an endorsement of any political party or candidate on the part of Newsmax.)

So, what’s really going on here?

Just a couple weeks ahead of the big election following their Sept. 10 presidential debate on ABC, after dodging hardball media interviews candidate Kamala finally goes on Fox News, while Trump continues to expand his remarkably energetic campaign outreach to long-established Democratic venues.

Prior to scheduling with Fox anchor Bret Baier on Wednesday, V.P. Harris had limited a belated blitz of appearances exclusively to friendly platforms.

In the last couple of weeks she has been seen sharing a beer with CBS host Stephen Colbert; shoring up fading Black support on a CBS Detroit radio town hall with Charlamagne Tha God; engaging in a mutually anti-Trump discussion with Howard Stern on a Sirius XM town hall; participating in a liberal policy-safe “Call Her Daddy” Spotify podcast with Alex Cooper; and adoringly embraced in a lovefest with panelists on ABC’s “The View.”

Former President Trump is holding massive rallies in deep blue states that he seemingly would pass over in favor of far more productive last days’ get-out-the vote opportunities.

We have found him attracting huge crowds in Kamala’s California; Colorado which hasn’t voted GOP since GW Bush in 2004; with a scheduled Oct. 27 event in New York’s Madison Square Garden, a state that he previously lost by more than 20 points twice and hasn’t tipped Republican since a 1984 Ronald Reagin landslide.

Viewed from optics of this writer’s admitted politically biased and unrepentantly conservative prism, the two campaigns appear to have quite different goals and strategies.

Kamala is being pressed to explain how her professed policy priorities going forward not only differ from broadly recognized failures of her own Biden-Harris administration, but also represent unconvincing flip-flops regarding key matters voters care most about.

Topping these issues are rampant inflation and an open border invasion, both of which she has much to directly answer for.

Since 2022 when V.P. Harris cast the tie-breaking vote on the notoriously misnamed $739 billion "Inflation Reduction Act," the cost of new mortgages has climbed 36%, the cost of baby food has shot up by 13%, frozen vegetables have increased by 14% along with major increases in costs of butter, bread, flour, breakfast cereal, and transportation.

Recall that Kamala was also designated primary responsibility as catastrophically failed White House “border czar,” having invited an explosion of unvetted migrants along with sex and deadly fentanyl trafficking into the country. She supported her boss Biden’s termination of wall construction along with 94 Trump executive security actions including the former president’s Remain in Mexico policy.

As recently as July, an Economist/YouGov poll rated her a 55% unfavorable- 39% favorable rating with registered voters, representing what many critics regarded as President Biden’s “insurance policy” against removal as his party’s presumed 2024 candidate pick.

In contrast, whereas Trump enjoys a broadly popular and proven domestic and international policy record, unrelentingly brutal lawfare and legacy media attacks on his persona have had deleterious polarizing influences.

On the other hand, the sheer ferocity of attacks on Trump including two failed impeachment attempts and endless transparently partisan lawsuits aimed at disqualifying and bankrupting his campaign have energized his base and expanded overall support among independents.

Beginning with the Philadelphia debate moderated by "World News Tonight" anchor and managing editor David Muir and ABC News Live "Prime" anchor Linsey Davis, the Harris campaign has taken great advantage of venues that would reliably accept evasive scripted answers without probing follow-ups.

ABC also clearly violated a pre-debate agreement that moderators wouldn’t intervene in challenging the veracity of candidate statements when Muir falsely contradicted a Trump statement that violent crime has significantly increased since 2022.

Recent findings reported by the National Crime Victimization Survey (NVCS) run by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and administered by the Census Bureau support his assessment.

Donald Trump has adopted an opposite media accessibility approach, taking questions from all network reporters. He has especially gone out of his way to defend his record with the traditionally Democratic-leaning National Association of Black Journalists, and to debate differing economic policy approaches with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait at the Economic Club of Chicago.

Meanwhile, according to an Oct. 1-10 swing-state-based Wisconsin Marquette Law School poll, 79% of likely voters believe the country is currently heading in the wrong direction versus only 21% of voters who think it is on the right track.

A majority reportedly also believe a President Trump would better handle the economy, immigration and border security, the Israel-Hamas war, and foreign relations, while a President Harris scores higher on issues of Medicare and Social Security, health care and abortion policy.

And where does this all lead so far as end-game strategies?

With traditional Democratic constituent loyalty populations rapidly slipping away — most particularly Black men who feel abandoned by economic neglect, Hispanic communities impacted by illegal free-loaders, and disenfranchised Jewish voters — Kamala’s campaign apparently recognizes a last-ditch Hail Mary imperative to obfuscate and deflect any responsibility.

In the process they are amping up a cohort media effort to villainize Trump as a fearful threat to democracy.

Encouraged by trending polling odds of winning the Oval Office, Trump’s campaign is now apparently directing major attention to building necessary GOP Senate and House majorities to reverse and heal the past nearly four years of disastrous domestic and international policies.

That vital election outcome is now up to the rest of us.