I don’t agree with everything in it, but this Peggy Noonan column is, as they say, brimming with insight. I thought this was a good point about how, as opposed to during her primary run, Harris now enjoys enormous institutional backing:
Trump supporters have too much invested in what a disaster Ms. Harris’s campaign was in 2019, and it was. They expect a repetition. But five years ago she was a lone rider out there on her own. This time she’s vice president, with a wholly committed party behind her and a deep bench of expertise. Trump people assume she’ll have a series of gaffes, and they’ll just have to say, “See?” They think in the Sept. 10 debate he’ll walk in like the Hulk and squish her like a peanut. I’m not sure this will happen. She’ll show discipline this time.
The way I might put it is that her weakness is that she’s a puppet, but her strength is also that she’s a puppet — just saying and doing what is expected of her and what she is being told to say and do may well be enough to win the presidency.