After what was, by all accounts, a very successful Republican National Convention, the party appears to be over for former President Donald Trump and the GOP.
The weeks leading up to the RNC were good for Republicans. Very good.
President Biden suffered a painful and, some would say, fatal debate performance. Democrats are divided on what to do, with calls for him to step down daily. Biden is trailing Trump in battleground state polls. And experts say he can’t win anymore.
In better news for Republicans and Trump, Biden doesn’t seem to care. He insisted he wasn’t going anywhere, dragging out the Dem deliberations and the dangerous news cycle even longer, damaging his campaign.
Then, there was the horrific assassination attempt on Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, which made him a virtual saint among a constituency that has often been compared to a cult.
Needless to say, he entered the RNC with a huge tail, and a party that, unlike Biden, was incredibly unified, electric, and focused.
What a difference on Sunday.
Just three days after the balloon went down in Milwaukee, Biden announced he was resigning and quickly endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris.
And suddenly Republicans are no longer united, electric, or focused.
First, the Trump campaign has a new problem: age.
There, it is no longer a problem for Democrats, and a new problem for Republicans. At 59, Harris is young next to the 78-year-old Trump, and polls show most voters have more confidence in Harris than in Biden.
There’s also the fact that Trump’s well-crafted campaign was designed to beat Biden — not mainstream Democrats.
The Alberta Atlantic team, which has been attached to the Trump campaign for months, said they “pray that Joe Biden doesn’t quit,” fearing having to leave an operation “built to run a very specific race. a very specific opponent.” …
Then, Trump’s pick of Ohio Senator JD Vance — another white man from a state Trump won twice and positioned to win again — made it when the campaign was feeling confident, doubling down on MAGA rather than addressing the shortfall on the ticket.
Now, campaign officials are reportedly lamenting Vance’s lack of appeal to swing state voters Trump needs to win. “The most surprising thing that I heard from Trump’s allies yesterday,” said Alberta, “is what JD Vance thought – the choice, he admitted, was (born) from cockiness, meaning to draw boundaries based on the explosion. instead of persuading voters to swing on the nail – biter.”
And he was ready to be a drag on the ticket, not a boon.
As CNN’s data guru Harry Enten pointed out, “He’s the first person … immediately following convention, the VP pick, who actually has a negative negative rating that’s underwater.” Since 2000, veeps have enjoyed an average of plus 19 points in favorability – Vance is a net negative six.
Finally, the GOP appears deeply divided over how best to attack Harris.
Some members of the House of Representatives have opened with a new ill-conceived talking point, that she is only “recruiting the DEI,” appointed only because she is a woman of color, and not a former prosecutor, attorney general, senator and vice president.
It is not going over well – with other Republicans, who probably know that winning back suburban women and independents in the swing state is a whole ball game.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy called it “stupid and dumb,” while current House Speaker Mike Johnson warned members, “This is an election about competing policies. It’s not about personalities.”
Even those at Fox News, where the original birtherism was created, the host was bearish in his approach, saying the DEI attack would “brain dead voters.”
For his part, Trump ran his usual playbook, giving children nicknames like “Lyin’ Kamala” and “Laffin’ Kamala,” again, designed to increase fans, not attract new voters.
In a show of real desperation, Rep. Elise Stefanik called an emergency meeting of the House Rules Committee to take up a resolution to, essentially, let everyone know they are not like Harris.
As Dem Rep. Jim McGovern said, “This is an emergency! Not an emergency meeting to fix the border, but an emergency meeting to bash Kamala Harris. That’s an emergency. Are you kidding me? The emergency is Donald Trump losing and they’re panicking.”
Really panicked. The Republican and Trump campaigns are all over the map, simultaneously asserting that the Dems are so incompetent that Biden should step down from the presidency, while also asserting that he’s smart enough to mastermind a coup.
He doesn’t have long to rejigger his campaign, especially if the GOP remains divided and undisciplined on how to fight Harris.
Gone is the giddiness. Gone are the past. As Biden might say, “Don’t miss me yet?”
SE Cupp is the host of “SE Cupp Unfiltered” on CNN.