CONTINUE TO CONCENTRATE ON THE SUBSTANCE.

Remember last week's sermon?  "Democrats are likely to offer some variant on 'finish the job' in their message [which] offers all sorts of possibilities for that micro-management of our appliances, the money printing to buy off favored constituencies, and ambivalence about nation-building wars."

Republican strategist Alex Castellanos quips, "All the girls look prettier at closing time."  When the ticket was Biden-Harris, "finish the job" is a bad idea, but it's on the Republicans to clarify what that job continues to be.

My dream is that one day, I will live in a nation that has moved so far beyond any possible racism or sexism that we can all say a candidate like Kamala Harris is a horrible politician and a ridiculous, unserious leader despite her race and gender -- But political correctness does not allow that now. The overly-feminine left will defend assaults on Kamala by claiming she is being attacked, not on her merits or lack of them, but because America is racist and misogynistic. God protect you from your friends. This defense will make Kamala smaller.

Underneath Biden’s unpopularity is substance: his weak leadership and failures on the border, crime, and grocery store prices. Add his Afghanistan withdrawal, emboldening China and Russia, pulling the rug from under Israel, failing to win back our hostages, painful gas prices, and more. Joe Biden has made our nation less safe, less prosperous and turned the world into a tinderbox -- and Kamala Harris inherits everything. She was there, a hapless partner in it all.

Red State's Bonchie thinks along similar lines.

It's very likely she just had the best week of her campaign given the media onslaught in her favor and the fact that Republicans were caught somewhat flat-footed (who wouldn't be when an opposition party swaps their nominee in late July via the machinations of nothing but insiders).

The next month is going to tell us a lot, but for now, Democrat adulation is countered by the situation on the ground. This is a sugar high driven by a subservient press proclaiming Harris the greatest candidate to ever exist. It hasn't actually put her in position to win, though. Not yet, anyway.

But if Republicans and Libertarians don't concentrate on the substance, they'll lose.  The substance is there, and the Democrats' machinations are incidental.  The purpose is always the same, and it's destructive.

Recall that the entire left-wing establishment, including the media, let Biden campaign from his home in 2020 to help him beat socialist Bernie Sanders.

In 2024, the Democratic National Committee changed the party’s nominating calendar and put South Carolina first in line, overturning decades of tradition, to ensure that Biden avoided any inconvenient challenges — even though most elected officials knew about his diminishing mental state.

Once in power, the “moderate” Biden spent trillions on the left-wing grab-bag “inflation reduction” bill, even when economists warned the spending would spark inflation.

Biden rolled back numerous border enforcement measures, despite being warned the country would be flooded by illegal immigrants.

Biden dropped a moderate abortion stance and supported the procedure on demand without any limit.

Biden coddled the Islamic regime in Iran and sold Israel out on numerous occasions.

That’s just a taste. These policies had Barack Obama written all over them.

Now, Kamala owes the same people, not voters, her political future.

Like Biden, Kamala will be a useful proxy for those who propped up her candidacy and perhaps her presidency.

Not so much a proxy as a true believer. Concentrate on the substance. Money printing.  Open borders.  Deprivation spun as conservation.  Yes, there is a lot of weird in the Democrats' coalition: it is the policies that are wrong, it is of secondary importance that the Weimar freak show types visible on social media are often the most visible advocates of the policies.