Making the first impression

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Candidates for political office everywhere are usually very keen to give local or national media interviews, depending on the position they are competing for; to show themselves to potential voters, and answer questions regarding their political beliefs, ambitions, etc..

Yet, for the past several weeks, there have been endless discussions in media circles that the US Democratic Party candidates for president, Kamala Harris, and for vice-president, Tim Walz, have been avoiding direct questions that require spontaneous answers. They chose to address their election rallies with prepared scripts. In fact, from long before President Biden quit his re-election campaign on July 21, Harris had not given a single press conference nor sit-down interview, but all that changed with a meeting with CNN’s Dana Bash.

With the majority of American voters locked into their party of choice, there is a relatively small number of undecided voters willing to be swayed by what these candidates would say. But that was never mentioned in this much-ballyhooed interview taped at Kim’s Café in Savannah, Georgia, and broadcast a few hours later on August 29.

Both Harris and Walz have held prominent positions in American politics for many years, but the exaggerated media message was that they are unknown. All potential voters needed an introduction, as if they had just landed from an unknown planet somewhere in the Twilight Zone.

So the 28-minute interview took place and, despite all the hype, turned out to be rather predictable and mundane. There was unlimited praise for President Biden, with the continuing myth that he is in excellent health and quit the campaign only because he loves his country so much. Of course, the simple truth is that donors had abandoned him after the debate debacle on June 27, and nobody wins a campaign without the necessary funds.

There were questions about flip-flops over fracking policies, the ongoing Gaza War, a few vague comments on inflation and the economy, then some warm and fuzzy recollections of moments from the recent Democratic National Convention regarding reactions of young family members. No indication yet of how the targeted undecided voters viewed this, but some may have remembered what famed humorist Will Rogers supposedly said over 100 years ago : “You never get a second chance to make a first impression”.

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada