CNN Historian Says Harris Can Win Without an Agenda: ‘A Vibes Campaign Can Be Very Effective’

Presidential historian and CNN contributor Tim Naftali argued Friday that Vice President Kamala Harris can win the 2024 election by not running on an agenda but by running a “vibes” campaign.

Harris has been criticized since she became the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee over her lack of media availability. She sat down for an interview on Thursday with CNN’s Dana Bash alongside her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

CNN host Alex Marquardt asked Naftali about the interview and how he felt Harris might have presented herself to undecided voters.

Marquardt then noted, “One of the interesting things when you talk to Democrats about where the vice president stands on specific things, you hear from some saying, ‘Look, don’t get into the weeds on the policy issues focus about character, focus on values the vice president repeatedly said last night.”

The host pressed Naftali as to how Harris as to whether being vague on an agenda would be “an effective strategy.” Naftali replied:

It has been effective in American history. Franklin Roosevelt ran on the New Deal. Of course, he was running at a time of economic collapse and he was running against an incumbent. But he didn’t actually say what the New Deal was. Indeed, his ideas about what a New Deal should be in 1932 would be very different by the time it was 1934, ’35. John F. Kennedy ran, promising to make the country move again.

Well, how vague is that? He ran a vibes campaign for the most part in 1960. Richard Nixon in 1968 promised to end the war in Vietnam but didn’t say how we would do it. He said he had a secret plan. He was as vague as he could be, again, saying I’m different from the people in power. I’m different from LBJ. And 2008, Barack Obama promised change. He did promise some policy changes, of course, but he was basically saying, “We’ve had enough with the Bush administration. We’ve had enough with its wars.”

So, historically, a vibes campaign can be very effective. A campaign that is light on policy can be effective. The challenge, of course, for Vice President Harris is that she’s actually in the administration at the moment.

Naftali added Harris would need to explain to voters how she intends to run a green economy, and why the border was porous for three years before action was taken.

He concluded, “It would be okay if she opened up a little daylight between her and Joe Biden.”

Watch above via CNN.

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