Leland Vittert’s War Notes: Woke or Win?

NewsNation Chief Washington Anchor and On Balance host Leland Vittert was a foreign correspondent for four years in Jerusalem. He gives you an early look at tonight’s 7 p.m. ET show. Subscribe to War Notes here.

State of play :

• 8 days to the election
• Decision Desk HQ average : Kamala Harris +0.5, as of around noon ET today. Click here to see the latest numbers.
  • Polymarket betting odds : 66.2 to 33.9 in favor of Trump.

The race is tight — former President Donald Trump appears to be leading (by how much is unknowable and debatable), and Vice President Kamala Harris keeps squandering opportunities to reset the narrative.

• Don’t believe me? The finger-pointing among Democrats already started .

That is the field of play eight days out — here we go.

Woke or Win

Over the weekend, Democrats — even some high-profile Democrats — started talking to me about the “Hail Mary.”

• Would an endorsement from former President George W. Bush save Harris?
• Could endorsing a stronger border policy convince voters she isn’t to the left of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
• Bill Maher said she needs a “Sister Souljah” moment.

Seriously — what would happen if Harris said what Hillary Clinton said in 2008 and promised to deport illegal immigrants convicted of crimes in the United States?

• This weekend: A Hail Mary works — just ask the Chicago Bears , who lost 15 to 18 on a 52-yard tipped pass to the end zone.
  • Watch out: During the play, a Chicago defender was taunting the hometown crowd rather than focusing on the field.
  • Charlie Kirk , of all people, tweeted a version of this warning.
    • Speaking of football, Nick Bosa of the San Francisco 49ers photobombed a postgame interview with his MAGA hat.

• What I am thinking: Tim Walz Playing Madden — the NFL video game — with AOC isn’t the kind of Hail Mary needed …
  • Inauthentic stunts are worse than not doing them at all.
• Look back: We’ve told you for months Team Harris wants to underpay for the presidency.
  • In one sentence, they declare Trump a Nazi that will destroy the republic.
  • In the next, they refuse to compromise even a little bit on abortion, the border, boys in girls sports, the economy and Israel.
• If staying woke is more important than winning, what does that say about the Nazi warning?
  • Case in point : Mika Brzezinski this morning brought a dire warning of a second Trump term.
  • Yet it’s not worth deporting illegal aliens who commit felonies, giving religious exemptions for abortion or giving up policies of boys in girls sports.

A thought on “Nazis”:

• There is a danger in calling Trump and others Nazis.
• The American people aren’t buying it — he doesn’t feel like a Nazi, talk like a Nazi, and he didn’t govern as a Nazi.
  • For you folks who think it’s a Nazi rally, Trump’s MSG rally would be the first with Israeli flags prominently displayed.
• It makes Democrats seem unserious and deprives Democrats of valuable days to attack Trump and Republicans on issues where he is vulnerable.

Sequined Jacket

There isn’t much to say that hasn’t been said about Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally. It’s the perfect Rorschach test — you see what you want.

Alina Habba’s walkout shows off not just a sequined jacket but a campaign awfully confident.

• Our friend Mark Halperin reports a possible Trump rally in New Mexico — and a rally in Virginia is scheduled for Saturday.
• Trump going to New Mexico and Virginia … is it a little bit like Hillary Clinton’s plan in 2016 for a blowout?
• The postmortem on Clinton’s 2016 campaign showed them blowing a completely winnable race by believing the polls and thinking they could get a mandate.
  • Should Trump lose, one can imagine the postmortem story starting with a sequined jacket.
  • Fact check: At least two women I know really want to buy one.

Are Trump’s Madison Square Garden and Virginia rallies like Clinton going to Iowa in 2016?!

State of play: Our buddy Erick Erickson lays out the scenarios for Trump and Harris winning pretty well.

• Much of the Republican (over)confidence comes from polling showing Trump slightly ahead or tied.
• Simple question: Why are Trump supporters so sure he will outperform the polls the way he did in 2016 and 2020 ?

Defy Your Husbands — Votes Are Private

Perhaps Democrats’ last best hope lies in suburban white women “defying” their MAGA-crazed husbands and voting for Kamala Harris.

• Reality check : You know it’s a long shot when The Lincoln Project does an ad .

“Votes are Private,” headlines a new Axios piece about the movement.

• April Rubin writes, “Zoom in: Cathy Schlecter, who lives in a New York City suburb, has sold more than 3,000 packages of sticky notes with pre-written messages on Etsy since Harris announced her candidacy in July. She got the idea from Facebook.
• “‘Woman to woman,’ one of her nine designs reads, ‘no one sees your vote at the polls. Vote for the candidate who will protect your freedom, your family and your future.’”

Inspiration: Much of these thoughts started with my morning workout listening to The Dispatch Podcast: “Voting as a Marital Crisis.”

• As Sarah Isgur, Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg pointed out, there must be something in the data driving the Liz Cheney and Michelle Obama talking points.

“Vote in secret”: Liz Cheney with the common theme on CBS’ “Face the Nation” : “There are also many Republicans and independents who are saying, look, I don’t want to bring the wrath of Donald Trump and JD Vance down on me so I’m gonna vote my conscience, I’m not gonna talk about it. And we obviously encourage that. Your vote is a secret vote. You should do what you know is right.”

• Warning: Michelle Obama caught a lot of flack for lecturing working-class men the way her husband lectured Black men.
• Clap back: Our friend Batya Ungar-Sargon with the response: “Michelle Obama perfectly delivers the Democrats’ pitch to the working-class men of all races they sold out, who are now struggling economically, psychologically, and spiritually: ‘Your only job is to celebrate your own demise, to submit to and elevate the interests of women.’”

Tune into “On Balance with Leland Vittert” weeknights at 7/6C on NewsNation. Find your channel here .

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of NewsNation.

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