Opinion - The 2 decisions that crushed Harris’s momentum

Not a single Democrat I speak with believes that Vice President Kamala Harris will win on Tuesday.

All hoped for an open convention in August to identify and select the best candidate possible, but they were denied. To that point, this past Thursday, The Hill featured a piece headlined , "Democrats start to point fingers even as they hope for Harris win."

A Democratic strategist is quoted as saying, "People are nervous, and they're trying to cover their ass and get a little ahead of Election Day. It's based on anxiety, stakes and the unique nature of this cycle. We didn't have a traditional process for this election. We didn't have a primary. People just had to fall in line."

Again, this is coming from a Democrat. They had to just "fall in line" because they were ordered to do so. Then, any hope of an open convention was further dashed by the combined backroom dealings of the Democratic National Committee, former President Barack Obama, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Immediately after those backroom dealings, every nonconforming Democrat had to accept that Harris, without getting one vote in the primary, was being installed by the machine to replace the sputtering President Joe Biden. With that selection predetermined, Biden officially announced on July 21 that he would not be running for reelection and was endorsing Harris as his replacement.

The temporary buzz and "joy" began. Except it began to dissipate even before the Democratic convention in Chicago on Aug. 19. Why? Because Harris picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate on Aug. 6. As these Democratic operatives told me, from almost day one, she had to spend precious time and energy defending that choice.

The selection of Walz is the first reason she lost momentum. To be sure, much of the party — and many in the liberal media — wanted Harris to pick the more moderate Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro — first because the Keystone State was certain to be the most pivotal in the election, and second because Shapiro would have added some ideological balance to the ticket.

By any honest analysis, Harris is a far-left liberal. That said, it can be argued that Walz is even further to the left than she is. Leaving aside the practical reasons Harris should have picked a more moderate running mate is the reality that self-described "knucklehead" Walz has been a liability from day one.

The choice of Walz yoked Harris to all of his baggage — his exaggerations of his military record ; his DUI arrest , which involved him driving 96 miles per hour with a 0.128 percent blood alcohol content; his multiple visits to China and associations with communist officials; his fabrication that he was in Hong Kong on the day of the Tiananmen Square massacre when he was actually in Nebraska; his being turned into an "Elmer Fudd" meme because of his comical handling of a shotgun; and his being the governor who allowed violent anarchists to run wild and burn down parts of Minneapolis.

To add insult to injury, Trump running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) clearly trounced the obviously nervous and unprepared Walz during their vice presidential debate on Oct. 10.

The second decision that greatly contributed to the crushing of the Harris momentum came on Aug. 23, when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his independent campaign for president and endorsed former President Donald Trump.

The timing of the announcement could not have been worse for Harris or her campaign. The Kennedy announcement, the very day after her convention ended, sucked a great deal of helium out of her joy-filled message and polling bounce.

But again, the damage was much worse than just stepping on the high of her convention. The biased opinions of the liberal media and the Democratic Party aside, Kennedy is deeply respected by millions of Americans who view him as a principled, highly intelligent original thinker who will fight for their causes against the corrupt entrenched establishments.

The day Kennedy dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump, Politico reported that "Kennedy's unorthodox views drew support from Democrats and Republicans. Both parties worried that he would be the biggest electoral spoiler in decades. The presidential election remains incredibly close, and if even a fraction of Kennedy's support moves to Trump, it could be decisive in swing states."

Indeed. But I believe it's going to be a great deal more than just a "fraction." One of the main reasons is the "mom vote." Kennedy's endorsement will potentially bring millions of previously ambivalent female voters to the table for Trump. Why? Because they are moms who are worried about the health and wellbeing of their children and have long believed that Kennedy was one of the few people in public life who would protect those children. This is a much bigger deal than the media realizes or will acknowledge. It is a real game changer.

Toward that end, these moms want Trump to win so he will bring Kennedy into his cabinet —which Trump will undoubtedly do.

Harris may have been a flawed candidate from the beginning, but she was building some momentum after being installed as the Democratic nominee on July 21. That momentum proved fleeting. It was extinguished by her decision to pick Walz and Kennedy's decision to suspend his campaign and endorse Trump.

Look for Shapiro to use Harris's poor judgement and her crushed momentum as a springboard for his 2028 campaign.

Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official.