Friday mailbag!

Questions, answered.

Happy Friday!

We made it!

This has been the best week for Democrats in months — with excitement around the presidential bid of Kamala Harris continuing to build, JD Vance looking like something less than a world-beater and polling suggesting the race between Harris and Donald Trump is close.

Lots to talk about! I answered a whole bunch of questions in today’s mailbag post. As always, this weekly piece is behind the paywall. If you haven’t become a paid subscriber to “So What” yet, I hope you do it today! It’s just $6 a month or $60 for the year and comes with all sort of fun perks — including a one-on-one Zoom call with me!

I also want to flag that I am doing a live chat on my YouTube channel at 1 pm eastern today. I do these every Friday and they are super fun — so check it out!

Alright let’s get to the questions!

Q: What, in your opinion can the Harris campaign learn from the Clinton campaign from 2016? What can Kamala do to avoid certain mistakes that perhaps Hillary made?

A: Great question.

The most important lesson Harris can learn from Clinton is not to assume that people won’t vote for Donald Trump — and that the whole message of the campaign should be “Well you’re not voting for THAT guy.”

I think Clinton wrongly assumed that Trump’s personal and moral failings would disqualify him in the eyes of lots and lots of voters. And that all she had to be was the other candidate in the race to win.

Nope! Like it or not, there are lots and lots of people who don’t really care about the lying and the bad behavior and the rest. And they certainly won’t vote for Harris solely because she is the person not named “Trump” in the race.

Harris needs to have a positive (and appealing) message for these people. People, especially swing voters, want to have something (and someone) to vote for, not just someone to vote against.

Q: I’ve seen a lot of Pete Buttigieg on TV lately and every time he has been pitch perfect. You called him, “the single most naturally talented politician in the Democratic party right now.” Who else, if anyone, do you consider to be in the same tier as Pete (or close) as far as talented politicians?

A: He has definitely amped up his profile lately as his name has emerged as a possible VP pick for Harris.

And, yeah, I think Buttigieg is incredibly naturally talented as a politician. He’s smart, thinks well on his feet and gets policy in a deep way. (The knock on him, which I think is mostly fair, is that he’s a know-it-all and slightly smarmy — like the kid in your high school class who asked the teacher if she forgot to assign homework.)

Who else has those gifts? I think Buttigieg stands alone honestly. I think Josh Shapiro has shown that he is very gifted as well — but more in the world’s-best-bureaucrat way. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore continues to impress me. I think Gretchen Whitmer has shown some pretty solid political chops.

The Democratic party has a very deep bench at the moment. Which makes the fact that NO ONE was willing to challenge Harris for the nomination all the more remarkable.

Q: A two-part question: If Harris wins, what will be the biggest political fight next year? If Trump wins, what will be the biggest political fight next year?