Democratic Convention already in trouble

The Democratic National Convention began today – but it was running into trouble even before its beginning. Reports of 100,000 pro-HAMAS protesters descending on Chicago were alarming enough. But likely Presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ bus tour is a campaign disaster. The Democrats walled off the United Center and installed identity checkpoints – which they reject on our borders. Prominent Democrats are defending Kamala Harris’ open calls for Communist-style economic measures, when the Party cannot afford an extreme platform. With added rumors that Harris has an alcohol-abuse problem, the Democratic Convention just turned into a massive situation comedy.

The Democratic wall – and those thinking to storm it

The Democratic Convention will be harder to get into than the U.S.-Mexican border – and that speaks directly to their platform. As Jim Hoft detailed yesterday, they have walled off the convention venue – and mandate identification for entry. This comes from the Party that wants to tear down the border wall and forbid identity checks for voting. As such it represents the worst kind of hypocrisy.

Actually they might need that wall. 100,000 pro-HAMAS protesters are preparing to descend on the city. In fact they’ve already arrived,

and last night set up chants of:

DNC Go Home! Or We’re Gonna Bring the War Home!

And:

Racist, sexist, anti-gay, Christian fascists go away!

Many of those protesters are explicitly saying they want a repeat of the 1968 Democratic National Convention – also in Chicago. That might have begun, too – because Harris hasn’t dodged the reputation of her boss, President Joe Biden.

According to News Nation Now, Chicago authorities have transformed a disused courtroom to process mass arrests beginning today.

In the most striking preparations, the Department of Defense is paying for decontamination rooms in several city hospitals.

Either someone has threatened chemical or biological warfare attacks, or someone in the Party is afraid of that.

In the with-friends-like-these-who-needs-enemies department…

Kamala Harris lately has tried to distance herself from the sad state of the economy. That’s difficult enough to do, since she is part of a Democratic administration. But lately she has called for price controls on food, leading even The Washington Post to recoil in horror.

Yesterday morning, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) defended Harris’ proposal on Fox News Sunday.

It’s all very well for a Democratic Senator, who is not up for reelection, to say that. But the other Delaware Senate seat is open, after Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) declined to seek reelection this year. What will the Senator say if, say, Republicans pick up that seat?

Kamala Harris has her own problems. That cackle has always drawn attention, and those who’ve heard it identify it as a chronic drug user’s laugh. Now comes talk that Harris abuses alcohol – regularly.

Here’s why. When she and running mate Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) started their bus tour to Chicago, she made a speech. In the middle of it she made many statements about “democracy” that didn’t make much sense.

Our election is about understanding the importance of this beautiful country of ours in terms of what we stand for around the globe as a democracy. As a democracy, we know there’s a duality to the nature of democracy. On the one hand, incredible strength when it is intact. What it does for its people to protect and defend their rights. Incredibly strong. And incredibly fragile.

Lay aside that ours is a republic, not a democracy. A thing cannot be strong and fragile at once in the same respect. (Ironically she does suggest – correctly – that democracy is unstable, and always devolves to oligarchy.)

The Kalamitous bus tour

The bus tour itself turned out badly. Trump supporters lined the bus route, in Rochester, Pennsylvania.

Harris stopped by a Sheetz gas station to buy a bag of Doritos® tortilla chips. No one but the press saw her there.

When speaking to a youth football team, she said a very strange thing:

Knowing that you will be undefeated even if you don’t win every game, but no circumstance or event or moment will defeat your spirit.

Except that “undefeated” does mean winning every game.

When she arrived at the Primati Brothers sandwich shop in Moon Township, she expelled their regular customers. She wanted only friendly customers to interact with. This is Grigoriy Potemkin-type stuff.

The Democratic Convention isn’t off to a much better start. Kristinn Taylor at TGP obtained a copy of the meeting schedule. Between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. CDT, five separate ethnic caucuses will meet at once, in different rooms. This pattern of segregated meetings will repeat throughout the week. Tellingly, no Jewish caucus is on the schedule.

Apparently an altercation broke out on the Convention floor. An exchange on X,

almost turned violent.

This next story may or may not make any difference. Several uncommitted delegates, representing 700,000 voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and other “swing” States, refuse to endorse Harris.

And last: when Kamala Harris did take questions from the press, it didn’t go over well.

Cullen Linebarger (TGP) provided this transcript:

REPORTER: You unveiled your economic politics last weekend. Can you explain how you’re going to pay for your policies and give a sense of what other policies you want to unveil going forward?

HARRIS: Well, sure, I mean, you just look at it in terms of what we are talking about, for example, around children and the child tax credit and extending the EITC (earned income tax credit). It’s at $6,000 for the first year of a child’s life.

The return on that investment in terms of what that will do and what it will pay for will be tremendous… And then what we’re doing in terms of the tax credits, we know that there’s a great return on investment, and when we increase home ownership in America…

What that does to fund schools, again, return on investment… I think it’s a mistake for any person who talks about public policy to not critically evaluate how you measure the return on investment.

The Democratic Convention is committed

For all that, the Democratic National Convention remains committed to nominating Harris and Waltz for President and Vice-President. Word has come down that Biden will appear – to say farewell. After that, he and wife Jill will vacation in California for the rest of the week. They will not attend Harris’ acceptance speech.

While this is happening, Donald Trump has a full schedule of rallies, mainly in States regarded as “swing.” How much attention the Democratic National Convention will even receive, remains to be seen.