Democrats Worry While the GOP Radiates Overconfidence

Susan Glasser: “Of course, that has not stopped both parties from doing what they always do. In Democrats’ case, this appears to be the week when their traditional pre-election panic has set in. Strategists are now warning that Harris has ‘plateaued,’ that she ‘needs to be more aggressive,’ and that she has to reinvent herself as a centrist to ‘seal the deal.’ In recent days, I’ve read articles dissecting her challenges with male voters, Black male voters, Arab voters, Latino voters, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin voters. She also, apparently, has a Biden problem, a Bibi problem, and a hurricane problem.”

“If Democratic worrying were a natural resource, there would never be an energy crisis again. And, to be clear, sometimes the freakout is entirely justified…”

“Republicans, however, suffer from an inverse affliction, a form of congenital overconfidence that comes straight from the leader who has reinvented the GOP in his braggadocious image. In Trumpworld, there are never any bad polls or bad debates. Trump says his lead is ‘GETTING BIGGER BY THE DAY.’ On Thursday, he even posted what appeared to be an internal memo from his pollster, showing him ahead in all seven battleground states. And who’s going to quibble with him on his very own social-media platform, never mind that this week of polling shows, like all the other weeks, that Harris is (very) narrowly beating him.”

“Trump is the only candidate of my lifetime who can make a reliable applause line out of the latest Rasmussen poll. He can be convicted, humiliated, defeated in an election, but somehow he’s always on the attack, never on the defensive.”