Kamala Ditches Al Smith Dinner – Another Unforced Error

Rant or Rave Wednesday

The Alfred E. Smith Dinner is an annual event that raises money for organizations involved in assisting New York’s neediest children. The Catholic charity dinner has taken place since 1946 and since 1960, has featured the presidential nominees from both parties every election year. It is a time when opposing campaigns can come together to take good-natured jabs at each other in an open setting. This election cycle, VP Harris opted not to attend – another huge mistake and loss for the flailing campaign.

During the dinner, prominent individuals look forward to the highlight of the night – hearing the parties’ nominees roast each other. It provides an opportunity of levity for candidates during a campaign season. We all remember the contentious 2016 campaign between President Trump and Hilary Clinton. At that dinner, President Trump made a joke about pardoning Hilary Clinton. It was quite funny and even elicited a hearty laugh from Secretary Clinton. For those of us who found Clinton to be phony or unlikeable, that moment humanized her. And that is the point of the Al Smith dinner from the political perspective – to humanize the candidates and see a softer side of them.

But once again, Kamala chose to ignore campaign norms and skipped the dinner. Why? Was it an unwise suggestion from one of her advisors? Was it due to her own cowardice, knowing there would not be a teleprompter? Perhaps, it was a combination of both. Trump showed up in a room filled with mostly Democrats who probably don’t like him, but that’s par for the course with this president. He will speak to anyone, anytime, anywhere, including the National Association of Black Journalists or, more recently, with an adversarial journalist from Bloomberg, where Trump sat for over an hour answering questions from the hostile editor-in-chief.

Kamala is simply unable to do that. Instead of showing up and attempting to be likable, she sent in a cringe-worthy video. She could not hide under the veil of COVID, which is what Biden did in 2020, nor did she have any scheduling conflicts. She simply didn’t go and offered no explanation. The bizarre video, which featured former SNL comedian, Molly Shannon, was not funny and only served to emphasize VP Harris’ awkwardness. It was also an affront to practicing Catholics. This is not just my perception but seems to be the general consensus even among Democrats. One Democratic strategist admits that substituting her presence with the humorless video of Molly Shannon’s catholic school character along with a cringy Harris “offended the church.”

Kamala Harris is the epitome of a self-righteous Democrat, who refuses to subject themselves to the same level of scrutiny Republicans do. She and her ilk scream about preserving democracy, but they do things that go against the basic tenets of democracy. The perfect example of this is how the bureaucracy, or whoever is controlling the White House, removed Biden as a contender for a second term and inserted Kamala. She did not have to fight for the nomination, and more importantly, she did not earn one vote from a primary election, which is a democratic norm. The American voter has a choice between two very different candidates – one who is extremely accessible and the other who only addresses the public in a scripted and controlled manner.

 

---

Gordon Chang sits down with Professor Giordano to discuss China’s ambitions

---

The P.A.S. Report wants to hear from you. Send your feedback to podcast@pasreport.com.

Please like and share this episode with others & on social media.

---

*PA Strategies, LLC. may earn advertising revenue or a small commission for promoting products or when you make a purchase through any affiliate links on this website and within this post.

Follow Nicholas Giordano

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•