This is the most effective political… not sure what to call it. Doesn’t feel like advertising or marketing although both terms apply. I’m going with “media.” The most effective political media I have ever seen. Yes, I’m sure someone came up with this and there was probably a list of talking points and they might have even tried a few minutes to see how it worked.

During my working life I did hundreds of interviews and the chemistry and sincerity that comes across in this ten minute video is hard to fake. I think these two actually like each other thereby come across as likable.

And it is a good example of what can be achieved when you stop letting the media mediate your message. A point well made by John Stoehr, editor of the Editorial Board:

“The Harris campaign is not letting the press corps wedge itself between her and voters. She is not allowing the news media to mediate her message. In effect, she’s preventing the press corps from speaking for her and, as a consequence, she’s preventing it from exercising a de facto veto on her speech. In that, she is taking power – defining her campaign as well as Trump’s. She is turning the narrative about Biden’s age (81) back against Trump’s (78), such that whatever he says in self-defense is seen as proof of the allegations against him.”

There are no rules. There is no lawbook declaring that candidates shall talk to reporters. There is a playbook, if that’s what you mean, but not a lawbook. The vice president could go the whole time without talking to one reporter and she would not have done anything morally wrong.

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Do you think any reporter is going to tell us what kind of music these people grew up with? What their childhoods were like? That’s not gonna generate clicks so no thank you. I stopped believing journalists really care about truth or honesty or protecting democracy. Maybe once upon a time. No more. Take your story directly to the people.