The Democratic National Convention is just days away.
The outcome is predetermined, the story is scripted, the enthusiasm is performative.
It’s practically impossible to beat a political convention as the headline story of most news publications, but former Presidents Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy have a unique opportunity to do just that on Friday, shifting the spotlight from Chicago to their unconventional political alliance and potentially regaining some of the momentum Trump had before Vice President Kamala Harris clinched the top spot on the 2024 presidential ticket.
Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, has hinted at the possibility of a coalition between Republicans and independents.
“We are looking at two options: one is to remain and form a new party, but there are risks like with Kamala Harris. [Tim] “Waltz is running for president to draw votes away from Trump,” she said. Impact Theory podcast with Tom Bilyeu.
When third-party campaigns start bringing up scenarios like this, the game is pretty much over.
Kennedy was recently in the news for conversations with Trump that touched on the possibility of a role in a future Republican administration if he endorsed a Republican candidate, as well as unsuccessful attempts to discuss job opportunities with Harris if elected.
So the effort is not surprising, especially since Kennedy has long since lost much of his original voter interest in the polls.
But the polls also provide positives: a valuable asset, since even Kennedy, whose grotesque portrayal of him dumping a bear carcass in Central Park and eating a goat that resembled a dog, still commands support in the handful of battleground states that could decide the election in November.
If Kennedy is serious about doing favors for Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, it would be a political blunder not to include him in the mix.
This is despite polls, including one in Pennsylvania that suggests Harris could help Trump win as a disruptive candidate but that voters would drift to her if she dropped out of the race.
After all, trends indicate those voters will go somewhere anyway, and that may happen now that polls in many battleground states show support for Kennedy is larger than the gap between support for Trump and Harris.
Other national polls have shown that Kennedy is currently the most popular among Republicans, with more than 50% of Republicans backing him in an Economist/YouGov poll conducted Aug. 17-20, which also makes sense.
One caveat: Not that Kennedy camp wants assurances that he will comply. Shanahan added: “Do we trust that Trump and his personal integrity will really do the right thing for our country? Will he end chronic disease, balance the budget, end these forever wars? Is he the kind of guy who will continue to invite people like Bobby and Trump in?” [me] Are we going to be part of the conversation, or are we going to fall back into the damage done by the first administration?”
Kennedy said he would “sit with leaders of all political parties to advance the goals I have served for 40 years of my career and campaigns,” including “ending the epidemic of chronic disease, ending the war machine, ridding our government of corporate influence and toxic pollutants from our environment, protecting free speech, and ending the politicization of the executive branch.”
Is that really what Donald Trump’s Republican Party is aiming for, or is Kennedy willing to win in some areas and concede in others?
The question of whether it’s worth squeezing should be central to both sets of thinking, but in terms of the story, it’s a win-win.
This has been a cutthroat election season, and Trump’s campaign has looked lackluster in contrast to Harris’ pop-culture pitch. Picking Kennedy could help reset the narrative and galvanize voter support, especially in battleground states.
