How Kamala Harris Can Use the Debate to Win Big
On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Joshua A. Cohen aka Ettingermentum on the state of the presidential race.

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On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Jeet Heer is joined by Joshua A. Cohen a.k.a. Ettingermentum to discuss the state of the presidential race.
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Senator Kamala Harris at the vice presidential debate, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
(Eric Baradat / AFP via Getty Images)After the convention and on the cusp of a debate, the presidential election is a near–dead heat. The polls show Kamala Harris has a slight edge, but this is well within the margin of error. This is a massive improvement over the performance of Joe Biden, who was on a path to a major defeat, but it is by no means a guarantee of victory. To take up the state of the race, I talk to analyst Joshua A. Cohen, who writes for The Nation and runs the Ettingermentum newsletter.
We take up both what Harris has been doing right (which explains her quick rise in the polls) but also weaknesses in the Democratic Party’s messaging (which explain why the Democratic National Convention didn’t produce a significant bump). We then look toward the debate as a chance for Harris to more clearly define herself against Donald Trump and increase the size of her lead to win big.

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
Norman Podhoretz, one of the founding fathers of neoconservatism, died on December 16 at
age 95. His legacy is a complex one, since in recent decades neoconservatism has been
supplanted in many ways by American First conservatism. But many aspects of Podhoretz’s
influence still play a shaping role on right. I take up Podhoretz’s career with David Klion (who
wrote an obituary for the pundit for The Nation) and the historian Ronnie Grinberg, who had
discussed Podhoretz in her book Write Like a Man.
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