There’s not much question that if Kamala Harris loses this crazy-close election, it will mostly be over public unhappiness with the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the economic and immigration issues (despite the bizarre and mean-spirited heavy bet the Trump campaign is making over the salience of hateful anti-transgender attack ads). It has certainly been frustrating to Democrats that instead of noting and approving of recent improvements in the economy and the virtual collapse of inflation, persuadable voters seem to be misremembering the Trump years as prosperous beyond measure.
Similarly, Harris and Biden aren’t getting much credit for the sharp reductions in border crossings by migrants in recent months. But as Nate Silver argues, it’s pretty hard to make the case that Democrats haven’t mishandled the situation at the border:
The number of Southern border crossings greatly increased during the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration … Some of this can be attributed to the strong labor market amid the post-COVID recovery, but policy changes enacted by Biden are also directly responsible for much of it.
Harris is closely associated with the issue; liberals don’t like the term “border czar” but Biden appointed her to lead the response on the........