
As political obsessives, we confess it: Weāre already getting a little sick of the āweirdā thing. Weeks of seeing the same point every day about these guys! Surely thereās some other way we canā
Whatās that? Thereās new audio out of JD Vance yukking it up with a podcast host who says that āthe whole purpose of the postmenopausal femaleā is to help raise their grandkids?
Okay, a few more days of āweirdā wonāt hurt. Happy Thursday.

Let Brian Wilson Be Your Guide
āBill Kristol
This morning I write to defend vibes. Theyāre getting a bum rap.
Kamala Harrisās and Tim Walzās good vibes only go so far, the pundits say. You canāt just keep running on vibes, the commentators warn. Give us a real policy agenda, the columnists implore.
Nah.
First of all, on the policy agenda front, be careful what you wish for. Policies unveiled at this point in a presidential campaign are going to be poll-tested and half-baked. The good news is they probably shouldnāt be taken too seriously.
Harris has to find some separation from Joe Biden, she has to show that she cares about high prices, and she has to make it clear she wants to help the middle class. Sheāll do all this in some sensible ways, some symbolic ways, and some silly ways. Most of it wonāt have much relation to what she would actually do as presidentāor even to what she could do as president.
Butāif I may say something heterodox and perhaps shockingāitās important that the policy proposals donāt get in the way of the good vibes.
The term āvibesā entered popular use thanks to the Beach Boysā 1966 hit, āGood Vibrations.ā Before that, a āvibeā was simply shorthand for a vibraphone, a percussion instrument with metal bars. But Brian Wilsonās hippy mother would tell him about how some people give off good āvibrations,ā which led to the song, written by him with lyrics by his cousin and fellow Beach Boy, Mike Love. Pretty quickly āvibrationsā led to āvibesā.
The songās lyrics are simple and straightforward. Hereās the refrain:
Iām pickinā up good vibrations
Sheās giving me excitations (oom bop bop)
Iām pickinā up good vibrations (good vibrations, oom bop bop)
Sheās giving me excitations (excitations, oom bop bop)
Good, good, good, good vibrations (oom bop bop)
Sheās giving me excitations (excitations, oom bop bop)
Good, good, good, good vibrations (oom bop bop)
Sheās giving me excitations (excitations)
But simple and straightforward can be effectiveāin popular music, and in presidential politics.
What do we know about modern presidential politics?
That good vibrationsāpopularity, likability, a sense of excitement and, yes, joyāmatter.
Think Barack Obama in 2008: āHope and changeā and āwe are the ones we are waiting for.ā We McCain supporters used to make fun of this stuff. But Obama won.
Think Ronald Reagan in 1984. āMorning in America.ā An ad slogan. Reagan won.
Think Bill Clinton and Al Gore in 1992: āChange vs. more of the same.ā In reality, the country could have done a lot worse than a continuation of the policies of the George H.W. Bush administration. But Clinton and Gore won.
I recently asked the mastermind of the 1992 Clinton campaign, James Carville, what the Harris campaignās key themes against Donald Trump should be. āI would have three attacks,ā he said. āOne: Past. Two: Yesterday. Three: Stale. Three things . . . but one thing.ā
And that one thing isnāt deep policy. Itās a vibe. All this should be supported by a policy agenda that reinforces the campaignās theme. But the vibe is key.
I donāt want to go too far in this direction. And perhaps Iām overstating my pro-vibes argument. Policies matter. Values matter. But personal characteristics, images of the candidates, the overall spirit of the campaign, those also matter.
You know who understands this? Donald J. Trump.
Whatās always been his obsession, and in a way, his talent? Branding. The overall image, the big impression, the general feelingāthe vibe. Trumpās political talentāand itās always the talent of the demagogueāis branding himself with favorable vibes, such as strength, showmanship, and making America great again, and branding his opponents with negative ones, such as being weak, dangerous, unpatriotic, and the like.
Which is why Trump is so rattled by Harris. Heās watching her and realizing that sheās winning the vibe wars. Her campaign offers morning in America. Her campaign is change vs. more of the same. Sheās the under-75-year-old weāve been waiting for.
Trump knows the power of all this. And he knows heās losing because of it.
Iām no expert on the world of vibes. But Iāll say this to my friends working hard in Chicago to plan next weekās Democratic convention: Good speakers? Check. Compelling rhetoric? Check. Key arguments that resonate with important constituencies? Check. Telling contrasts with Trump and Vance? Check.
But they need always to step back and ask: What about the vibe?
I think the convention planners know this. And I look forward to late Thursday night, after the presidential nomineeās speech, when the balloons have dropped and the Harris and Walz families are all on stage. The music begins to blare through the United Center.
Itās Carl Wilsonās voice.
I love the colorful clothes she wears . . .
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Quick Hits
ACTUAL BIG DEAL POLICY NEWS: Per the AP, the prices for 10 of Medicareās most popular and costliest drugs will be cut after deals struck between the government and the drug companies. āWhite House officials said Wednesday night they expect U.S. taxpayers to save $6 billion on the new prices, while older Americans could save roughly $1.5 billion on their medications.ā Prescription drug costs consistently rate as one of the most salient election issues. Just sayinā.
THE YEAR OF MAGICAL PRICE CONTROLS: Whoās ready to grit their teeth through Harrisās economic-agenda rollout? In a speech in North Carolina tomorrow, Harris plans to propose the āfirst-ever federal ban on price-gouging on food and groceries,ā her campaign said, threatening āstiff penalties in the food industryā against companies that raise prices beyond limits the federal government deems acceptable.
Not to be outdone, Trump was busy yesterday with some fanciful economics of his own. In a North-Carolina speech pegged as an economic policy rollout (but which ended up more or less a traditional campaign rally), he declared that under his leadership āthe United States will commit to the ambitious goal of slashing energy and electricity prices by half at least . . . within 12 months, at a maximum 18 months.ā How will that happen, you might wonder? Who knows!
One of these years, some group of folks in or near the government may rediscover the notion that hamfisted federal attempts to twist markets into a more favorable shape can end up doing more harm than good. We hope itās soon!
NO SHAPIRO NECESSARY?: The latest Quinnipiac poll out of Pennsylvania gives Harris a three-point edge over Trump, 48-45, with 4 percent planning to back Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Bob Casey holds a more commanding eight-point lead over Republican challenger David McCormick, 52-44.
When Harris picked Tim Walz as her running mate, some observersāincluding your correspondentsāfretted that, in not selecting Pennsylvaniaās popular governor, Josh Shapiro, as a running mate, she was passing up on an opportunity to lock the state down for good. At least so far, though, the Walz pick seems to be doing no harm in the Keystone State.
THIS GUY: The aforementioned Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears to have approached the Harris campaign with an offer to make him a cabinet member. It didnāt go well. Or, frankly, anywhere. In fact, it didnāt really go at all. Harrisās campaign, according to the Washington Post, rebuffed the outreach. But like a man who stumbles upon a young bear dead in the road, Kennedy is plowing forward. This morning, he said, āVP Harrisās Democratic Party would be unrecognizable to my father and uncle.ā
THIS GUY AGAIN: After years of stonewalling, the White House on Wednesday released records showing that Hunter Biden asked the U.S. ambassador to Italy to lobby the Italian government on behalf of Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company on whose board he served. This requestāwhich took place in 2016, while Joe Biden was still vice presidentāunsettled officials to whom it was directed: āI want to be careful about promising too much,ā a Commerce Department official wrote in an internal communication. āThis is a Ukrainian company, and purely to protect ourselves, U.S.G. should not be actively advocating with the government of Italyā without Burisma going through an official program.
I'm liking "Not Going Back" for a slogan. Not to pre-Roe, not to Jim Crow, not to Tammany Hall. not to monarchy, not to theocracy... .
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., YOU would be unrecognizable to your father and your uncle.