For well over a month, Kamala Harris rode a wave of the most positive press any presidential candidate has gotten in two decades, and her own skills, to turn what had been a lost cause for the Democrats into an extremely tight race.

But does she have a second act?

Kamala 2.0, under constant attack by Donald Trump and the Republicans, doesn’t have much new to say. She is conducting a play-it-safe campaign, like a basketball team sitting on a lead and running out the clock.

But Harris doesn’t have a lead in the three “blue wall” midwestern states she needs to win, and the loss of any one of them could hand Trump the presidency once again.

VANCE-WALZ VP DEBATE ENDED IN A ‘DRAW’: DEMOCRAT REP. DEBBIE DINGELL

For all the focus on Pennsylvania, Harris leads by 0.7 percent in Michigan – a statistical tie, based on the Real Clear Politics average.

On Sunday’s “Media Buzz,” Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell told me her state could go either way. 

“The vice president has a problem with union workers,” Dingell said. “Many of the men, as well as, quite frankly, African-American young men who have said to me, I was with a group with them last week. ‘You know what, Donald Trump talks to us. Democrats take us for granted.’”

The lawmaker recalls how “everybody got mad at me” when she predicted in 2016 that Trump would win Michigan – which he did, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

A major problem for Harris is that she doesn’t seem to know how to make news. With less than 30 days to go, with many voters understandably believing they don’t know her, or enough about her policies, since she took over for Joe Biden, the VP is stitching together parts of her stump speech and recycling the same anecdotes virtually verbatim.

A presidential candidate has to deliver a few new lines, a new proposal, something to break into the news cycle, which is currently being dominated by Trump. 

So what’s on this week’s agenda? Kamala will sit down with Howard Stern (who is totally against his old pal Donald); “The View,” where the ladies despise Trump, and Stephen Colbert, who hosted fundraisers for Joe Biden in 2020 and this year.

For good measure, she’s also spoken to Alex Cooper, whose podcast, “Call Your Daddy,” is about sex.

WHY VANCE EASILY BEAT WALZ IN DEBATE, SOFTENING HIS IMAGE IN THE PROCESS

I’ll go out on a limb here and say these sessions are designed to be friendly – not unlike the conversation with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle, who kept agreeing with Harris and had just pronounced Trump a danger to democracy. 

In fairness, Harris also sat for a “60 Minutes” interview, an invitation declined by Trump.

Look, there’s nothing wrong with candidates showing their softer side with unorthodox outlets in our fragmented media universe. We’ve come a long way since critics scoffed at candidate Bill Clinton answering the “boxers or briefs” question on MTV, calling it unpresidential. 

On “Call Your Daddy,” Harris was actually quite thoughtful in responding to Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying that her kids keep her humble and the VP doesn’t have anyone to keep her humble. 

(Rebecca Droke/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Rather than jab at the Arkansas governor, which would have produced a cheap headline, she ruminated that families come in all shapes, bound by blood or love, that she is deeply involved with her stepchildren, and this isn’t the 1950s anymore. They also discussed, uh, tampons.

Still, the party is getting nervous. “Democratic operatives, including some of Kamala Harris’ own staffers,” says Politico, “are growing increasingly concerned about her relatively light campaign schedule, which has her holding fewer events than Donald Trump and avoiding unscripted interactions with voters and the press almost entirely.”

Since the convention, the veep has spent more than a third of days on meeting and briefings, with no public events.

With early voting under way in more than half the states, Politico describes this “a do-no-harm, risk-averse approach to the race.” 

GEORGIA GOP CHAIR SHARES 2-PRONGED ELECTION STRATEGY AS TRUMP WORKS TO WIN BACK PEACH STATE

Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, who fervently doesn’t want Trump to win, nonetheless is whacks Harris pretty hard:

“She hasn’t fleshed out her political intent — what she stands for, what she won’t abide, what she means to establish, what she won’t let happen.

What is her essential mission? Is it national ‘repair,’ is it to ‘stabilize’ an uncertain country, is it ‘relaunch’?..

“She so far hasn’t conveyed a sense of intellectual grasp. Her campaign has placed too many chips on the idea of the mood, the vibe, the picture.”

And vibes can only take you so far.

But the VP has certain duties, and spent two days visiting hurricane victims and relief workers in North Carolina and Georgia–which also happens to be good politics. She also met with Volodomyr Zelenskyy.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 25, 2024.  REUTERS/Mike Segar (REUTERS/Mike Segar)

Harris attended a fundraiser over the weekend. Why bother? Her campaign has already had $400 million roll in. She’s already outspending Trump 2-½ to 1 on ads. She doesn’t need any more money. What’s more, Harris doesn’t make news at these fundraisers, which in any event are off camera. A ground game is great, but it has to be married to a winning message.

Here’s one more: Dan Pfeiffer, a former top Obama White House official, says on Message Box, his Substack column, that “the media — and Politico Playbook in particular — are fuming over the Harris-Walz media strategy.”

Kamala “must be on offense at all times — say new things, be edgy enough to get attention, and dictate the terms, or the campaign could “take on water…In this media world, there is a never-ending, insatiable appetite for content. Either serve lunch or become the menu…

“Dominating attention is Trump’s political superpower…Even when he doesn’t have a big moment, Trump speaks so outrageously that it shifts attention to his issues of choice.”

Now it’s easy to snipe from the sidelines. For Harris to be neck and neck in the core battleground states means she’s obviously done many things right. She had to overhaul the Biden operation and vet a running mate while the campaign was in full swing, like changing the tires on a speeding hot rod. She could still win.

One positive sign: The Harris camp took off the bubble wrap and allowed Tim Walz to appear on “Fox News Sunday.” This was an attempt at damage control, since he lost the debate so badly to JD Vance.

While Shannon Bream repeatedly pressed the governor on late-term abortions, his Minnesota record and his history of falsehoods and exaggerations, Walz was far more forceful than he’d been in the CBS debate. He ducked certain questions, but an interview format is much better suited to him than friendly exchanges with his opponent.

Walz’s next stop? A man who relishes his feuds with Trump, Jimmy Kimmel.

Welcome to the politics of disaster relief.

Republicans are excoriating the Biden/Harris administration for how it responded to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, Tennessee and other parts of the South. This is now about to be a double whammy as Hurricane Milton bears down on Florida.

It unfolds amid a tight presidential election. So the disaster response is now infused with politics in swing states like North Carolina and Georgia. There is also a competitive but not top-tier Senate race in Florida.

Storms can disrupt the typical electorate. The usual people who vote might not make it to the polls. It’s hard to care about voting if you’re low on food, lack electricity and can’t even make it out of the holler in western North Carolina because Helene wrecked the road.

‘IMMEDIATELY RECONVENE’: SCOTT URGES SCHUMER TO RECALL SENATE AMID HELENE’S DEVASTATION

Pray tell, where should you vote in Tampa or Sarasota if your basement is swamped by Milton – after getting drenched when Helene spun through a few weeks ago? You were going to vote at the school down the street. But now it lacks power. You’re now living at your sister’s house inland. But you’re not registered to vote there …

You see what we’re getting at.

Republicans are hammering the Biden/Harris administration for its response to the storm.

“It’s like the DMV at industrial scale,” said Republican vice presidential nominee and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, on Fox. “It is incompetence of the highest order.”

“At the federal level, this has been a massive failure,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. “When you talk to the people who are directly affected, they will tell you that this has been an abject failure. FEMA has lost sight of its core mission. The administration has not shown that they were prepared for this eventuality in this terrible disaster.”

“Kamala Harris has left them stranded. This is the worst response to a storm or a catastrophe or a hurricane that we’ve ever seen. Probably worse than Katrina. And that’s hard to beat, right?” asked former President Trump.

Storm responses are challenging. Hurricane Andrew was a powerful Category 5 storm that swept through Florida in August 1992. Former President George H.W. Bush’s tepid response to Andrew slashed his support in Florida. “Bush 41” wound up narrowly winning Florida, besting former President Clinton by less than 2%. Bush won Florida by 22 points four years earlier. Moreover, the response to Hurricane Andrew raised questions about the competence of the administration weeks before the election. It’s believed that cost Bush a few points nationwide.

When Clinton took office, he immediately beefed up FEMA to prepare and respond to other natural disasters.

BIDEN GETS DEFENSIVE WHEN PUSHED ON WHO’S COMMANDING’ HURRICANE HELENE RESPONSE

So, part of this tactic is the natural extension of Republicans to undercut the Biden/Harris administration at nearly every turn. This is another component of the GOP narrative that the administration can’t handle the economy. Can’t handle foreign policy. Can’t handle the border.

Did someone say the border?

“We give $20 billion a year to FEMA. And unfortunately, they have drained everything dry,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., on Fox Business. “We spent $200 billion in Ukraine. We spent $220-$500 a month on our illegal aliens.”

“We give $20 billion a year to FEMA. And unfortunately, they have drained everything dry,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said as he castigated the Biden administration for its alleged prioritization of illegal immigrants over hurricane relief efforts. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

This is where things get tricky.

FEMA is under the aegis of the Department of Homeland Security. DHS runs a program that sends money to cities besieged by the illegal migrant crisis. Some of the money goes for food and shelter for those in the country illegally. But it also helps those towns cope by addressing strains on their medical systems and other services.

Money for disaster recovery and migrant assistance constitute two separate line items in the DHS budget. Congress approved money for both these programs. In fact, some Republicans would prefer to spend more to help their communities grapple with an infusion of illegal immigration.

SPEAKER JOHNSON ADDRESSES CLAIMS FEMA DIVERTED FUNDS TO IMMIGRATION EFFORTS: ‘AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE DISGUSTED’

About $640 million currently goes to assist these towns beset by an influx of illegal migrants. But some lawmakers would like that to spike to as much as $3 billion next year.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced legislation to halt the migrant assistance program. And Johnson blurred the line between FEMA disaster aid and migrants and the border.

“FEMA should be involved and the Federal Emergency Management Association. Their mission is to help people in times like this of natural disaster. Not to be engaged in using any pool of funding from any account for resettling illegal aliens who have come across the border,” said Johnson on Fox.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called the response to Hurricane Helene a “massive failure” at the federal level. (Getty Images)

Other Republicans believe this may be an opportunity to recalibrate spending overall. Keep in mind that many Republicans look askance at foreign aid to Ukraine.

“As an elected official, it’s our responsibility to put Americans first. Whether you’re in Florida, in my district or you’re anywhere in the union, I think that it’s important for us to prioritize Americans and restore hope and let them know they’re not forgotten,” said Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., on Fox.

But some Republicans compared issues with FEMA’s response to how the administration addresses other subjects.

KJP SLAMMED AFTER HURRICANE HELENE OVER MIXED MESSAGES ON WHETHER FEMA RESOURCES USED FOR MIGRANTS

“This administration seems to have no problem finding money when they want to spend it on their priorities. When they need hundreds of billions of dollars to pay off student loans for graduate students and gender studies programs, they somehow find it. When it’s trying to get helicopters to deliver food and water and cellular service and lifesaving medicine into these mountain valleys, they somehow can’t seem to find the money,” declared Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., on NBC.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell castigated Republicans for suggesting FEMA was focused on other issues rather than the storms.

“It’s frankly ridiculous and just plain false. This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people,” said Criswell on ABC.

Hurricanes Helene and Milton are likely to leave both meteorological and electoral scars in their wake. (Travis Long/The News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Before leaving Washington, Congress green-lighted $20 billion for FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) as part of the interim spending plan to avoid a government shutdown. But Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas muddled matters when he said FEMA had enough funds to respond to Helene for “immediate needs” but not enough to get through “the season.”

The “season” to which Mayorkas refers is the annual hurricane “season.” It stretches through Nov. 30. Note that Mayorkas made this remark when there was the potential for another storm, but Milton hadn’t yet formed in the Gulf of Mexico.

Some Republicans pounced on Mayorkas. But after considering the severity of Helene, it will likely draw down the DRF for “immediate needs.” The key phrase here is “immediate needs.” Milton will probably do the same. That’s why Congress must likely tackle disaster relief in at least two tranches when it returns to session in November. Lawmakers will need to refill the DRF. And the price tags will start to roll in for Helene and Milton. That’s to say nothing of outstanding disasters like Hurricane Beryl in Texas, tornadoes in Iowa, a typhoon on Guam and wildfires in Hawaii.

FEMA HAS FUNDS NEEDED FOR ‘IMMEDIATE RESPONSE AND RECOVERY,’ DESPITE MAYORKAS’ WARNING

However, Johnson is unwilling to summon lawmakers back to Washington to grapple with disasters.

“You don’t just send estimates to the federal government. You send specific needs and requests based upon the actual damages. And that takes some time, especially with storms of this magnitude. So Congress will do its job,” said Johnson on Fox.

So, lawmakers must first reload the DRF for future immediate needs, then mete out bigger chunks of change for Americans to cope with the impacts of Helene and Milton. The government funding deadline is Dec. 20. It’s possible that the latter chunk of funding is folded into spending measures around Christmas.

But as for the politics? The election is fast approaching. The storms could impact voting this fall. And while Helene and Milton will certainly leave a mark meteorologically, they will probably leave a mark electorally, too.

The two men vying to represent California in the U.S. Senate will face off Tuesday night in their only debate of the general election.

Republican Steve Garvey, 75, and Democrat Adam B. Schiff, 64, will meet on the debate stage at 5 p.m. Tuesday in a forum hosted by KABC-TV in Los Angeles and co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of California.

Garvey and Schiff participated in three debates in the spring during the competitive Senate primary, but shared the stage with Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee.

Representing California in the Senate is one of the most coveted jobs in Golden State politics, and the seats are rarely open. The late Sen. Dianne Feinstein served in the Senate for more than three decades, from her election in 1992 until her death last year.

Polling shows that Schiff has a strong lead heading into the Nov. 5 election.

Schiff finished first in the primary for the full six-year Senate term with 31.6% of the vote, with Garvey a very close second at 31.5%. In the primary election to fill the remainder of Feinstein’s term, which ends in January, Garvey finished first with 33.2% of the vote, and Schiff second with 29.3%. Laphonza Butler currently holds the seat on an interim basis.

How to watch the Senate debate

The debate will air live on KABC and other ABC affiliates across the state, and will be livestreamed on abc7.com, univision34.com and on the League of Women Voters California Education Fund’s YouTube channel. The debate will also stream on the KABC platform on Roku, Apple TV and Google TV.

Univision Los Angeles will rebroadcast the forum in Spanish at noon Wednesday on KMEX-TV.

Who are the California Senate candidates?

Schiff, 64, has represented parts of Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley for nearly three decades, first as a state legislator in Sacramento and, since 2001, in Congress.

Garvey, 75, of Palm Desert, is famous in Southern California not for politics, but for his 18 years playing first base for the the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres. He describes himself as a “moderate conservative.”

Who is moderating the debate?

The debate will be hosted by Marc Brown, a KABC news anchor.

He will be joined by three journalists from across the state: Kristen Sze, an anchor for Bay Area ABC affiliate KGO-TV; Warren Armstrong, an anchor for Fresno ABC affiliate KFSN-TV; and Gabriela Teissier, an anchor for Univision Los Angeles.