The Trump-Harris race is neck and neck. It shouldn’t be. Either candidate could take a firm and consistent lead, but neither will do what is required to hold that lead to November.

Vice President Kamala Harris gained a couple points in national polls after the debate as she did well and former President Donald Trump did not. Yes, the moderators were terrible, but Harris came off as articulate and hopeful while Trump came off as angry and pretty much incapable of forming a complete sentence.

Yet, Harris’ polls pop has already faded. Voters were reassured the top chef of word salads could be clearly spoken when sufficiently prepped, but they also wanted to know what she would do as president. Happy talk about “a new way forward” and “opportunity economy” are useful only if backed by credible ideas.

Harris has doggedly refused to provide a wisp of substance. She was asked in a friendly Philadelphia interview about her plans to cut grocery prices, a mainstay of her stump speech. During her response, she started by talking about growing up a middle-class kid, which she wasn’t. One of her parents was a Stanford professor and the other was an accomplished biomedical researcher.

Then she mentioned she “grew up in a neighborhood where people were very proud of their lawns, you know?” Are nice lawns protection against Biden-Harris high grocery prices? Who knew?

Asked again about her economic policies, she answered, her “approach is about new ideas, new policies that are directed at the current moment, and also to be very honest with you, my focus is very much on what we need to do over the next ten, twenty years. To catch up to the 21st century around, again, capacity but also challenges.”

Peggy Noonan called Harris the “artless dodger,” vacuously dodging every question. Competent dodgers leave you thinking they answered the question until, upon reflection, you realize you learned nothing. Harris is terrible. Anybody listening immediately knows she says nothing and uses the maximum number of words to say it; artless dodger, indeed.

This was Harris’ moment to trickle out enough policy substance to reassure voters she isn’t all fluff. Provide a little substance and she would take a more firm lead and never look back. Instead, she hopes a smile and twinkle in the eye can beguile all the way to November. They won’t.

Harris has propped the door wide open for Trump, but he, too, can’t grasp the moment. Trump has all the big issues on his side – immigration, inflation, perceptions of a weak economy, the numerous Biden-Harris foreign policy flops. But he can’t stay focused on the things that matter to voters.

Instead, he meanders into whining attacks on ABC for its horrendous job during the debate. Then he’ll make petty remarks about Biden and Harris.

He attacks Jewish Americans who won’t vote for him. Attacking voters is a peculiar way of gaining support in any campaign.

He talks about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eating pets. Whether it is true or not, it makes Trump (and Vance) sound nuts. The voters who the Trump-Vance ticked need to reassure to gain their support don’t want to hear this stuff.

Focus on how well the country did before the pandemic. Talk about the border and how families are hurting under the Biden-Harris administration. Go full on MAGA. Americans want to hear of a nation resurgent, not pets as food.

If Harris quit her acting job as presidential contender to offer a few credible policies, or if Trump quit his angry entertainer role to focus on the Biden-Harris malpractice, then that candidate would take the reins. But Harris is infatuated with her newfound popularity and Trump is addicted to anger, so don’t expect either candidate to take a consequential lead. How did it come to this?

J.D. Foster is the former chief economist at the Office of Management and Budget and former chief economist and senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He now resides in relative freedom in the hills of Idaho.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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