Conservative: Swing-State Dems’ Telling Ads

Democratic Sens. Bob Casey (Pa.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Tammy Baldwin (Wisc.) and Senate candidate Rep. Elissa Slotkin (Mich.), all “in tight races,” are “running commercials that tout their ability to work with Donald Trump,” observes National Review’s Jim Geraghty. And “these senators aren’t choosing to tell voters about how well they work with Vice President Kamala Harris.” Since “no line ends up in a campaign commercial by accident,” these ads are a sign that “they think Trump could win the presidency” and even “win their state.” Hmm: Progressive columnists warn that “if elected, Trump would turn America into a racist, authoritarian regime where facts don’t matter.” Yet “key Democratic senators are touting their ability to work with President Fascist Racist Monster.”

Pollster: Trump Has the Edge — for Now

Donald Trump enjoys “an edge” in the presidential race, reports Mark Penn at The Wall Street Journal, but it “could easily disappear.” Trump leads because he “dominates” on core issues (immigration, inflation, crime), “voters have more confidence in him” on foreign-policy matters and he’s cut the Democrats’ lead among blacks and Latinos. But “you can’t count Harris out.” She’s confronted her “weaknesses,” changed her unpopular positions, cut Trump’s lead on economic issues and “convinced 54% of voters” her rival would “push” for a national abortion ban (though he’s said he wouldn’t). Plus, the media are behind her. “The election may come down to the mail-in ballots and whether the Republicans, as in 2022, win in the polling but fall short in the final tally.”

Libertarian: Kam’s Health Care Plan = Joe’s

Since Kamala Harris “served as vice president under President Joe Biden, the best way to understand” her plan for health care “is probably to look at Biden’s approach,” argues Reason’s Peter Suderman. While Biden “supported a ‘Medicare-like public option,’ ” at “the core of his campaign’s answer was the invocation of the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare.” Indeed, “Bidencare is best understood as Obamacare, but more expensive and worse.” And “there is no reason to think that Harris would depart significantly from this approach.” She has “attacked Trump for wanting to repeal Obamacare, and for having no plan to expand health care access.” “A headline in The Hill summarized her health care agenda: ‘Harris vows Biden-era health care programs will get bigger.’ ”

Border watch: Biden’s Migrant Lies

Thanks to Biden-Harris efforts to funnel illegals through ports of entry, explains Jeffrey H. Anderson at City Journal, “encounters elsewhere along the border are down.” But more aliens still enter the country each month than came in under Trump. “Before Biden, those wishing to enter the country illegally at least had to evade the authorities.” Now? The CBP One app “prevents illegal aliens from having to deal with the inconvenience” of “waiting to be let into the U.S.” From FY 2013 through FY 2020, “overall yearly encounters on the Southwest border never hit 1 million”; 20024 is the third straight fiscal year where that number’s hit 2 million. “No bait-and-switch can hide the truth: the Biden administration just doesn’t want to keep illegal aliens out of the U.S.”

From the right: Dems’ Buyer’s Remorse

Reviewing the latest I&I/TIPP poll, Issues & Insight’s Terry Jones notes: “A solid majority of Americans remain unhappy with the Democratic Party’s machinations to remove President Joe Biden as its candidate and replace him with Vice President Kamala Harris.” Indeed, 40% of Democrats “agreed either ‘somewhat’ or ‘strongly’ that Harris was not the strongest candidate the party could have,” while 37% agreed (strongly or somewhat) that they’d “lost significant faith in the Democratic Party because it did not disclose Biden’s health issues during the primary process.” So: “Will the solid one-third of Democrats who remain angry with their party over how Harris became the nominee cost them the election?” TIPP’s tracking poll now shows Trump with “a two-point lead over Harris, 49% to 47%” — a 6-point swing in just weeks.

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board