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Item one: Another press failure: Endless curiosity about Trump voters. About Harris voters, not so much.

Polls, polls, polls. Way too many polls, way too much media coverage and obsession with polls. Right? Well … it depends on which ones. Because there is one set of polls that isn’t driving much press coverage at all, and I find it interesting and telling.

Since the day Kamala Harris got in the race, she has consistently led Donald Trump on the question of voter enthusiasm. She led by a lot when she first entered the race in late July because Democratic enthusiasm for Joe Biden was at a serious low, and because the mere fact that the Democrats made a change—and that she came out of gate with such swagger—made rank-and-file Democrats feel such a burst of relief.

That carried on through the Democratic convention. A Gallup poll from late August (right after the convention) showed Democratic enthusiasm at 79 percent—one point short of the all-time high, which was during the 2008 Barack Obama–Hillary Clinton primary—and Republican enthusiasm at just 64 percent. 

Since then, Republican enthusiasm has gotten closer to Democratic levels, but in the several recent polls I looked over this week, Democratic enthusiasm was still higher. This Gallup result from October 6 was representative. When asked if they were more enthusiastic this time around than in previous elections, 80 percent of Democrats said yes, as did 75 percent of Republicans.

So Democratic voters are in fact enthusiastic about Harris—a shade more enthusiastic than Republican voters are about Trump. But ask yourself: Is that reality reflected in the media coverage you see? My own answer to that question is a thundering no.

This is admittedly unscientific, and undoubtedly, I’ve missed some stuff. But what I mostly see and hear and read is this: Trump voters love their man (and many do, of course). Black and Hispanic voters are tepid on Harris. She hasn’t "made the sale." Black men in particular are skeptical. She’s in a danger zone.

The November Issue Is Available Now

Some of this is true and borne out by polling, and of course it’s necessary to report on it. But meanwhile, where, in the media narrative, is the Democratic enthusiasm? Where are the voters who admire and even adore Harris and can’t wait to go pull the lever for her?

They’re mostly invisible.

They’re mostly invisible because they are chiefly based in two groups, neither of whom is of the remotest interest to the press. The first is college-educated people, mostly white but of all races. These people’s votes count just like anybody else’s, but to political journalism, they don’t count because they’re not real Americans. Real Americans eat carb-heavy breakfasts in diners in Altoona and Saginaw. They don’t eat tofu scrambles in Bucks County or Buckhead. They didn’t attend private colleges, they don’t go to gyms, they don’t drive hybrids, they don’t drink lattes. 

So as far as political journalism is concerned, these voters don’t exist. It’s all a bit paradoxical and frankly a little twisted, since virtually all journalists are members of the tofu-scramble class, but that only accentuates the matter, because journalists feel a collective guilt about all the above that makes them dismiss voters like them as uninteresting.

And sure, there’s a dog-bites-man element to those voters backing a candidate such as Harris. But I submit there are still stories there. Are these voters as enthusiastic as they were in 2020? Are they out there door knocking and phone banking? Are donations coming in at high levels or low from those zip codes?

The other invisible group—and this is a far worse error—is Black women. If you google something like "Black women Harris enthusiasm," you’ll see a bushelful of articles from late July, when she first got in the race, when the #WinWithBlackWomen network famously enlisted 400,000 Black women to join a Zoom meeting the very night that Harris became the presumptive nominee. I saw a number of stories from that period.

But since the heat of the campaign post–Labor Day? I don’t see much. In fact, the first page of search results for the search term mentioned above includes a bunch of articles from July, a couple from August—and exactly one from September. Was it in The New York Times? The Washington Post? Was it an Associated Press or Reuters piece?

No. It was in The Atlanta Voice, the Black community newspaper in Atlanta.

Black women, as usual, are invisible to the political media. Oh, Oprah’s town hall made news. But generally speaking, if you’re a Black woman in this country and you want a bunch of microphones shoved in front of your face at election time, you’ll be way ahead of the game if you’re willing to say that Kamala Harris just doesn’t speak to you for some reason and Donald Trump is a savvy businessman. 

Yes, again, there’s a dog-bites-man aspect to stories about Black women backing Harris. But isn’t there also a dog-bites-man quality to white rural voters backing Trump? Of course there is. And yet, I’m still seeing those stories, still seeing those people interviewed on cable news. Why? Because the political media (reporters, but I think mostly editors at mainstream outlets) are terrified of being seen as liberal. Of missing the Trump story, of opening themselves up to accusations of out-of-touch elitism. 

The right is so effective at lobbing this grenade that mainstream outlets have collectively come to sense that there is a professional price to be paid for ignoring Trump voters. But there is no professional price to be paid for ignoring Black women. They’re ignored all the time anyway.

Is Harris in real trouble among Black voters? Maybe. Maybe not. This week’s NBC poll has her beating Trump 84–8 among Black respondents in battleground states. That’s up from 82–12 a month ago (Trump lost a third of his Black support! Isn’t that a story?), and it’s on par with Biden’s 2020 national margin among Black voters over Trump of 87–12, or indeed will be better than Biden’s margin, if Trump stays in single digits.

It’s a close race. There’s a lot to worry about. I worry every day, and you should too. But you should also remember this: Democratic voter enthusiasm is high—higher than Republican enthusiasm, according to numerous polls. From the way this race is being covered, you’d never know that. Harris’s enthusiastic voters, especially Black women, aren’t "real Americans." They’re being erased from the narrative. By the "liberal" media.

Item two: Finally, the mental fitness narrative

This was an unusually important week in this race for a few reasons, but the main one by far is that it’s the week when the question of Trump’s mental fitness for office finally became an issue. The door to this story was pushed open by The New York Times with a major piece on the topic on Sunday, October 6. Then finally, this Monday, in Erie, Pennsylvania, Harris herself joined the issue in a big way, showing clips of Trump garbling his words and saying dangerous things. "This is among the reasons I believe so strongly that a second Trump term would be a huge risk for America, and dangerous," she added. "Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged."

Some of her ads have taken up the theme. Tim Walz has delivered some good barbs along these lines, finally doing what a vice presidential nominee is supposed to do (say the stuff about the other presidential candidate that a campaign doesn’t quite want its standard-bearer to say). 

You and I and people like us are more concerned about Trump’s fascist tendencies and the threat he poses to democracy. But those elusive swing voters might be more moved by an argument that says the guy is losing his marbles and isn’t close to being mentally fit to perform the world’s hardest job for four years. He’s still spouting out deeply weird stuff every day. Thursday on Truth Social, Trump called for Joe Biden to "take back his rightful place" at the top of the Democratic ticket, on the grounds that Harris "should be investigated and forced off the campaign" (for what, he didn’t say).

He’s canceling appearances and interviews. The ones he does all have some bizarre element to them, like using profanity last night at the Catholic charities Al Smith Dinner in New York. The New Republic has done a lot to push this issue forward. See Greg Sargent’s podcast discussion with Brian Beutler from Wednesday. We’ll keep at it, but it’s really up to the Democrats to make it a central issue, to really drive it home in the last two weeks in such a way that neighbor Joe in Green Bay says to neighbor Steve, "Gosh, I don’t know, Trump just seems a little crazier’n usual to me these days." 

Meanwhile, Harris needs to get these celebrities into gear. Word leaked out Thursday of an upcoming get-out-the-vote concert with a surprise guest. When you tease something like that, it better be big.

The dream scenario? Recall that Trump has rented out Madison Square Garden for Sunday, October 27. Ideally, Harris rents out a larger venue—a football or baseball stadium in a swing state, say; Franklin Field in Philadelphia or the Brewers’ ballpark in Milwaukee, whatever they’re calling it these days—and puts on a show featuring John Legend, Beyoncé, Bruce, and, of course, Taylor. That would make Trump enraged beyond imagining and be the most delicious moment in recent presidential campaign history.

ICYMI: The Dangers of Project 2025 and the Threat of American Authoritarianism

In partnership with: Democracy Forward

Revisit yesterday’s event featuring The New Republic’s Greg Sargent, Democracy Forward’s Skye Perryman, The Daily Beast’s Rotimi Adeoye, and Congresswoman Maxine Waters discussing the far-reaching implications of Project 2025, the policy blueprint outlined by ultraconservatives for the Trump administration, on democracy.

Quiz time!

Last week’s quiz: It costs what?! From last week’s fast food, we move to haute cuisine, fancy eats, and slow food.

1. Which of the following is not one of the five mother sauces of haute cuisine?

A. Lyonnaise

B. Béchamel

C. Espagnole

D. Hollandaise

Answer: A, Lyonnaise. The other three are real, along with Tomate and Velouté. Lyonnaise is a sauce; a deglazed meat sauce with heavy cream. It’s just not a mother sauce. I guess it’s like a niece or nephew sauce.

2. Match the dish to the place where it was invented.

Answer: Alfredo = Rome, Bourguignon = Burgundy, Newburg = New York, Foster = New Orleans. I think all those were very easy. 

3. According to Food & Wine magazine, what is the oldest restaurant in the world?

A. Ma Yu Ching’s Chicken Bucket House, Kaifeng, China

B. White Horse Tavern, Newport, Rhode Island

C. Rules Restaurant, London

D. St. Peter Stiftskulinarium, Salzburg, Austria

Answer: D, St. Peter blah blah. It opened—get this—in 803. That’s not 1803. That’s 803. If you can get there by October 27, you can partake of the fall Surprise Menu. Looks pretty good!

4. According to TheInfatuation.com, where would you find the most expensive tasting menu in New York City, at $395?

A. Daniel

B. Per Se

C. Le Bernardin

D. Atomix

Answer: D, Atomix. Have a look. I think it’s just the food, too. I could be a billionaire, and I’d never go to such a place. I have zero interest in spending three or four hours at a restaurant.

5. According to TheWorlds50Best.com, what was the best restaurant in the world in 2023?

A. Central, Lima

B. Diverxo, Madrid

C. Alchemist, Copenhagen

D. Trèsind Studio, Dubai

Answer: A, Central, in Lima. I’ve never been to Lima, but I did go to Santiago, and there was some great food down there, including at a locally famous restaurant whose main branch was in Lima. 

6. How much food is thrown out by American restaurants each year?

A. Up to 12 billion pounds

B. Up to 19 billion pounds

C. Up to 24 billion pounds

D. Up to 33 billion pounds

Answer: D, up to 33 billion. Wow.

This week’s quiz: Fright night. The past and present of Halloween, which arrives next Thursday.

1. As we know, Halloween is short for All Hallows’ Eve. But what is a "hallow," anyway, as a noun?

A. A saint

B. A spirit

C. A demon

D. A sprite

2. In which neighboring countries did children begin the custom of wearing costumes or disguises for Halloween in the late nineteenth century?

A. Spain and Portugal

B. Australia and New Zealand

C. Netherlands and Belgium

D. Ireland and Scotland

3. In which decade did trick-or-treating become a widespread practice in the United States?

A. 1920s

B. 1930s

C. 1940s

D. 1950s

4. The 1962 (and 1973, and 2021) hit "Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett gets radio play every Halloween. In the lyric, what was the name of the dance that Dracula wanted the partygoers to perform, in addition to the Monster Mash?

A. The Vampire Vamp

B. The Bat-tusi

C. The Mortal Aortal Stomp

D. The Transylvania Twist

5. What does Teen Vogue say is the most popular teenage girls’ costume this year?

A. Barbie

B. Taylor Swift

C. Chappell Roan

D. Cruella De Vil

6. "In a twist no one saw coming," writes the online retailer CandyStore.com in its 2024 survey of Halloween candy sales, what candy "dethroned Reese’s Cups as the top Halloween candy for the first time ever"?

A. Snickers

B. Twix

C. M&M’s

D. Kit Kat

Stunning development. But how do they already know? Answers next week. Feedback to fightingwords@tnr.com.

—Michael Tomasky, editor 

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