CNN Historian Naftali: Kamala Could Have Success with ‘Vibes Campaign’

CNN presidential historian Tim Naftali said Friday on “CNN Newsroom ” that 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris can be successful running a “vibe” campaign.

Guest host Alex Marquardt said, “One of the interesting things when you talk to Democrats about where the vice president stands on specific things, you hear from some saying, look, don’t get into the weeds on the policy issues focus about character, focus on values the vice president repeatedly said last night. Is that an effective strategy, not, not actually detailing an agenda, but instead kind of talking more 30,000?”

Naftali said, “It has been effective in American history. Franklin Roosevelt ran on the New Deal, of course, he was running at a time of economic collapse and he was running against an incumbent. But he didn’t actually say what the New Deal was. Indeed, his ideas about what a New Deal should be in 1932 were — would be very different by the time it was 1934, ’35. John F. Kennedy ran, promising to make the country move again. Well, how vague is that? He ran a vibes campaign for the most part in 1960. Richard Nixon, in 1968, promised to end the war in Vietnam but didn’t say how we would do it. He said he had a secret plan. He was as vague as he could be, again, saying I’m different from the people in power. I’m different from LBJ. And 2008, Barack Obama promised change. He did promise some policy changes, of course, but he was basically saying we’ve had enough with the Bush administration. We’ve had enough with its wars. So, historically, a vibes campaign can be very effective. A campaign that is light on policy can be effective. The challenge, of course, for Vice President Harris is that she’s actually in the administration at the moment.”

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