This is Wednesday-the election is Tuesday. It’s coming, folks and while many have already voted. many others, perhaps the majority, have not. So campaigning is still important and we’re getting as much as you’d expect and maybe a bit more. And there are significantly important things happening now, mostly in the US and the campaign, but elsewhere too

Most importantly, Kamala Harris seems, perhaps only for the moment, to have seized the initiative and that big political imponderable, “momentum.” This has happened in recent days and there have been two important parts to it. The first was the Trump “rally”(or whatever it was at Madison Square Garden Sunday night.) The next was Kamala’s speech in DC last night. The two are worth comparing.

The Trump thing was a conglomeration of people, most of whom I’d never heard of before(I’ll bet most of the viewers were as ignorant of them as I). They were largely a disgusting lot, casting vicious bigotry and racial/social. ethnic insults all over the place. This was accompanied by a great deal of vulgarity. I don’t mind a certain amount of vulgarity in private conversation and I’ll even allow a little of it in public. But common sense and common decency suggest certain limits and they were not observed here.

One speaker almost outdid all the other by referring to Ms. Harris’s “pimps.” The implications for the candidate are obvious. But the one most remembered and who outdid the pimps guy was Tony Hinchliffe who identifies as “comedian.’ He took the cake for the evening by referring to Puerto Rico as an island of garbage.

Even the Trump campaign(though apparently not the candidate himself)thought this too much and disavowed it. But the rest of the bigotry, vulgarity and all round salute to bad taste was unchallenged by its organizational source So presumably it stands as their(and Trump’s)statement. As a Harris supporter that’s OK with me but overall, it doesn’t bode well for the country that they think this works.

The second big thing was Kamala’s speech last night at the Ellipse in Washington with its plethora of memories for Americans. In the first part she took on her opponents ideas and actions and essentially said, hey, enough, let’s get back to civilized behavior. In the second half she said something like I do have some plans and then proceeded to talk about them. She was masterful in her use of information and impressive in her use of language(she is one of the better speakers of recent American history).

But President Biden muddied the waters with a comment of his own. Attacking Trump(quite correctly, incidentally)he made a statement that sounded much like calling Trump’s supporters garbage. He said later he didn’t mean the people but the candidate’s policies and this would make sense, but it still sounds bad.

The White House later argued that you should imagine an apostrophe in “supporter’s” showing the President was referring to something pertaining to them rather that to their worth as human beings. But if you parse the sentence closely that doesn’t work. There’s no noun after “supporter’s” to justify the apostrophe.

Well, perhaps I parse too much. But this was an unfortunate choice of words by a good man who, I’m pretty sure, didn’t mean to demean anyone, but who just goofed. He has a very long history of this, of committing “gaffes.” Donald Trump’s reaction was that no one who was or wanted to be president should demean fellow Americans like that. He’s right, of course, but hey, look who’s talking. I hope he or his supporters will have that pointed out to them–on TV in the very near future.

In the meantime I hope that this will not be a third big thing which will dominate the end of the campaign. I suspect it will lose Harris a few votes, but not a lot– may make next to no difference. What she must do is to continue on her quest to prove her plans for the US and her differences with Trump. I think she still has the momentum, perhaps a bit slowed. It will be up to her and her advisors to keep it as the campaign finishes and election day looms.

Actually, as this all nears its ending both sides have to guess in a way. They must guess on which is the most important issue–the economy? immigration? women’s personal choice? democracy? national security? They’re all important, but it matters who emphasizes what. This is particularly true since it appears that one of the things that may decide the winner is who gets out the vote best. They each need to emphasize what will bring out their people in larger numbers, though they must not forget other issues as well. It likely depends mostly on turnout and on the way these difficult issues I have discussed here play out. Stay tuned and pay attention