WASHINTON DC – Donald Trump’s campaign, which has whiffed in its early attacks on Kamala Harris’ new presidential campaign, will grapple this week for a more effective foothold after the vice president transformed an election of stunning surprises. The ex-president has deployed some of his most trusted political tools  targeting racial identity, creating alternative realities, flinging insults and gaslighting. On Sunday, for instance, he spread a new false conspiracy theory over the size of Harris’ rally crowd in Michigan last week. But his efforts to bring down his new adversary and her policy of ignoring his provocations, have so far more highlighted his own liabilities than hers and emphasized the way Harris could offer a new choice for voters.

When the ex-president called Harris dumb at a Montana rally Friday night, or falsely claimed last month that she happened to turn Black,” he may have delighted his base voters. But those kinds of comments risk alienating women and swing-state voters, as well as reversing the gains he has made among minorities that he’d proudly highlighted for months. Trump’s campaign was also forced on Saturday to deny a report in The New York Times that he’d privately referred to Harris as a “b*tch” , as he bemoaned her momentum Trump’s undisciplined news conference last week and a weekend of venting also suggest that the Republican nominee is far from coming to terms with the shift in a race that seemed to be heading in his direction three weeks ago when bullish Republicans left their convention predicting a landslide.

But a swing-state tour by Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, conjured euphoria not experienced by Democrats in years. It left Trump fuming that his victory in his debate with President Joe Biden only led to a new battle one he’s more in danger of losing. In three weeks, Harris has created a potential turning point offering voters a burst of optimism after a dark period in modern history with her mantra that “Americans don’t want to go back” to the chaos and acrimony of Trump’s term. Her approach is working  for now  in returning the race to a neck-and-neck contest. Polling averages show her reversing Biden’s deficits. A New York Times/Siena College survey released Saturday, for example, showed no clear leader in the vital swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania  a closer race than when Biden topped the ticket. The poll has no bearing on November’s result. But it encapsulated the swift shift in the campaign, and the Trump team felt obliged to release a memo claiming the surveys had “the clear intent and purpose of depressing support” for the former president. The success of the new Democratic ticket in not just repelling Trump’s initial attacks, but also in using them to expose what Harris views as extremism, has created an unexpected problem for his team. Harris’ assumption of the Democratic torch and Biden’s withdrawal from the race three weeks ago, have elevated her party to a place that would have appeared impossible a week ahead of its national convention in Chicago. But Trump is now up against a party that is energized, reversing one of his biggest advantages when Biden led the ticket. And freshness and hope are once again proving to be powerful political forces. (CCN) …[+]