The moment Kamala Harris, the least-liked Vice President in modern American history, became the Democrat party candidate, the media dedicated themselves to building her up as the only person who could save America from the myriad failures of the Biden administration (that is, her administration). She promptly popped in the polls. It appears, though, that she may have peaked too soon. According to the betting markets (which have proven remarkably reliable), even though Kamala refuses to speak off the teleprompter, Americans are beginning to see enough of her and learn enough about her to recoil.

I don’t have to rehash the manic love affair that the media promptly started with Kamala when she became first the unofficial and then the official Democrat party presidential candidate. What I can tell you is, per a Media Research Center study, 84% of the press’s coverage has been aggressively pro-Kamala, while 89% has been aggressively anti-Trump:

Since Joe Biden exited the 2024 presidential race four weeks ago, the liberal networks have delivered an unprecedented boost of positive publicity to his successor in the race, Vice President Kamala Harris. Not only has Harris received 66% more airtime than former President Donald Trump, but the spin of Harris’s coverage has been more positive (84%) than any other major party nominee, even as Trump’s coverage has been nearly entirely hostile (89% negative).

The MRC study also shows that the networks have downplayed Harris’s extremely far-left record, ignored any news from the Democrat party that isn’t positive, and insisted that Kamala is already leading the political parade, a claim that caters to people’s desire to back a winner.

What the media have given Kamala is the type of in-kind campaign contributions that no candidate can buy. Years ago, someone (Joe Klein?) guesstimated that the media’s pro-Democrat bias was worth 15 points in the polls. Now, given Kamala’s dismal polling as a Vice President (her disapproval has been incredibly high throughout her time in office, going as high as 56%) and her magical popularity as a presidential candidate (beating Trump by several points), that media bump must have been equal to 25 or 30 polling points.

Of course, what lies between the reality of Kamala’s role as Veep and her press as the presidential candidate is a bubble. Eventually, all bubbles pop. Moreover, in politics, nothing pops a bubble faster than when Democrat candidates can no longer hide their personality, values, or supporters behind the praetorian guard of the media.

Who can forget Howard Dean’s rapid collapse following the “Dean scream”? A decade before, Gary Hart threw away his candidacy through arrogance so great that even the media couldn’t cover for him. And half a decade before that, Mike Dukakis’s little head was popping out of that tank while he cold-bloodedly contemplated his wife’s horrible death. Once the curtain is pulled aside, like the Wizard of Oz before them, people see that these Democrat propaganda products are fake, radical, and unpleasant people.

When it comes to Kamala and Tim, the media is selling us “joy”—but this “joy” is a wholly manufactured product. When people see Kamala’s weird behaviors and hear her nasal whine (which I always liken to Fran Drescher’s voice without the comedic charm) or see Tim’s rictus grin and try to catch up with the explosion of revealed lies, the Dems dynamic duo seems to be less joyful than they are desperate. And when you get a load of their politics and supports—anti-middle- and working-class, anti-economy, anti-border, anti-Christian, anti-Israel and antisemitic, anti-military, anti-normal sexuality—that desperation reveals itself to be the hard work required to hide their hatred for the country they want to lead.

As the truth emerges and the bubble becomes ever more fragile, something interesting (and heartening) is happening: The more that Americans see of the unfiltered Democrat party, the more Trump’s odds of winning are increasing. Polymarket looks at betting trends rather than polling data and has seen a distinct shift away from Kamala:

Trump is ahead in 4/6 swing states. pic.twitter.com/vo15sPdBE5

— Polymarket (@Polymarket) August 21, 2024

Indeed, if you go to the Polymarket site, you can see that today, Trump is at 52%, and Kamala is at 47%. The change comes from Trump’s renewed takeover of the swing state leads. A fascinating chart at the site shows Biden’s steady decline, followed by Kamala’s explosive ascendence. Through it all, Trump stayed the course.

Now, if one believes people who take odds-making seriously, it appears that Kamala’s ascendence peaked right before the Democrat convention started and is falling steadily. I know that betting is not a scientific poll, but most polls are so skewed toward Democrats that it seems just as reliable to look at where people are putting their money.

As Glenn Reynolds always says, though, don’t get cocky. We’re ten weeks away from the election, and that’s both incredibly soon and terribly far away. It’s incredibly soon because Kamala can still float into the White House on the media bubble. It’s also terribly far away because there’s so much time for cheating, lies, black swans, etc.

We voters have limited control over most of those things. What we can do, though, is make sure that we vote and that we politely nag our friends into voting. Don’t let anyone you know who votes conservatively fail to cast his or her vote before or on November 5.

Image by Andrea Widburg