My lifetime history of accurately predicting the outcome of events is far from flawless. In fact, it’s not even so much as marginally impressive.
I’m pretty sure that my record of correctly calling coin-tosses is miserably in the red.
Very early into my career as a financial advisor, I quickly realized (the hard way) that I had absolutely no business picking my own stocks.
For that matter, a good friend was recently so kind as to remind me that I haven’t exactly demonstrated much of an aptitude for picking my own women, either.
All that said, I’m quite confident in my latest prognostication because the vision of it literally came to me in a dream a couple of nights ago.
Seriously, I’m not making this up.
In fairness though, it’s not as if the dream manifested itself spontaneously or even organically. I’d been musing over the topic for days and was just trying to recall the source of the image I had in my mind; one that I thought perfectly illustrates what I believe will go down tonight at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
It’s funny that the visions I have in these regards are, more often than not, scenes from movies that I think illustrate what I’m getting at.
You see, right from the beginning, things have been going so exceedingly well for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, and I just haven’t been able to believe that she could possibly remain on such a positive trajectory.
I give her credit. Since July 21, she has acquitted herself impressively, if not exactly admirably.
She quickly managed to pretty much stifle the cackle, and has responded to most of the tiny handful of direct questions she’s been forced to field without completely falling on her face.
Beyond her individual performance, though, her handlers (which is what they clearly are) have shown themselves to be master tacticians, keeping her far, far away from all those nasty reporters and other annoyances like interviews and debates.
16 1/2 minutes of interview time in 51 days? C’mon, you gotta admit that has been a masterful coup.
Anyway, I still just couldn’t put my finger on that image.
But then, like I said, it came to me in a dream.
I won’t get into a deep exploration of the storyline of the movie, Old School. I’ll just point out (or remind you) that there’s this group of grown men who’ve managed to exploit a loophole in the charter of a local college, and now they have a fraternity house and all of the privileges of being a bonafide campus organization.
Of course, the dean is anything but thrilled about the situation and is intent on correcting this obvious oversight. However, in an apparent —though duplicitous— act of goodwill, he offers them one opportunity to redeem themselves.
(He knows the task before them will be impossible to achieve, so he hardly considers it an opportunity.)
In order to maintain the fraternity’s charter, the men will have to demonstrate their acumen in events such as athletics, debate, academics, and school spirit.
My vision came to me in two parts. The first installment represents the Harris campaign from its inception until —well, like tonight, at roughly, I’d say, 9:13 or so EDT.
It goes something like this.
Did I get that about right? Vibes? Joy? Teamwork? Totally sticking the landing the way Kamala nailed her avoidance of the fracking question in her marathon session with Dana Bash?
"In 2020, I made very clear where I stand,” Harris insisted. “We are in 2024, and I've not changed that position, although I've gone forward. I kept my word, and I will keep my word."
Since she has, by definition, completely reversed her position on fracking (rhetorically, at least), that landing rates a perfect 10.
Okay so, anyway, tonight’s debate will run 90 minutes, rather than less than 17, allowing for an airing of grievances far beyond those associated just with those nasty old fossil fuels.
This evening, we’ll have the opportunity (or at least should) to hear all about the VP’s suddenly malleable views on a host of issues, from the border wall to gun buybacks to the eradication of private health insurance.
Her former Senate colleague, Bernie Sanders, was nice enough to lay out a sort of preemptive featherbed of rationalization in speaking to Kristen Welker on Meet the Press this Sunday.
Is it just me or did that sound an awful lot like this?
“If you stand for nothing, Burr, what’ll you fall for?”
Of course, it’s so much easier to fundamentally switch your positions on major issues when you don’t know or believe what you’re talking about in the first place.
A September 3-6 NY Times/Sienna poll found that 63% of likely voters feel they need to learn more about Kamala’s policy stances.
There’s a pretty good chance Harris was one of the respondents to that survey.
Think about that. With all of the hype and vibes and joy and bullshit, nobody knows a doggone thing about her.
That, of course, has made it infinitely easier for her to become —oh, I don’t know— pragmatic.
Even after her staged visit to a notoriously anti-Republican Pittsburgh spice shop, where she did more talking in front of cameras than she has since becoming the Democrat nominee, I still couldn’t tell you what her favorite variety of cardamom is.
Anyway, that brings us to tonight in Philadelphia.
Now, I have no way of knowing the exact moment when this will unfold. But, at some point, it will.
This is how it appeared to me in my dream.
It’s all about to be laid bare, and my lifelong losing streak at heads-or-tails is about to come to an end.
Brian O'Leary is a retired Marine Corps colonel, who served for 30 years, including combat deployments to Somalia and Iraq, and command of an infantry battalion in Afghanistan. Additionally, he has spent over 25 years in the financial services industry. Brian earned his BA in English from Penn State University and his MA in National Security Studies from the US Army War College.
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