It’s the little moments like these that show the vast divide between Harris and Trump

As Harris stated: “We are all in this together.”

Typically people learn about presidential candidates from the big spectacle type events such as their political conventions, rallies, press conferences and debates.  But sometimes it’s the little moments that truly define a candidate’s character and remind us of the stakes of the election.

One of those very moments occurred on Saturday in of all places a Penzeys Spices store in what is known as the Strip District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. That is when Vice President Harris took a break from her preparation for Tuesday’s debate by visiting this small store. 

The Vice President entered to applause but while standing in the entrance, she observed a middle age white woman standing a few feet into the store who was visibly crying. Harris instantly made a beeline for the woman, opening her arms to embrace her while saying, “Come here…what is that about?” Harris then warmly hugged the woman like a mother embracing a child desperately in need of support.

The woman—while being hugged by Harris--shared what was causing her to cry, “I’m scared,” adding, “The pressure, you know.”   Clearly the woman was referring to the 2024 race against Donald Trump and the prospect of a monster like him returning to the White House.

Harris responded in a comforting tone, telling her, “It’s going to be good. We’re going to be good. We’re going to be fine. We’re going to be fine.” The VP then added this memorable line, “We are all in this together.”

That last line caused the woman to look at Harris and say, “Yes we are.” A moment later both Harris and the unnamed woman were saying to each other, “Yes we are.”

You can watch the embrace below of the video that went viral:

No one had to prompt Harris to hug the woman. There was no handler nudging her forward, urging her to show compassion and empathy.  That was simply Harris’s raw instincts kicking in—that is who she is.  Obviously, Trump is not capable of compassion and empathy. His currency is cruelty, racism and sexism—and it’s what his MAGA base loves.

Most of us can relate to the woman in the spice shop saying about this election: “I’m scared.”  To be very candid, after the first presidential debate in June between President Biden and Trump, I, too, was scared. Really scared. I tried to hide it but I could feel my anxiety level growing because of that fear.

Adding to that fear were the polls in the weeks after the debate which showed Biden falling further beyond Trump in every battleground state—and even tied in states that should not be in play. It was a time when many openly talked about a Plan B country if Trump were to win—especially since he would now be cloaked in absolute immunity by way of his corrupt GOP Supreme “Court.”

Even Harris herself back in January long before that fateful debate shared that the potential of Trump winning caused her to be “scared as heck,” noting that “is why I’m traveling our country.”  The VP explained at the time, “There’s an old saying that there are only two ways to run for office, either without an opponent or scared. So on all of those points, yes, we should all be scared.”

But at this point, the sentiment I believe most of us feel is not fear--but joy and hope. There is a palpable sense of excitement surrounding this campaign and the prospect of us helping Harris win.   

And that joy, hope and excitement is not delusional. It’s grounded in the reality of what we have been seeing the past month. While we all hate polls, we all still look at them and we’ve seen Harris erase Trump’s lead in many battleground states—now even taking a small lead. More importantly though is the enthusiasm gap that favors Harris—which I wrote about last week—that shows Harris with a sizable lead over Trump. That is a key factor in close elections.

That excitement is why Harris—as the NY Times just quantified in a new article published Saturday—is actually drawing bigger crowds at her rallies than Trump. And as the paper noted, swaths of people are leaving Trump’s rallies midway because they are apparently bored.

One more metric of success is that we just learned on Friday that Harris raised in August more than $360 million. For context, Trump only raised $130 million in same time frame—meaning Harris nearly tripled his haul in small dollar donations. The real world impact of this as Politico notes is that, “Flush with cash, the Harris campaign has pumped enormous sums into political advertising, swamping the airwaves with $370 million worth of TV and digital ads from Labor Day through Election Day.” It also means Harris can expand the electoral map to take on Trump in states like North Carolina while Trump has retreated from states like New Hampshire where he had once vowed to contest.

This election will still be close. It may come down to literally a few votes in each election district in a few key states. We all get that. But right now heading into the closing two months of the campaign, the words of VP Harris to the women in the spice store echo in my brain: “We are all in this together” and “We’re going to be good.”

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I wanted to share some videos from my show over the past few days about the 2024 election. The first is award winning actress Lorraine Bracco (Dr. Melfi on The Sopranos/Karen from Goodfellas) who discussed the "Paisans for Kamala" online event she is co-headlining that takes place Sunday, Sept 8 at 6PMET. Others appearing include Robert DeNiro, Nancy Pelosi, Steve Buscemi, Alyssa Milano and more. You don’t have to be Italian to join! For more details about the event and the RSVP link here is the website.

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Retired US Army Major and Democratic activist Richard Ojeda talks Trump's disgraceful visit to Arlington National cemetery, JD Vance’s continued despicable smears of Tim Walz and more:

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Need a laugh?! Then check out my weekly segment “What Just Happened?!” as we look back at the insanity of the week. Joining me this week are comedians Carolina Hidalgo, Wali Collins & Erik Bransteen

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Hope you check out and subscribe to the YouTube Channel for The Dean Obeidallah show where you can watch even more videos of my recent guests.

Please feel free to share these videos with anyone you think would enjoy them!

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