Washington: The countdown to the 60th US presidential race has begun to choose the US president and vice president for the next four years; voters will be heading to the polls tomorrow although many Americans have already cast their ballots through early voting and by mail voting.
According to Qatar News Agency, these elections have acquired a new dimension, increased in intensity and shuffled their cards after US President Joe Biden withdrew four months before the start of the race for the White House in favor of his deputy Kamala Harris, who is now running for president against Republican candidate Donald Trump, who is seeking re-election for a second non-consecutive term, after losing to Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Kamala Harris’s entry into the race has upset the calculations and rearranged the assumptions and expectations, especially on the part of her competitor Trump. Harris is 59 years old, more than two decades younger than Biden, and 19 years younger than Trump. After Biden’s advanced
age was a weapon in Trump’s hand, the magic has turned against the magician, and the 78-year-old Republican is now suffering from the same situation. Harris’s entry into the presidential race has also given new energy to the Democratic Party’s campaign, which was suffering from weakness.
The party’s campaign slogan has also changed from protecting democracy to preserving freedom. The hopes of this party’s supporters have been revived, the value of the donations it has collected to finance its election campaign has increased, and the number of Americans who have volunteered to participate in this campaign has increased. As for the voters, Trump is a candidate they know well, but they are just getting to know the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. The Republican billionaire has tried to attack Harris without being able to weaken her politically.
The televised debates between the presidential candidates have sparked change there. Last June, the debate between incumbent President Joe Biden and candidate Donald
Trump was a disaster for Biden, ending his campaign. Last September, the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump nearly became a disaster for Trump, but it did not end his campaign. Trump and Harris faced off on ABC News, trading personal attacks and sparring over their vision for America, but Harris forced Trump on the defensive by raising his legal woes.
The debate showed that Kamala Harris is a qualified contender for the White House, and after the debate, most polls showed that a majority of respondents believed Harris won the debate, but not by enough to significantly impact the presidential race. The latest polls show that the two candidates are neck and neck, with Harris leading Trump by two or three percentage points nationally.
But this lead alone does not reflect the true picture of the electoral landscape, because the American electoral system is based on the principle of “winner takes all,” meaning that the candidate who wins a state collects all of its votes in the electoral college, up t
o the tally that gives him the presidency even if he does not obtain a majority in the popular vote. Each state has a certain number of electoral college votes based in part on its population, totaling 538, so the winner is the candidate who wins 270 or more votes, who will assume the presidency for a four-year term in the White House starting on January 20, 2025.
Although about 240 million people are eligible to vote in this year’s U.S. election, only a relatively small number of them are likely to decide who becomes the next president. According to observers, there are states described as swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which may hold the keys to the White House, and are expected to witness the fiercest electoral battles and one of the most heated elections in modern history.
On the policies and programs of the candidates Harris and Trump, Harris said that her priority on the first day if she wins will be to try to reduce the costs of food and housing for work
ing families. She pledged to prevent food price increases, help first-time home buyers, and provide incentives to increase the supply of housing. Harris wants to raise taxes on large corporations and Americans with incomes of USD400,000 a year, but she also revealed several measures that would ease the tax burden on families.
Trump has promised to end inflation and make America affordable again, and has promised to deliver lower interest rates, something the president has no control over. Trump is proposing a series of trillions of dollars in tax cuts, including an extension of the 2017 cuts that mostly helped the wealthy, and he says he will pay for them through increased growth and tariffs on imports. Trump also has vowed to close the US border by completing construction of the border wall with Mexico and has promised to carry out the largest mass deportation of undocumented immigrants in his country.
The gap between the positions of the two candidates in the US presidential elections on foreign policy ap
pears very large. While Democrat Harris seeks to follow the approach of Joe Biden, which is based on alliances and commitment to democratic values, Republican Trump accuses the Biden administration of weakness and inadequacy in confronting global challenges. This contradiction between the two visions reflects the deep division in the country and puts the world at a crossroads considering fateful issues such as the files of Ukraine, the Middle East, China and Iran.
Kamala Harris is a staunch defender of what she calls Israel’s right to defend itself, and supports maintaining U.S. military aid, but has pledged not to be “silent” in the face of Palestinian suffering. She has long been an advocate for a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. Harris supports ceasefires in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and is banking on a diplomatic solution.
In contrast, Trump has adopted an isolationist foreign policy and wants the United States to distance itself from conflicts elsewhere in the world. He has said t
hat October 7 would not have happened if he were president, in reference to the Hamas attack in Israel, and has pledged that if he wins, peace will reign again in the world. He said he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours through a negotiated settlement with Russia, but the Republican billionaire has never specified how he would do that. Harris has pledged to support Ukraine as long as it takes. If elected, she has vowed to ensure that the United States, not China, wins the contest for the 21st century.