Editor's Note: Frida Ghitis, a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a frequent CNN opinion writer, a contributing columnist for The Washington Post, and a columnist for the World Politics Review. Follow her on Twitter @fridaghitis. The opinions expressed in this comment are yours. Read more opinion at CNNE.com/opinion.
(CNN) - Everyone knew Senator Kamala Harris was the favorite to get the nod as Joe Biden's running mate; everyone, it seems, except President Donald Trump and his reliance on loyal and salaried employees.
How is it possible that they were not so prepared?
Harris had spent months at or near leadership in nearly every analysis of who made the most sense as a vice president pick to former Vice President Joe Biden. That's why I would have expected Trump and her campaign to launch a carefully crafted reaction at the time Biden made the announcement.
He would have been wrong.
The news has visibly thrown Trump off balance and sent his campaign staggered as well. Even his cheerleading chorus on Fox News is having trouble deciding what to do with Harris, further proof of Biden's smart decision.
- MORE: Donald Trump Now Promotes Lies About Kamala Harris' Birthplace
On the White House podium shortly after Biden's announcement on Tuesday, the president looked completely stumped. How could Biden choose someone who was not nice to him during the primary debates?
Trump has used that sophisticated approach, who is nice to him, as a justification for praising some of the worst dictators in the world. Harris, Trump said, is "disgusting." He described her as "the worst, the most horrible, the most disrespectful of all in the United States Senate."
The Trump campaign dropped that poignant quote, literally, and sent it out on a fundraising appeal. But in case the prospect of having a mean and disrespectful vice president wasn't compelling, the campaign held a conference call with reporters, seeking to project an ominous image of the newly promoted Harris.
Instead, all the campaign did was display its own dizzying confusion.
Trump's campaign adviser, Katrina Pierson, unconsciously described Harris as too tough on crime: "She fought to keep inmates locked up in crowded prisons."
Pierson highlighted Harris's time as a prosecutor, echoing the misgivings of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, but undermining Trump 2020's broader message that the Biden-Harris formula will let the country unravel in convulsions of anarchy and chaos.
Another fundraising email warned that "Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would destroy America." (Spooky!)
On Fox News, the network stars swirled in a fever dream of alarm. Sean Hannity described Harris as friendly to socialists, a "radical extremist", and declared that the 2020 Democratic team is "radical far left outside the mainstream."
The labels are so far from reality that they are accidentally funny. Biden has a decades-long history of centrist politics.
- More: Kamala Harris is a potential president, says Allan Lichtman
Anyone who thinks Harris is a radical should listen to progressive Democrats trying to reconcile themselves to the new reality: excited about the historic nature of Harris's candidacy but disappointed, even disappointed in his politics.
On Wednesday, after Biden and Harris appeared together and she delivered a scathing speech about Trump's track record, the president still seemed a little clueless about Biden's choice.
When asked by a journalist about Harris's withering summary of her failures to control the pandemic, Trump accused her of being "very weak on the facts," another dose of accidental irony from a president with a documented ledger of more than 20,000. lies.
But Trump and the campaign are gradually establishing themselves on a strategy. It is a difficult challenge. They have to think of something to focus the attention of voters, and it cannot be the economy or health care.
Here's the plan: Painting Biden as a wild-eyed radical just won't stick, so they'll try to scare voters into thinking the good-natured Biden is a pawn of the terrifying left. Maybe Harris is the puppeteer, that's not entirely clear yet.
Jeanine Pirro of Fox News has been stoking the conspiracy. "Who really chose this woman?" He asked Tuesday.
Wednesday went further. "... something is going to happen before the election and (Biden) won't even be on the ballot," he predicted, citing a "sentiment."
For his part, Trump is taking the racist path, perhaps hoping that most Americans will find that inspiring path. "The suburban housewife will vote for me," he predicted on Twitter, explaining, "They want security."
Under Biden, "low-income housing would invade your neighborhood ... with Corey (misspelled) Booker in charge!" The message was transparent and deliberately racist. It was also, inadvertently, tellingly sexist.
Even her supporter, Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, did not refer to "housewives" when she said Harris's election has "completed the leftist takeover of the party and its radical agenda," saying that "women Suburban "want security more than anything. "The security moms," she said, won't like Harris because they want "law and order."
- MORE: "Kamala Harris's Story Is America's": Biden and Harris Make Their First Appearance Together in Delaware
Security moms who want law and order might like Harris's track record. But let's not confuse the Republican strategy with facts.
In short, the plan is to scare voters and appeal to latent racist fears. Since Biden is not a radical, the claim is that he is not really in charge; it is a Trojan horse. And Harris, it may seem too tough, too unpleasant, but it's not tough enough. It is understood?
In fairness to Trump's team, the Democrats have put them in a difficult position. But there is no reasonable excuse to explain why the Trump campaign was not prepared for Harris's announcement. The only explanation is Trump's incompetence and inability to sound out someone who doesn't hold a grudge.
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