Here's the Short Answer to the Question, 'Are You Better Off Than Four Years Ago?'

While we wait to see if Kamala Harris was given the debate questions and talking points in advance, let's look at the opening question put to her by the moderators. ABC's David Muir kicking things off this way: "Vice President Harris, you and President [Biden] were elected four years ago and your opponent on the stage here tonight often asks his supporters, are you better off than you were four years ago? When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?"

And that's all it took for Harris to start serving up the word salad. "So, I was raised as a middle-class kid," she replied.

Byron York writes for the Washington Examiner that it was the most important question of the night, and she flubbed it.

The most important question of the campaign, and Kamala Harris flubbed it. Really simple: 'When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?' Harris did not answer. https://t.co/gOwx5ioCOi
— Byron York (@ByronYork) September 12, 2024

York writes:

The good news for Trump at the debate was that even if the ABC News moderators were biased, and they were, they still felt they had to begin the debate with the most important issue, which just happened to be Trump’s strongest and Harris’s weakest. The question went to Harris: “When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?”
…
Did you notice something missing? For all her words, Harris didn’t answer the question. The question was, “When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?” And Harris did not say. For millions of people, of course, the answer is no.
No wonder some undecided voters were more skeptical about Harris’s performance than many media commentators. The very beginning of the debate, the most important question of the election — and Harris won’t answer. Who could be enthusiastic about that?

As York writes, Harris "spent days holed up in a Pittsburgh hotel, practicing for the debate," and she couldn't answer the first question. "Yes, Americans are better off, and here's why."

War in Ukraine, war in Israel, China eyeing Taiwan, strategic petroleum reserves drained, border crisis unchecked, lawfare, censorship, sky-high CPI, and spiraling debt.

The question every voter should ask: Do I want four more years of this? pic.twitter.com/emXgSmYWXS
— Taylor Morgan (@tlrdrkmrgn) September 12, 2024

When they asked her that question I thought there was some hope for a real, fair debate. But she never answered, there was no follow up, and it quickly went downhill from there.
— Cindy Sinor Artist (@CindySinor) September 12, 2024

This should be the primary reason she loses the election.
— Jonathan Harker 🎃 (@Johnwhateveridc) September 12, 2024

Moderators should have pushed her to answer the question.
— Art Argueta (@artramo) September 12, 2024

The moderators pushed her zero times.

This is the answer to the first question that Kamala Harris didn't answer at the debate... took a couple extra days, but now we have the answer. We just had to ask actual AMERICANS.
— NOT Jim :-) (@JeRrE1776) September 12, 2024

That was the moment she should have made her case that she could deliver another Trump economy. She had no clue what she should have said.
— Andrea E (@AAC0519) September 12, 2024

Even considering we were in the middle of a pandemic, a wide majority say they were better off. They certainly were before COVID-19 certainly didn't escape from the Wuhan Institute of Virology where they definitely weren't doing gain of function research.

***