If you want to be there for everyone, you are there for no one, a well-known communication wisdom goes. That means making choices, which is easier said than done. Because you have to know what your story is essentially about, you have to dare to show color, and, by extension, dare to put one message at the center. It leads to a paradox: By taking the risk of alienating people, you can retain more people.

Harris and her team fall into the trap of not daring to choose, thus failing to engage swing voters. After a promising start, her campaign has stagnated. Insiders report even that the Harris team is in a panic. That need not be a problem, in 2015 Hillary et al. were confident around this time and the Trump team was panicking. But aside from the fact that the polls are virtually 50-50 and Trump is regaining momentum in the swing states, Harris still does not have a unified, overarching message. And that does start to become a serious problem.

In recent weeks, the Harris team has been limping along on roughly 5 key messages, hoping to eat from as many as possible.

During her vice presidency, she didn't get a lot of face time. That gave Trump room to frame her as a "communist thug" and a slacker on immigration. She is trying to reverse this image with her "Happy Warrior" and emphasis on her experience as a prosecutor and attorney general: I'm tough ... on crime and on the border. But afraid to confirm his frame, she barely contradicts Trump's outlandish plans around mass deportation, nor does she put a clear narrative of her own against it.

Harris is also eager to position herself as a new wind ("We're not going back!"). A tough card: Trump is doing the same thing, AND Harris is associated with Biden's unpopular policies. She cannot turn away from that too much, because that would be implausible and be construed as deloyal. A split; and a major reason why George H.W. Bush is the only vice president since 1836 to be elected president himself.

In such a neck-and-neck race, it is essential to win over specific audiences and get them to the polls. That also means adapting your messages to the people you are talking to at the time. But that message must be linked to a recognizable, overarching vision, driven by one core message. Which are repeated everywhere and at all times. And this has been missing throughout the campaign. For now, they have not dared to choose. Either for their own, positive, appealing "Promised Land. Either for an all out anti-Trump campaign.

It depends soulfully on it. It is quite understandable that the Harris team wants to spread its eggs. But there is great risk in caution.

In the end, they do seem to make a choice in the final act. They recently launched this spot and Harris begins to call Trump a fascist unapologetically. Wonder if it's timely.