Kamala Harris still a fill-in-the-blanks candidate despite all that DNC 'joy.' Is she at her high-water mark?
Did the Democratic National Convention intentionally spread rumors of a surprise Beyonce performance at their gathering on Thursday night to fill the auditorium? If so, it was a cheap trick, and says a lot about their confidence in Kamala Harris’ star power. But that is no surprise; after all, this is the same crew that won’t let their candidate speak off-script, for fear she’ll say something idiotic.
That cannot last. From this star-studded night forward, the Democratic nominee will be pressed to fill in the blanks. Consequently, we have likely just witnessed the high water mark of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
Harris accepted her party’s nomination to run for the Oval Office with a well-delivered speech that was met with great enthusiasm (even without Beyonce) but answered few questions about how she might actually govern our country.
KAMALA HARRIS FORMALLY ACCEPTS DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION AT DNC
This is purposeful. When the V.P. came forward in recent days with proposals to slap price controls on groceries and to hand out tens of thousands of dollars to first-time homebuyers, her policies were widely panned. Her approval ratings, on the rise since her improbable and vote-free nomination, immediately hooked down.
Since then, and certainly in her speech Thursday night, she delivered platitudes and fluff. To be fair, she did it quite well.
Her campaign is in many ways a reprise of Barack Obama’s "hope and change" run in 2008 – all feel-good generalizations with little meat on the bones. But Obama campaigned after eight years of Republican George W. Bush occupying the Oval Office; voters were tired of the Iraq War, divisive politics and keen for a new direction.
Kamala Harris is talking about forging a "new path forward," but she has been in the White House for the past 3 1/2 years digging the very potholes she now promises to fill. When Harris rails about the price of bread or beef being up 50% and housing being unaffordable - that’s on her watch.
For four days, Democrats have made it sound like Harris is running against an incumbent; in reality, she is the incumbent.
In her acceptance speech, Harris, like other speakers who preceded her, defended against presumed Democrat vulnerabilities. She spoke of her love of country and her pride in the values that make the U.S. exceptional – like freedom, opportunity, and fairness.
HARRIS AND WALZ ENJOYED A SUCCESSFUL CONVENTION, BUT IT DIDN'T ACHIEVE A CRITICAL GOAL
There have never before been so many American flags fluttering in a Democratic convention center; never before has the assembled crowd so frequently struggled to remember the words to our national anthem or so happily chanted USA, USA! Clearly, Harris and the DNC wanted voters – and especially those who live in patriotic Midwestern swing states – to ignore how progressive Left Democrats routinely bash the U.S. as a cauldron of racism and sexism, castigate capitalism as the root of heinous inequality and protest our evil alliance with Israel.
Harris also went out of her way to applaud our law enforcement agencies, eager to erase memories of Democrats’ "defund the police" movement or support for bail "reform" changes which have made our cities more dangerous and cops more vulnerable. She talked up her background as a tough-on-crime prosecutor, hoping people will forget her support of the thugs who burned down much of Minneapolis in 2020. She also emphasized supporting and honoring veterans, perhaps to defuse fury among our nation’s soldiers that her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has exaggerated his military rank.
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Maybe Harris has learned a thing or two from Gov. Walz, who was for many years a defensive coordinator for a high school football team. After all, many say a good defense is the best offense. For example, Harris promised that, as president, she would sign into law the bipartisan border bill that she accuses former President Trump of sabotaging for political purposes. That charge helps counter critics who accuse Harris, Joe Biden’s border czar, of doing exactly nothing to stem the flood of migrants entering our country illegally.
Harris spoke appealingly about her background as the daughter of a determined Indian mother who taught her that anything was possible, and about growing up in a middle-class community. For a woman who has had trouble keeping staff and who has been described as difficult, Harris likely burnished her image and likeability.
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But the glow soon faded as she launched into over-the-top and dishonest attacks on former president Donald Trump. She railed about the protests on January 6, when she accused Trump of trying "to throw away your vote." Of course, Democrats did just that in nominating Harris, ignoring the 31 million people who voted for Joe Biden.
She warned that Trump would "jail journalists," deploy the military against our own citizens and ban abortions nationwide. She invoked, as many others have done, the boogeyman of Project 2025, though even liberal news organizations have confirmed that the conservative policy document has nothing to do with the Trump campaign.
Like President Joe Biden, Kamala Harris lies continually about former President Donald Trump; if he really is as terrible as they claim, surely, they can use actual facts to prove their case.
There is another essential falsehood that has run throughout the Democratic convention. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and nearly everyone in between has talked about how they would unite the country and how hate, to quote the president, must have no "safe harbor" in our nation. Yet the vitriol expressed towards Trump, and by implication towards the tens of millions who support him, reveal the hypocrisy of such sentiments.
Harris’ speech was catnip to Democrats who are indeed joyful that Joe Biden is no longer their candidate, but her work has just begun. Outside that Chicago arena, voters want to know how Harris’ promised $5 trillion tax hike will impact the economy, how unprecedented federal spending might keep interest rates high and how unlimited immigration might drive down middle-class wages.
Harris, soon, will have to answer some questions. Then, the joy may fade.