Kamala Harris Can Pull it Off — If She Shows the Discipline and Grace of Her Nomination Speech
It was a rush, no doubt about it. A jam-packed week of Democratic Party adrenaline capped by a pitch-perfect speech from the new consensus choice, an historic nominee, the beautiful, buoyant Kamala Harris.
Can she really pull off what she seems poised to do?
It’s one of the unlikeliest pivots to power imaginable. Harris – who most of us were lukewarm about just six weeks ago, be honest – is now the Black-Asian knight with a dazzling smile sent to save democracy. Heroic images of her have saturated our media, from TikTok to Time magazine. Hollywood has embraced her and so have the labor unions. So has Mark Cuban.
If she doesn’t blow it – or if Trump doesn’t try to steal the election again – she stands on the precipice of American leadership, and thus world leadership.
So far, Harris has played this moment with textbook discipline. Choosing her moments strategically. Seeding stories of her middle class family growing up and the blended family in her marriage to Doug Emhoff. Letting her post-college-age social team show humor, sass and swagger. Resisting the calls by Fox to give a news conference before she’s ready.
Letting Donald Trump spin himself into a frenzy of absurd accusations (“she isn’t really Black!”, “She’s a radical leftist!”) without once taking the bait.
Her speech on Thursday night had to be pretty close to perfect, and it was.
In accepting the nomination, she was authoritative. She was personal. She was human scale and heroic at the same time. She talked a lot about her mother, as she always does. But she also talked policy and showed a fierceness about her commitment to American security – and to defeating Trump – that at least one focus group found convincing.
In a speech that is likely to define her to much of the American public, she created the context of a life of service driven by the civil rights ideals of her Berkeley parents, to the judicial system and the move to a different sort of public service in the Senate and now the White House.
She alternated between her childhood in a middle class home with two immigrant parents determined to grasp the American dream, to embracing her career as a state prosecutor and tying it back to a desire to find justice for a high school friend who was sexually abused.
Great line: “Every day I stood in the courtroom and said five words: Kamala Harris, for the people. In my entire career, I’ve only had one client, the people.”
Why was the speech so strong? Her statement on Israel and Gaza is a good example. She forcefully supported Israel, and condemned the Hamas attack on October 7 as terrorism. She said that Israel must never face an attack like that again.
Yet she also called out the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and asserted their right – not to a state, that would be risky – but to self-determination and freedom. It threaded the needle in a thoughtful and convincing way for one of the trickiest policy issues she will face ahead of the election and beyond.
Beyond that, it was not all positivity and “Yes She Can.” Many are aware that Harris has a thin record when it comes to foreign policy. She has convincing to do on that front, and she started to frame that argument on Thursday night. She warned of the dangers of Donald Trump, and showed unexpected grit around her own determination to keep America safe and free.
“Know this: I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our interests against Iran and I will not cozy up to tyrants like Kim Jong Un who are rooting for Trump,” she said.
Several commenters pointed out that Harris showed a fierceness in her delivery that was previously unseen. She staked a claim for her future persona with lines like this: “In the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny I know where I stand, and I know where the United States belongs.”
And of course, she did not shy away from embracing her most obvious advantage over Trump who ended Roe v. Wade – being a champion for women. She called out Trump’s promises to “limit access to birth control, ban medication abortion, and enact a nationwide abortion ban.” Then she added a revelation which was news to many (including me) that Trump plans to create a “National Anti-Abortion Coordinator and force states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions.”
She wrapped up that bombshell neatly in a quotable quote: “Simply put, they are out of their minds.” (Actually in the text of her speech handed out by her team, it reads thus: “They are. Out. Of. Their. Minds.”)
I’d also point out that the fact that Harris does not have biological children of her own could have been an issue had Republicans been more clever than JD Vance clumsily calling out “childless cat ladies.” The issue that may matter to heartland voters has been deftly sidestepped by constantly showcasing Harris’s warm interactions with children of all kinds, in addition to her close relationships with her nieces and nephews, and stepchildren. This could easily have been spun differently.
But a lot can happen in the next 70-some days before the election. Trump – who flailed about by tweeting more than 40 times last night – is giving desperate. And Trump’s team is surely feeling desperate. That can lead to serious mischief. They will make their own attempt to define Harris as a Marxist, untested, inexperienced person. Who isn’t really Black. Or who is. Or – what did they say again?
For the moment, Harris appears to be on a glide path. Wisely, though, she is not taking this triumphant moment for granted. When NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell lobbed a question at Harris as she and her posse exited the United Center, Harris turned and with that 1000-watt smile said: “I feel good. On to tomorrow… That was good. Now we’ve got to move on.”
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