Kamala Harris accepts VP nomination as she steps into moment to beat Donald Trump
She’s been one of the most unpopular vice presidents in modern times. But if Kamala Harris becomes the first female president in America, this moment will be remembered as the tipping point.
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Kamala Harris’s sudden and surprise ascension now comes with a question. Can her political campaign turn into a cultural movement to propel her to victory over Donald Trump?
The fact this is even being asked is extraordinary. She has been one of the most unpopular vice presidents in modern times. Part of the reason Joe Biden refused to drop out was that he worried she could not win. Even Democratic powerbroker Nancy Pelosi – who orchestrated the plot against the President – wanted a competitive process to replace him.
But if Ms Harris prevails this November, becoming the first female president in American history, this week’s Democratic convention will be remembered as the tipping point for her campaign becoming bigger than herself.
“Something wonderfully magic is in the air,” said former president Barack Obama’s wife Michelle, kicking off a speech that electrified Chicago’s United Center. “A familiar feeling that has been buried too deep for far too long … It’s the contagious power of hope.”
For Mr Biden’s allies, that line landed heavily as an implicit rebuke of his presidency. The fact is, however, that by casting himself as the antidote to the chaos and division fuelled by Mr Trump, the 81-year-old became bogged down in that maelstrom.
He wanted to make this election a referendum on Mr Trump’s effort to overturn the last one. In doing so, Mr Biden allowed the Republican to become the candidate for change among Americans more worried about their bills than democracy.
This is the mantle Ms Harris is now trying to claim, rather remarkably given she is the second-most senior member of the Biden-Harris administration. But for some voters who have ignored the daily bloodsport of politics, the Vice President represents a break from that.
“The vast majority of us do not want to live in a country that’s bitter and divided,” Mr Obama said. “We want something better. We want to be better. And the joy and the excitement that we’re seeing around this campaign tells us we’re not alone.”
On the sidelines of the convention, veteran Democratic congressman Joe Courtney said that energy was on par with Mr Obama’s historic 2008 run.
“That’s a fairly high bar to clear, but this really feels like it,” he said.
“The looks on people’s faces, the whole demeanour of folks – it’s really quite striking.”
Mr Obama hammered Mr Trump not with Mr Biden’s earnestness, but with humour. His jab at his “weird obsession with crowd sizes” – on a night where Democrats also filled a stadium in Milwaukee to see Ms Harris – was reminiscent of his famous roast of Mr Trump in 2011.
That speech reportedly motivated the billionaire to run for the presidency in 2016, so it was not without consequences. This time around, Mr Obama’s jokes are more purposeful.
He has been privately advising Ms Harris, who has publicly embraced a strategy built on hope and joy, undeterred by Mr Trump’s sledge that she has “the laugh of a lunatic”.
“I love that laugh,” her husband Doug Emhoff said, as he called her a “joyful warrior”.
“Here’s the thing about joyful warriors: they’re still warriors. And Kamala is as tough as it comes.”
She needs all that toughness to win. As Mrs Obama said: “Folks are going to do everything they can to distort her truth. My husband and I sadly know a little something about this.”
Years after Mr Trump dipped toe into politics by stoking conspiracies about Mr Obama’s birthplace, he is now questioning whether Ms Harris is Black.
“Who’s going to tell him,” Mrs Obama asked in the line of the convention, “that the job he is currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs?”
To claim that job herself, Ms Harris must overcome more than insults. While she wants to create an Obama-style movement, that wave may crash if it has no substance.
The promises at the heart of her presidential run remain sketchy. The Democratic platform affirmed at the convention was not edited after Mr Biden dropped out, leaving Ms Harris with a document planning his second term. Her website does not even have a policy page.
The commitments she has made – including hiking corporate taxes and stopping price-gouging – have attracted widespread criticism from economists. And she has ditched some of her long-term views, exposing her to claims of politically expedient flip-flopping.
At a counter-rally this week, Mr Trump said his advisers kept telling him: “Please stick to policy. Don’t get personal.” But he could not help himself, complaining about Mr Obama and other Democrats “getting personal all night long” before asking: “Do I still have to stick to policy?” His supporters yelled back: “No!”
In a close race, Republicans believe Mr Trump can beat Ms Harris on the issues, but he has struggled to nail his message against his new opponent. Speaking in North Carolina, after saying he would name the two issues that were the most important for him to win the election, the 78-year-old nominated only the economy before going off on a tangent.
He has been frustrated by Ms Harris’s refusal to hold a press conference or give an interview since becoming the nominee. She has vowed to do so this month in what will be a crucial test, particularly because the reason she appears to be a fresh face to many Americans is that she avoided the media for months on end after embarrassing gaffes.
An even bigger test comes on September 10, when Ms Harris and Mr Trump will go head-to-head. She only needs to ask Mr Biden what can happen if that debate goes wrong.
At the convention, the President used his speech to begin turning his record into his legacy, leaving it to Mr Obama to declare that “the torch has been passed” to Ms Harris.
Accepting the party’s presidential nomination, she grabbed it with both hands.
Democrats now hope she can sprint to the finish line. But it is only 58 days since the debate between Mr Biden and Mr Trump set off a chain of events that has transformed American history. For Ms Harris, the next 73 days will feel far more like a marathon.
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