On Thursday, accidental Presidential candidate Kamala Harris introduced herself to America.
A month ago, her approval ratings were lower than Joe Biden’s. Today, she is the Joan of Arc of the Democrats’ 2024 campaign to drive a stake through the heart of Donald J. Trump.
But lurking in the back of her mind has to be her hard-left 2019 Presidential campaign that crashed and burned before it got aloft, a shooting star. If so, she kept it there, in the past.
Thursday she became the first woman of Asian and African ancestry to be nominated for President by a major political party. It was historic. So was the nomination of Hillary Clinton, so “history” does not forecast victory.
In 37 minutes she touched many, but not all, bases. It was Goldilocks length — not too long, not too short.
The speech was, in a word, Presidential.
She was forceful, but avoided the tendency that plagues some women speakers, of being shrill.
She also avoided the top topic on the minds of most Americans — the economy and inflation. The thinking might have been if you can’t explain it, forget it.
One theme was “a new way forward,” but she did not spell out that new way, other than to support the middle class.
She did tackle the border, and promised to sign a bipartisan border bill that Trump had killed. The problem is, if Democrats don’t take the Senate, there will be no such bill. She also promised a “path to citizenship,” which will sound to many like amnesty. That will be fleshed out in the weeks ahead.
She did touch the third rail of Gaza.
She strongly reaffirmed Israel’s right of self-defense and promised to support it. She strongly condemned the Hamas terror group.
“At the same time,” she acknowledged the pain Gaza has suffered, which will anger some conservative Jews, and said her goal was to bring home the hostages, have a secure Israel, arrange a ceasefire and look forward to self-determination for the Palestinian people, which is U.S. policy.
She would defend Ukraine, and strengthen NATO, neither of which Trump would do.
She closed with a very strong, welcome (to me) pro-America passage that was reminiscent of Barack Obama.
In America, she said, “anything is possible,” and we are dedicated to freedom, opportunity, compassion, dignity, and fairness.
Before she spoke, convention organizers passed out American flags to everyone, and with the waving flags, and the chants of “USA” made it seem, well, almost Republican.
For decades Democrats treated patriotism as the P-word. Kamala has reclaimed it. It was strange, a Republican pundit quipped, to see Democrats waving flags, rather than burning them.
That flag would wave over the American military, she said, which would be the strongest and “most lethal” in the world.
“Trust me to put country over party,” she said.
On the other side, Donald J. Trump cozies up to dictators, would release those who attacked police on Jan. 6, and is a convicted felon, she said.
He would cut Social Security, and Medicare, and would outlaw all abortion, she said.
Closing with words of advice from her departed mother, Kamala said she was taught to not let others define you. “You show them who you are.”
She did that Thursday night, but it is not who she was during her aborted Presidential run.
In the weeks ahead, she will have to do interviews, and hold news conferences, to explain that.
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