I’m not personally a fan of Kamala Harris’ rhetorical style. Still, it’s far, far better than Trump’s. I remain unclear about what Kamala Harris plans to do with the office. Then again, will Trump follow the Project 2025 roadmap or do whatever pops into his head at any given moment? In a convention that was at times a bore, at times cringey and at times pretty damn good, did Kamala Harris make the case that she is ready to be President of the United States?
Katie Herzog does a recap of the acceptance speech Harris read off the teleprompters.
Here’s the TL;DR, in order of appearance: hard work; family values; civil rights; fight for the little guy; Trump’s an asshole; January 6; democracy at stake; protect the middle class; jobs; economy; lower costs; cheaper groceries; Trump tax; your body, your choice; gun violence; gay stuff; clean air/water; climate change; voting rights; border security; space; cease-fire soonish but big hearts to Israel; wait, here’s a bone to Palestine too; folksy wisdom from Mom; strength; freedom; opportunity; dignity; We Are Not Going Back, We Are Not Going Back, We Are Not Going Back.
Sure, but where are we going? There’s a lot of enthusiasm. Is it for Harris or is it relief that old man Biden is gone and maybe there’s a chance to put an end to Darth Cheeto.
That was pretty much it, and after four days of nonstop Democratic Party boosterism, I’d been so inundated with the message that Kamala Harris is the most qualified candidate to ever run for president, one who will usher in a new era of prosperity, that by the time she took Doug’s hand and retired backstage for a drink and a smoke, I almost, for a second, believed it.
But then I remembered that politics is theater, that Joe Biden stepped down only because Nancy Pelosi held a gun to his head (and would have pulled the trigger), and that Harris was cast in this role not because the people choose her, but because Biden needed a brown woman to appease activists and then his brain turned to mush. A month ago, the only thing left of the KHive was four gay guys in P-Town snorting Adderall off a wicker coffee table; now it’s half the country! Whoever scripted this deserves an Oscar.
Katie’s got a point. And she’s not done yet.
Look, I hate everyone: Democrats, Republicans, all those dorky little third parties that keep trying to make libertarianism and/or socialism happen. They all suck. But I have to admit, the DNC put on a good show—especially compared to the Republican National Convention, which was so listless that not even Marjorie Taylor Greene bench-pressing Amber Rose could make it exciting. The DNC was good! Admit it.
Admit it! But the big question now isn’t whether the convention in general, and Harris’ acceptance speech in particular, changed or reinforced your vote. Good little soldiers are good little soldiers. The question is whether Kamala Harris, who was on nobody’s (save the KHive’s) bingo card as Democratic candidate for president a month ago, is ready to be the president of the United States.
Before anyone jumps to the logical fallacy,* this has nothing to do with Trump’s qualifications, a completely separate question to which we already know the answer given his stunning incompetence last go round and his inability to let go of his personal humiliation this time. No, this is about Harris, who could well end up in the oval. Did Kamala Harris persuade you that she is capable of sitting behind the Resolute desk?
*Any comments that dive into “tu quoque” will be deleted. This is about Harris, not Trump. As an elder gentleman from Nebraska once said, “FOCUS!”
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This presidential race is the most depressing in my 5-plus decades of voting. Kamala and the Do-Dems are masters of deceit who will empower all federal enforcement agencies to shove their DEI-radical wokist coprolite down our throats. Darth Cheeto is a sick f*** who despite his severe condition makes a decent decision at least as often as a blind squirrel finds a gourmet meal.
I’m not prepared to give up cable news so I feel condemned to 4 years of trauma no matter who wins. Sorry to be such a downer but I felt like sharing my misery.
I thought she gave an impressive speech, but I’m not convinced she is ready to be President. In the plus column she seems to listen to her handlers and coaches. The other guy does the opposite. But the policies she gets behind. That’s the big question mark.
The only case she needs to make is that she’s not Trump. There’s a reason the Dems largely stayed away from policy issues this year. Convince people you are relatively normal, and let the other guy keep showing he’s an unhinged fascist.
As the admiral said (quoting his honor), FOCUS!
Gah. She has no international experience and extremely limited experiences in national governance. Walz has a mid level view of the military, not a big picture view of budgets, deployments, International military agreements, etc. Plus, the generals aren’t going to like taking orders from a NCO, or any advice he gives her, especially with his military baggage.
Trump scares the shit out of world leaders because he’s a loose cannon. She’s a weak DEI woman and the world knows it.
God help America. There were much better choices on both sides.
Amen on that last part. They are not sending their best.
As to the question our host asks, no she has not convinced me she’s earned it. Might be nice to get a speech that’s more than feels, and an actual interview with someone doing real questions…
The election remains a low point of history. She may have more of her oars in the water, but she and her campaign are played by pervasive phoniness. Realistically, she’s just going to continue the existing Democratic ideology, including all the “identity politics” folderol. It’s more about the party ideology than about her, and the party is forced by circumstances to choke down the shit sandwich of her candidacy and cheer about how great it is.
Maybe I wasn’t paying close enough attention, but when did acknowledging the existence of problems replace offering proposed solutions to said problems as qualification to be President? I don’t mean to suggest that there aren’t intractable problems to which a promise to work hard may be the best one can ask for, but simply asserting that the mere act of electing Harris would somehow be a solution to the multiple existential threats the Democrats have been raising the alarm over is some George Santos-strength snake oil.
Did Kamala Harris persuade you that she is capable of sitting behind the Resolute desk?
Yes. Though I would have voted for anyone the Dems picked, she has done a good job jumping into the role she suddenly found herself in.
I didn’t want big policy pronouncements. I didn’t want greatness. I wanted her to show me she was good enough to win. She gave a lawyer’s summation for her speech — it had the feel to me of her talking to a jury. I’m good with that. I liked it.
And she has shown enough competence, experience and political flexibility, to be good as a POTUS.
Agreed. Those who won’t be persuaded will find nothing to persuade them.
I was very interested to see how the DNC would handle the terrorist fringe left. The woke maniacs discovered they are so much less important than they think they are. The DNC platformed the parents of an American hostage, and the room echoed with “Bring them home!” AOC has moderated. Warnock took us to church, showing compassion for Israeli children and Palestinian children. The silly excesses are almost completely reined in. The “Undecided” delegates cried on the floor. Harris is in charge, not the useful idiots. That’s a leadership challenge passed successfully.
Amen to that.
No matter how bad she is, she’s not Trump. Got it. But she’s shown none of those things. You might wish that was true, but she’s got nothing.
Thoroughly unimpressed on both sides. I’m seriously considering GAFing the whole thing off and moving to Juneau.
[Ed. Note: Juneau is the capital of Alaska, which is part of the United States since 1959. Oosiks notwithstanding.]
[Reply to Ed. Note: But he’ll be able to see Canada from his house.]
Sigh. . .try to tie both posts together and you get a history lesson.
You get an A for effort.
Harris and the Democrats showed America that she and the party are absolutely ready to take the torch of the Presidency, and to restore the office to the standard of status and pageantry set by the second Bush administration.
Nothing Kamala Harris says will change my opinion that she is the same unintelligent power seeking weather vane she was as prosecutor and as,the California AG who refused to release prisoners who had completed their sentences so they could be kept on labor gangs and fought tooth and nail to protect crooked cops. I voted against Kamala in 2020, I will vote against her now. I no longer feel any enthusiasm for Trump but think he would be less bad because the Democratic Party will be too busy attacking him to enact the sort of disastrous legislation they did under Biden. I will probably just write in Vermin Supreme because Oregon has too many vote blue no matter who in Portland for my vote to matter.
If Kamala wins the election by baking cookies for a few months, then she will swing hard left the day after the election and the Constitution will be done.
I think the election comes down to the Black male vote. Other than Candance Owens, Kamala Harris will win 102.3% of the Black woman vote. But many Black men don’t seem to like her. If Trump wins 20% of the Black male vote, he squeaks in. Maybe.
Trump smells like a looser right now. His Mojo seems dated.
By 2028, the Boomers will be a spent force. The Days of Big Woodstock will be over. It will be a whole new country.
If what you were looking for was a point-by-point listing of precisely what she’d like to do and how exactly she’d accomplish it given the practical and political constraints she’d face (congress, the courts, laws, treaties, the Constitution, corporate interests, other countries, the laws of physics, Elon Musk, etc.), then no, of course not. Nobody could have.
If what you wanted was a broad outline of what she’d like to do (given that we’re talking a political speech at a convention – which means that by definition it’s filled with half-truths and vagueries – then she did fine.
She didn’t leave me afraid to vote for her, which is probably the most I could have hoped for. BUT, I need to add, that I haven’t been particularly enthusiastic about a presidential vote since, well, I’ve been trying to remember whether I really liked McGovern in ’72 or just thought him less bad than Tricky Dick.
And a Pres who’s upbeat isn’t such a bad thing. (But did anyone play “Happy Days Are Here Again?” Am I the only one old enough to remember it as the Dem’s campaign song?)
Is Kamala Harris ready to be POTUS? I don’t think anyone is. It’s an almost-impossible job, even without people attacking you 24 hours a day. I know that in job interviews, you rarely get the perfect candidate, you just have to choose who’s the most qualified, out of several imperfect options. And she’s probably readier than Obama, or G. W. Bush, and certainly more than Trump, even though he’s had four years in the job. She’s not as ready as Biden, or GHW Bush. (She’s probably at Bill Clinton-level.)
In American elections, personality and the ability to excite the voters means a lot. I have no problem with a President being presentable, but there’s a reason that just about all our recent Presidents (save Biden) have had devoted rock star followings. And yet, we could probably due with more Bidens, and George H.W. Bushes in office—old people who know the system and know what they’re doing. Hey, Kamala Harris was brought to you by grizzled old Nancy Pelosi. But this is our system, and it’s terrible, but voting means choosing, and Harris may not be my first choice, but I believe she’ll be a non-terrible President.