I do expect both Beyoncé and Swift will do a Harris event. If so when is the best time?
Harris herself emphasizing not her Black identity or even her identity as a woman, but her middle class roots raised by her five foot brown immigrant mother, is interesting. I think savvy. Others defined her Black identity. Her being a woman is pretty obvious and has been highlighted. Here she accepts her complicated heritage and embraces the privilege we have as Americans.
I think one of the smartest things she did was keep the focus on the country and dealing with its concerns, and not on the historic nature of her election. She kept her laser focus on being a president for us – not for her. Obviously she understands what an amazing thing it will be to be the first woman elected to the office of president, but she demonstrated it is not her priority. We are.
ETA: LOL, ninja’d by seconds by @DSeid!
As reported (excerpt from, giftlink to WaPo).
CHICAGO — Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday, using the most consequential speech of her political career to cast herself as an avatar of America’s middle class and an avenue to usher the country away from the abrasive style of politics embraced by Republican nominee Donald Trump.
“Our nation with this election has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past,” she said in a speech that reflected on her unexpected journey to the top of her party and to the cusp of becoming the nation’s first female president. “A chance to chart a new way forward. Not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans.”
Harris delivered a withering critique of Trump while also making several appeals to bipartisanship and patriotism over the course of her speech, combating efforts by Trump and his allies to brand her as radical or somehow foreign. As she spoke, a packed, jubilant crowd of supporters clapped and waved American flags. Many were wearing white, the color associated with the suffragist movement. More than 100,000 red, white and blue balloons dropped at the end of her speech.
The celebratory moment marked how swiftly Democrats’ fortunes have changed over the past two months, in which the party agonized over a disastrous debate performance by President Joe Biden, endured weeks of public infighting over his candidacy and then swiftly united behind Harris after Biden dropped out on July 21. The fast-moving turn of events has injected a fresh wave of energy and enthusiasm into the Democratic Party but has also left some voters with a sense of uncertainty about Harris.
For anybody interested, Adam Kinzinger, who spoke tonight, is being interviewed on CNN right now.
Add in a relentless optimism. The convention would only just touch on Trump and the disaster he represents but would never dwell on it. They acknowledged he’s a threat and then moved on. The whole thing was upbeat and positive.
Harris herself is just smiling and beaming everywhere and it seems genuine and natural on her (she probably really is excited to be in this moment).
Someday I would really like to learn about the teams behind this. Biden’s struggled and then the Harris team just took off. How did that happen? Lotsa lessons to be learned there for the future.
FWIW here is Kinzinger’s speech: https://youtu.be/aIYSU5omhqM
LOL! You can hear the balloon poppers doing their thing from time to time in the background.
(Aside to @Whack-a-Mole : Thank you!)
I’m not really sure what ‘cadence’ means but see your example in some of the Kennedys’ speeches. Maybe it means uhm repeating a theme and building on it for emphasis. Examples: her mother’s lessons, Trump’s qualities and behaviors etc.
If you mean generally, like campaign teams, and not the 3-day DNC production, I think it’s the same campaign team. They all transferred to Harris.
And how we got seamlessly from Biden dropping to Harris nomination is Pelosi. Probably the greatest whip there is.
I suspect there was a lot more going on behind the scenes than we currently know, and maybe one day we’ll find out and maybe we won’t. However it happened, like you, I am confident that Nancy Pelosi figured big into it. And, I believe, so did Joe Biden.
However it happened, this I know for sure: They knew what they were doing!
If so, it was either a remarkable shift in how they do things from one to the next basically overnight (which is astonishing) or, the same team did the exact same thing and Harris just made it work.
I dunno which it is but will be interested someday to learn how it all went down internally in the campaign.
Did they? I mean, it seems so. The convention was a smash success. The Harris campaign is off to a roaring start.
But until Biden stepped down the democratic campaign was seriously struggling. Is the difference merely replacing Biden with Harris? Everything else is the same?
I dunno.
He was dynamite! He spoke longer and hit Trump harder than the other Republican speakers.
I loved it when - who was it? - Kerry Washington had everyone take a video on their phone right then and then send it out across all of their personal social media. You can’t buy that kind of publicity!
Thanks so much for the link to Kinzinger’s speech – that was powerful!
Man, Leon Panetta as the secret special guest. Didn’t see that one coming!
Many here may find this interesting (posted just a few minutes ago):
A Republican talking head on CNN just said that what was missing from Kamala Harris’s speech was humility.
I laughed, and changed the channel.
Repeating words and phrases, and also the rhythm of her speech. The part of the delivery that makes it sound like poetry or a chant at times.
Think of it in terms of chess. One piece off the board allows another much more powerful piece to move forward. That clears the space for yet another piece to move into a more dominating position. And suddenly, it’s a completely new game! That’s just how chess games are lost and won, and just how the walls of Mar-a-Lago get stained with ketchup from flying hamberders.
Trump is not ready for this, and he will never be ready for what awaits him.
If Team Harris doesn’t win this election after this, it’s because America truly is not capable of governing itself any more. It really is a crossroads of history. Kamala is up to it. i’m just not sure if enough Americans understand the crisis they’re facing, but this convention did everything possible to make it as clear as possible.
My impression:
This convention was brilliantly produced. I just thought back for a second on what a Biden convention would have been like.
Al Sharpton is an excellent speaker but bringing on the Central Park (exonerated) five touched me. I kind of liked how one guy was in jeans. It just reinforced the fact that these were just kids and not some unified group of wilding animals. Also love the fact that one went into politics.
I’m tone deaf so I kept wondering if the chicks were going a little off key but the harmonies were pretty.
Powerful segment about those affected by gun violence.
Adorable segment with what I think were her great nieces telling people how to pronounce her name.
P!nk sings beautifully but even more impressed that her daughter seems to have inherited all of her talent.
I like the fact that they did a whole military and foreign policy segment at the end. Love the veterans on stage.Impressed by the diversity of the group.
Mark Kelly is a better speaker than I thought.
Her sister is also a great speaker.
They should not have teased a surprise but in the end it didn’t matter.
I am going to tell on myself. I was rapt for all four nights but fell asleep during Harris’ speech. That is not to say it wasn’t good. I thought it was brilliantly written. She had to thread the needle that all powerful women have to between being strong and being likeable. She was brilliant. She was presidential. She drew a contrast between her and Trump and made a clear distinction between her fighting for the people and him fighting for himself.