Little more than a month ago, what the Democratic party has achieved in Chicago this week would have seemed unthinkable. Yet, in a few short weeks, the party has dumped a stumbling Joe Biden as its nominee, seamlessly installed Kamala Harris as his unchallenged replacement, acclaimed Tim Walz as her running mate, reinvigorated its campaign and its finances, and made itself competitive against Donald Trump again. If that was not enough, Ms Harris’s acceptance speech on Thursday topped off a convention week that at times brimmed with commitment and enthusiasm.
It all adds up to a textbook political transformation. It has had many in the party pinching themselves in disbelief. Though they all left it dangerously late, those who made this happen deserve the gratitude of millions, and not just in the US. The campaign has now achieved as powerful a liftoff as could have been hoped in the circumstances. Yet this is only the start. There is still an election to win, an election that will shape America and the world. The feelgood mood in Chicago will turn to ashes if Mr Trump is elected.
Ms Harris had two particular tasks this week. The easier one, as it has turned out, was to unite the party and send it out into the campaign in an energised and winning mood. This was never really in doubt during the week, although it came at the price of a ruthless marginalisation of the party’s most pro‑Palestinian supporters. The harder task was for the vice‑president to use her primetime speech to demonstrate a personal evolution into someone whom Americans can see and hear as a potential president and commander in chief.
She succeeded in this too, and with something to spare. There were obvious nerves at times, a useful reminder of the vertiginous remaking of her life that has taken place so suddenly, and which may make her the most powerful woman on the planet in a few months’ time. Nevertheless, by opting for seriousness, rather than rhetoric or knockabout, Ms Harris showed that she measures up to what matters most about the presidency. It also established one of many contrasts with Mr Trump – “an unserious man”, she called him.
She described herself as realistic and practical, and she made a practical speech, not a dazzler. She focused on working- and middle-class voters, but without extolling trade unions, as Mr Biden would have done. She ticked boxes – the cost of living, housing, foreign policy (including Palestinian statehood) among them – rather than trying to touch the oratorical stars. Though she reflected on her own life story and her “unlikely journeys”, Ms Harris did not major on issues of identity. In its most powerful section the speech focused on the Republican threat to women’s reproductive rights. But the overriding tone was inclusive and unifying, another dramatic contrast with Mr Trump.
Now, though, the Democrats must put the balloons and the Kamala merchandise aside, and kick on. Ms Harris must kick on too. This is her party now, not Mr Biden’s, the Obamas’ or the Clintons’. There has been an uptick in the polls, and the convention may generate another. The Democrats have had an often spectacular week. But there are another 10 weeks in the campaign to go, they face a brutal, unprincipled foe, and things could get tougher. So far, so good. But this is a very tight presidential contest indeed, and it is nowhere near over yet.
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