CHICAGO – The first three nights of the Democratic National Convention have been a study in skillful political choreography, replete with star power, showmanship, creative twists and few glitches other than running long. What will matter most, however, is the impression Vice President Kamala Harris leaves with voters when she delivers her acceptance speech Thursday night.
Nothing counts quite as much at political conventions as what the nominee says in the spotlight. Former president Donald Trump managed to undermine three good nights at his convention in Milwaukee with a rambling, unfocused 90-minute speech that ran counter to efforts by others to remake his image in the eyes of voters. His candidacy hasn’t been the same since then.
As effective as Harris has been over the month since President Joe Biden abruptly ended his reelection campaign, Thursday’s speech provides her with the most significant opportunity yet to move voters, particularly those on the fence, in her direction. It will probably be the last time she will command such attention solely for herself.
Democrats have done all they can this week to set up Harris for success. In a matter of weeks, they have torn up their original script that would have been about boosting Biden and a principal focus on the issue of democracy — and rewritten it to make the convention all about the vice president and the themes of freedom and the future.
But if the Republican National Convention was about the adulation focused on Trump by adoring delegates, Chicago this week has been more the story of a political party that has undergone a massive exhale with Biden no longer the nominee — and found new energy in their younger and more vibrant standard-bearer.
Democrats’ hopes now rest on Harris’s shoulders, and while the convention is focused on her, it also has shown a collective spirit suggesting that the party was not as moribund as it might have seemed when led by Biden. If the energy and enthusiasm in Milwaukee was all about Trump, the sentiment in the United Center this week has been just as much about revived hope as it has been about one person.
The enthusiasm generated for speakers as varied as Hillary Clinton and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), from the most experienced leaders to the stars of Harris’s generation or younger, underscored not only the party’s newfound unity but also the roles that a diverse many play in its fortunes.
Wednesday was another night of star power, with former president Bill Clinton, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and even, yes, Oprah Winfrey, the Chicago figure whose appeal has transcended the political divides. Winfrey’s endorsement of Barack Obama helped lift his candidacy in 2008, and her impassioned appearance here could boost Harris with suburban women.
The capstone of the third night was the energetic and relatable speech by Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a new face on the political scene. He leaned into his past profession as a teacher and football coach to attack Trump and running mate Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) over the conservative policy blueprint known as Project 2025 that has been prepared by their allies.
Walz said Trump and Vance have spent ‘a lot of time pretending they know nothing about this. But look, I coached high school football long enough to know — and trust me on this — when somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re going to use it.”
The sequence this week has been well-plotted. There was Monday night’s passing of the torch by Biden, whose decision to end his candidacy and endorse Harris turned what could have been a downbeat, moribund convention into an expression of enthusiasm and growing confidence about an election that a month ago appeared to have slipped away.
Then there was the combined power Tuesday night of former president Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle. No one doubted their ability to stand and deliver, but they may have exceeded expectations, with Michelle eclipsing her husband. The former president clearly knew what he was in for. “I am the only person stupid enough to speak after Michelle Obama,” he joked as he stepped to the microphone.
Michelle Obama delivered a cutting takedown of Trump and an affirmation of Harris. Her husband took his own potshots at Trump and vouched for Harris’s capacity to serve as president. Both crucially said they believed she has qualities that could conceivably lift the country out of the political morass, beginning to turn the page on the toxicity that has marked the eight years since Obama left office. “Yes, she can,” he said, reprising the “Yes, we can!” chant from his 2008 campaign.
In the early days of Trump the politician, Democrats prided themselves as resisting playing down to his level. “When they go low, we go high,” Michelle Obama famously said at the 2016 convention, when few Democrats thought Trump would ever reach the White House. After all that has happened since then, from Trump’s false claim of a stolen election to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol to the demeaning rhetoric that continues to define his appearances, that’s now old thinking.
The speakers this week have repeated previous assertions that Trump is a threat to democracy. But what is different now is the degree to which they all have sought to belittle him, to diminish him, to paint him as small and petty and so self-absorbed that he cares about nothing but himself. They have decided to fight fire with fire.
“We know all the old tricks and tropes that are designed to distract us from what actually matters,” Winfrey said in an obvious reference to Trump. “But we are beyond ridiculous tweets and lies and foolery. These are complicated times, people, and they require adult conversation.”
Michelle Obama was the most direct when she described Trump as benefiting from “the affirmative action of generational wealth,” and then put the United Center audience into a frenzy of applause and laughter when she said, “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs?’” — a reference to Trump demeaning immigrants for taking “Black jobs” in his July debate with Biden.
Among other disparagements, Barack Obama leveled Trump with a hand gesture while mocking him for his obsession with crowd sizes.
To underscore that she can now go toe-to-toe with Trump in staging big and enthusiastic rallies, Harris and Walz on Tuesday night filled the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, where Republicans staged their convention, and piped in the rally to the jam-packed United Center.
The issue of democracy wasn’t absent this week. Wednesday’s program included a video of the attack on the Capitol, scenes of chaos and mayhem and violence, along with clips of Trump exhorting his followers to stand strong and march on the symbol of democracy. The video brought back the reality of one of the country’s darkest days in history.
“Never before had a president of the United States so brazenly assaulted the bedrock of democracy, so gleefully embraced political violence, so willfully betrayed his oath of office,” Pelosi said. “Let us not forget who assaulted democracy on January 6th. He did. But let us not forget who saved democracy that day. We did.”
The issue also brought to the stage the former Republican lieutenant governor of Georgia, Geoff Duncan, who denounced Trump and called on voters to embrace the Democratic nominee. “If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, you’re not a Democrat,” he said. “You’re a patriot.” At that point, the convention audience erupted in chants of “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”
It’s been said that the Harris campaign exudes the politics of joy, as Winfrey said in ending her speech, and there has been much such feeling inside the convention hall this week. But there were reminders from more than a few speakers that no matter how much the polls have shifted in Harris’s direction, Democrats still face a difficult fight ahead.
Harris’s validators have stressed that she represents the future to Trump’s past, that she has a smile and a laugh that, whatever Trump may say, sent a jolt of energy through her audiences. They have extolled her for thinking of others when Trump thinks only of himself. And they have spoken about her toughness and determination.
On Thursday night, Harris will have the opportunity to show all Americans who she is, what she believes and why she should be president. The setup has gone smoothly, and now it falls on her to finish the job.
