Is That—Is That—Optimism We Feel?
Plus: The former pundit-in-chief works the phones.
What a week, huh? Thanks for staying with us through it. Happy Friday.
She Nailed It
—William Kristol
Success.
Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech last night was a success. It capped a Democratic convention that was a success. That convention, in turn, capped Harris’s first month as a candidate, which was a success.
All that success was by no means inevitable.
One really has to tip one’s hat to the vice president and her campaign, and say: Not bad. Not bad at all. Pretty damn impressive, in fact.
Of course past performance is no guarantee of future results. Still, it does seem that a certain amount of optimism—guarded and hard-headed optimism—is warranted. We now have a reasonable likelihood of defeating Donald Trump, and electing as our next president a vigorous and centrist leader of a healthy and mainstream political party.
The convention has sought, for the most part, to present such a party. And last night’s speech presented such a leader.
The speech began with a very effective biographical section. Harris’s mother, Shyamala Harris, was central to her narrative. The tribute to her mother ran like a red thread through this part of the speech, and indeed the speech as a whole, allowing Harris to humanize herself while deftly avoiding the grandiosity and pomposity that often mar such efforts.
Having introduced herself to the nation, Harris formally accepted the nomination of her party. But it was a remarkably nonpartisan acceptance of a party’s nomination:
And, so, on behalf of the people, on behalf of every American, regardless of party, race, gender or the language your grandmother speaks. On behalf of my mother, and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey. On behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with—people who work hard, chase their dreams and look out for one another. On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America.
The tone of that paragraph laid the groundwork for the rest of the speech. Harris spoke more as an American than as a Democrat; as a patriot, not a partisan; and as someone grateful not aggrieved, future-oriented but not at all hostile to our past.
And so Harris continued:
And let me say, I know there are people of various political views watching tonight. And I want you to know, I promise to be a president for all Americans. You can always trust me to put country above party and self. To hold sacred America’s fundamental principles, from the rule of law, to free and fair elections, to the peaceful transfer of power.
The invocation of America’s fundamental principles, in turn, laid the predicate for a criticism of Trump as threatening them:
In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.
And the critique of Trump led into the last half or so of the speech, which consisted of a pitch for more-or-less centrist domestic policies— including the bipartisan border bill that Trump torpedoed—and a robust endorsement of America's necessary and distinctive role in the world.
Overall, the vision was kind of Bill Clinton (with a touch of Jack Kemp) at home, and John McCain abroad, with a hefty dose of John F. Kennedy-Ronald Reagan patriotism throughout. Harris even offered a striking endorsement of American exceptionalism:
I see an America where we hold fast to the fearless belief that built our nation and inspired the world . . . We are the heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world.
It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done, guided by optimism and faith, to fight for this country we love, to fight for the ideals we cherish and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth: the privilege and pride of being an American.
With this speech, and with this convention as a whole, we have come a long way—the Democratic party has come a long way—from the identity and grievance politics of the left. Harris and Tim Walz have laid the predicate for a center-oriented, optimistic, and patriotic campaign. Consider the final tally. The terms America, American, Americans were uttered 34 times; country or nation, 20 times; freedom, 12 times; opportunity, 6 times; Democrats or Democratic party, 0 times.
It won’t be smooth sailing ahead. Trump and his campaign will go after them. And the left won’t simply be quiet. So there will be challenges aplenty.
Still, the prospects for the next two months seem pretty good to me.
But enough of all this unaccustomed good cheer. We need to start worrying about the debate. It’s only two-and-a-half weeks away.
Don’t look now, but Election Day is just around the corner. We hope you’ll spend the sprint to the finish with us—we’ll be here every step of the way.
Step Away From The Phone, Mr. Ex-President!
—Andrew Egger
When things are going well and he’s feeling good, Donald Trump can sometimes be cajoled by his team into something resembling discipline. When things are going badly, he’s much more prone to publicly venting some spleen.
So perhaps the greatest measure of the effectiveness of Kamala Harris’s convention speech was the truly unhinged content bender it sent Trump spiraling into last night.
It started on Truth Social, where Trump informed us he had “assembled a small group of people, GREAT PATRIOTS ALL,” to watch Harris’s “puff piece.”
At first, Trump was jocular: “A lot of talk about childhood,” he wrote as Harris told her personal history, “we’ve got to get to the Border, Inflation, and Crime!”
Soon, though, the wheels were coming off. “These Prosecutions were all started by her and Biden against her Political Opponent, ME!” Trump fumed as Harris turned to his legal troubles. “IS SHE TALKING ABOUT ME?”
A random sampling of what followed:
“LYING AGAIN ABOUT PROJECT 2025, WHICH SHE KNOWS, AND SO DO ALL DEMOCRATS, THAT I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH!”
“She just called to give all Illegals CITIZENSHIP, SAY GOODBYE TO THE U.S.A.! SHE IS A RADICAL MARXIST!”
“Walz was an ASSISTANT Coach, not a COACH.”
“SHE HAS LED US INTO FAILING NATION STATUS!”
“WHERE’S HUNTER?”
But posting, it turned out, wasn’t enough to soothe Trump’s jangled nerves. After the speech, he dialed into Fox News for still more free-associative complaining, bowling right over Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum’s attempts to get in specific questions, seemingly pressing phone buttons with his face as he talked. They eventually had to cut him off mid-sentence to wrap up their show.
Not to worry, though: When they pull the plug on you on Fox, there’s always Newsmax. So Trump picked up the phone again. “I will tell you, I just watched it,” he told Greg Kelly and Mercedes Schlapp a few moments later. “She didn’t talk about many things, like interest rates, China, fracking anywhere, let alone Pennsylvania, crime, poverty, trade deficits, child trafficking, woman trafficking, drugs, the border—she didn’t talk about the most important things.”
Did he get the bile out of his system? Trump’s rallying in Arizona this afternoon; I guess we’ll find out then.
Quick Hits
COUNTRY OVER PARTY: We’re biased, but we thought it was very canny of the DNC to give such a high-profile speaking spot last night to former congressman (and Bulwark contributor!) Adam Kinzinger, whose takedown of Donald Trump was among the week’s most vicious: “Donald Trump is a weak man pretending to be strong. He is a small man pretending to be big. He is a faithless man pretending to be righteous. He’s a perpetrator who can’t stop playing the victim.”
“Whatever policies we disagree on,” Kinzinger said of Kamala Harris, “pale in comparison with those fundamental matters of principle, of decency, and of fidelity to this nation.”
That’s the finely curated Kinzinger material. If you want the raw, uncut stuff (and we know you do) check it out here.
NO SLAM DUNK: Is some of the shine coming off Ron DeSantis in the Sunshine State? As NBC News noted yesterday, DeSantis’s endorsement didn’t carry local candidates as far in Florida’s primary elections this week as they have in years past. Two years ago, the vast majority of DeSantis-backed school board candidates across Florida won their races. This time around, however, nearly half of DeSantis’s endorsed school board candidates failed to win their primaries.
An interesting quote a DeSantis-supporting Florida operative gave NBC: “I think it’s pretty clear that we are moving back toward a scenario where candidates once again matter. In 2018 a Trump endorsement was infallible. In 2022, DeSantis could have handpicked anyone in Florida he wanted. In 2024, you need more than an endorsement to win.”
CRACKS IN THE FOUNDATION: Is the economy slowing more quickly than economists had thought? The Wall Street Journal reports on the federal government’s bearish revision of the last fiscal year’s job statistics:
On Wednesday, the Labor Department said monthly payroll figures overstated job growth by roughly 818,000 in the 12 months that ended in March. That suggests employers added about 174,000 jobs per month during that period, down from the previously reported pace of about 242,000 jobs—a downward revision of about 28 percent.
Federal Reserve officials are paying close attention to the signs of erosion as they weigh when and how much to begin lowering interest rates. In a speech in Alaska on Tuesday, Michelle W. Bowman, a Fed governor, highlighted “risks that the labor market has not been as strong as the payroll data have been indicating,” although she also said the increase in the unemployment rate could be overstating the extent of the slowdown.
Cheap Shots
Look, it’s not a crime to be awkward. But we’re not above enjoying the fascinating, schadenfreudig experience of watching JD Vance try to order a donut:
The last night of the convention was so damned impressive, words really can't do it justice. I wonder how quickly everyone is going to realize what the Democrats did so effectively and powerfully - they co-opted the language, messaging, and power of pre-Trump conservatism. It was fruit ripe for the taking, and the people who orchestrated this triumph clearly thought, heck, why not take it? I was inspired this week to sign up as a volunteer for the Democratic candidate in my California House swing district. His politics are way left of mine, but I couldn't possibly care less. I'm all in on this movement. Kudos to the Democratic Party for pulling off a masterful, compelling, and persuasive convention and message to the American people. I'm looking forward to my first canvassing outing this weekend.
Kamala's speech last night was one of the very best acceptance speeches I've heard in my lifetime. As close to flawless as one could ever hope for. I will be gob-smacked dumb-founded if she doesn't get a significant post-convention bump in the polls.
Well done, Democrats!
WOW!