Harris Delivers Promise of 'Normal Competence'

Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination Thursday night and delivered a speech to the Democratic National Convention that was seen as the most important of her political career. "Our nation with this election has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past," Harris said, per the AP. "A chance to chart a new way forward. Not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans." Some reactions:

• "A promise of normal competence." Instead of a "long-awaited robust policy agenda" or a claim to be a "successor to a movement of transformational change," Harris simply delivered a "promise of normal competence," Aaron Blake writes at the Washington Post. She promised to be "a president who leads and listens, who is realistic, practical, and has common sense and always fights for the American people." In case the contrast with Trump wasn't clear enough, Blake writes she "ultimately began invoking" him by name, calling him an "unserious man," but warning that the consequences of putting him back in the White House would be "extremely serious."

• "Squarely within the American mainstream." "What Harris did," Jeff Greenfield writes at Politico, "was to tell her story and make clear she's squarely within the American mainstream." "If you were looking for a litany of policies, you will have to look elsewhere," Greenfield writes. "But as a speech whose goal was to connect with the broad impulses of the electorate, with repeated avowals of American greatness, and to present the nominee as a no-nonsense, tough-minded leader who holds the same values as most Americans, it accomplished its purpose."
• A "workmanlike political speech." Molly Ball at the Wall Street Journal calls it a "bracingly normal, workmanlike political speech, one intended to communicate not shattering emotion but earthly gravitas." "There were few moments of poetry, just a 59-year-old woman telling a curious nation where she came from and what she hopes to achieve: simple, relatable, without celebrity or glitz," writes Ball. She describes the speech as the "capstone to a giddy week," with Democrats "intoxicated by the prospect of victory that suddenly seemed newly possible."
• An "implicit understanding." Lisa Lerer and Erica L. Green at the New York Times write that Harris "asked Americans to see her as the embodiment of the country's traditional values, rather than a rejection of them." They write that Harris never mentioned her race or gender, but she "offered an implicit understanding that some Americans may be uncomfortable with being led by a Black woman." They note that minutes after Harris left the stage, Trump called Fox News to "reject the idea that Ms. Harris was winning over female, Hispanic, and Black voters, as polling suggests."

(More Kamala Harris 2024 stories.)