Will there be a bounce? Takeaways from the Democratic convention
The 3 p's from Kamala Harris speech: patriotism, personality, priorities
Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic presidential nomination in a speech Thursday infused with patriotism, presenting herself, not her opponent, as embodying their nation's best traditions.
The speech broke little policy ground, hewing to the Democratic Party's traditional centre-left lane: supporting NATO allies, expanding social programs, abortion access, and a middle-ground approach to border policy, migration and the Middle East.
It went heavy, however, on personality.
Its key objective: strike a contrast in values with Donald Trump. She compared her own working-class upbringing as the daughter of immigrants with an opponent she characterized as an egomaniac friend to billionaires.
It was wrapped in red, white and blue, in a convention that made a conscious effort to claim patriotic bona fides for Democrats, who repeatedly cheered, "U-S-A!" It appeared clearly targeted at swing voters uneasy with Trump, her opponent, closing a convention that featured numerous Republican speakers.
"On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth," Harris said, "I accept your nomination for president of the United States of America."
She compared her own life path, as a prosecutor, to Trump's: "My entire career, I have only had one client, the people," she said. Trump is running, she added, to serve the only client he has ever had: "Himself."
Here are takeaways from the four-day affair that kicks off the general-election campaign, which will see Americans elect a president Nov. 5.
Enthusiasm surge
It was already clear entering the convention that the switch atop the ticket had had a galvanizing effect. And it's not just because of a bump in the polls. There's a staggering fundraising surge: Harris raked in more donations in her first 10 days as a candidate than Joe Biden did in 15 months.
One convention-goer, Letitia Flowers, said she wasn't even going to vote for Biden, frustrated over his Gaza policy. Now? "I'm amped up," she told CBC News.
She plans to knock on doors for Harris — and is willing to give her time to define her own Mideast policy. Leaving the convention Thursday, Deirdre Harper of Chicago said: "I am optimistically excited. She brings joy."
After speeches by Barack and Michelle Obama on Tuesday night, one young man exiting the venue was shouting excitedly into his phone that other young people must get involved. That's what a party wants out of a convention.
Trump — one part mockery, one part outrage
Yes, Democrats still describe Trump as a threat to democracy, as Biden habitually did. There were searing videos about the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The campaign, however, is now targeting him more often by prosaic means: mockery. To tease him, make him seem small, petty, self-obsessed. It was a recurring theme.
From Barack Obama ridiculing his obsession with crowd sizes, while making mischievous hand gestures alluding to Trump's manhood; to Bill Clinton describing empathy as a key presidential quality, and calling the election a choice between "We, the people," and "Me, myself and I." Don't count the lies in a Trump speech, Clinton said: "Count the I's."
The audience at the convention's final night also heard from, and about, people victimized by Trump.
There were young Black men he falsely accused of a brutal 1989 rape, urged their execution, then never apologized. There was a fraud settlement involving Trump University. "Donald Trump ripped off his biggest fans," said Tristian Snell, a New York prosecutor on the Trump University case. "Kamala Harris fought scammers like him."
Harris tried pulling these themes together in her acceptance speech. "In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man," she said. "But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious."
A personal intro to Harris
As a late entrant into this race, Harris isn't as well-known as some past presidential candidates. Her campaign worked to fill in the blanks of her bio — the parts they hope will stick with voters.
The convention heard about her mom, an Indian-American cancer researcher; her close relationship with her stepchildren; and from friends and relatives who described her as kind, smart, and tough.
While attending high school in Montreal, she learned a friend was being abused by her stepfather and invited her to live with her family. Harris cites this as an impetus for becoming a prosecutor.
Of note: She airbrushed her life outside the U.S. from the speech. Harris referred to having lived in a working-class area of California, Wisconsin, Illinois, and, "wherever our parents' jobs took us," in a glancing reference to those six years in Montreal.
As California's attorney general, she played hardball with big banks and scored a much higher-than-planned payout for victims of a foreclosure scam.
Her husband, Doug Emhoff, described a first nervous phone call to her when a mutual acquaintance set them up. He left an awkward voicemail and Harris saved it. "She makes me listen to it on every anniversary," Emhoff said.
By coincidence, Thursday, the night she accepted the nomination, was their 10th anniversary.
Policy? It's a work in progress
The goal here was a feel-good election rally, not a policy forum to discuss ideal marginal tax rates. Harris has released only bits of her platform. She promises more in the coming weeks.
Her program so far focuses on lowering living costs — in housing, groceries, and medicine. She also wants to raise taxes for companies and the wealthy.
The details remain skimpy. She'll be pressed for details on Sept. 10, when she debates Trump.
She'll have a chance to press him for clarity, because he's been vague as well — like, for example how he would implement his plan for a 10 per cent global minimum tariff. His platform also calls for military strikes against drug cartels and a mass-deportation of undocumented migrants, with few specifics.
Chant for Israeli hostages; no stage time for Palestinians
One of the more moving moments involved the parents Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli hostage kidnapped along with around 250 others when Hamas militants attacked Israel last Oct. 7.
His mother began weeping as the crowd began chanting, "Bring them home," referring to the 105 hostages still in Gaza. She later revealed that she was surprised, and overwhelmed, by the reaction.
The party is deeply divided over Palestinian-Israeli issues. Just a day before, protesters disrupted a meeting of Orthodox Jews at the convention.
A refusal to allow any pro-Palestinian speeches prompted protests: some delegates, including members of Congress, staged a sit-in. A Muslim women's group for Harris announced it was disbanding.
A group of protest delegates was given space for a first-ever convention gathering on Palestinian issues, where they discussed the human catastrophe in Gaza. But they failed in repeated efforts to get speaking time for Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian American member of the Georgia legislature who wrote a speech urging a ceasefire.
"I've had some pretty crushing days, but to be honest today took the cake," she tweeted Wednesday, saying she couldn't understand why the convention made time for several Republican speakers but not her.
These delegates want a ceasefire, an arms embargo on Israel, and they're demanding actions from Harris. When it comes to the Middle East, this party's bitter divisions haven't disappeared.
In her speech, Harris made clear she would not abandon Israel, promising to always help it defend itself. In the next breath, she added that Palestinians deserve dignity, security and self-determination.
She and President Joe Biden, she said, are working for a ceasefire deal that achieves all those things.
Still, this wasn't 1968
The potential for history repeating itself was obvious. The last time a sitting president — Lyndon Johnson — cancelled a re-election campaign, he was also replaced by his vice-president, Hubert Humphrey. The convention was also in Chicago, and the party was also divided over a foreign war.
In the streets, protesters were beaten by police; in the hall there was chaos. The convention was a disaster, and the party was electorally doomed.
"[This was] nothing like the protests in '68," said Peter Hancon, 81, a delegate who was in Chicago for both conventions. He'd joined the National Guard to avoid being drafted to Vietnam, and his unit was in Chicago back then.
This time, he said, there's a progressive mayor who supports the protesters; the party is more united; and the war in question involves fewer Americans directly.
Looking for a bounce
This election remains a tossup. Usually, conventions give parties a bump in the polls of several percentage points. Democrats will desperately be looking for one. Because the absence of a bounce would be a troubling sign.
"This is going to be so close," Harris campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon said during a forum at the convention, hosted by Politico and CNN. "It is a margin of error race."
She noted that Trump continues to have better poll numbers than in his past two elections — when he won in 2016, and almost won in 2020. An early good sign for Democrats is their convention's TV viewership ratings were clearly higher than Republicans' last month.
The bad news? They were still lower than past conventions, and only a small fraction of Americans watched on TV. Convention clips will continue to run in social media.
Meanwhile, attention will turn to Robert F. Kennedy on Friday, amid speculation the third-party candidate will exit the race.
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With files from Idil Mussa and Jenna Benchetrit