The New York Times’ deputy opinion editor, Patrick Healy, has a mixed reaction to the 2024 race and Kamala Harris. On the one hand, he’s very open about Donald Trump not being able to exploit the July 13 assassination attempt and coming back to Earth on the final night of the Republican National Convention. That’s his opinion. Likewise, he’s also aware that Kamala can’t ride the ‘joy’ wave to victory. Like how Obama couldn’t win on ‘hope and change’ alone, Healy adds that Harris is going to have to venture out of her comfort zone to win:
Joy” is the new “fetch” from “Mean Girls”: Democrats are bent on making the word happen.
But joy is not a political strategy. And God is not a political strategy. The good news for Democrats is that Harris seems to understand this. Americans want her to lower their household costs and make it easier to find housing. Being our joyful Momala is not going to win the election.
Harris gave a good speech Thursday. Her love for America was overflowing — a child of immigrants’ love, as the Democratic strategist Howard Wolfson put it to me. Republicans like to tag Democrats as down on America and its history, but it was interesting that when Harris radiated pride, it was not pride as a Black woman or pride as a glass-ceiling breaker; it was pride as an American. She was open and relatable and repeatedly put voters first. Meanwhile, Trump keeps playing God, calling in to Fox News as if entitled to airtime and making pronouncements about Harris from on high before being cut off.
This is a winnable race for Harris, but she hasn’t won it yet. Far from it. She hasn’t been tested — really tested — since Biden stepped aside. She hasn’t given a single interview or news conference to face hard questions. But it’s really the debates that will be her test. Her advisers think she might get away with doing just one against Trump. I think they underestimate her challenge in earning voters’ trust. She needs to start proving herself outside her comfort zone.
Recommended
It's a fake display of patriotism. We’ve all seen the polls of how liberals view America and whether they’re proud of this country: they’re decidedly not. The American flags, the ‘USA’ chants—that’s our thing. The Democrats' chants are either about killing cops or promoting the ‘intifada,’ aka the wholesale killing of Jews. But the piece is right that Harris will have to debate well, defend her record, and sell herself as a competent leader—all of which she has failed miserably in her three years as vice president.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member