Vice President Kamala Harris smoothly took over Joe Biden’s ship with ‘joy and hope’
I’ve been in and around political campaigns for 50 years, and I’m impressed by Kamala Harris’ operation.
She smoothly took over the ship when President Joe Biden stepped aside. She united our fractious party. She picked an all-star running mate in Coach Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor. She put together a strong campaign team. She’s a far better candidate than she was in 2020, and she’s showing how much she’s grown and learned as vice president.
Above all, she looks like she’s having fun.
'Magnificent Seven': North Carolina now part of swing states in the presidential race
Harris energy > Trump energy at presidential rallies
The enthusiasm at Harris-Walz rallies is as telling this year as the excitement was at Trump’s rallies in 2016. That energy can’t be manufactured. You’ve got it or you don’t.
And Trump doesn’t. His rallies are noticeably smaller; his campaign pays people to come. He has lost his edge and energy level. His speeches ramble and reel from nonsense to non-sequitur. He’s grim and angry. His audiences melt away.
Harris’ communications team does an epic job trolling Trump. Convention signs in Chicago yesterday read: “Trump-Vance: Weird as Hell” and “Harris-Walz: Joy and Hope.”
VP Harris has surprised me. She has momentum.
In Raleigh last Friday, Harris introduced a new slogan, “A New Way Forward,” and delivered a solid and substantive speech on the economy and cost of living. Read the transcript here.
Pearce: Wrong again, Mr. Robinson: Republican NC governor candidate misleads on education spending
She proposed action: help for first-time homeowners, tax credits for families, lower prescription-drug costs, relief from medical debt and a crackdown on price-gouging.
She said what Democrats have long needed to say: Corporate greed and supply-chain disruptions from the pandemic, which Trump did nothing to fix, caused inflation.
I must confess: Harris has surprised me. I stood behind Biden because I feared she wasn’t ready to take on Trump.
She was ready, and now she has momentum.
Polls shifting toward Harris, away from Trump
Momentum is a mysterious thing in campaigns. You can’t always figure out where it comes from or where it goes. But you know when you have it, and when you don’t. You can feel it inside the campaign. Everything clicks, or nothing does.
Harris is clicking. Polls show it. The shifts of 4, 5 and 6 points in her direction are huge in today’s polarized, all-but-frozen politics.
After the Democrats' strong convention this week, they’ll go into the last 11 weeks leading the race.
She, Walz, her campaign and the party look ready for that last, long sprint.
Gary Pearce was a reporter and editor at The News & Observer, a political consultant, and an adviser to Gov. Jim Hunt (1976-1984 and 1992-2000). He blogs about politics and public policy at "Talking About Politics."
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Harris’ momentum at DNC grows with her joy, hope. Trump is grim, angry