On Thursday night, from the convention in Milwaukee, President Trump held the attention of the world.
Trump’s account of the attempt on his life one week ago was honest, poignant and unforgettable.
His successful efforts at unifying his party and his promise to unify the country reverberated far beyond the Milwaukee convention center.
Just a few hours earlier another contender for the Presidency was addressing another hall full of supporters.
With Joe Biden absent due to COVID, and almost certain to be about to be pushed out of the race by his own demoralized party, Kamala Harris is stepping things up a notch.
On Thursday afternoon she addressed supporters at Westover High School in North Carolina.
Never mind the world watching — it’s not clear that all the people at Westover High school were watching.
So how did she do?
In a word: terribly.
From the moment she bounded onto the stage Harris reminded people of why this November’s election is Trump’s for the losing.
First came the fake-hysteria of finding herself on a stage in front of all these people.
The almost-hyperventilating note Kamala hits when she wants to sound as if she is really excited about something.
She started by saying how great it was to be “with so many incredible leaders” in Fayetville.
Her smile was so broad you worried her face would run out of space.
She thanked the nation’s servicemen and their families.
“I know their families serve with equal dedication,” she said, “and I thank you also.”
This last part was done in the vocal register you might employ if addressing a nursery school.
Next she chose to patronize Donald Trump´s running-mate, JD Vance.
She described his personal life story (related the night before at the Republican convention) as “compelling.”
And good for JD Vance for living a life that has caught the interest of the great Kamala.
She went on to insist that the thing that was interesting about Vance was not what he had talked about but what he had not talked about.
She went on to say that it was interesting that Vance had not talked about “Project 2025.”
For anyone who does not get Democratic Party briefing notes, Project 2025 is a project of a conservative think-tank in Washington.
In recent weeks the Democrats in Congress and Senate and on the Presidential ticket seem to have decided that Project 2025 is to be this year’s bogey-man.
Kamala shook her head as she warned that it is “a 900-page blueprint.”
This alone elicited boos from some of the audience.
Presumably from people who just hate 900-page blueprints.
The Democrats currently seem to imagine that if they just say “Project 2025” everyone will recoil in fear.
In fact the project already joins a long list of conservative projects which are famous only on the political left.
The Democrats hope that saying the words will have the same effect as saying “Voldemort” to a child at Hogwarts.
Soon Kamala was saying “Here’s the thing.”
Which is always a prelude to her missing the point.
“If you claim to stand for unity you need to do more than just use the word.”
She said this with a huge, knowing smirk on her face.
It was the smirk of someone who seems to believe that they are in the process of dissing something to death.
In fact I doubt whether anyone beyond Kamala and her speech-writers think that line is a zinger.
And then came one of those strange accent-shifts.
Lots of people shift their speaking style to adapt to their audiences.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sometimes pretends she is black.
Hillary Clinton sometimes used to pretend she had been raised in the south.
And Joe Biden sometimes tries to pretend he hasn’t forgotten what he was saying.
But even in such company Kamala’s voice-shifts are bizarre.
After attacking Trump and Vance’s calls for unity she suddenly burst out with an attack of Southern: “We too busy watchin’ what you doin’ to hear what you’re sayin’,” she said.
Truly the cringe was great with this one.
For her part Kamala looked like she thought her southern-voice had gone down a storm in North Carolina.
If she does make it to the presidency in November then I will await with keen interest her first world tour.
Will she put on a French accent in France?
Or a Chinese accent in China?
I can’t wait to see what she does in Africa.
The speech built to what could have been a climax when she said that her Republican opponents would take away all the money and rights of the people in North Carolina.
By contrast she and Joe had stood up to “Big pharma, the big banks and big corporations.”
She might as well have added “And Bigfoot.”
What is more they had canceled debt, “including student loan debt.”
As a whoop went up she once again forgot where she was.
As if she was a southern preacher she suddenly said, “Testify if you have received it.”
A few lesbian dance majors in the audience promptly hollered with gratitude.
“Trump wants to roll back our progress,” she insisted.
Once again hitting that Democrat note so memorably hit by George Clooney.
Then “Check this out” she said, unpromisingly.
The Republican party has recently held fundraisers “with big oil lobbyists.”
“Ultimately,” she concluded, “in this election we each face a question. The question we face is what kind of country do we want to live in. Do we want to live in a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law? Or a country of chaos, fear and hate.”
Most of the crowd signaled that they were more in favor of freedom than hate and preferred compassion to chaos.
With the look of one who had done a job well Kamala grinned her way off the stage.
Well, as Kamala might say, “check this out.”
If the Democrats have any desire to win in November Kamala cannot be anywhere near the top of the ticket.
If the Republicans want to win then they should pray that is exactly where she is.
