The Tribune

By CHARLIE HARPER

In the aftermath of last week’s dazzling Democratic National Convention in Chicago, party publicists are still flooding reporters’ inboxes with praise from the print media all over the US. It would be easy to succumb to the effusive reporting of everything from inspiring speeches to the logistical success of making every slide and video appear on the United Center jumbo scoreboard at exactly the right time.

After all, there are a lot of Americans who are frightened at the possibility that Donald Trump will somehow still be returned to office, in spite of everything he has said and done for the past decade. And for them, the exultation of no longer having to trudge to the polls to vote for an obviously enfeebled Joe Biden is intoxicating indeed.

Looking back at it, the DNC was triumphant in several respects. Most importantly, it exhibited on national television the unity of the Democratic Party behind its nominee Kamala Harris. And at the same time, the DNC was able to showcase Harris at her best, delivering trademark smiles, appropriate zingers in Trump’s direction, and drawing on her prosecutor’s background to imply her toughness on matters such as national defense, border security and crime fighting.

Her vice-presidential choice, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, was who he is. And that should be a virtue on the campaign trail, since this is a man who seems incapable of the prevarication and artifice that often dominates American political life. He speaks plainly and unambiguously. It’s still to be determined how effective he will be in tough interviews and in his October 1 debate with JD Vance, but for now, he seems to be a plus.

Security was, to put it bluntly, overwhelming. And it was meant to be. Convention events were fenced off for blocks in every direction, especially around the main venue at the United Center. Chicago police were supplemented by officers from other departments; the US Secret Service was ubiquitous, and private security was evident in most places.

And it worked. There was press coverage of the protests by groups opposed to Israel’s continued devastation in Gaza, and indeed those groups were evident at the DNC. But the event attracted hundreds of other loud-voiced, sign-carrying protesters appearing on both sides of the abortion issue; on the need to defend Taiwan and free Tibet; on the urgency of impeaching various Supreme Court justices, and on most any other subject of current news value.

Things moved along relatively smoothly nonetheless. Inside the arena and at other venues, delegates gathered as at any other national convention, comparing notes, building personal networks and trying to attract the interest of those presumed to be in the inner or near-inner circle of the nominees.

Perhaps most notably in press coverage at the convention and in its now week-long aftermath, there was hardly a murmur about Harris’s gender. Inside the arena, as states and speakers lauded her, there were frequent references to the fact she would be the first female president, but that was only part of a list of “firsts” for her.

It did seem that now in America, 105 years after women were allowed to vote by means of the passage of an amendment to the US constitution, the notion of a female chief executive in the White House may be finally normalised.

Probably the most significant development of the DNC and in Harris’s campaign so far is that she has – implausibly, considering that she has served as second-in-command for the past four years – emerged as a candidate of change.

As one columnist pointed out, “she doesn’t represent a change in policy or party, but she represents the promise of a new beginning. She has also turned Donald J Trump into a something like a candidate of the status quo, or even the past — not the policy status quo, but the candidate of a contentious and exhausting decade of American political life”.

Now this week, the campaigns resume in earnest, with a highly predictable focus on Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It’s very informative to note where Trump and Harris choose to campaign in these critical states. Harris will likely concentrate on large urban areas where her natural constituencies lie. Trump, by contrast, may well visit places like Montoursville, Pennsylvania; Adrian, Michigan, and Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

The first is in rural, mountainous northern Pennsylvania. The second lies in the heart of Michigan’s agricultural center. And the third is in upstate Wisconsin, far from the bright lights of Milwaukee and Madison. Trump will focus on turning out his base in areas where research says it is most dense – so long as there’s an airport there big enough to land his signature plane.

There has been a lot of speculation about the continuing effort by Republican operatives to identify negative images of or connections with Harris that could be used to damage her in the election. They’ll find some.

Meantime, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives is still pushing articles of impeachment against Joe Biden. It seems preposterous that anyone would take this seriously just months before Biden leaves office, but Trump’s second impeachment was launched after the January 6, 2021 riotous assault on the US capitol when he had but days remaining in his term.

Hunter Biden continues to be a fringe news item. This appears similarly counterintuitive, given that it is relevant only in connection with his father’s bid for reelection, but if Republicans can somehow tie Hunter to Harris, watch out.

Then there’s the matter of Robert F Kennedy, Jr. He is the son and namesake of the late Attorney General and US senator and presidential candidate who was assassinated on the campaign trail in Los Angeles in June 1968, just two months after Dr Martin Luther King Jr was shot in Memphis.

Kennedy Jr is important because of his father and the family’s formidable political legacy. He has achieved some acclaim as an environmental lawyer, but to many observers, he remains a kind of enigmatic gadfly. Because of his name and his status as an alternative choice for voters to either Trump nor Biden, Kennedy nevertheless attracted media and political attention.

There was also a consensus that he was more likely to siphon off votes from Trump than from Biden/Harris, so when he closed down his candidacy last week, it was marginally newsworthy. At the same time, he endorsed Trump, and declared his strong opposition to the Democratic ticket and platform.

Will it matter? Probably not. Will Hunter Biden matter anymore? Probably not. Will an attempt to impeach Joe Biden matter anymore? Probably not. But it seems pretty certain that several things will emerge or be revealed that either do matter or can be repackaged by Republican Party operatives to seem like they matter. And there is really no evidence at this point indicating how skillfully Harris and Walz will deflect what comes their way.

Here are some final convention notes: Nancy Pelosi, reportedly the person whose move away from Biden precipitated his decision to abandon his presidential race, seems frail up close. Now 84, she is America’s most consequential female politician. But it looks like her time is rapidly coming to a close.

Admittedly exhausted from a long week of barnstorming the convention, Pelosi looked more than tired. She looked old, and not powerful, as she spoke to a small group of assembled reporters and responded to questions with well-rehearsed generalities.

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts certainly did not dress up elegantly for her appearance on stage, but she evoked a thunderous round of applause and cheering when she gave her remarks. Those included the quip that “I wouldn’t trust Trump and Vance to move my couch.”

The Democrats did well. Will the magic last? 

Donald Trump wouldn’t say whether he has spoken with Robert F Kennedy, Jr., in recent days, but made clear he would welcome an endorsement from the independent candidate.

“If he endorsed me, I would be honoured by it — I would be very honoured by it,” Trump said during an early morning interview on “Fox & Friends” otherwise devoted to attacking Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

Trump praised Kennedy during the Fox interview, quite a change from earlier this year when he denounced the independent candidate as a “Radical Left Liberal” whose candidacy would hurt him and help the Democrats.