At the final session of the 2024 Democratic National Convention Kamala Harris had one paramount task. To persuade as many Americans as possible that she was plausible as president of the United States. That we could picture her in the Oval Office, presiding over the nation as chief executive – and as commander in chief. That we could see her as a leader who had the capacity to captain what she herself described as the greatest nation on earth.
The bar was especially high because Harris seemed to have come out of nowhere. Not literally, of course; after all, she had been vice president for over three and a half years. But most Americans knew nearly nothing about her: her professional and political history were unfamiliar; throughout her time as vice president she was in the background not the foreground; and given President Joe Biden’s abrupt withdrawal from the campaign she had nearly no time to introduce herself to the American people.
Additionally, Harris lacks the traditional credentials. She is not white – up to now only one American president did not have two white parents. And she is not a man – up to now has never been an American president who was a woman. So, while Harris was intermittently in evidence throughout the Convention, it was only on the last night, during her speech formally accepting her party’s nomination for president, that she was able more fully to define herself. And to try thereby to persuade the American people that she belongs in the White House not just because of her experience as vice president but on account of her own character and credentials.
The reaction to her speech has been overwhelmingly positive. (Even Bret Hume, on Fox News, described it as “very strong.”) How did she do it? How, in about 40 minutes of public speaking, did Kamala Harris paint a portrait of herself as a plausible president? Five replies: 1) identity; 2) unity; 3) security; 4) liberty; and 5) androgyny.
Identity – Harris introduced herself more fully to the American people. She spoke about her childhood; about her father from Jamaica briefly and more extensively about her mother from India who primarily raised her; about her early immersion in the civil rights movement; and about her choice of a career in public sector law where the credo is, “a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us.”
Unity – Harris reached out repeatedly not to some Americans but to all Americans. “I will be a president who unites us around our highest expectations,” she said. And she made clear that she had no interest in furthering or fostering factions and divisions; instead she intended to embrace the full spectrum of American beliefs, attitudes, and opinions, and the full spectrum of American identities including race, religion, region, and party identification.
Security – Harris knows that for many Americans picturing a woman as commander in chief is an unnatural act. She knew therefore that one of her main missions was to make herself seem fit for that task. So she spoke about her past fights against “cartels who traffic in guns, drugs, and human beings.” She spoke about her future fights against Donald Trump’s “chaos and calamity.” And she spoke of her commitment to keeping American strong – to ensuring that it has “the strongest and most lethal fighting force in the world.” Of course, “security” has other implications, for example, health security and wealth security, which Harris covered as well.
Liberty – Harris was in keeping with a theme of the convention – “freedom.” Over and over again over four days the word was repeated – a mantra that signaled everything from freedom broadly to freedom specifically, for example of a woman to control her own body. “We are the heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world. And on behalf of our children and grandchildren, and all those who sacrificed so dearly for our freedom and liberty, we must be worthy of this moment.”
Androgyny – Harris’s speech last night was not only about content, but it was also about delivery. About her presentation of self… how she looked and sounded, dressed and spoke, her body language and facial expressions. In an article I wrote a decade ago titled “Leading Androgynously,” I cited research by Alice Eagly and Linda Carli that found that “successful female leaders generally find a middle way that is neither unacceptably masculine nor unacceptably feminine.” Harris has learned – is learning still – to fall into this category. She is a good-looking woman who does not downplay her femininity. However, she invariably dresses in pantsuits, usually with tops under her jackets that go all the way up to her neck, and she does not notably adorn herself. Moreover, she is learning to laugh and smile somewhat less – unquestionably as a woman now at the center of the political stage to her advantage. And she is learning to sound stronger and tougher – unquestionably as a woman now at the center of the political stage to her advantage.
In the last month and especially last week Kamala Harris did what she needed to do before she did anything else – depict herself a plausible president. While her climb to the top of America’s political ladder will be challanging in the extreme, her readiness to step up the next rung is now without question.