The Democrats have a superpower when it comes to defeating Trump
With the likes of Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton standing behind nominee Kamala Harris, it is women exerting the power to shatter the glass ceiling – and Trump’s election hopes, writes Anne McElvoy
It was a French, navy-blue, chic-but-sombre trousersuit and blouse for Kamala Harris’s nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. Rumours had abounded that she would carry on the mantle of Hillary Clinton by wearing “suffragette white” to signal the historic nature of her candidacy. But, as an aide replied tautly when I asked if we could expect her to talk about the prospect of being the first female president: “Kamala doesn’t need to prove her credentials.”
So the message in Chicago has differed from the failed Clinton campaign of 2016 and Hillary’s persistent citing of her encounters with the “glass ceiling”. Harris plays down this side of her beliefs – or perhaps calculates that, beyond sympathetic voters, Americans do not always warm to women talking about their struggles.
An economical, well-crafted speech was pitched to move Harris from the niche of feminist, liberal Californian, which is being moulded by the Trump-Vance camp into a caricature of ultra-leftish, busybody activism, to an all-American everywoman: a commonsensical, straight-talking, safe pair of hands on America and the West’s security.
It has also been a female hall-of-fame week with Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama electrifying the convention with their speeches, while the audience packed out an event with “steel magnolia” Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker’s session on why she has felt it her “duty” to advocate for Joe Biden to step aside, telling the crowd, “I knew exactly what I was doing”. This gathering of the Democrat clans belonged to a starry roster of women – and so does the challenge of delivering the final coup de grâce to Donald Trump’s hopes of a second presidency.
If that is the outcome in November, it will be personal as well as strictly business for most of those involved. Harris opted for a sober tone, describing her rival as an “unserious” person who could have “serious consequences” if elected again and bringing her prosecutorial zeal to bear on his convictions and moral failings. Clinton – now a more engaging and less shrill speaker than when she met her Waterloo against Trump in 2016 – was still having her revenge eaten hot: “We have him on the run now.”
But for sheer, tour-de-force speaking and swagger, there was only one gold medallist, and that was Michelle Obama, who delivered lines that were hard-hitting and personal with fire in her eyes and a day-of-judgement vibe.
She knew from experience that Trump would be likely to resort to “ugly, misogynistic, racist lies” about Harris. But she was also funny: Trump’s dismissive description of immigrants taking “Black jobs” was turned into a neat jibe: “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking [the presidency] might just be one of those Black jobs?”
That reference to her husband’s two-term presidency was a reminder that the Obamas are still natural show-stealers and, more than any other former White House incumbents, they draw the affection of party faithful. No doubt about it, this was Michelle’s “it should have been me” moment.
None of this comes without a degree of grandeur and even imperiousness. “Michelle Obama is telling you to DO SOMETHING,” was an instruction to activists to get even more active to beat Trump.
The sheer gloss and glitz of today’s US politics owe much to the legacy of the Obamas as the first presidential couple who understood the role of social media, and reinvented the nexus of politics with popular culture via DJs, rappers, fashion designers and comedians. At 60, Michelle Obama is as lean as an Arkansas greyhound. No expense is spared in the style wars: she appeared in a very pricey, sleeveless Monse jumpsuit and glossy black Jimmy Choos (the official power shoe is always a vertiginous pencil heel in black or nude patent leather). She has forsaken neat hairdos for a jaunty plait, hair extensions and hoop earrings. She is probably relieved not to have to wear safe J Crew pastels ever again.
The convention has been a highly polished and lavish production, with a supporting female cast including Maya Harris who ranks as her sister’s closest unofficial adviser, Oprah Winfrey, and the acapella country band The Chicks singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” as Harris’s introduction, in place of old torch-song warblers.
Reality will shortly impinge on this bubble of excited optimism when Harris comes face to face with Trump in their first TV debate on 10 September. That will test Harris’s ability to respond in the moment under strong provocation. Hillary Clinton once told me in an interview that “you have no idea what it’s like when Trump comes after you – it’s a fireball”. Harris has the advantage of that prior knowledge.
However, she would be unwise to underestimate the challenge of a live encounter with a maverick, ruthless foe. She is said to be spending a third of her time on debate prep. There are weaknesses to Harris’s style – she lacks the “empath” factor which aided Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. The test of the debate will be whether she can show agility under pressure, which has not hitherto been her A-game.
But she does have a strong bench of women rooting for her. I have just interviewed Tammy Duckworth, the Iraq veteran Illinois senator, who when I probed on this point replied with military precision: “She is going to kick his butt.”
A female bidder for the world’s top political job has to weave together a bewildering number of strands: butt-kicking campaigner, upholder of patriotic American values (there were a dozen national flags on stage and a stars-and-stripes lapel pin, to ram home the point). She needs to avoid the stridency charge that damaged Hillary Clinton in her battle with Trump, and yet show herself unintimidated by a bare-knuckle opponent.
If, to cite the chant that rang through the week, “We’re not going back,” Harris has to start to show Americans that she can take them forward.
The DNC has been a reminder of quite how much female talent has surged in the past decades of US politics, and that none of it has yet landed in the Oval Office. If Harris makes history, it will also be with a lot of grown-up girl power behind her.
Anne McElvoy is host of the Politico Power Play interview podcast (politico.eu/power-play-podcast)
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