Michael Mann 
Philadelphia
CNN
—
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz want to make America joyful again.
The vice president’s rocking rollout of her running mate on Tuesday sent jolts of energy through a huge crowd, as the pair personified the extraordinary transformation of the 2024 election campaign.
Such a scene would have been unthinkable even three weeks ago — in a Democratic Party that believed it was doomed to a disastrous defeat as an aged president resentfully faced a revolt that ultimately ended his reelection bid.
Yet inside Temple University’s packed basketball arena in Philadelphia, activists and Harris supporters beamed smiles of deliverance, marveling at the turn of events and a second chance against Donald Trump they can barely believe.
It’s hardly new for a political party to sell hope and aspiration — it’s a staple of presidential election campaigns. But the fresh vibe in Philadelphia was striking because it emerged after one of the darkest chapters of modern US politics.
Americans have experienced a Trump presidency that threatened to tear the country apart, suffered through a pandemic that killed more than a million citizens and endured grinding years of economic insecurity caused by inflation and high grocery prices. For most of this year, the former president has promised a second presidency of retribution. President Joe Biden, meanwhile, had been delivering searing warnings that his rival was tarnishing the very soul of America, even as the haunting signs of the president’s advancing age became increasingly painful to watch.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, the last GOP primary challenger standing against Trump, used to predict that the first party to ditch its old, White male presidential candidate in 2024 would get a massive boost. While Harris is yet to prove she can alter the fundamentals of a race against Trump, she’s proving Haley’s point, bringing some unexpected sunshine to an election year.
“We both believe in lifting people up, not knocking them down,” Harris said of her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Walz. “Do we believe in opportunity? Do we believe in the promise of America? And are we ready to fight for it?” the vice president asked before adding, “We both know the vast majority of people in our country have so much more in common than what separates them.”
This message is a mirror image of Trump’s political method, which relies on tugging at the fault lines of US society for political gain.
Walz rammed home the point, as if anyone in the packed arena filled by roaring cheers had missed it. “Thank you for bringing back the joy,” he told his new boss, as he riffed through a series of dad jokes about Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, showing why the Harris team thinks he’ll be a hit in the Blue Wall battleground states that will decide the election.
Two visions for voters to consider
The new Harris-Walz double act struck a stunning contrast.
Just a few weeks ago, Democrats dreaded Biden’s small and glum campaign events when the 81-year-old president’s stumbles revived memories of his disastrous Atlanta debate performance.
Now, they have a candidate and a running mate who can draw a massive crowd, inspire the base and project vigor and hope in a way that will take the battle to Trump over the frenetic last three months of the campaign.
Multiple rallygoers Tuesday expressed delight at the extraordinary twist in their fortunes at an event that conjured flashbacks to Barack Obama’s hope-and-change rallies of 2008, especially when the crowd chanted “Yes We Can” when Harris pledged to save the Affordable Care Act.
“I couldn’t be more delighted,” said Karla D’Alessio, from Hatfield, Pennsylvania. “I wish all elections were 100 days,” she added, referring to the truncated race to November with a suddenly dynamic Democratic ticket.
Gini George, who was born in Mumbai and especially identifies with Harris’ South Asian heritage, glowed with happiness and said, “I love it,” when asked about the new Harris-Trump matchup. She also praised Walz for his early defense of LGBTQ rights. Both women expressed reverence for Biden’s decision to step aside and allow his party to finally pass the torch.
The optimism, laughter and positive energy in Philadelphia on Tuesday felt like a different planet from the dystopian dirge of Trump rallies, which devolve into festivals of personal vengeance for a candidate who has tripled down on the American carnage mantra of his first inaugural address.
“We are a nation in decline, we are a failing nation,” Trump said at a typical event in Manchester, New Hampshire, in January, portraying the US as a hellscape of energy shortages, drug-infested cities, out-of-control immigration and crime. He added: “We are a nation that has lost its confidence, its willpower and its strength. We are a nation that has lost its way.”
On Tuesday, Trump reinforced his favorite conceit – that if Americans don’t vote for him, they won’t have a country anymore, reacting to the vice president’s running mate pick with a warning that hardly seemed apt, given Walz’s Minnesota nice manner. “TIM WALZ WILL UNLEASH HELL ON EARTH! He’s already pulling in MILLIONS to WIPE MAGA OUT,” the ex-president said in a fundraising email.
The risks ahead of Harris
America now has a choice between the former president’s nightmarish vision of national decline that only a strongman can fix and Harris’ optimistic vow that America is still a land of aspiration.
But that dichotomy also points to a huge risk for Harris.
Running a campaign rooted in hopefulness and good cheer at a time when many Americans feel demoralized and tired could backfire. After all, years of decaying economic security exacerbated by high inflation and elevated grocery prices during the Biden administration created the kind of conditions in which Trump’s populist demagoguery can prosper. If the vice president misjudges the national mood, her campaign could come across as oblivious to the concerns of many voters. It was noticeable, for instance, that while Harris pledged to bring down prices and fight for the middle class, her speech on Tuesday was light on details of exactly how she would alleviate the economic stress that many people are feeling.
Without solutions, Harris’ hope-fueled speeches could become bromides by repetition, especially if Trump has more accurately judged America’s collective psyche than she has. Harris is, after all, a key part of an unpopular administration – which, for all its success in passing sweeping legislation that could revive US manufacturing and overhaul the country’s infrastructure, has not been able to convince millions of Americans of the reality of the country’s relatively strong economic rebound after the pandemic.
Tuesday’s rally proved the vice president can draw a crowd and work it — to great theatrical effect. But her most significant assignment in the next two months will come in convincing Americans she can meet building crises at home and abroad — as evidenced by a stock market plunge on the eve of her running mate selection and fears the Middle East is on the precipice of a wider war.
Still, in a race likely to be decided across the three battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, Walz may be able to reach rural voters that the California Democrat can’t. While the Minnesota governor is not going to help her beat Trump in his rural heartlands, any trimming of the ex-president’s margins there could complement Harris’ expected high turnout among inner city minority voters and suburban women.
Walz praised Harris as a prosecutor, a senator and a vice president who had dedicated her life to serving her country while arguing that Trump only served himself.
The symbolism of reassurance was strong. A plainspoken, White, Midwestern dad, football coach and high school teacher who reached the rank of command sergeant major in the Army National Guard was vouching for the values and patriotism of a running mate who is being demeaned by Trump as a racial chameleon and out of the American cultural and political mainstream.
Ironically, given the events of the last two weeks, Walz is serving a similar role that then-vice presidential nominee Biden played for future President Obama in 2008.
Walz is sure to reprise his endorsement at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in a couple of weeks — and on pretty much every day until Election Day as he and Harris set off on an exhausting journey.
“We have 91 days — my God, that’s easy. We’ll sleep when we’re dead,” he said.
