Kamala Harris. In A Word – Presidential

I waited a couple of days to write this. I wanted to see if the gut reaction I had during Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech Thursday night held up. If anything what I felt then is reinforced. Long before she finished her 40 minute speech my mind had answered what I knew would be a common question both pundits and “undecides” voter on panel would (unless they were MAGAs) say if asked to sum up Harris and her speech in one word. Some might say “poised”, or “confident” or some other word. Mine was and remains what I said in the title: Presidential!

We’ll have to wait on polling to see what the country overall thought and I’m sure even as I write this pollsters are working away to get their samples from which to provide data. In the meantime plenty of people have plenty to say, albeit opinions and in this brief article from Deadline that mostly cites Harris supporters Harris hit all the right notes.  As for me, I felt like I was watching and listening to a sitting President giving an address to a Joint Session of Congress.

Before switching from C-Span (no commercials or interruptions from the chattering class! all evening long!) to talking head channels I took a moment to reflect. And my thoughts were that from the moment she walked out she was in command! Of herself, the moment itself (accepting a major Party Nomination and making her case to the voters), and the crowd both in the arena AND watching on television. She was as the saying goes comfortable in her own skin. It was clear she is as prepared for the job as you’d expect given her life, career and having President Joe Biden as a mentor and friend. It’s overlooked but it was Beau Biden who told his parents a decades ago Harris was special, someone to watch. Am I crazy for thinking part of why President Biden stood aside and threw his support to Harris was in part as tribute to Beau?

Getting back on point, Harris clearly knew exactly what she needed to do and it wasn’t an easy task. She had to teach America her actual story. How she grew up and the values her mother and close friends from her blue collar neighborhood instilled in her. Her career after law school and into the Senate. We got snippets of all that from videos and testimonials before she took the stage but Harris as I said had command of the setting. SHE got to tell her story in her own words and it came across as real and authentic because it WAS.

Then she turned to policy and again her star shined bright. Kamala Harris is clearly someone well-versed and well-experienced with the issues of the day, both here at home and abroad. If heaven forbid tragedy struck President Biden Harris wouldn’t miss a beat. She would, and if we do OUR part will take the baton of the actual Presidency from Joe Biden as seamlessly as she took over the mantle of being our nominee and leading our Party into the future. Kamala Harris displayed what we all crave and frankly need in a President – true Gravitas. Yet at the same time she displayed a warmth and humility not always seen in those with Presidential Gravitas. Not to mention a touch of humor, and yes a big helping of joy.

That’s a LOT to ask for in one person. Yet two full days later I can’t get over how apparent it was that Kamala Harris possesses all those qualities. And one more that’s even more important – an unshakable commitment to serve the people of these United States. I enjoyed how others had remarked that moment in her first court case when she stood up and said “Kamala Harris for the people.” As she told us she’s only had one client in her career, the people. In every sense of the words of the Preamble of our Constitution:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

I had to memorize that back in grade school. We all had to recite it to the class and that too flashed through my mind when she mentioned she’s only had one client.  I saw someone who doesn’t just believe those words but has spent her career working to make them a reality. And who will fiercely continue to do so as President.  A great leader is supremely confident. The greatest also are willing to admit what they don’t know or when they need some guidance. That takes a special kind of confidence, as well as humility. For all the formidable aspects of her nature and abilities Kamala Harris also possesses a measure of humility, especially as she feels such a profound duty to serve the needs of the people and country she means to lead as our President.

For me the most humbling experience of my life is one that when I was 21 years old some wise old 50 year Master Masons told me I’d experience in a few years. It was after I was installed in the line of succession that would one day lead to me becoming Worshipful Master of my Lodge. After it was all done Paul Miller noted the installation of our new Worshipful Master and recounted how he felt kneeling at the alter so many decades before. When my own turn came to be installed four years later I knew what he felt. There is so much to the ritual but there’s one part I feel compared to share:

“The very consciousness of the possession of a great power will ever make a generous mind cautious and gentle in its exercise. To RULE has been the lot of many and requires neither strength of intellect or soundness of judgement. To rule WELL has been the fortune of but few, and may well be the object of an honorable ambition. It is not by the strong arm or the iron will that order and obedience, the chief requisites of good government are secured, but by holding the key to the hearts of men.”

FYI I didn’t have to look that up even though I heard that and more almost four decades ago. That’s how firmly the concept is planted in me and I’ve tried when in leadership positions to keep in in mind.  I bring it up because it’s a good way to contrast Trump with the President who came before him and the one after. And Kamala Harris who if we do our part will ensure Trump never sets foot in the WH again.  What we learned over and over again this past week is that since she was a child she listened to others, and got them to tell her their stories and their problems. And then did her best to help.  That’s in her DNA, and why she, unlike so many who seek the Presidency truly “holds the key to the hearts of people.’ Because she listens. And cares.

That’s what Kamala Harris projected Thursday night. Why it’s so natural to see her as President. She is smart, strong and tough but also gentle and caring. We saw the real deal and this country and the free world would be lucky as hell to see her take over for President Biden. Everything I’ve said about her applies to him right down to coming from middle class backgrounds during which there were some struggles.

Harris surely knows about the history making stuff but that’s not what matters to her. That’s why she didn’t mention it. All she has to do is stand there and the fact she’s both a woman and a woman who isn’t WHITE is plain to see. To her that’s not important. The kind of history SHE is interested in is forging ahead with new polities that will help ever more Americans have an actual, fair shot at opportunity. To continue rebuilding America’s former status as the indispensable nation. That’s the history that matters to her.

And that’s why I still marvel at what Harris did Thursday night. She was so Presidential I never once (honest) gave a thought to “first woman” or “first black woman” or “first south Asian woman.” All I saw and heard was a President.  I’m an old white guy and it’s amazing that the “glass ceiling” stuff never entered my mind as she spoke. The fact she’s not only the Democratic nominee but was so Presidential seemed natural as hell.  I’m betting if not right then plenty of others, even if they’d only seen clips get the same impression.

Still, even if the Harris/Walz ticket gets a nice “bump” in the polls this race is far from over.  In 2016 we thought after the convention Hillary Clinton had neutralized the decades of RWNJ hate that engaged in one smear after another. Let’s hope everyone learned their lesson. Those of us who want to see Kamala Harris and Tim Walz sworn in come January (along with a Democratic House AND Senate) need to sprint all the way THROUGH the finish line. Think Gold Medal Olympic 100 meter winner Noah Lyles who made that last, couple of a thousandths of a second lean across the line in first place.

That kind of effort is what we need to do. So let’s get it done. Even small actions like getting one or two people who wouldn’t bother to vote do do so.  Some can and will do more than others, but don’t let that fact you might not be able to do all that much from doing what Kamala Harris mother taught her from a young age: DO SOMETHING!

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