Tag Archive: Democratic National Convention

With Harris and Walz, the era of Democrats playing “we go high” defense is over

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz

At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, First Lady Michelle Obama said about Republicans, “when they go low, we go high.” That was after more than seven years of Republicans going ever lower and lower, both in their rhetoric and their actions. Some of these many Republican low points include falsely and repeatedly questioning President Barack Obama‘s citizenship (i.e. “birtherism”), and denying President Obama a hearing for his U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland.

Eight years later, it appears Democrats finally have had enough of Republicans’ low behavior. The fantastically enthusiastic response of Democratic voters to the 2024 presidential ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz demonstrate that the party’s base wants leaders who not only are smart and competent, but who are also willing to go on offense against Donald Trump, his running mate J.D. Vance, and the Republican Party.

First of all, in supporting Vice President Harris, Democrats are getting someone with a background as a tough prosecutor. Thus, the theme of The Prosecutor vs. The Convicted Felon (meaning of course Donald Trump, already convicted of 34 felonies and facing more prosecutions) is a natural one that will surely be used over and over.

Moreover, by choosing Tim Walz as her running mate, Vice President Harris doubled down on taking the fight to the Republicans. Indeed, that became obvious even before Harris announced Walz as her running mate, as Walz coined the term “weird” to describe Trump and Vance back on July 23. This “weird” meme has really taken off, and in his first appearance with Harris, in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Walz went one better, saying that Trump and Vance were both “creepy, and yes, just weird as hell.” In his speech, Walz even alluded to Vance’s problems with couches (those unfamiliar with the subject can easily look it up). This shows that Walz is savvy when it comes to new media, such as Tik Tok, that he says his Gen Z kids use.

30 minutes of grief, then a pivot from Biden to Harris

The new 2024 election optics

We are big supporters of President Joe Biden. There have been many posts here outlining his accomplishments and tremendous successes, including:

–strengthening America’s economy and creating a record number of jobs;

–leadership and respect around the world, as well as expanding NATO;

–protecting the rights of women and minorities;

–successfully placing hundreds of federal judges on the bench, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson;

–forgiving over one hundred billions of dollars in student loans (despite Republican efforts to stop it); and more.

Likewise, we have laid out the reasons why President Biden deserved Democratic support for his presidential re-election efforts, such as the fact that he is the incumbent president who decided to seek another term, and that he won the 2024 primaries (with over 14 million Democratic votes) very handily.

But reality has taken a different turn. Whether events of the past few weeks are fair or not, President Biden has announced that he will no longer seek the nomination for president in 2024. Instead, Biden has fully endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the job.

Normally, we would want to spend days grieving over and processing what happened. However, with the 2024 elections just 105 days away, and the Democratic National Convention (where the presidential and vice presidential candidates are formally nominated) only 27 days from now, there is no time for that. Instead, we grieved for about half an hour, and then pivoted to Vice President Harris.

Democrats hit Trump and Republicans hard at National Convention

Former President Barack Obama, one of the key speakers at the Democratic convention.

The 2020 Democratic National Convention has ended, and it was a skillfully run, hard-hitting success During their mostly virtual event, the Democrats covered several important bases, including party unity (for example, by featuring Bernie Sanders strongly supporting the Joe BidenKamala Harris presidential ticket) and party appeal, by having prominent Republicans such as John KasichChristine Todd Whitman and others speak in support of Biden and against the reelection of Donald Trump. The Democratic convention also highlighted some stars and several stunning speeches:

Get ready for the Democratic National Convention with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

Joe Biden with his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, at the 2012 Democratic National Convention

The Democratic Party is holding its 2020 National Convention from August 17-20 , and the big news is that Biden has chosen U.S. Senator Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate. Although based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the convention will actually take place at various locations and landmarks around the country, because Democrats are serious about public health, specifically, not spreading COVID. Thus, for example, the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee will be used for broadcasting and production. Essentially, the convention will be coordinated and directed from Milwaukee. However, there will only be a few hundred personnel on site, comporting with state and local requirements regarding public gatherings. Accordingly, when Joe Biden is formally offered and accepts the Democratic Party’s nomination for president at the convention, he will do so from a location in his home state of Delaware. Other scheduled speakers, including, presumably, Kamala Harris, will also appear from various remote locations.

Democrats take patriotism back from the Republicans

Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama at the 2016 Democratic National Convention

Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama at the 2016 Democratic National Convention

Beginning in 1980 and throughout his presidency, Ronald Reagan appropriated the idea of patriotism and America and planted it firmly with the Republican Party. This week, however, at their national convention and with a big boost from Donald Trump, the Democratic Party and their presidential nominee Hillary Clinton took patriotism back.

Raucous unity at the Democratic National Convention

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders at recent unity event in New Hampshire

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders at recent unity event in New Hampshire

The diverse, outspoken and sometimes raucous Democratic Party was on full display on Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania yesterday. This is the party whose unity is likened to “herding cats.” On the other hand, the outbursts from some delegates at the convention hardly spelled doom and gloom, as some chattering heads on the cable TV news networks intimated. Rather, if you caught the unfiltered convention proceedings via live stream or C-SPAN, you saw a political party reach a noisy state of unity, as only the Democrats can do.