Kamala Harris’ unbridled laugh. Tim Walz’s “these guys are just weird” comment. Making fun of JD Vance and his childless cat ladies.
Democrats haven’t had this much fun during a campaign season since presidential hopeful Bill Clinton busted out his saxophone on “The Arsenio Hall Show” and performed an ambitious version of “Heartbreak Hotel.”
Social media is rife with happy memes of Harris dancing and chatting about coconut trees. Her recently announced VP pick, Minnesota Gov. Walz, is already inspiring reams of big dad energy jokes. And all Vance has to do is show up to rouse laughter.
It’s a stunning change of pace for the Party of Perpetual Hand-Wringing, a cautious body which usually approaches elections with the seriousness of a bomb squad dismantling an explosive device. One wrong move and — boom! — we’re Gilead, the police state in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Best to stay cautious and somber.
But Harris’ sudden candidacy has interrupted a doom loop that’s plagued the left since Al Gore lost to George W. Bush, making him the first candidate since 1888 to win the popular vote but lose in the electoral college. No Republican has won the popular vote since, including those who’ve made it into the White House. The uphill climb to victory has given Democrats little to smile about, until now.
The buoyancy and, dare we say, joy generated by the shiny new Harris campaign feels unprecedented, even when compared to Barack Obama’s 2008 juggernaut message of hope.
The vice president actually used the “F” word — fun — on a call with Barack and Michelle when the Obamas reached out to Harris to announce their endorsement of her as the presumptive nominee following President Biden’s decision to step out of the race. Harris beamed during the call, then noted that she, her husband, Doug Emhoff, and the Obamas would “have some fun” on the campaign trail. “You’re a happy warrior,” Obama said of Harris, to which the former first lady added, “And the country needs a happy warrior.”
Harris’ battle skills are another reason blue states are feeling a little less blue today. When she says she’ll fight for them, it’s believable. She’s put felons behind bars in her role as a courtroom prosecutor. As a district attorney, she was celebrated and criticized for a conviction rate that jumped in San Francisco from 52% to 67%.
And as a senator representing California, she nearly melted Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg with her tough questions about privacy concerns. And last week, former President Trump posted that he was backing out of a scheduled presidential debate hosted by ABC News. He proposed moving it to MAGA-friendly Fox News, which under no circumstances means he’s afraid of her.
Walz and his no-nonsense humor present another unique threat to the Republican ticket. The former schoolteacher and football coach has shattered the pervasive illusion of Trump as a powerful villain with a few well-timed comments about how the former president and his running mate are simply weird.
When Trump went on a bizarre ramble at the Republican National Convention last month about a fictional serial killer, “the late, great Hannibal Lecter,” Walz tweeted “Say it with me: Weird.” And Tuesday at a rally in Philadelphia where Harris and Walz appeared together for the first time as running mates, Walz took the time to throw some more shade toward his opponent. “[I] can’t wait to debate” he said of GOP vice presidential nominee Vance, “that is, if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up.”
On “The Drew Barrymore Show,” Harris explained her laugh and made clear she had no plans to tone it down. “I have my mother’s laugh,” she said. “And I grew up around a bunch of women in particular, who laughed from the belly. They laughed. They would sit around the kitchen and drinking their coffee, telling big stories with big laughs.”
Walz, before he was tapped by Harris as her running mate, on “Inside with Jen Psaki” observed that “Donald Trump tries to mock Vice President Harris for laughing. And I made the point: You never see this guy laugh. You never see him do these normal things.”
Scowling one’s way to the center of the media churn doesn’t seem to be working as well as it once did. Trump’s superpower of grabbing all the attention all the time is waning, and he’s a losing currency in the attention economy while Harris’ worth skyrockets.
This all could change overnight, of course, as elections often do. But we’ve witnessed something remarkable over the past few weeks: a sense of joy in a time when it seemed out of reach.
MAGA operatives have tried to use Harris’ laugh and lightheartedness against her. It’s proof she’s not fit for the job, they say, but it seems to be that very exuberance that’s cut through the noise of an otherwise nasty election year.
“I call her Laughing Kamala,” Trump told a crowd at a campaign rally in Michigan a few weeks ago. “Ever watch her laugh? She’s crazy. You know you can tell a lot by a laugh.”
Yes we can.
