By and large Kamala Harris is doing exactly what she needs to do to be elected President. She has made a couple of miscues, price controls, but she has basically done what she needs to do. First and foremost, Kamala simply needs to keep her mouth shut and stick to the script. She’s done that.

In this election cycle, the Democrats clearly lost faith in Biden. Biden’s decision to resign from the Democratic party’s nomination for President was clearly the political coup of our nation’s history. Lyndon Johnson saw the handwriting on the wall and did a national address long before the convention that he would not seek the office of President.

Watergate was not near an election, but Nixon clearly got the message that his political career was over and resigned. Nixon and Johnson’s choosing to not continue or seek reelection gave enough time for their political parties to produce candidates to face the public during the primaries. Biden’s withdrawal was literally at the last minute, when the Democratic party was very stressed out over what appeared to be a sure loss in November and a win for Trump. Biden’s departure and Kamala’s nomination is a pure jolt of political energy for the Democratic Party.

Kamala’s base has reenergized. Her campaign speeches are built on party unity and dislike of Trump. Policies need not be addressed as Joe is gone and life is good. Kamala has avoided a press conference or news interview since Biden’s withdrawal. Her numbers are good. At this time there is nothing for Kamala to gain by facing the press or the public, outside of a campaign speech. Trump’s campaign speeches are an attack on Kamala the person, not Kamala the policy maker. Trump needs to change the narrative lest he see defeat in November.

Kamala does have a history on policy that can be exploited. Her Senate voting record was to the left of Bernie Sanders, which did hurt her when she ran for President in the Democratic primary in 2020. Her record as California Attorney General also has evidence of her left leaning policies. That history can certainly be used by Trump to provide reasons not to vote for Kamala.

However, Kamala’s biggest political blunder to date was her releasing this past Friday parts of her economic plan. Kamala clearly indicated that she supports price controls as her means to combat inflation. Price controls have always failed. Cuba and Venezuela are two nations that tried it and their economies are in shambles because of it. Even Nixon experimented with price controls, only to rapidly reverse his position when he saw shortages of product and a black market economy emerging. 

Kamala is riding a tidal wave of feel-good political support. For the Republicans to prevail they must challenger her on policy issues and her past positions. Character attacks will lose. It would be nice from a voter’s point of view for both Trump and Harris to voice their policy positions and not be doing personal attacks on the other. That may be a pipe dream, but it would sure be better government.

DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION—The Democrats forgot the bottom line for speeches: KEEP IT SHORT AND SIMPLE, KISS. Note that Kamala did a 90 second piece wherein she did the feel good and thanked Biden for his time in office and service to the country. Monday was the first night of the convention and the speeches carried on well past midnight. Ashley Biden set a very positive tone for her father’s address and gave exactly the kind of speech that was needed. President Biden gave much of the speech that he needed to give. Biden was certainly entitled to emphasize what he views were the accomplishments of his administration. Biden then chose to attack Trump personally, which I believe took away from the positives of his speech. Tuesday is Obama’s turn at the podium. Regardless of one’s political affiliation, no one can deny that Obama is a great orator. The man knows how to give a speech that changes minds.

The real question is what kind of speech will Kamala give on Thursday night. Will she seek to unify the nation or will she continue with the stump pollical speech she has used for the past month. Kamala’s acceptance speech on Thursday has the potential to truly galvanize her campaign. It also has the potential to fall flat with the voters. Time will tell.

Richard Koritz is an Illinois native, attorney and former DeWitt County State’s Attorney.