Kamala Harris Charts Her Vision for America

Over a 40-minute address that unfolded in stories about her career as a tough prosecutor, inspired both by a close friend’s plight and civil rights legends and in stories about her time in the White House, Harris spoke not in soaring oratory, but in a conversational way.

If a perennial question for women is how to run for office without seeming too shrill or too ambitious or too something, then Harris has figured this out, simply by being herself, laugh and all. She looked and sounded like an American president, forceful in her defense of democracy and proud of the nation’s ability to inspire the world and renew its promise.

“We are the heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world,” she said. “And on behalf of our children and our grandchildren and all those who sacrificed so dearly for our freedom and liberty, we must be worthy of this moment.”