Vice President Kamala Harris is “a completely different person than the one most of us had fixed in our mind” and is more than a “female Obama,” according to a glowing portrayal in the New Republic that suggests Harris even surpasses historical Democrat icon former President John F. Kennedy in significance.
In a Friday essay, the far-left magazine heaped praise upon presidential hopeful Kamala Harris, positioning her as a transformative figure who unexpectedly unified the Democratic Party following her DNC speech accepting the party’s nomination without having received a single vote.
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The piece, titled “The Female Obama? No. Kamala Harris Is More Than That” and penned by New Republic editor Michael Tomasky, opens by acknowledging the longstanding tension within the Democratic Party between those who are “forward-looking” and those who are more cautious.
However, it claims the division was overcome during Harris’s “electric speech” on Thursday night, largely due to her leadership.
“For my entire adult life, there have been two Democratic parties,” the author writes. “Now, there is one.”
“And Harris — amazingly, surprisingly, but forcefully and unmistakably — is the author of that unity,” he added.
Calling the 2024 presidential contender a “historic figure,” the essay lauds her as having “risen to this occasion,” with “her poise, her power, her sure-footedness [having] been just breathtaking to watch.”
It also describes her as a “badass” who figuratively “said to every Democrat from left to center: We have one future, and I am the person who is taking us there.”
Praising her for uniting the Democratic Party, it describes her rhetoric as “Kennedyesque,” while asserting that “we’ve never seen a Black woman” move history forward like this.
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“As we look at history, it’s easy for us to see the men — white men, except for Obama — who moved history forward. We’ve never seen a Black woman do it. She’s Kennedy in 1960, and then some,” the progressive commentator writes, highlighting Harris’s speech where she called on Americans to honor their democratic legacy by uniting in the fight for the country’s future.
Admitting how unimpressive Harris initially was to many, including the author, the essay goes on to claim that she is now a “completely different person” than what was imagined:
Like a lot of people, I wasn’t much of a Harris fan in 2019–2020. I wasn’t surprised to see her candidacy fizzle. I thought she was a logical political choice by Joe Biden for vice president, but then I thought — like a lot of people — that she was politically maladroit in her first year or so as veep. I stopped paying attention. Most people did. But it now seems obvious that while we stopped paying attention, she was working, thinking, learning, getting better, figuring it out. And so this woman who burst upon us four weeks ago was a completely different person than the one most of us had fixed in our minds.
According to the piece, Harris’s candidacy transcends racial barriers, positioning her to challenge former President Donald Trump.
“No one that I can see feels that a Black woman can’t beat that white man [Trump],” he writes. “And this is potentially the secret to this candidacy: Her identity is manifestly clear to everyone to whom it is important, while to everyone to whom it doesn’t really matter, well … it doesn’t matter.”
“Think about how hard it is for a Black woman to pull that off, while running for president,” Tomasky adds.
In a striking comparison, given Obama’s revered status within the Democratic Party, the essay asserts that Harris is not just comparable to the first black president but potentially greater, arguing that some “will say, glibly, she’s the female Obama.”
Former President Barack Obama speaking at the Democratic National Convention on August 20, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
“But, no offense to Obama… Harris is more,” it reads. “Being a woman, she has to be. And she is.”
The article concludes that Harris’s success in uniting her party with determination leaves Trump with every reason to be concerned.
“She benefits, surely, from a broadly shared yearning to unite to defeat a unique evil. But it wasn’t remotely inevitable that she could pull it off,” the author writes. “Well, she’s doing it. If Trump isn’t scared of this, he’s dumber than I thought.”
The matter comes as left-wing media continuously attempt to rebrand Harris, heavily praising her in an effort to reshape public perception and move past her previous unpopularity. This strategic shift aims to bolster her image ahead of the 2024 presidential election, where she faces significant challenges.
Earlier this month, Time magazine featured Harris on its cover with the headline “The Reintroduction of Kamala Harris,” in a move seen as part of the effort to reframe her public image and build momentum for her campaign.
The cover was mocked by Republicans who criticized it as a media attempt to rehabilitate her image without addressing her unpopularity or policy positions.
