Steve Kerr is by far the most effective messenger of the night with a really elementary, universal, and, for the most part, apolitical message. Indeed, there are probably three or four 30-second clips that have potential to generate traction on social media. Not a sour note in it.
Steve Kerr’s father was murdered in Beirut by Iranian proxies from Islamic Jihad aligned with Hezbollah. His family sued Iran, won a judgment in court but was never paid. It’s depressing to see him lending his good name to the anti-Iran-sanctions party and not even mentioning their foreign policy.
Golden State head coach Steve Kerr is doing his best to make a couple G-League politicians out to be the Splash Brothers.
Now, time for the up-from-the-bootstraps story of Hollywood actor and director Tony Goldwyn, grandson of legendary studio bigwig Samuel Goldwyn.
(Fun fact: the elder Goldwyn’s business partner Louis B. Mayer was once chairman of the California GOP).
Kamala Harris took the stage at the DNC in the wake of an impressive video package introducing the Democratic Party’s broadest electoral themes. It was probably the most exposure Harris has gotten since she became the presumptive successor to Joe Biden, and she gave the crowd nothing. Sure, she thanked the president for his service. She noted that the audience was diverse, which is a given at a Democratic nominating convention. And she endorsed fighting for things in which she and her fellow Democrats believe. But she spoke only a handful of sentences, none of which anyone will remember tomorrow. The extent to which the crowd seemed bowled over with enthusiasm for that modest display is only more evidence that all Kamala Harris needs to be for a broad swath of Democratic voters is just not Joe Biden.
I guess if Kamala Harris hadn’t appeared and mentioned how grateful she was to Joe Biden, it would have looked awkward and fueled the discussion of a cabal pushing and strong-arming Joe out of office.
Harris bounds onstage to cheerlead for Joe Biden and weld herself to his legacy. Her campaign team just finished knotting their nooses and kicked the stools.
This Kamala ‘Freedom’ ad is moving. It has positive energy and doesn’t depend on its star to do more than punch out a sentence or aspiration before allowing Beyoncé to carry the viewer along.
We can scoff at the “we love freedom, we love America, patriotism, rah rah rah” videos featured at the Democratic National Convention, and contend, accurately, that Democrats turn to these themes in election years and abandon them afterwards. But the Trump era has made it so much easier for Democrats, from the images of January 6, to Trump’s convictions, to his dark and gloomy emphasis on “American carnage,” to the unhinged rants on Truth Social, and so on.
Oh, Kamala Harris has arrived, and is making an early apperance.
Hochul is incredibly bad at this, just as she’s incredibly bad at everything.