Harris’s Hot Streak & Team K’s To-Do List

With the Democratic convention two weeks out and the Labor Day kickoff of the fall campaign looming, Kamala Harris and her people have a jillion big decisions and tasks to tackle in no time flat. But three items on their punch list matter most of all: map, message, and running mate.

The comprehensive and undeniable confusion caused by Biden’s departure, the uncharacteristically disciplined and harmonious Democratic reaction, and Harris’s unexpected sure-footedness as candidate have left Trump, his campaign, and his allies on the right behaving like a claque of drunken, meth-addled baboons. Photo: Megan Varner/Getty Images

John Heilemann

August 5, 2024

Last Sunday, I led off by noting just how stunning Kamala Harris’s first week as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president had been. In a game where mistakes are inevitable and the best laid plans of campaign managers and media consultants perpetually go awry, Harris and her team made it through week one with nary a slip ‘twixt cup and lip. But here’s the thing: No one in professional politics believed there was a chance in hell that Harris and Team K could pull off that trick two weeks in a row. And when I say no one, I mean no one.