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

kamala harris
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 4, 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.

And yet, here we are at the end of week two, and to all outward appearances, that’s exactly what they did. The metrics that evince the caliber of Harris as a candidate and that of her on-the-fly, no-huddle campaign are too numerous to mention, but here are a representative handful: