With all of the “joy” that Kamala Harris’ media surrogates seem to be attributing to her presidential campaign since its launch last month, you’d think that the floor at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago would resemble nothing so much as a combination of a rave and a secular version of a Christian tent revival.
Instead, on day one of the DNC, the action seemed to be outside the building — and it was anything but joyful. In fact, it took a surprise appearance by Harris to really get the crowd humming, seldom a good sign with a party supposedly brimming with joyfulness.
While this could be simply written off as a matter of first-night optics, it also comes as three polls — issued as the convention opens — indicate that the meliorative effects of joy on the vice president’s White House hopes may indeed be reaching the point of diminishing returns.
First, though, we take you to the scene on the convention floor, where things seemed strangely empty and dead — compared, at least, with the pro-Palestinian protesters marching outside the United Center in Chicago:
NEW: The DNC has kicked off in Chicago as the opening speakers are met with a dismal crowd.
Outside the event, protesters are clashing with police as they try to break through the perimeter fencing.
Thousands of protesters have swarmed the city and are being blamed for… pic.twitter.com/dq2jep6Mig
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 19, 2024
I guess the folks with the black curtains to block off the empty spaces couldn’t get there quickly enough.
Now, to be fair, Monday might be described as leper colony night at the DNC: i.e., the night where the speakers the Democrats don’t want America to see were allowed to be front and center.
The headliners could best be described as the ghosts of elections past: President Joe Biden, taken out of cold storage for long enough to demonstrate proof of life while not long enough to embarrass himself, and 2016 standard-bearer Hillary Clinton, who has to be trotted out at every one of these shindigs so long as she’s alive and kicking, but a figure who the Democrats don’t want to give America too much of a taste of, lest they remember why they didn’t vote for her.
Will Kamala Harris lose?
Jill Biden (sorry — Dr. Jill Biden) spoke as well, as well as several far-left members of Congress (notably Reps. Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York) as well as Chicago’s progressive mayor, Brandon Johnson, also gave remarks.
In other words, if you wanted to skip a night and see the city of Chicago, unless you have a yen for socialists and geriatrics, this was the one you wanted to miss. That being said, might be a little difficult to get out and about in the Windy City with scenes like these:
The party of defund the police, want the police 🤡 pic.twitter.com/3noYc7DdSC
— Sara Rose 🇺🇸🌹 (@saras76) August 19, 2024
3. Chicago #DNCConvention protest pic.twitter.com/Yq7iaVQgnC
— IamLegend 🇺🇸 (@DarkSideAdvcate) August 19, 2024
And this is just day one.
Moreover, the low energy day one combined with the protests highlighted a greater danger for Harris: The effects of the “joy” and “vibes” campaign may have peaked for Harris and running mate Gov. Tim Walz.
Two polls of likely voters in Pennsylvania, where the election could be decided, showed Donald Trump with a 1 percent lead, according to a Monday report from Newsweek.
A separate poll taken nationally between Aug. 12-14, meanwhile, still shows the GOP nominee with a 1-point advantage, 46 percent to 45 percent. That doubles to two points — 49 percent vs. 47 percent — when undecided voters were asked to pick which way they were leaning.
The same group behind the poll, RMG Research, found both candidates sitting on 49 percent two weeks ago.
Granted, a low convention turnout, a lot of protesters, and three polls showing Harris’ momentum slowing are just three data points, but three points that point to the fact that the initial excitement around her candidacy has worn off and she’ll actually have to earn votes, not just have them handed to her. When you consider how her poll numbers in her current job looked before she became the de facto nominee last month, that’s not something team Kamala wants to be contemplating on day one of the DNC.
