Speech of the Month August 2024 - Kamala Harris

If there’s one experience that’s bound to make a British person feel British, it’s watching a US political convention. And the Democratic one in August delivered this experience with knobs on. From spouses blowing kisses, to standing ovations, to cute infant nieces giving pronunciation lessons, it punched unashamedly at constipated British sore spots. Yet, if you’re able to push past the saccharine, there’s some great learning to be had in Kamala Harris’s speech to the Democratic National Convention. 

If you’ve yet to take a look, then do so. 

Here’s what we can learn from Harris’s address:

Her personal story was economical and vivid

Again, here’s another contrast between the US convention speech and the UK conference speech – the Americans get straight to the personal story whereas in the UK, we bury it (usually with embarrassment) somewhere towards the middle section. 

Harris’s story – being born to immigrant parents who divorced; growing up around and with the support of kind, working-class people; learning that her best-friend was being sexually abused and this being the catalyst for her legal career; always being an advocate for the people, a fearless prosecutor – was told concisely and visually. I could see the various aunties and uncles, I could see the best-friend moving in, I could visualise a young Kamala in the court room. She didn’t need to over-tell her story to make it stick. 

Her story successfully set her up as an unspoilt woman who’s worked hard, cares about people and has an unflinching sense of duty. Who do we suppose contrasts that?  

Being economical and vivid is good advice for interviews, where we’re often asked to give examples. Always consider how you can illustrate an example without bogging it down in detail while also ‘showing’ it.  

She had some great lines – which she enjoyed declaiming

A big speech needs great lines. Lines that crystalise a section with sass, force or passion. Some of her best were:

“None of them family by blood. All of them family by love.”
“And never do anything half-assed!”
“Kamala Harris. For the People.”
“We are not going back!” Which will be something of a rallying cry. 

And, most importantly, she enjoyed saying her great lines. This is critical. If you fluff or look self-conscious as you deliver your big line, then you undo everything.  

She was unashamedly patriotic

Many foreign viewers might have flinched when she declared the USA to be the greatest nation in the world – I’m thinking the French and the Aussies, for sure! – but, if she feels that, then it’s absolutely right that she should say it. A president serves their nation so we would hope that they believe the thing they’re serving to be fan-dabby-double-dozy. Was Churchill ever ‘take it or leave it’ about Britain? No. Could you imagine Macron being ‘meh’ about France? Non, non, non! 

This is a good lesson to us, though, in our less statesmanlike professions: it must be clear that you love doing the thing you do. Who wants to visit a hairdresser who rues the fact he didn’t become a plumber, or instruct a solicitor who’s world-weary of the legal game? Passion for your profession and / or organisation is key.

Conversely, don't stifle your genuine passion because you want to look cool. Remember, nothing's less cool that someone trying to be cool.   

She looked the part

From now till November, Harris needs to not only look like a president, but a commander-in-chief too. 

When you compare the navy trouser suit Harris wore to the uber-chic, criss-crossy, arm revealing one Michelle Obama donned as she gave her talk at the convention, you’d see that they’re two very different fashion beasts. I think it was right, given what Harris needs to project, that she pared down her look and kept it smart and unfussy. The only superfluous detail was the Thatcheresque pussy-bow blouse. 

Now I know the above sentences will irk some readers. “But Emma, Kamala Harris should be able to wear a pink puff-ball dress and still be taken seriously. Why should she have to dress in an outfit that’s more seemingly male for people to see her as a commander-in-chief?” My reply is – Rome wasn’t built in a day. It’s taken 60 years since the March on Washington for a non-white woman to potentially be president. Why stall that progression with an alienating costume choice? Politics is all about compromise. 

Interestingly, Kamala Harris was the subject of my very first Speech of the Month. So click here if you want to read what I said about her back in January '19.