Jack Tame: The contrast between Hillary Clinton's run and Kamala Harris'

Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

I have this photo from the night of the US election, eight years ago. It was a graffiti stencil, taken right outside where Hillary Clinton hoped she’d be having a celebration party in a few hours’ time. A bit of paint on the sidewalk with Clinton’s silhouette and a simple phrase underneath.

‘I’m with her.’

With just two months to go, I’m all-in on the US election.

And I was reminded of that Hillary Clinton stencil as I watched Kamala Harris’ first and only TV interview as the Democrats nominee.

The interview was fine. Nothing too exciting and nothing too scandalous. I can’t imagine it moved the dial in any major way. But perhaps the most telling bit from a strategic sense, was Kamala Harris’ response when asked about Donald Trump questioning her black identity.

Harris paused and said just a few words: ‘Same old tired playbook. Next question please.’

That was it. She was served up a prime opportunity to talk at length about her identity. A different candidate might have talked about America’s history of racial oppression. She might have recalled other occasions when people sought to undermine her through the prism of race. She might have talked about misogyny and the barriers she has had to overcome as an ambitious woman.

But nup! Zilch. Nothing. Not a word on identity. Next question please.

As a candidate, I reckon Kamala Harris has plenty of flaws. For now, she’s getting by on vibes rather than specifics. From the Democrats’ perspective, I don’t think that matters one bit. Trump’s such a polarising figure. People love or hate him. No one feels simply ambivalent about him. And it means any election in which he’s a candidate is not really going to focus on policy.

But in her ‘vibes’ campaign, one thing I reckon Kamala Harris is doing extremely well is NOT talking about identity. If she wins, she would be the first woman President. The first black woman. The first South Asian. All of these things are historic and arguably significant, but they’re also self-evident and I think it’s notable that she and her supporters, and other high-profile Democrats aren’t talking about them.

I contrast it with Hillary Clinton’s run, when so much of the campaign discourse centred on the possibility of her becoming America’s first woman President.

Kamala Harris has perhaps chosen a different message.

Instead of ‘I’m with her,’ ‘I’m not him.”

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.