A response to William Cooper’s opinion piece “Defining Kamala,” which ran in the August 22, 2024 edition of the MSR.
Dear William Cooper,
I must object to your tepid and grudging endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for president of the United States.
You compare Harris to Barack Obama and Joe Biden and lament that she lacks the “rock star” quality of Barack and the “policy experience” of Joe, although you do concede she is “better than the alternative”: Donald Trump. (High praise indeed!)
However, you fail to see that Kamala is a meteor who will bring joy, warmth and compassion to the Oval Office—something that Americans have never seen. As Hillary Clinton says (and who would know this better than Hillary), Kamala is “on the other side of the glass ceiling” and can show her warmth as well her acuity, intelligence and grit. She is able to hold both sides with clarity and calm.
She is a warrior for justice, motivated by her belief that it is her job to make the world a better place. She has a solid track record of getting things done in every position she has held, from prosecutor to attorney general to senator to vice president.
It is true that her first bid for the presidency was a flop, but as we all know, every road to success includes a failure. While she won’t be the perfect president, she is not only better than Trump. Kamala (along with our governor, Tim Walz) is the next best thing that could happen to our country. She is motivated by the desire to do the right thing and will emerge as the president for all the people.
Rondi Atkin