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August 23rd 2024

A sharp round-up of the most important political news

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The US in brief

A sharp round-up of the most important political news

Correspondent’s dispatch: Harris gets to business

Charlotte McCann
Features writer, 1843

By day four of the Democratic National Convention delegates had heard others, including Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey, make the case for Kamala Harris. When Ms Harris walked on stage to argue her cause herself, she struggled to be heard over the roar of the crowd. “Let’s get to business,” she said repeatedly, showing the resolve that unnerved those she once cross-examined, including Jeff Sessions, an attorney-general under Donald Trump, Brett Kavanaugh, a prospective Supreme Court justice, and Doug Emhoff, her husband—as he joked in his speech.

Ms Harris explained why she had become a prosecutor: to fight for Americans. And she laid out the case against Mr Trump who, she claimed, wants to pull the country back into the past. “But America,” she said, “we are not going back.” Democrats in the room needed little persuading—the crowd chanted the line. Whether Ms Harris won over undecided voters watching at home remains unclear.

Robert F. Kennedy junior filed to withdraw from the presidential race in Arizona, according to state officials. Mr Kennedy, an independent candidate, is expected to drop out of the national contest on Friday, possibly during a speech he will deliver in Glendale, a city near Phoenix. On Thursday Mr Trump said he would be “honoured” if Mr Kennedy endorsed him. Recently Ms Harris has been winning back third party voters; Mr Kennedy’s withdrawal is unlikely to affect the race dramatically.

The Supreme Court allowed part of a Republican-backed voting law in Arizona to go into effect. Arizonans will now need proof of citizenship to successfully submit state voter-registration forms. The court, however, did not permit state officials to enforce part of the law that would block people who register using a federal voter-registration form (without showing proof of citizenship) from voting in the presidential election.

The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that abortion-rights measures would not appear on the ballot in November. The campaign to allow abortions up to 18 weeks garnered more than 102,000 signatures—far more than the 90,000-odd minimum. It relied on some paid canvassers to do so. The court ruled they had not submitted all the correct paperwork, and so only signatures collected by unpaid canvassers could count.

The Justice Department charged a man who was arrested in Guatemala with six counts of migrant smuggling resulting in death or serious injury. The charges related to a smuggling attempt in 2022 that led to the deaths of 53 people. Bodies of the victims were found abandoned in a lorry in the baking 37°C heat of San Antonio, Texas.

Correction: In yesterday’s edition we unfairly accused Tim Walz of having scrambled metaphors. In fact, in American football, the “trench” refers to where offensive and defensive linemen “battle to achieve their objectives”, as one reader put it. Sorry.

Polls and Politicking

Kamala Harris has a lot going for her. For a start, she is neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump. And the vibes are with her. But she will need more than that to win in November. Efforts to familiarise voters with her life story at the DNC are a start. But, our leader argues, she must do something about her disconcertingly vague policy.

A view from elsewhere
“The most efficient and ruthless acts of elimination since Henry VIII decided he wanted a new wife” culminated at the DNC, wrote Gerald Baker in the Australian. But burying Mr Biden was just the first thing on the agenda. Democrats also had to introduce Ms Harris, “still largely a blank slate”, and “keep the joy flowing”. Though the “substance-to-fluff ratio” was poor, Democrats achieved all three objectives.

We want to hear from you
Readers are sending us lots of thoughtful emails so we’ve decided to publish some. If you have views on what is happening in America drop us a line at usib@economist.com. And, of course, we still welcome your feedback on this newsletter.

Editor’s picks

Our latest US coverage

Brand finale

Kamala Harris completes her reinvention

As the Democrats’ convention ends, the general election begins in earnest

Running on vibes

Delegates at the DNC can’t agree whether she is moderate or progressive

They’re just relieved she’s not Biden

Personality and policy

Ms Harris can beat Donald Trump. But how would she govern?

Being a politician is about more than campaigning. More policy detail is needed

Woolly warrior

The Democratic candidate has revealed only the vaguest of policy platforms

Her record suggests she would be a pragmatist

Play the archive

Dateline: The Economist history quiz

Can you guess when these extracts were published?

Today’s forecast

Our forecasting model finds that Kamala Harris has a slight edge over Donald Trump. But there’s little in it.

Daily quiz

From Monday to Thursday we’ll quiz you on all things America. This week’s winner is Sonia Barrad in Long Beach, California. The answers were:

Monday: The official name of the “Sears Tower” is the Willis Tower.

Tuesday: Electricity had its American debut at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. So too did the incandescent lights and ferris wheel it powered.

Wednesday: In John Hughes’ “Ferris Bueller’s day off” the eponymous character pretends to be ill to go on a tour of Chicago with his mates.

Thursday: McDonald’s founded Hamburger University.

From Monday to Thursday we’ll quiz you on all things America. This week’s winner is Sonia Barrad in Long Beach, California. The answers were:

Monday: The official name of the “Sears Tower” is the Willis Tower.

Tuesday: Electricity had its American debut at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. So too did the incandescent lights and ferris wheel it powered.

Wednesday: In John Hughes’ “Ferris Bueller’s day off” the eponymous character pretends to be ill to go on a tour of Chicago with his mates.

Thursday: McDonald’s founded Hamburger University.

From Monday to Thursday we’ll quiz you on all things America. This week’s winner is Sonia Barrad in Long Beach, California. The answers were:

Monday: The official name of the “Sears Tower” is the Willis Tower.

Tuesday: Electricity had its American debut at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. So too did the incandescent lights and ferris wheel it powered.

Wednesday: In John Hughes’ “Ferris Bueller’s day off” the eponymous character pretends to be ill to go on a tour of Chicago with his mates.

Thursday: McDonald’s founded Hamburger University.

See how to take part in the quiz at the bottom of this page.

If you enjoyed this week’s quiz, play Dateline, The Economist’s new history game.

Figure of the day

More than $300m, the value of donations to the Harris campaign in July. Read our briefing on Ms Harris’s vibes-heavy and policy-light approach to the race.

Heard in North Carolina

They even tried to kill him.

—Introducing Donald Trump at a rally, J.D. Vance implies that Democrats were behind the attempt on the former president’s life.

Read all of our recent coverage of the 2024 election. Confused about a term? Check out our A-Z of American politics.

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