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Guest Essay

By New York Times Opinion

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Welcome to Opinion’s commentary for Night 4 of the Democratic National Convention. In this special feature, Times Opinion writers rate the evening on a scale of 0 to 10: 0 means the night was a disaster for Kamala Harris; 10 means it could lead to a big polling bump. Here’s what our columnists and contributors thought of the event, which included speeches by Gretchen Whitmer, Gabby Giffords and Kamala Harris.

Binyamin Appelbaum, member of the editorial board Kamala Harris’s great-nieces, teaching America how to pronounce her name. And Harris herself, meeting the moment with a performance that was confident, principled — presidential.

Josh Barro, author of the newsletter Very Serious Harris’s speech, especially its beginning about her upbringing and her mother. In past campaigns, Harris has sometimes seemed like an empty vessel. Now she’s reintroducing herself in a way that is specific, warm and uniquely American, and that provides a framework to explain the broadly popular values of freedom and justice she’s espousing.

Charles M. Blow, Times columnist Women ruled the night. There were so many impressive, effective women presenting — culminating with Harris, of course — that the remarkable almost became unremarkable. I had to force myself to pause and absorb the fact that I was witnessing a revolution.

Jamelle Bouie, Times columnist The first three nights of this convention were easily the most successful since 2008, but they would have been for naught had Harris missed the landing with an awkward or underwhelming acceptance speech. She succeeded. But other than a moving introduction, where she told the story of her life and family to the viewing public, this wasn’t a speech about the meaning of her candidacy. It was something closer to a State of the Union — a statement of policies and priorities and an indictment of her opponents. It was as if the campaign had offloaded talk of symbolism to other speakers so that Harris could present herself as ready to be president on Day 1.

Frank Bruni, contributing Opinion writer I wept — no, I bawled — as I listened to the teacher from Sandy Hook, the mother from Uvalde and the others who’d witnessed and lost loved ones to gun violence. That was absolutely gutting. And utterly necessary.

Jane Coaston, contributing Opinion writer They landed the dismount. Harris’s speech was well delivered and rhetorically effective, and aimed at a defined audience: the middle of the electorate.

Liam Donovan, Republican strategist Gabby Giffords was the feel-good story of the night —........

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