The Female Obama? No. Kamala Harris Is More Than That.

But on the night of August 22, 2004, at the United Center in Chicago, that tension evanesced. It had slacked over the course of the week, as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders and Bill and Hillary Clinton all sang from basically the same hymnal. But it culminated in Thursday’s electric speech by Kamala Harris. For my entire adult life, there have been two Democratic parties. Now, there is one. And Harris—amazingly, surprisingly, but forcefully and unmistakably—is the author of that unity.

This will still be a close, ugly, filthy, heart-stopping election, because an ugly, filthy man is on the other side of the equation. But this much is clear. Kamala Harris is a historic figure. How she has risen to this occasion—her poise, her power, her sure-footedness—has been just breathtaking to watch. I kind of thought, kind of worried, that tonight might be a bit of a disappointment. The first three nights were so successful that it might have been the case that this was a bit of a letdown. As good as she’s been in the last month, just maybe, on this impossibly grand and high-pressure stage, she might have been…just okay.

She was badass. And she said to every Democrat from left to center: We have one future, and I am the person who is taking us there.