The Olympics may be over but the real passing of the torch doesn’t happen until Thursday night.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ shortened campaign may be unique, but her larger situation is not unprecedented. Harris is tasked with taking over the party, while at the same time showing respect to the outgoing President she served.
It’s a conundrum four of her Vice Presidential predecessors previously faced, so perhaps we can learn some lessons from how they handled this particular moment. Let’s begin with a VP who struggled to emerge from the shadow of a legendary leader.
Richard Nixon 1960
When you think of Nixon and convention addresses, your mind probably first goes to his 1968 speech. Opening with a dedication to the ailing Dwight Eisenhower, this Nixon oration birthed both his ‘law and order’ and ‘silent majority’ philosophies, thus becoming his most respected and celebrated address.
His 1960 speech, however, was anything but respected and celebrated. “I have made many speeches in my life’” Nixon began inauspiciously “and never have I found it more difficult to find the words adequate to express what I feel as I find them tonight.”
This address is likely most famous for Nixon’s pledge to campaign in all fifty states. Since Alaska and Hawaii had just joined the Union the previous year, the Vice President wanted to make a show of traversing the newly enlarged nation. Of course, this 50-state strategy allowed JFK to outmaneuver Nixon as the Democratic nominee was better able to prioritize his time in the large toss-up states that ended up deciding this contest.
As for how Nixon handled Eisenhower in this address, he heaped considerable praise on his Commander-in-Chief, calling him “one of the great men of our century…who brought peace to America…the greatest progress and prosperity in history…who restored honesty, integrity and dignity to the conduct of government in the highest office of this land.”
On top of that, Nixon even chided Kennedy for suggesting that Ike should apologize for the U-2 incident. Nevertheless, Nixon always struggled at convincing the electorate to see him as a leader on the level of Eisenhower, although he did succeed at winning the Presidency after an eight year interval.
Hubert Humphrey 1968
Speaking of 1968, you’ve no doubt seen numerous comparisons of this week’s Chicago Democratic National Convention to the one fifty-six years ago. The one similarity we’ll be tackling is how Vice President Humphrey handled his acceptance address.
Humphrey felt a need to address that week’s violence both at the start and conclusion of his speech, illustrating just how thoroughly it overshadowed his ascension.
“Surely we have now learned the lesson that violence breeds counter violence and it cannot be condoned, whatever the source,” he declared at the onset of his oration. Furthermore, his contention that “rioting, burning, sniping, mugging, traffic in narcotics, and disregard for law are the advance guard of anarchy, and they must and they will be stopped” won hearty applause from Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.
As for Lyndon Johnson, the incumbent actually decided to skip the convention entirely in order to avoid Vietnam War protesters. Despite that, Humphrey did praise LBJ for how he handled the Kennedy assassination as well as his civil rights record.
“I truly believe that history will surely record the greatness of his contribution to the people of this land,” he proclaimed. “And tonight to you, Mr. President, I say thank you. Thank you, Mr. President.”
Ironically, Humphrey would both call for “law and order” as well as invoke “that vast, unfrightened, dedicated, faithful majority of Americans” in his address; yet those phrases – and the 1968 election – would always belong to Richard Nixon.
George H.W. Bush 1988
Of the four men on this list, the only one to actually make the instant move from the Vice Presidency to the top job was George Herbert Walker Bush.
In order to ease that transition, the Bush campaign sought to mold their man into a Reagan-like figure with the help of Reagan’s speechwriter Peggy Noonan. She made that transmogrification explicit in the section of the speech used by Bush’s campaign for a 30-second TV spot.
“For seven and a half years, I’ve worked with a great president. I’ve seen what crosses that big desk,” Bush proclaimed. “I’ve seen the unexpected crises that arrive in a cable in a young aide’s hand. And so I know that what it all comes down to, this election, is the man at the desk. And who should sit at that desk? My friends, I am that man!”
As well as casting himself as a loyal lieutenant and suitable successor of Reagan’s, Bush also tried to draw some contrast by calling for a “kinder and gentler nation” and mentioning his “thousand points of light”.
In the moment, Bush’s address fueled his considerable campaign comeback. Yet just four years later, his “read my lips: no new taxes” pledge hung like an albatross around his neck throughout his unsuccessful 1992 campaign.
Actually, the legacy of this address would last well into the 21st Century. One man on the floor of the convention watching Bush’s address was then-real estate tycoon Donald Trump, who reportedly remarked as the balloons fell “This is what I want.”
Al Gore 2000
While the elder George Bush sought to blur the lines between himself and Ronald Reagan, then-Vice President Al Gore was much more eager to turn the page.
After a pre-convention joint campaign appearance involving the Clintons and the Gores, the Gore team sought to campaign in the fall on their own merits.
“For almost eight years now, I’ve been the partner of a leader who moved us out of the valley of recession and into the longest period of prosperity in American history,” Gore declared. “I say to you tonight, millions of Americans will live better lives for a long time to come because of the job that’s been done by President Bill Clinton.”
Almost immediately, however, Gore began to move on.
“But now we turn the page and write a new chapter. And that’s what I want to speak about tonight. This election is not an award for past performance,” he continued. “We’re entering a new time. We’re electing a new president. And I stand here tonight as my own man.”
Of course, the most memorable moment of the whole night came just before Gore’s acceptance address, when he gave his then-wife Tipper a particularly passionate kiss. Almost instantaneously, pundits wondered whether Gore was trying to draw a distinction with Bill Clinton after all the drama over his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
In the days after the Florida recount, Clinton and Gore would argue over whether Gore’s strategy to separate himself or Clinton’s marital failings were more responsible for the party’s defeat; a debate that continues to this day.
As you can see, Kamala Harris is walking into a particularly fraught situation on Thursday night. There’s no guaranteed formula, and whichever path you take will be judged through the prism of whether or not you win in November.