Democratic Convention Anoints Harris As A Commander In Chief Ready To Lead

CHICAGO ― The biggest X-factor for any presidential candidate is a simple question consultants like to ask: Can you picture this person as president – the kind of person with the dignity and seriousness needed to run the largest military on earth and handle difficult conversations with foreign leaders while sitting at the Resolute Desk?

Call it the 3 a.m. phone call test, as Hillary Clinton put it in a 2008 campaign ad , describing the qualities needed to have confidence in a leader’s ability to handle a crisis under pressure.

On Thursday night, political leaders, military veterans and law enforcement officials came together to portray Vice President Kamala Harris as a proven leader capable of serving as commander in chief on day one.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer laid out something like the 3 a.m. call scenario explicitly in her remarks. The state executive affectionately known as “Big Gretch” conjured a situation where a busy parent gets a news alert about a terrible incident that has occurred in the country. The person would stop everything to check on family members’ safety ― and then their mind might drift to thinking about who is in the White House.

“What if it’s him? What if it’s that man from Mar-a-Lago?” Whitmer asked.

“I know in a crisis we need someone strong enough to come up with a plan, to tell the truth and to bring people together,” she added. “Why don’t we choose the leader who’s tough, tested and a total badass!”

Of course, the evening’s speakers had to balance raising weighty concerns about former President Donald Trump’s fitness for high office with a consistent theme of mocking him as a lightweight and laughingstock.

“In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man,” Harris said. “But the