David Frum: Speak Like a President, Madam VP

Thought Leader: David Frum

September 28, 2024

Written by: David Frum

This piece is by WWSG exclusive thought leader, David Frum.

Kamala Harris has campaigned as the tough-on-dictators candidate for president. The Democrat scores points off Donald Trump for his truckling and cringing to Vladimir Putin, for swapping love letters with Kim Jong Un.

Today—this very day—the vice president has her best opportunity to prove her toughness and assert her national-security credibility. She can issue a statement on Israel’s killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader and terrorist in chief. “The Middle East is a better and safer place without Nasrallah.” Full stop. No diplomatic balancing, no process-speak.

Yes, obviously, there will be complexities ahead. What will Iran, Hezbollah’s patron, do in response? The U.S. government pays skilled regional experts to worry about such contingencies. But a big problem with Harris’s public image is that she often lets those skilled experts choose her words for her. They push her to say too much, which means saying nothing, which means Americans don’t feel they know her.

In too many cases, Harris’s words seem focus-grouped to please every imaginable constituency. The trouble is, at exactly the moment when communications staffers are satisfied they have pleased everybody, they have, in fact, left everybody frightened that the candidate is confused and hesitant. Strong leaders get in front of public opinion. Strong leaders make choices and accept consequences.

Sometimes the best way to halt an escalation cycle is to demonstrate how unafraid you are of the escalation cycle.

On October 29, 1983, Hezbollah detonated truck bombs at the barracks of the U.S. Marines keeping the peace in Lebanon after the 1982 war between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. More Marines died than in any single day since the landing on Iwo Jima during the Second World War. That blood debt has never been fully paid. Israel’s forceful strikes on Hezbollah this year have delivered justice for Americans too.

Leadership isn’t always straightforward, but a great leader should know when to be simple and direct. A very bad man has met the violent death he inflicted on so many others. No American leader should feel frightened of expressing a lack of sorrow. The menu can sometimes call for word salad. Today, the menu calls for word meat-and-potatoes.

“Nasrallah dead? Good.” That’s the message Harris should send. Say it clear. Say it firm. Say it like a president.

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