US election: how ambitious are the two candidates?

AP/Alamy by Stefan Stern, City, University of London On Monday January 20 next year the newly elected US president – the country’s 47th – will repeat this oath at the Capitol in Washington DC: I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. It is a noble ambition to win the right to speak these words. This is the most important elected office in the world. But when we consider the ambition of the two presidential candidates we are confronted by two very different approaches to this role, two different concepts of leadership and service. Vice-president Kamala Harris probably did not expect to be running as the Democratic party’s candidate until the end of June, when President Biden’s poor debate performance began a process which led to him withdrawing his candidacy less than a month later. She could have been forgiven for being unprepared to take up this challenge. Her previous run for the nomination, four years earlier, had not gone well. And as vice-president, like many of her predecessors in that position, she...