William Kristol: “Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech last night was a success. It capped a Democratic convention that was a success. That convention, in turn, capped Harris’s first month as a candidate, which was a success.”

“All that success was by no means inevitable.”

“One really has to tip one’s hat to the vice president and her campaign, and say: Not bad. Not bad at all. Pretty damn impressive, in fact…”

“But enough of all this unaccustomed good cheer. We need to start worrying about the debate. It’s only two-and-a-half weeks away.”

“The U.S. Secret Service has placed multiple agents on leave, including the head of the Pittsburgh field office, as a result of its investigation into last month’s assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump,” CBS News reports.

Donald Trump’s campaign announced that there would be a “special guest” at his rally in Glendale, Ariz., on Friday, the New York Times reports.

The expectation is that it’s Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is ending his independent presidential bid later today in Arizona.

Josh Marshall: “The most telling comments were those from Republican commentators who couldn’t find their way around saying that it was a strong speech before, of course, reassuring listeners that Harris is obviously terrible and they agree with her about nothing.”

John Harwood: “Trump has taken Republicans so far off the deep end as to leave the American mainstream wide open Harris and Democrats spent this effective convention claiming it – on broadly-shared values, on decency, on love of country.”

CNN: “Though his odds of victory were quickly diminishing – a recent CBS News poll measured his support at just 2% – Kennedy’s decision to bow out 74 days before the election nevertheless presents another twist to a race already unlike any other. And amid a momentum shift that has catapulted the newly installed Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, into close contention with Trump, there is hope within the former president’s operation that Kennedy’s exit could prove decisive if certain battlegrounds are decided by thousands of ballots, just as they were in 2020.”

“It’s hardly certain what Kennedy’s backers will do. Whether many of them ever intended to vote for him or at all is difficult to gauge, and some may choose to sit the election out without an alternative on the ballot.”

Peter Baker: “Joy cometh in the morning, but so do hangovers. The party in Chicago is done, the confetti has been swept up, the pictures have been posted to social media. But the real question as exuberant Democrats woke up on Friday was whether they could channel the sheer intoxication of the United Center into a sustained, 74-day sprint to Election Day.”

“Vice President Kamala Harris emerged from her nominating convention with a burst of momentum that Democrats hardly expected barely a month ago, when they thought they would be tethered to a possibly doomed re-election bid by President Biden. She has rejuvenated a once demoralized party and given a jolt of optimism to Democrats who now see victory in reach.”

“The buzzkill reality, however, is that victory is anything but assured. The thousands of jubilant delegates in the hall this week were not representative of the swing voters that Ms. Harris needs to defeat former President Donald J. Trump. History is littered with presidential candidates who roused their partisans at conventions only to fall short come November. And whatever else he is, Mr. Trump is no pushover. Ms. Harris can expect a bruising battle over the next two and a half months.”

The Bulwark: “If the convention accomplished one thing, it’s this: The people in power have now framed themselves as the opposition party.”

Dan Balz: “In his history as a candidate for president, Donald Trump has never experienced anything like the past month. Vice President Kamala Harris, a Black and Indian American woman, has pushed the White alpha male to the sidelines of the national conversation, denying him the spotlight he craves and constantly demands.”

“Democrats concluded their electrifying national convention here on Thursday night with Harris as the main event, delivering an address sculpted to keep her on the crest of a wave that has changed the contours of the presidential election.”

“The Democrats are in the game, the former president is in a box, and it’s not clear whether he knows what to do.”

“Trying to free himself from this bind, Trump has plucked from what was once a tested playbook of tricks that in the past has kept his opponents off-balance and himself at the center of attention. But as the campaign now moves to its next phase, the focus on him and how he attempts to regain his balance will be as much or more of the story compared with how Harris navigates the road ahead.”

“Is she talking about me?”

— Donald Trump, on Truth Social, as Kamala Harris was speaking at the Democratic convention.

Playbook: “Kamala Harris stuck the landing. Donald Trump seems thrown off his game. Democrats are giddy with excitement.”

“The question now: What happens now that the pageantry is over and the hard realities of an uphill campaign reassert themselves?”

Associated Press: “Amid the extraordinary optimism, former first lady Michelle Obama offered a sober warning: ‘No matter how good we feel tonight or tomorrow or the next day, this is going to be an uphill battle.'”

“The word of caution was quickly drowned out by the excitement that overwhelmed the standing-room-only 17,000-person arena in downtown Chicago. But as activists, operatives and party leaders leave the Democratic National Convention and fan out across America, a stark reality exists: The real test for Harris has only just begun.”

The founder of the main outside spending group backing Kamala Harris’ presidential bid says their own opinion polling is less “rosy” than public polls suggest and warned that Democrats face much closer races in key states, Reuters reports.

Politico: “Other Democratic pollsters noted that — even if their polling is right — Trump still maintains a lot of advantages.”

Dan Pfeiffer: “Even though Kamala Harris is the sitting Vice President, voters view her very differently from Biden. In a New York Times/Siena poll of North Carolina, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia, 46% of voters think she will bring about major changes or tear down the system, and only 11% think she will make no change. This is an important improvement over Biden.”

Julia Azari: “The replacement of Biden with Harris didn’t just offer a younger nominee, or a more historic one, it also offered an opportunity to run as the change candidate. Tonight’s speech showed careful messaging on exactly that theme. In particular, by embracing a message about the future, she is trying to explicitly orient the campaign around prospective ideas about what each administration would do in office.”