Hi, it's Alexa Yabel from New York Times cooking. We've got tons of easy weeknight recipes, and today I'm making my five-ingredient Creamy Miso pasta. You just take your starchy pasta water, whisk it together with a little bit of miso and butter until it's creamy. Add your noodles and a little bit of cheese. It's like a grown-up box of mac and cheese. That feels like a restaurant-quality dish. New York Times cooking has you covered with easy dishes for busy weeknights. You can find more at nytcooking. Com.

This is The Opinions, a show that brings you a mix of voices from New York Times Opinion. You've heard the news. Here's what to make of it.

I'm Patrick Healey, Deputy Editor of New York Times Opinion. The Democratic Convention was the 10th presidential convention I've covered as a journalist, and this one was like no other. If the Republican Convention last month was all about framing Trump as godlike, having avoided an assassin's bullet, the Democrats were all about framing Kamala Harris as joy.

Kamala is a joyful warrior.

Now, ever since Joe Biden stepped aside, the Democrats have basically been branding themselves as the Party of Joy.

Her passion will benefit all of us when she's our President.

And there was this big moment last week when Bill Clinton used the convention to call Harris the President of Joy. The President of Joy to lead us. I got to say, I cringed a little when I heard that. I covered Barack Obama in 2008, and he earned the label of Hope and Change over nearly two years of hard work and trust building with voters on the campaign trail. Now, a lot of voters are clearly excited about Harris, and they have good reason to be after the big Biden switcheroo. But there are a lot of other more undecided voters who are still getting to know Harris and figuring out if they can trust her to keep them safe and keep the country prosperous. Joy is not a winning strategy with those voters. Now, the good news for Democrats is that Harris seems to understand this. She gave a strong convention speech, offering some broad policy positions, setting a President presidential tone, and introducing herself to more voters as a child of immigrants whose love for America was overflowing.

On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth. I accept your nomination to be President of the United States of America.

The bad news for Democrats is that Trump Republicans understand as well that joy is not a winning strategy. Now, what do I mean by that? The race to define Kamala Harris is on. If Republicans can make more voters feel that she is untested and unprepared to keep the country safe and that she's over her head on issues like the economy and immigration, Harris will have a big problem this fall. That's what I'm watching for this week. The Republicans are going to escalate their attacks on her as too liberal to be acceptable as President, to try to muffle any post-convention momentum that Harris might get. Michelle Obama was so spot on about this last week.

Let us not forget what we are up against.

She warned about it.

There are still so many people who are desperate for a different outcome, who are ready to question and criticize every move Kamala makes, who are eager to spread those lies.

Republicans can't just define Trump in some new, positive way because so many people have made up their minds about him. The jury is done on Trump, and he has this ceiling of popular voter support That's about 47% of the country. He's really not moving above that. That's a real problem for Donald Trump. So the Republican plan then is to drag Harris down so she gets below his ceiling of support, too. And while Harris has the momentum right now, the Electoral College still favors Trump. This is so important. This is the whole ball game. Those Electoral College swing states like Pennsylvania and Georgia, they have a lot of voters who just don't care much about democratic joy. And I think that there's probably a slice of white voters in the Midwest who might vote Democratic but won't vote for Harris. Harris, and they won't say it out loud to pollsters. This is a winnable race for Harris, but she hasn't won it yet. She hasn't been tested, really tested, since Biden stepped aside. Her advisors know this. They know that they have to put her in more situations where she's spontaneous, where she's reacting to curveballs.

Voters really like that. I think the biggest test will be the debates with Trump, and the first one is September 10th. Now, her advisors think she might be able to get away with just doing one debate against Trump, but I think they underestimate her challenge. American voters like to see how presidential candidates handle themselves under pressure. They didn't get that at the DNC. The Republicans would love, they would just love Democrats to try to Coast on joy among the party faithful while the GOP defines Harris negatively with the non-party faithful. But again, I think Harris knows this. She knows that she has work to do because after all, there's no joy in losing.

This show is produced by Derek Arthur, Sophia Alvarez-Boyd, Vishaka Durba, Phoebe Lett, Christina Samulowski, and Gillian Weinberger. It's edited by Kari Pitkin, Allison Bruzek, and Annie Rose-Straser. Engineering, mixing, and original music by Isaac Jones, Sonja Herrero, Pat McCusker, Carol Saboreau, and Afim Shapiro. Additional music by Ahmen Sohota. The fact check team is Kate Sinclair, Mary Marge Locker, and Michelle Harris. Audience Strategy by Busta and Christina SamuLuzky. The executive producer of Times Opinion Audio is Annie Rose Dresser.