Fit, functioning and feasible: Kamala Harris clears a low bar

It was the week when Joe Biden displayed rare bravery by stepping back from the Democratic nomination; a truly selfless act that will assure that his legacy will remain intact, no matter what happens in November…

Except it wasn’t. He didn’t. And it doesn’t.

We can ignore much of what passed in the past week in US politics as pure froth; the bleachy detergent released to the press and meant to make us think a politician’s fingers are as clean as their soul. Accepting any of it at face value is like buying into the marketing of some new phone that promises you a 24-hour battery when you know it will probably die on you somewhere during Newsnight.

The past week has been a succession of slick, atom-deep, spray-on finishes to the previously tarnished wreck of the Democratic nomination. 

The first presidential debate had proved Joe Biden unelectable but removing him from the ticket had taken threats by party donors and some potentially relationship-breaking pressure from high-profile Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi, George Clooney, and Adam Schiff. Biden stepped back in an act that came far too late and after a delay that historians will remember as the most stubborn, selfish, and potentially destructive act of his presidency.

The Democrat impasse contrasted with Republicans who enjoyed a successful convention, in which they proved themselves ready for government, with their entertaining President bringing a little excitement to the event with his inspired pick of running mate…

Except they didn’t. He didn’t. And it wasn’t.

They gloated about their inevitable victory over the ailing President. They were measuring the curtains, arranging for somebody to pick up the old Oval Office rug, and asking the price to have doorways heightened so Barron wouldn’t need to duck whenever he walked into a room. This went beyond bravado. They were smearing liberal noses in the dirt and second-guessing the electorate, neither of which is ever a good look.

Another thing which isn’t a good look was the cult-like way supporters wore bandages on their ears and pummelled one-armed salutes to Trump as they chanted “fight”. 

Yet more telling about the race ahead was how Donald Trump has become his own tribute act. His ninety-odd minute speech was boring supporters by the midpoint. There were the classics, of course. He ranted about electricity, sharks, and the “late great” Hannibal Lecter. But his new material was as exciting as shopping for green vegetables. He slowly – tediously – walked us through the moments of the would-be assassination…

“In order to see the chart… I started to – like this – turn to my right… and was ready to begin a little bit further turn, which I’m very lucky I didn’t do… when I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really really hard… on my right ear… I said to myself ‘Wow! What was that? It can only be a bullet…’”

Then he kissed the helmet worn by Corey Comperatore, the retired volunteer fire department chief who was killed at the rally. Trump also laid his hands on the old yellow fire jacket. By any measure it was unsettling.

Also unsettling was the matter of his running mate. J.D. Vance is more MAGA than Trump, and deeply connected to the libertarian world of tech billionaire Peter Thiel. Vance doesn’t broaden the appeal of the ticket but narrows it. There’s already rumours, which might not be indicative of anything – that Trump could even be ready to ditch Vance, claiming that if Democrats can switch candidates, then so can he.

His panic – the Republican panic – is justifiable, but their arguments are too thin to amount to anything short of some crazy intervention by the Supreme Court. Biden was never the party’s nominee. The extent to which Speaker Mike Johnson will now protest, launch legal challenges, and do everything he can to restore the status quo is a sign of how much Trump’s team enjoyed the former status quo. They wanted to contest Biden.

As for what happens next..

It’s never wise to make prognostications in the heat of a hot headline. That’s what happened after the bullet/fragment of autocue struck Trump in western Pennsylvania and led so many to decide that it would win the election for the former President. It’s similarly too early to say that this last-minute switch will guarantee the White House for Team Blue. 

What is very notable, though, is that the media are finally saying Kamala Harris’s name right.

“First, my name is pronounced ‘comma-la,’ like the punctuation mark,” she explained in her biography. 

Comma-la.

The fact that she’s been the Vice President for nearly four years and it’s only now that media pundits are learning to pronounce her name correctly (or, rather, have a reason to learn how to say it correctly) is indicative of the problem we’ve all had for the last few months. Polls are meaningless when people don’t even know how to pronounce the name of one of the candidates. If people didn’t know Comma-la, then, of course, she’d poll poorly.

The next sets of polls will show an improvement. The first, by Reuters/Ipsos has Harris up 44% to 42% over Trump. But we should also discount them. There’ll be a bounce. There’s always a bounce. The Harris project will take weeks to implement. It will be about building momentum and enthusiasm without risking exhausting both herself and her potential voters. It will be about crafting the right conditions for victory come towards 5 November.

The signs for the Democrats are promising. They always have been. They had a more compelling message, but they didn’t have a compelling messenger. That might have changed. Immediately after Biden’s announcement and the widespread endorsement of Harris, the Vice President’s campaign beat donation records by raising $81 million in 24 hours. In a world in which it was rumoured (but since denied) that Elon Musk promised to donate $45 million a month to Trump, $81 million doesn’t sound like much but this is from small donations up to the value of $200. The number doesn’t reflect huge amounts of cash flowing into her campaign, but it does indicate the sheer breadth of support from Americans willing to invest.

Conversely, it will take Republicans a little time to find an effective attack. Trump will no doubt try out a few new names for her. We won’t know if they work until they work. Trump will hope to shape the public’s perception of the Vice President, but he will risk appearing sexist, bullying, and perhaps even racist. (And much as those will alienate him to some, others will see them as virtues). Yet it’s always worth repeating: Trump has never won a popular vote and never gone up against a presidential nominee who wasn’t either Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden. This is new territory for Donald Trump.

The Democrats might still lose in November but, if they do, they will lose the right way. Since it became obvious that Biden’s decline wasn’t simply arthritis and numb feet, and amounted to a notable mental decline, it would have been irresponsible for Democrats to nominate him and for voters to vote for him. Democrats have done the right thing. Harris might not be the perfect candidate, but she’s fit, functioning, and entirely feasible. If only the Republicans could say the same about their candidate.

@DavidWaywell

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