Biden? Or Harris?

Ray Davies said it for all time.  You get a good thing going and you blow yourself out.

That's exactly what's been happening to Joe Biden in the past three weeks.  As soon as he's gotten any momentum from a strong speech or a resilient campaign rally, another high-profile Democrat calls for him to step side as a candidate for re-election,  a new poll shows a reliably Democratic state becoming a competitive battleground for Donald Trump, a major donor drops out, an immature U.S. Senator from Ohio steals his thunder . . . or Joe Biden gets COVID.  Yesterday, his momentum was arrested by all of the above.

Is it time for Biden to step aside?  I don't want to say yes, because I'm not a Democrat and that's a decision only Democrats can make.  But if the opera isn't over, the fat lady is getting ready to take the stage.  I don't really want Biden to step down, but what's my opinion against those of the 65 percent of rank-and-file - not elitist, rank-and-file - Democrats in a recent survey saying Biden has to go?  

If - if - Biden drops out, there's only one person who can take his place and save America from Trump.  And that person is . . . Kamala Harris. 

It's a no-brainer, really.  She's the current Vice President, and she is pretty much the only rising star from the Obama years whose star kept rising after Obama was gone - or even while Obama was in office (don't get me started on that again).  Other potential candidates being talked about either lack the experience and name recognition, such as Democratic first-term governors, or is Gavin Newsom, whose experience and name recognition are just the problem with him.  She would automatically get the black vote, she would automatically get the women's vote, automatically and, thanks to her husband Doug Emhoff, she'd certainly get the Jewish vote.  She has a built-in infrastructure from the Biden-Harris campaign, and so she wouldn't have to start from scratch; all Biden would have to do is tell, or at least ask his delegates to nominate her to avoid a messy convention floor fight.  Also, as a former prosecutor, she can effectively prosecute the case against Donald Trump.      

So how about this immodest proposal?  This coming Saturday is July 20, exactly three and a half years since Biden took office.  Biden, now with le co-vide, can address the nation from his vacation house in Rehoboth Beach that night and announce his withdrawal from the campaign and also announce his resignation effective immediately.  Harris would then become President and run for a full term in her own right as an incumbent.