Kamala Mania

 Okay, it's a new dawn, its  new day, and all that rot . . . 

Whatever criticisms I have applied to Kamala Harris as a presidential candidate on this blog in the past no longer apply.  Since President Biden ended his bid for re-election on Sunday, Harris has encouraged Democrats to give so much money to her nascent presidential campaign that it's broken fundraising records.  Democratic would-be presidential candidates have not challenged Harris, they've endorsed her.  She's already amassed enough delegates to win the Democratic presidential nomination by acclamation.  And the comments she made yesterday about how she plans to prosecute the case against Donald Trump show a new confidence in her that she hadn't exhibited before.

Some of my doubts, though, remain.  In 2008, many people believed that Americans were not ready for  black President.  Eight years of President Barack Obama and the election of Donald Trump in 2016 proved those people right.  And as much as I'd like to believe that a woman can be elected President now, especially after the Dobbs decision, and as much as I still believe that Hillary Clinton lost because of the unwanted Bush-Clinton-Bush Clinton continuum more than for having two X chromosomes . . . uh, yeah, being a woman might still be a barrier.  There are still a lot of folks out there who have a problem with the idea of  half black, half South Asian woman whose musical tastes run more toward Bootsy Collins than toward Phil Collins . . . and whose husband is a Jew.  But there are also many people who would vote against a white male presidential candidate who shares Harris's values simply for being a Democrat . . . like Joe Biden. 

There are two advantages Harris has, though, that help her against Trump.  First, she's seasoned.  She has been a rising star for a decade, having been the Attorney General of California, a U.S. Senator from California,  and now Vice President.  And I don't need to tell you again that Harris stands alone as a rising star from the Obama years who fulfilled her promise while other anointed future stars of the party from that period were forced into early retirement from public life.  The second advantage is that she's young.  Well, relatively, anyway.  Harris turns sixty this October 20 (Trivia: She was born the same day that former President Herbert Hoover died), and though on Election Day she will be thirteen years older than Obama was when he was elected President in 2008, fourteen years older than Bill Clinton was when he was elected President in 1992, and eight years older than Jimmy Carter was when he was elected President in 1976 . . . she's eighteen years younger than Donald Trump.  And she likes it.

Because of the deep support Trump has always enjoyed in the cultural and intellectual backwaters of America - Idaho, Mississippi, North Dakota, Fairfield, New Jersey - Harris's path to the White House won't be easy, and there will be many a MAGA black cat crossing that path between now and Election Day.  We'll see what happens.