Like many Individuals who watched the presidential debate on Thursday night time, I knew when it was over that there was no manner I used to be going to sleep. So I did one thing I virtually by no means do: tuned in to the pundit commentary on cable information. I’m glad I did. Not lengthy after the controversy, Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on CNN with Anderson Cooper. Watching her calmly and methodically reply to a battering ram of questions from Cooper, it occurred to me: The plain, logical path out of the mess President Biden created together with his disastrous debate efficiency is for him to bow out with honor and endorse his younger, vigorous and gifted vice chairman to face in his stead.
I do know, I do know. You suppose I simply fell out of a coconut tree. Didn’t Harris flame out within the final Democratic presidential major, leaving simply in time to keep away from an embarrassing loss in her residence state, California? Sure. However to win a major you will need to thread the needle of introducing your self to the bottom of the get together whereas burnishing the case on your concepts and dissing the abilities of your rivals, all whereas preserving your choices open, as a result of your opponents are additionally your future surrogates and allies. For girls — and for Black ladies particularly — the gender and racial dynamics of the presidential major race appear particularly troublesome to navigate.
These dynamics would play out very otherwise on a nationwide stage shared with Donald Trump. There, Harris wouldn’t be hectoring a fellow Democrat over comparatively small variations in coverage or trying to shine her personal report compared to a governor or fellow lawmaker. She will use her true superpower: She will probably be a relentless prosecutor of the very clear political case in opposition to Donald John Trump, a felon, a person discovered liable for sexual abuse, an inveterate liar, a demagogue, a risk to our democracy and to our Structure.
I believe I converse for lots of girls, most likely probably the most decisive voting bloc on this election, after I say that I might like to see Harris lower Trump right down to dimension. And in contrast to the blow she landed on Biden in the course of the 2020 major debate — “That little lady was me,” in response to Biden’s horrible reply about faculty busing coverage — she could be in a hoop with an precise bully who will probably be unable to assist himself and deal with her with menacing disrespect. In contrast to Trump’s earlier feminine debate rival, Hillary Clinton, nary a whiff of scandal has besmirched Harris. All Trump would have is private assaults, which might solely additional reinforce his picture as a bully. That would play particularly poorly with average voters when directed at a mature Black girl.
Within the wake of Thursday night time’s debate, it’s straightforward to miss how weak Trump is. He gave a dismal efficiency. He served up a platter of falsehoods and insults that really turned off some voters, based on interviews I noticed with debate viewers on tv. However a rambling, sputtering Biden totally didn’t counter him.
Harris, together with her killer instincts and poise, may have wiped the ground with Trump on the problems that matter most to voters. We overlook that she was very profitable not simply as a prosecutor but additionally as a candidate for statewide workplace in California. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the course of the first Trump administration she drew blood with her tough, calm and deliberate questions, managing to attain viral moments with out seeming like a theatrical showboater.
It could have been satisfying to observe her face off in opposition to Trump on Thursday, not only for progressives but additionally for suburban ladies who wished to see a full-throated battle for his or her reproductive rights, a problem on which Harris has been particularly — and passionately — outspoken and Biden, a religious Catholic, has been muted. I disagree together with her insurance policies on the border, however there isn’t a query Harris has been robust and compelling on immigration. She has been a preferred surrogate on the marketing campaign path, and whereas she could not assist that a lot with Black and Latino males, who in any case are much less constant voters, I imagine she may energize Black ladies and younger folks.
A marketing campaign will not be a debate, and there’s a lengthy street forward. However the job is to awaken the nation out of another universe by which the Trump presidency was really not that unhealthy. I believe she will be able to make that case higher than virtually anybody within the Democratic Social gathering.
Her polling earlier than this debate was not nice — her favorables are as dismal as Biden’s — however recent polls in swing states have proven she may acquire belief with voters ought to she step in for the president. In contrast to a drafted candidate, she would begin with low expectations she may fairly simply exceed. In a world full of peril, she has been concerned in main nationwide safety points, not relegated to ribbon cuttings. Paired with, say, a robust, centrist governor like Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania or Andy Beshear of Kentucky as her operating mate, she may win this.
If Harris had been to develop into the primary girl president via this unusual and very unlikely sequence of occasions, it might even be an ideal illustration of what it often takes for girls to get an opportunity to steer: A person makes a hash of an vital job, and a girl should roll up her sleeves and clear it up. It could not be the identical form of triumphant second that introduced us our first Black president. However it might lastly break that hardest and highest glass ceiling. I hope that the subsequent girl president may come to workplace below extra auspicious circumstances.
Giving the nod to Harris would have one other profit. It could enable Biden to finish his lengthy profession in public service with dignity and honor. He’ll go down in historical past as the person who stopped Trump in 2020. No matter expediency led Biden to decide on Harris as his operating mate, and it’s clear that she was not a pure selection for him, she was in the end his selection of successor ought to he be unable to serve. Making a mad scramble to discover a alternative whereas passing over the gifted politician he already selected would merely be one other instance of Biden blowing it. Bowing out permits him to be a patriot and let the pure order of succession as he envisioned it unfold, preserving his legacy and sense of company. That’s not a small factor. Harris 2024: It has a reasonably good ring to it.