Like many other Americans who watched Thursday night’s presidential debate, I knew that when the debate ended, I wouldn’t be able to sleep. So I did something I almost never do: followed expert commentary on cable news. I’m so glad I did. Not long after the debate, Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on CNN with Anderson Cooper. As I watched her calmly and methodically respond to a barrage of questions from Cooper, it dawned on me: The clear and logical path out of the mess President Biden has created with his disastrous debate performance that he had to honorably withdraw and support his young, energetic and talented vice president to replace him.
I know. You think I just fall out of the coconut tree. Didn’t Harris explode in the last Democratic presidential primary, leaving just in time to avoid an embarrassing defeat in her home state, California? Correct. But to win the primary, you must introduce yourself to party supporters while warming up to your ideas and underestimating your opponent’s talents, while keeping your options open. Your options are always open, because your opponents are also your future representatives and allies. For women — and especially Black women — the gender and racial dynamics of the presidential primary race seem especially difficult to navigate.
Those dynamics will play out very differently on a national stage shared with Donald Trump. There, Harris won’t challenge a fellow Democrat on relatively minor policy differences or try to burnish her own record compared to a fellow governor or lawmaker. She can use her real superpower: She will be a relentless prosecutor in the very clearly political case against Donald John Trump, a criminala man was found responsible for sexual abusea serial liar, an agitator, a threat to our democracy and our Constitution.
I think I speak for a lot of women, probably the most important voting bloc in this election, when I say I would love to see Harris cut Trump to size. And unlike the shot she delivered to Biden in the 2020 primary debate — “That girl is me,” reply to Biden’s terrible answer on school bus policy – she will face a real bully who will not be able to help himself and treat her with threatening disrespect threaten. Unlike Trump’s previous female debate opponent, Hillary Clinton, Harris has barely encountered a scandal. All Trump can do is make personal attacks, which will only further cement his image as a bully. That could go especially poorly with moderate voters when targeting an adult Black woman.
After Thursday night’s debate, it was easy to overlook how weak Trump is. He had a terrible performance. He delivered a plate full of lies and insults that really turned off some voters, according to interviews I watched with TV debate viewers. But a rambling, stammering Biden was completely unable to refute him.
Harris, with her killer instinct and poise, was able to out-Trump her voters on the issues that mattered most to her. We forget that she was very successful not only as a prosecutor but also as a candidate for statewide office in California. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the first Trump administration, she draw blood with her sharp, calm, and deliberate questions.Try to capture viral moments without seeming like an exhibitionist.
It will be satisfying to watch her face Trump on Thursday, not just for progressives but for suburban women who want to see a full-scale fight for their reproductive rights, an issue on which Harris has been particularly vocal — and passionate — and on which Biden, a devout Catholic, has been more muted. I disagree with her border policies, but Harris has been unquestionably tough and persuasive on immigration. She is a popular surrogate on the campaign trail, and while she may not do much to help Black and Latino men, who are in any case less consistent voters, I believe she can energize Black women and young people.
A campaign is not a debate, and there is a long way to go. But the task is to wake the country out of an alternate universe in which Trump’s presidency actually wasn’t that bad. I think she can make that argument better than almost anyone in the Democratic Party.
She vote The debate didn’t go so well before — her support was as dismal as Biden’s — but Recent polls in swing states has shown she can win the trust of voters if she replaces the president. Unlike a select candidate, she will start with low expectations that she can easily surpass. In a world full of dangers, she participated in important national security issues, without being demoted to cutting ribbons. If paired with a strong, centrist governor like Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro or Kentucky’s Andy Beshear as her running mate, she could win.
If Harris becomes the first woman elected president through this strange and highly unlikely chain of events, it will also be a perfect illustration of what women often have to go through to get a chance at leadership: A man messes up an important job, and a woman has to roll up her sleeves and clean it up. It won’t be the same triumphant moment that gave us our first black president. But it will finally break that most difficult and highest barrier. I hope the next woman president can take office under more favorable circumstances.
Agreeing with Harris would have another benefit. It would allow Biden to end his long career in public service with dignity and honor. He would go down in history as the man who stopped Trump in 2020. Whatever interests led Biden to choose Harris as his running mate, and she is clearly not his natural choice, she is ultimately his choice for successor if he is unable to serve. Creating a mad scramble to find a replacement while ignoring the talented politician he has chosen would simply be another example of Biden blowing it. Bowing down would allow him to be a patriot and let the natural order of succession play out as he envisions it, preserving his legacy and his sense of autonomy. That’s no small thing. Harris 2024: It has a pretty good ring to it.
