Well, this is what we all said that we wanted. Including me. Even before Biden’s debate performance we were nervous. After Biden’s debate performance we were practically apoplectic.

And now here we are.

Biden has endorsed his Vice President, and I do believe that she should have a chance to be at the top of the ticket. But that is not guaranteed or automatic.

The Democrats have until August 19th to figure it out. Actually a few days before, because Ohio requires the name to be on the ballot a few days earlier.

Now, let’s be clear, the substitution of Kamala Harris for Joe Biden may not change things dramatically at first. (I’ll be curious to see what FiveThirtyEight has to say, after they’ve had a chance to take a new poll.) Harris and Biden polled similarly against Trump. Keep several things in mind:

1. The Anti-Trump vote is already locked in. Those (like me) who would vote for Biden residing in the ICU over Trump will vote for Harris just as readily as we would for Biden.
2. The Pro-Trump vote is already locked in. Those people who (for some inexplicable reason) see Trump as an icon of manhood, a refreshing warrior for (their perversely backward version of) Christianity, they are going to vote for him regardless of who the Democrats bring forth to oppose him.
3. The election (and re-election) of Barack Obama proved that race is not the complete stumbling block that I (and millions of others) thought it was. Hillary Clinton’s presence at the top of the ticket in 2016 proved (even though she beat Trump only in the popular vote) that gender isn’t decisive either.
4. What matters is what undecided voters in the swing states — generally Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — find acceptable. There is reason to believe that at least in Georgia and North Carolina, the voters there may find Harris’ bi-racialism totally acceptable. 
5. Voters in all of those seven “swing” states voted at least once (if not twice) for Obama, so it can be done. Georgia voted for Biden the last time around.

Like all recent elections, this one is practically guaranteed to be close. It’s also almost guaranteed to have the Democrats win the popular vote, regardless of what happens in the electoral college.

Our country is divided right down the middle, and there is no candidate in the United States of America who is capable of uniting us right now. A lot of that falls at the feet of Donald Trump and the Republicans, who have been working overtime to divide us. But Democrats are not completely innocent either. I give you our current obsession with gender pronouns.

Well, whatever else one can say, we’re in for a hell of a ride over the next few months (or really all the way up until November). It won’t be for the faint of heart, and at the moment it is impossible to predict what the outcome will be.