What a difference a few weeks can make!

With his bloodied face and clenched fist salute, former President Donald Trump was at the peak of his popularity after surviving the July 13 assassination attempt. This continued with his early call for unity at the unified and well-organized Republican convention in Milwaukee two days later. 

Regretfully, the Trump remake ended very rapidly. This raised fears among many moderate American voters, and many Canadians as well, particularly considering the extremely poor showing by President Joe Biden in the June 27 campaign debate.

But everything in the campaign changed on July 21, when Biden, under pressure from the public and prominent Democrats, pulled out of the race for the Democratic nomination, and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination.

Showing herself to be incredibly loyal to President Biden, Harris stepped into the breach and quickly demonstrated her ability to wage a strong and spirited campaign over the next 105 days to the November 5 election. Many prominent Democrats fell in behind her, and she raised a record one-day total of $100+ million for her campaign, much of it from small individual donors. Participation by young voters, especially, surged.

More importantly, Harris shows that with her background in dealing with criminals as a former prosecutor in California, she is perfectly prepared to go toe to toe with Trump. She said succinctly, “I know his kind.”

Harris is already effectively reminding the electorate of who Trump is, with his 34 felony convictions, his contempt for women, his new-found faith in God Almighty, his unending lies, his refusal to accept his 1970 election defeat, and his leadership of the January 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill.

President Biden’s departure from the nomination race has prompted an outpouring of affection for his character, his decency, his placing of patriotism over personal ambition. He showed his stubbornness in not withdrawing sooner from the race, but he will now be able to serve out his term with dignity and remain a much-loved figure in his party and the USA as a whole. 

Already, Trump’s choice as a vice-presidential candidate, J.D. Vance has long-since proven himself to be a loose cannon, criticizing Harris, about not having children, but is stepmother to her husband’s two children by an earlier marriage. The children affectionately call her Mamala.
In a 2021 interview Vance said that the U.S. is being run “by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.” Comments like these stick to Vance and to Trump. Even MAGA Trump supporters can have trouble on the childless issue.

Harris does have vulnerabilities such as her handling as Vice President of the illegal immigration at the southern U.S. border. Trump has thus far refused to commit to debating Harris, but if he eventually agrees to a debate, how many times can he repeat “southern border”?  With her experience as a prosecutor and Trump’s vulnerabilities, Harris will likely topple Trump in any debate.

The former President gave an early indication after the attempted assassination that he would seek unity in the country, but he rapidly reverted to his old self, starting with his huge display of ego as he delivered his convention speech—his name displayed massively behind him in bright lights, TRUMP.  It’s just another example of his “type” of human being, but can we imagine Biden or Harris doing that? Adolph Hitler made an unfortunate science of it in his rallies in Germany in the 1930’s.

Remember Mike Pence? He was picked by Trump to be his Vice President. Then, during the Jan. 6 insurrection, Trump’s invaders on Capitol Hill screamed “Hang Mike Pence” and essentially imprisoned him in his office. Trump did not exactly rush to his defence.

Pence was no where to be seen at the recent Republican convention. Soon after, he said: “President Joe Biden made the right decision for our country (in withdrawing from the race,) and I thank him for putting the interests of our Nation ahead of his own.” This is the type of statement on Biden’s departure that Trump might have made.  Instead, Trump continued to talk about “crooked Joe Biden” and display his own true colours.

Harris should continue to speak the truth about Trump, but not climb into the mud with him. That would be against her party and the country’s interest.

The next century of days promises to be downright exciting. Polls suggest that a great majority of Canadians hope Trump is not successful in trying, once again, to become President of the most powerful nation on earth.  We are destined to live in interesting times.