The Democrats are quickly unifying behind Kamala Harris as their presidential choice

Now we have a race.

After more than three weeks of paralysis, the Democratic party’s ordeal about what to do about a floundering Joe Biden came to an end with Biden facing the inevitable and stepping aside. His endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement was quickly echoed by many other Democrats, including many of the same political figures whose names had been floated as potential Biden replacements.

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The speed at which the party has been coalescing around Harris as the presumptive nominee is a sign of how eager Democrats are to put a disastrous stretch behind them. Ever since Biden’s dreadful performance at the presidential debate last month, he has faced nothing but a steady drumbeat of questions about his mental competence. For a public that was never thrilled about the choice between Biden and Trump in the first place, Biden’s age became the central issue of the campaign, much to the Republicans’ delight.

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Guess who’s the oldest candidate in the race now? Donald Trump, at 78.

Harris has the opportunity to reinvigorate not just Democrats but the electorate in general. She can represent a fresh face and generational change. She can campaign with a vigor that Biden couldn’t and that Trump can’t either.

There’s a strong case to be made that the GOP peaked too soon. The Republican convention just ended in a blaze of self-congratulatory glory (as conventions do), with the party convinced that it was going to coast to victory due to the Democrats’ problems. Republicans were eager to keep Biden on the ticket. The polls were showing Trump with growing leads in critical states while Democrats were dithering about what they were going to do.

Perhaps Republicans thought that the Democratic leader would be like their own – someone who would never willingly relinquish power for the good of the country. They probably never imagined that Biden would endorse Harris instead of following Trump’s lead of standing by while a mob tried to kill his vice president.

So now the GOP is faced with an entirely different race than the one they wanted to run. One preview of how they will treat Harris is the way many convention speakers deliberately mispronounced her name, suggesting that, like Barack Obama, she’s not a real American.

Other attacks will be even more vicious. You can expect outright race-baiting and slut-shaming, which Harris has already endured.

But in a sign that Trump is back on his heels by the decision, he immediately threw the prospect of a presidential debate with Harris into question by insisting it be held on Fox News. Both parties had previously agreed to hold the debate on ABC News.

Harris still has to prove herself, of course. She has been doing a great job hitting Republicans hard on their anti-abortion extremism, an issue that resonates with many voters. She also has the advantage of being a former California state attorney general, so she has credibility on crime issues, particularly when running against a convicted felon. Her pick for vice president will say a lot about where she’s focused electorally.

Meantime, let’s not lose sight of how difficult a decision this was for Biden. He probably still believes with every fiber of his being that he could beat Trump. However, he decided for the good of the party and the country that the risk of Trump winning was too great to take. He sacrificed the job that he always wanted to do what was right.

Should he have done it sooner? No question. But the decision is made. Let’s credit Biden for doing the right thing.

Now, the race is on to defeat Trump. And with Harris the energy that the party needs is there to do it.

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