We’re nigh on a month since Biden pulled the end run and lateraled to Harris. She hasn’t even had her convention yet. And, she’s still rising in the polls. At this point, you’ve got to start thinking that this is more than a bump or honeymoon. While common sense and conventional wisdom says that we should expect a regression to the mean and the race will tighten, it seems like something fundamental has changed in the race.

I’d love to hear what you have to say about that fundamental shift in the race and the reasons behind it. I know we all have our pet theories. I’d love to hear yours and discuss them all in the comments.

I’ll go first. Here’s what I think is the likeliest explanation: We are all relieved that Trump isn’t likely to win. When Biden was in the race, he was looking old and frail and like he wasn’t going to be able to stand up to the Felonious Authoritarian Rapist Traitor or FART for short, and Old FART for accuracy (Thanks, Sirius).

Trump had worked whatever magic he has on the media and they were being bent to his repugnant will. Instead of shunning him and rejecting him as a viable candidate for office. Hell, the Old FART is still working the refs with how little reporting on that there is. But, that is a topic for another CoT post.

However, I think it is more than just the possibility that Harris could beat Trump.

  • BIDEN’S SELF-LESS ACT. We all recognized how difficult it was for Biden to give up his reelection. It couldn’t’ve been easy to hear from people he knew, respected, and loved that it would be better for the party and the country for him to drop out. As he said, he had a record that should equate to a second term.
  • BIDEN’S CONTRIBUTION TO ANOTHER FIRST. Biden is contributing ANOTHER historic first in our march towards a More Perfect Union. He is promoting a very viable run for the first Woman of Color for the presidency. Biden’s contributions to our country are as monumental as any of the giants in our history.
  • RELIEF THAT IT ISN’T BIDEN v TRUMP, AGAIN. In our day and age of watching on demand and being spoiled and paralyzed for choice, no one wanted to watch a rerun. As honorable as Biden is and consequential as his term in office was, his time had passed. Trump and the openly fascist MAGA’s time has passed, too. Haley proved prescient when she said, the party that jettisons their 80 year old candidate first, wins.
  • HARRIS TIMES HER WAVES. Harris is making like an Olympic gold-metal surfer down in Tahiti and riding her waves to perfection.
    • Wave : Her gratitude for being there. It is an amazing right-place-right-moment, story. And, she wasn’t shy about letting us know. It showed on her face and in her posture.
    • Wave : Energy and optimism. She burst out of the gate as if this had been the plan all along. She shines with energy, which is in stark contrast to the Old FART and, frankly, to Biden. It is an energy that our time requires.
    • Wave : Looking to the future. Her focus and orientation on what comes next and being prepared for it really resonates across the electorate. Trump is still whining about crowd sizes from 2016 and touting the Big Lie. No body gives a fuck, old man. We’ve got climate change to worry about. We’ve got a growing economy that is still in danger of recession to navigate. We’ve got reproductive and health rights to deliver. We’ve got generational debt that needs to be transformed into generational wealth. There are a host of significant problems that we need to solve, and ain’t one of them having to do with the outcome of Election 2020.

The explanation of her rise is the Zeitgeist. Just like Obama encapsulated it in 2008 and Biden in 2020, Harris has caught it with the right message, the right policies and plans, and right it-factor.

I’d love to further this discussion in the comments. Let me hear from all y’all, y’all!

Image Attribution

This image was found on, GoodFreePhotos, using Creative Commons License search on DuckDuckGo.