Removing Joe Biden from the ballot in November was a bold gamble on the part of the Democratic party’s command and control center. Given Kamala Harris’s lightweight, unpopular, and uninspiring pedigree, replacing Biden with a candidate who never won a single primary vote, never built a nationwide election organization, or never even so much as demonstrated the ability to give anything even approaching a crisp and concise answer to a policy question was as brazen a move in the world of political calculus as any ever attempted. Yet, somehow, the gamble has so far paid off. Harris has emerged from the episodic, undemocratic neutering of her former boss as something akin to the coming of the “Second Obama,” a headwind of stability in an otherwise chaotic political world, and the last hope for ridding humanity once and for all of the greatest danger to democracy, Donald J. Trump.

At no time in the history of the modern presidency has a candidate been so unchallenged by the news media. One of the hallmarks of a robust democracy is a press that is both energetic and unrelenting in pursuit of answers and holding those in power or wishing to be in power to account. Harris’s cameo appearances with the media, the first significant one being with her Vice-Presidential running mate, Tim Walz, was almost reminiscent of an errant schoolgirl being accompanied to the principal’s office by an anxious parent for fear of saying the wrong thing. Harris’s lack of accessibility to pointed questions about policy, both foreign and domestic, leaves one to wonder what her handlers are trying to hide? Could it be that under really serious questioning people might come to realize that the vessel of hope and change is really empty? On a recent appearance with Oprah Winfrey, even the sympathetic host was somewhat befuddled by Harris’s word salad monologue describing why Americans should be free to be who they want to be. The silence was deafening, and a few times Oprah seemed to turn away from her guest in what one could only interpret as either incredulity or plain boredom. It is inconceivable that Kamala Harris would be very fear inspiring or credible if subjecting Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping to the same acute case of diarrhea of the mouth.

America’s presidential races have become a new type of worldwide entertainment. Presidential elections in the United States are no longer focused on the things voters are concerned about, rather, they are the power plays of the big money donor classes in both parties who would not scruple running candidates for the nation’s highest office who are only committed to carrying out the will of those donors. For all of Donald Trump’s boorishness, imbecility, incendiary commentary, and deficiencies, the country under his presidency experienced a booming economy, near total energy independence, a stable border, and most importantly, no involvement in protracted and costly foreign wars. Joe Biden on the other hand gave us runaway inflation, substantially higher prices for most every necessary commodity associated with daily living, an out-of-control immigration policy and unsettled conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. In spite of Kamala Harris’s assertion to the contrary, she was in the room for all of the “calls” that contributed to the present state of American affairs. She refuses to answer questions as to why things she says she will do now to improve the lives of Americans were things she didn’t try to do almost 4 years ago, and she will not answer how she plans to do it. The one redeeming aspect is that the American people are not stupid. People know that it takes more than “good vibes” and feelings to buy groceries and be able to afford the gasoline needed to go to work. While the Democratic party and its big money supporters might be counting on bluffing the voters into believing they are holding a Royal flush with Kamala Harris as the bet, Americans may be starting to realize that all the powers to be are really holding is a pair of deuces.