Early last week, two days after Joe Biden was pressured into giving up his rigged presidential nomination, Kamala Harris made her first solo campaign appearance as Democrats’ presumed nominee.

It was in Wisconsin, smaller than Donald Trump rallies, of course. But at 3,000, it was reportedly the largest turnout of the 2024 cycle for disheartened Democrats. 

Here’s how the audience received her:

Thank you all. (Applause.) Thank you. Tha- — (laughs) — thank you.  Thank you, thank you. Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you all. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Tha- — good afternoon, Wisconsin!  (Laughs.)  (Applause.) Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you. It is good to be back. Thank you all very much. (Applause.)

After anguishing for weeks privately realizing that their president and party leaders had lied to them for years about the mental state of Joe Biden, and they were likely doomed to Trump 2.0, Democrats’ relief was loud, enthusiastic, and lucrative in donations.

Harris got a similar reception, including Kamala chants, when addressing a teachers’ union three days later in Texas.

Democrats, who often profess the urgent need to save their idea of democracy, simply threw out the primary ballot wishes of 14 million Democrats. In a Kamala Koup, they successfully dumped the 81-year-old lead liar of the Biden-Harris administration, the man who spent 40 percent of his failed presidency on vacation. 

Biden was the candidate who sought an early presidential debate to put Donald Trump out of Democrats’ misery. “Make my day, pal,” Biden said in the heavily edited video of his debate challenge. 

Karma can be deliciously mean. In his faux toughness, Biden ruined his own day, along with possibly continuing his White House tenure.

That June 27 debacle revealed to the world that no matter where Joe Biden is physically, his mind is somewhere else. 

To ease the look of his involuntary ouster, party bigs allowed Biden to complete his elected term. 

They care more about appearance than the national security threat of a half-year more with a commander-in-chief who needs help entering a car, can’t remember the names of people standing next to him, and falls into creepy, vacant stares. Good luck to us.

And if, you know, by some "Wag the Dog" chance, Biden doesn’t last until Jan. 20, then Democrats’ newly-chosen nominee becomes an immediate Oval Office incumbent as the first Asian-black-female president. "Send President Harris Back to the White House!"

Biden is of no further use anyway. Worse things could happen from that party’s political point of view.

Kamala Harris has failed her way upward farther than any other 59-year-old woman, with the help of a few male politicians she smarmed. She is attractive to many and non-threatening. 

At heart, however, Harris is a radical leftist who’s left no detectable trail of actual accomplishments anywhere – except getting elected in predictably Democrat California.

She’s shown no signs of even mediocre management skills; more than 90 percent of her staff has quit since 2021. 

Her 2020 primary bid cratered before a single vote was cast. She reportedly does little to no homework for public appearances. It shows. She looks unserious.

Harris’ judgment is seriously suspect for a wannabe leader of the free world. When the prime minister of Israel, America’s main Mideast ally confronting Iran, visited the White House last week, Harris chose instead to speak to a sorority convention in Indiana.

This weekend, she campaigned in Massachusetts, one of the bluest blue states. That gained her absolutely nothing except cheers, which may have been the point, a kind of ego-massaging pre-victory victory lap for media coverage.

Harris’ speaking style comes from the Prof. Irwin Corey School of Rhetoric. Her remarks are replete with impressive words assembled in nonsense order, pauses as if she’s crafting deep thoughts, big hand gestures to distract from empty words, and a laugh that resembles something else. 

She also often relies on condescension. (That means talking down to people like this.)

Don’t laugh, people. Right now, Kamala Harris appears to many a formidable candidate to become president of these United States, so much so that party strategist James Carville urged restraint on the erupting optimism.

Like so much of the longest presidential campaign in U.S. history, none of this makes sense. But it can become dangerously self-fulfilling by Nov.5.

Harris has yet to select a vice-presidential running mate. Her best choice would be an established governor, an executive with real management skills that make him a credible successor.

But being a Democrat, she most likely will take the route of every Democrat nominee since 1928 save one, pick a member of Congress, usually the Senate.

Biden got zero electoral vote benefit by choosing Senator Harris from safely Democrat California. But she could use some help winning a swing state like Arizona or Pennsylvania.

Trump has called Harris “a lunatic,” which she isn’t. He needs to leave the cheesy attack stuff to JD Vance and outline his own recharged vision for the country’s future, which conveniently would enhance his presidential stature to swing voters. 

And be careful in his public remarks. There is a double standard in U.S. politics that is not fair but very real. While women have long encountered a glass ceiling in politics, they also need to appear respected in confrontations with men, even if it's undeserved. 

Bullying is counter-productive, and condescension can be lethal. Trump has had trouble with that at times, even calling fellow Republican Nikki Haley a “birdbrain.” Her classy response was an enthusiastic endorsement of Trump at the convention.

Trump’s base loves his cruder side. They’re loyal, fervent, and loud. But the truth is, Trump’s base is insufficient to win on Nov. 5. Even when Trump gets elected, as in 2016, his popular vote was only 46.1 percent to Clinton’s 48.2. In 2020, he got nearly the same (46.8 to 51.3).

He’s got the base, but he’ll need to convince persuadable swing voters, a lot of them in key states. And beating up verbally on a female won’t help.

Fortunately, on June 27, the former president had no live audience base to play to. 

So, voters were allowed to see the former president's grasp of issues, serious demeanor, sharp recall, attentive listening, and facial expressions, which were dignified, in stark contrast to a befuddled old man staring blankly. 

That offered hope to many that Trump had overcome his propensity for verbal overkill. If that CNN debate was a boxing match, the referee would have awarded Trump a TKO by the third or fourth round.

Harris won’t be that easy. Deep down, she's shallow. But fans want her to succeed, like those parents at the school concert. Millions of joyous dollars flowed in within hours of her eager ascension. 

She has the media firmly on her side, as did Hillary Clinton. They are eager to cover her as they did Barack Obama, like another historic first, skipping over her chronic weakness as old news.

They are also willing to disregard Harris’ complicity in the actions of what from Day One has labeled itself the Biden-Harris administration. She should have trouble dodging responsibility for Biden’s numerous policy bombs.

Vice presidents seeking to move up often have tough times. Ask Al Gore, Walter Mondale, Hubert Humphrey, or Richard Nixon. 

But like all VPs, Harris must answer for her partner’s disastrous policies. They began, but didn't end, with killing the nation’s hard-won energy independence crafted by Trump, botching the Afghan exit, spending wildly into record inflation that lingers still, and selling off the nation’s strategic oil reserves for political gain, spending the huge profits, then not refilling the vast salt caverns.

Crucially, Harris was also a major accomplice in the ultimately doomed attempt to hide Biden’s failing faculties from us ordinary people. It’s always the cover-ups that get pols in trouble.

Harris’ weakest spot is her role as southern border czar, which Biden specifically gave her. Obama gave his vice president hopeless tasks, too, like driving new gun controls through Congress.

But the Biden-Harris administration removed Trump’s border controls, the temporary holding actions against a human tsunami. Then Biden turned that unfolding disaster over to Harris. 

That has resulted in the willful (and ongoing) admission of 10 million illegal aliens into the United States, undocumented and untracked, even helping them to scatter across the country to avoid detection and deportation.

Harris traveled to Central America to talk. And that’s it.

Even after four years of covering for a failing man who kept calling her the president, what Harris has going for her is a fresh face, her age (59), and not being Donald Trump. 

Harris even handed the worrisome age issue back to Republicans. Trump would be 82 at his term’s end, older than Biden now.

Trump revulsion remains strong among millions. It was key to Biden’s win four years ago. With a flailing Biden atop the 2024 ticket, Democrats likely gave up hope of finally terminating Trump’s presence inside their heads. Many would have thrown away their vote on a third party or stayed home on Election Day, which would cripple down-ticket Democrats.

Not anymore. No one should disregard or underestimate the power of that energizing factor. It could fade. Or endure.

Any willing American could have seen Biden’s diminishing mind back in 2019-20, even from his basement. But given the “threat” of Trump and all the failed attempts to torpedo his public career, too many were unwilling to see the growing Biden problem. 

Not, that is, until they were forced to confront it on June 27 when the willful blindness of media and the party was torn away like duct tape off a hostage's face.

Harris has never been strong enough to be diminished. Her job approval ratings were often beneath Biden’s in the 30’s.

Here’s a little-noted fact. Ed Morrissey, our Salem colleague at HotAir, points out Biden’s polling against Trump never actually cratered after the debate disaster. And Biden quickly recouped the dip.

Harris will have a polling honeymoon, extended by her VP pick, and then four days of national television exposure at the Chicago convention. The bump may not last. But it might.

Media craves new news and a horse race. They’ll trumpet her gains into September as if they matter two months out.

The real balloting, of course, is 50 state elections. The outcomes of some 80 percent are largely predictable. Polling results in the most important swing states take weeks longer to register meaningful indicators.

So, Democrat believers and media have time to cling to current national polls.

What ought to concern GOP strategists is that right now, even after the messy coup and before the anticipated big bounce, Harris is surprisingly close to Trump, perhaps ahead. 

The latest, widely-respected Siena-New York Times poll is a national survey.

It shows Trump currently ahead of Harris only 48 to 47 among Likely Voters, a marked improvement for Democrats from the immediate debate aftermath when Trump led by six points.

Among Registered Voters, Trump leads Harris now 48 to 46. Trump’s lead earlier this same month was nine points.