What's Tony Thinking

The Edge Harris and Walz Have

We Americans are neophiles. We love the new, the novel, the improved. We go for the latest. We love the newest gadget, book, idea and we love the new face.

This is the advantage that Kamala Harris, Tim Walz and the Democrats have as they head into their convention in Chicago and into the post-Labor Day campaign.

They look, and sound, fresh and new. True, Harris has been the Vice-President for nearly four years. But holding that office is almost a guarantee of invisibility. It’s like being shrink-wrapped and kept in a freezer.

And Walz adds to the “new” factor since few, outside of Minnesota, had even heard of him until a couple weeks ago.

The other side of this story is that Trump seems old. Not only in terms of his chronological age, although he is certainly old in that way.

He is also old in the sense that we’ve been hearing his message, seeing his schtick and listening to his “American carnage” rants for nearly ten years. His act has gotten old. There’s nothing fresh about it. In 2016 he was the new face on the block. No more.

And while J.D. Vance, at 39, is young, he seems far older and grumpier than you’d expect of someone that age. He has a kind of feral quality that makes him an odd choice for the ticket. You feel he might bite if you get too close.

Despite the blessedly compressed campaign there are still many moments when things could go wrong for Kamala Harris. The September 10 debate will be crucial.

I’ve heard many people, women in particular, say they look forward to Harris “wiping the floor” with Trump. Some lick their chops at the prospect of her doing something to Trump as memorable and cutting as she did to Brett Kavanaugh in his confirmation hearings, or even to Joe Biden in the 2019 Democratic debate. Remember, “I was that little girl”? I hope she’s not tempted to overdue it. While I understand just how much many people would like to see Trump cut off at the knees, vitriol isn’t wise in such settings.

Moreover, it would contradict the big change that Harris/ Walz have brought to this campaign: joy. Lots of smiles. Having fun. Exuding happy.

That, in itself, is such a marked contrast with Mr. American Carnage, with the guy who rambles around the debate stage like a lurker or a thug.

There may have been an appetite for the carnage and menace style in the wake of the Great Recession. The pandemic added to the sense of everything falling apart.

But we Americans seem ready for an end to the “everything is in the toilet,” “we’re going to hell in a hand basket” of Trump and MAGA. Sure, there are always plenty of reasons that can be found for gloom and doom, but it grows old after a while. And that may now have come.