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Lydia Polgreen

By Lydia Polgreen

Opinion Columnist

Like many Americans who watched the presidential debate on Thursday night, I knew when it was over that there was no way I was going to sleep. So I did something I almost never do: tuned in to the pundit commentary on cable news. I’m glad I did. Not long after the debate, Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on CNN with Anderson Cooper. Watching her calmly and methodically respond to a battering ram of questions from Cooper, it occurred to me: The obvious, logical path out of the mess President Biden created with his disastrous debate performance is for him to bow out with honor and endorse his young, vigorous and talented vice president to stand in his stead.

I know, I know. You think I just fell out of a coconut tree. Didn’t Harris flame out in the last Democratic presidential primary, leaving just in time to avoid an embarrassing loss in her home state, California? Yes. But to win a primary you must thread the needle of introducing yourself to the base of the party while burnishing the case for your ideas and dissing the talents of your rivals, all while keeping your options open, because your opponents are also your future surrogates and allies. For women — and for Black women in particular — the gender and racial dynamics of the presidential primary race seem especially difficult to navigate.

Those dynamics would play out very differently on a national stage shared with Donald Trump. There, Harris would not be hectoring a fellow Democrat over relatively small differences in policy or attempting to polish her own record in comparison to a governor or fellow lawmaker. She can use her true superpower: She will be a relentless prosecutor........

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