Kamala Harris performed a miracle

But another way to look at it is that the fact that this race is essentially a coin toss is a miracle. If Joe Biden had not resigned at the end of July and supported Harris, he would have lost his re-election. I don't even feel compelled to explain why, since Biden's certain defeat by Trump may be the only thing everyone in Washington agrees on. Instead, Democrats now have a good chance of stopping him – and thereby halting the rise of American authoritarianism. This should be a comfort, if not a relief, in the torturous hours ahead.

The campaign that Harris chose is debatable – and I have argued many times – but she has done something extraordinary in the last 100 days, making a race that the Democrats would lose winnable. As it became apparent in early spring that voters viewed Biden as unfit to serve a second term, Harris — an unpopular vice president whose only national campaign in 2020 had been a short-lived disaster — was viewed with great suspicion at best. Before Biden collapsed in his only debate against Trump this cycle, many feared that Harris would do even worse than Biden if she became the nominee.

After that collapse, however, it was clear that Harris was the only plausible replacement for Biden — and that given the risk (and likelihood) of a Trump landslide, any Democrat was preferable to the incumbent president. There was no time for a conventional elementary school. Any attempt by the Democratic National Committee to fast-track a vote would have caused division and controversy, even though the party simply couldn't afford it. Harris, flawed as she may be, had to be the choice. While she by no means ran a perfect campaign, she exceeded expectations and reassured most of those who doubted her ability to unify the party.