So it's Kamala Harris -- a graduate of Westmount High School -- who is the Democratic vice presidential nominee. She's the future, Frank Bruni writes. And, God knows, Donald Trump and his vice president -- Mike Pence -- are ghosts from the past. The vice presidential debate will be a study in contrasts:
There’s Mike Pence, white of hair as well as cheek, his demeanor more starched than his dress shirt, his smile so tight it’s the twin of a grimace. He represents more than the Trump administration, God help him. He represents an America that’s half memory, half myth.
And there’s Kamala Harris — younger, blacker and more buoyant. She’s only the fourth woman on the presidential ticket of one of the country’s two major political parties and she’s the first woman of color. She represents an America that’s evolving, fitfully, toward equal opportunity and equal justice.
Under her gaze, Pence has to defend a racist, sexist president. As he watches helplessly, Harris gets to talk about how that racism and sexism feel to a Black woman like her. This isn’t any ordinary clash of perspectives and philosophies. It’s an extraordinary collision of life experiences.
Harris can be razor-sharp. But intellectual nuance is not Trump's thing. He won't fight Harris with ideas. He has none. He'll call her names. And she'll respond:
And oh, can she be nimble and fierce. That’s what Biden learned in that tense primary debate, cheap shot or no cheap shot. That’s what Jeff Sessions, Brett Kavanaugh and William Barr learned when they appeared before Senate committees and endured her grilling.
Pence -- who is afraid to deal with any woman except his wife -- will not have an easy time of it. Neither will Trump.
Image: The Boston Globe
