In little over a month, the Democrats have pulled off one of the most extraordinary turnarounds in US political history, replacing a candidate who was shuffling towards nearcertain defeat with one soaring towards possible victory. Yet contained within is a lurking danger.
The sources of joy are not mysterious. Democrats this week headed to Chicago for a convention that felt like a party but everyone had imagined would be a wake. Before 21 July, they were tied to Joe Biden, a man who was on course to lose, and lose badly, in November.
The campaign has switched over - equivalent to rebuilding a plane in mid-air, say seasoned election hands and the candidate has taken to the task with ease. Twenty years younger and a lot more vigorous than her opponent, she has turned what had been Trump's most potent weapon against Biden - age - against Trump himself. He is now the candidate of the past, she the face of the future. Never mind that Harris is a senior member of the present administration, she has shaken off the burden of incumbency - a negative in most democracies - and cast herself as the turn-the-page option, aided by a powerful slogan: "We're not going back."
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