Is the joy fading for Kamala Harris?

She and Trump are neck and neck in opinion polls as support for her cools a little

- Bhagyashree Garekar

It's four days before election day in the US, and the Democrats are panicking. That's not unusual. Veteran political observers say that the party is prone to performance anxiety.

The Republicans, on the other hand, seem to be bordering on overconfidence as the big day nears.

The story so far in polls is this: Since mid-September, after generating a surge in enthusiasm by replacing her boss, President Joe Biden, on the ticket, Vice-President Kamala Harris is seeing support cool somewhat.

Her stock in most national and swing state polls has slid a little, while her Republican opponent Donald Trump's has risen by a little, with the two presidential hopefuls now running neck and neck.

As the daughter of Indian and black immigrants, the ambitious, 60-year-old Ms Harris, straddling America's racial and political complexities, has been treading carefully in a contest that pits her against the charismatic 78-year-old former president.

But she unwittingly got sucked into a political maelstrom this week after a controversial comment by the gaffe-prone Mr Biden gave Trump an opening to paint her as elitist.

The brouhaha began when a comedian at Trump's Oct 27 rally in New York called Puerto Rico "a floating island of garbage." This provoked Mr Biden into making a comment where he appeared to criticise Trump supporters as "garbage."

The Republicans pounced on Mr Biden's quotes at once, suggesting that Democratic leaders had a habit of looking down on American voters and drawing parallels with 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's description of Trump supporters as "deplorables."

As outrage mounted, Ms Harris was forced to distance herself.

"Let me be clear," she told reporters on Oct 30. "I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for."