Me and you and one unbelievable story

Once upon a time long ago, I signed up to be on Kamala's team. I'm not lying.  I did, in Des Moines, Iowa, at a 2019 shindig that featured every last one of the Democratic candidates, but one--Biden. 

I'll tell you why I liked her--I liked her laugh. It's a bit of a thin motivation, I suppose, but back then I thought it was an admirable quality in a presidential candidate; besides, as I remember, there were umpteen more that day in Des Moines, and it was hard to choose. 

The Sioux County Democrats were being cited as the upstart county Dems of the year. They'd done some heavy-duty recruiting and dragged what was once a near-death experience of a party into something living and breathing. A woman I know very well was an officer. She and her cohorts took the stage, got wild acclamation, then got out of the way for a rapid-fire, five-minutes-and-your-done showdown at OK Corral. I thought Kamala handled herself well and smiled a lot. We were right up front--great seats.

I liked her and went home with two Kamala t-shirts and some other campaign gimmickry. A tray stood on the right hand corner of the desk in my downstairs study. That desk is setting out back right now, has to be hauled away, and that black plastic tray was long ago garbaged. You'll have to take my word for it; that tray had a six-inch sticker on it that said "Kamala," in delightful lettering. Sadly enough, every last thing that tray held is long gone. But there was a sticker there--I'm not lying.

The truth is, six weeks later I wasn't so proud of being on Kamala's team; her candidacy went up like a roman candle and came down like one too. Hers was a quickly aborted run; she wiped out for not being particularly substantive, even though her 10-gauge assault on Joe Biden (for not opposing bussing) during one of the 2019 Presidential debates was much ballyhooed. Many considered Kamala Harris the most progressive of the lineup. In the long list of speakers that Sunday in Des Moines, it was Kamala who walked away with my favor. 

It wasn't a position I broadcast back then. Her campaign fizzled. But for a moment in time, she had my vote.

No one could have possibly written a script of what's gone on during this campaign season, and there are still 100 or so days to go.  First, there were the candidates--one of them an 80-year-old man who, sadly enough, looked like it. The other a 78-year-old crook whose propensity for lying begins when, step 1, he tells himself what he believes to be the truth. Then, step 2, he simply believes it is.

Both candidates tobogganed through the campaign season as if the opposition is gorgeous hill of snow. The Democrats shunned debates altogether; the Republicans held them but whatever happens therein meant absolutely nothing. Long, long ago, the candidates for the 2024 Presidential election are set in stone. Long, long ago, it was the old man Biden vs. the criminal Trump.

Or so it seems. Then, in a debate forum no Democrat would ever choose to relive, President Biden looked all too ready for the Home. He was an embarrassment. He himself says he never looked at his so-called performance. The Democrats begin to do what they do well--dysfunction. 

Then a 20-year old misfit takes out the ex-President's ear, could have killed him easily if the bullet had soared an inch to the right. It's high drama, as well it should be. Focus moves massively toward the Republican Party's coronation of the man who would be king during the convention which begins before the ex-President's ear heals. 

The nation holds its breath last Thursday night, as Trump walks everyone through what happened and seems to be conciliatory in a fashion he never seemed to before. Then he goes off-script and speaks in tongues, vintage Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, Biden swears he just had a cold, and then, yesterday, over social media, tells the world he's not running. The Dems, like me, say he turned his back on himself and his dreams for the sake of a nation and, yesterday at least, begin to canonize him. Meanwhile, in the scrum to come, he gives the advantage to a woman of color, who will break all kinds of boundaries should she get the nod and win the election.

Momentum, a week after the Republican Convention's coronation and two weeks after an assassination attempt on the life of the ex-President, has turned its tail on Mayor of Mar-a-logo; suddenly, no one's talking about Trump or his odd sidekick, a man who wrote a book excoriating the strongman he's running beside.

Fruit basket upset. The 2024 Presidential race is like nothing I've ever seen. Who knows where it'll go this week? Nobody. Who could have predicted the story line I've just outlined? Nobody.

Stay tuned. This run is like none other. 

And nothing's changed: both candidates (should Kamala grab the appointment) are like none other: a woman-of-color vs. God's own chosen criminal.

Dang flood took my Kamala sticker (the t-shirts wore out long ago). Once upon a time, she was my choice. Right now, she still is.