ON DECK:...Vice President Kamala Harris Ready & Willing...President Joe Biden Says He's Not Quitting 2024 Race After One Lousy Debate, But...Politics Is Our National Pastime...Your Bookie's On Line Two...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN,. Texas |...There's an adage in professional baseball that says a midseason slump is no time to worry. "You don't win the World Series in July," goes the well-known line.

And so it is in national politics.

We're there, in early-July, and the noise coming from the upper deck is such that President Joe Biden is being written-off as a Big Game loser, even as we bat in the bottom of the third inning. There are miles to go before we rest, as the poem says.

One bad debate performance, like a 10-to-nothing whipping in a home game, does not define the season. We are hip to the rally in the later innings idea, the one that says comebacks have been known to stun the fans and the league.

Not that we're ignorant to the idea that Democrat Joe Biden has lost his fast ball, but we're keeping a close eye on him as he takes the mound for the fourth inning.

Over there, in the bullpen, is our capable reliever: Kamala Harris.

Our feeling is that she is more than capable to amble in and finish the job. The 59-year-old Harris, of Jamaican and Indian descent, is a knife-sharp cookie with her own pitches. Harris is an attorney with plenty of governmental experience. More than the opposing Republican, one convicted felon Donald J. Trump, the screwball artist with a rabid following.

He leads the league in hit batsman, fines and suspensions. At present, he also is facing three criminal trials and some 80 felony charges.

Kamala Harris is clean.

The current vice-president is a former U.S. Senator from California, a former Attorney General of California and a former District Attorney in San Francisco. She is a graduate of Howard University, the University of California and Hastings College of Law. 

In Congress, she pumped her national profile by pointedly questioning Trump administration officials during Senate hearings. Included in that effort was a feisty give & take with Trump's second Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault.

Harris has been low-key during the Biden Administration, as happens with VEEPS.

But on occasions, he smarts have exhibited themselves nicely.

Following Biden's horrible debate performance last week, it was Harris who strolled out to say the president was not as awful as was being painted by Republicans and the press. Her calm demeanor and careful, but pointed speech offered a side of her Americans have rarely seen.

Crazed Republicans often mention her ethnicity, always noting that should Biden falter, well, a dark-skinned person will occupy The White House. The dig is a racist one and aimed at dinging her popularity. It is a criticism that likely will fall by the wayside with women voters, a voter bloc weakness for Republicans out to pass a national abortion ban.

We're hanging-in and watching this critical ballgame, even as we know there is more spectacular and disappointing action to come as the rest of the wild season unfolds.

The pitching mound is at once a rewarding and unforgiving showcase.

Joe Biden is still throwing hard stuff, knowing full-well he has a game "saver" ready to amble in...

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