COUNTY VIEW: White House battle thrown wide open

Politics is a strange game, and American politics is stranger than most. The battle for the White House has been suddenly thrown wide open, and a charismatic black woman is now as likely to occupy the Oval office as is the hectoring braggart who, a short time ago, had one hand on the prize.
Little more than a month ago, an anguished Democratic Party awaited its annual convention in Chicago with trepidation, thinking a frail and ailing Joe Biden would lead them over the cliff of certain defeat. The atmosphere was akin to a funeral home, with the last rites about to be invoked on the corpse of presidential ambition.
And then along came Kamala Harris and the minor miracle of Joe Biden stepping back to allow the coronation of the new candidate. Euphoria and jubilation swept away the despondency and all of a sudden there was a pep in the step and it looked that, far from all being lost, victory was a new possibility. Delegates left the convention walking on air, and the excitement has not died down since. The tables were turned, and Donald Trump, who was expecting to devour his rival for breakfast, was now on the back foot.
So far, Ms Harris has the wind in her sails, but whether the momentum alone will carry her through to November remains to be seen.
To the chagrin of her opponent, she has not been overly pressed so far on her policies, although last week she and her running mate, Tim Walz, did sit down for their first big interview, which was aired on CNN.
Harris has apparently decided, at least for now, to stick broadly to the Biden version of a managed economy, with a few additional ingredients added to the mix. A promised subsidy to help new house purchasers sounds attractive, but economists warn that its unintended effect may be to merely lead to an increase in house prices. And on foreign policy, she has avoided giving hostages to fortune by coming down too absolutely on the issues she will face if elected to office.
But Harris has played what will prove to be a master card in the selection of her running mate. Nobody personifies the regular American guy than does Mr Walz – he is the guy who lives down the street, the neighbour who keeps an eye on your house when you’re away, the guy who shares his lawnmower, the small-town football coach, the ex national serviceman, the ordinary Joe. Donald Trump and JD Vance he is not, and never will be, and for the first time in generations, small-town America has a candidate it can identify with.
Kamala Harris will be portrayed as a West Coast liberal, with all the cachet of elite superiority that implies for the ordinary voter. It is an image of which mainstream Americans are deeply suspicious, an almost alien species in the eyes of many. And that is why Walz is the perfect counter balance on the party ticket. For middle America, he – not she – is ‘one of us’. And while millions will be marking their ballot papers for Harris, in their hearts they will be voting for Walz.
But there is one other thing. If Harris wins, she needs to do so by a sufficient margin to avoid the charge by her opponent of the vote being rigged. A razor-thin victory would unleash a crisis to make the storming of the Capitol four years ago look harmless. It will not be enough for Harris to merely win; democracy will need to win by an even greater majority.