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Okay, maybe Kamala Harris wasn't your first choice, nor was she ours. But the daughter of an Indian scientist and Jamaican economist who's married to a Jewish lawyer is a smart, tough, competent, empathetic, ready-to-go, all-American scrapper who brings what Charlie Pierce calls "hot molten steel" to the Biden campaign. She also brings some complex baggage as a former attorney general who's alternately described herself as a "top cop" and "progressive prosecutor," leading some progressives to wonder how many potential oxymorons you can fit into one C.V. Still, facing an election viewed by many as a possibly last-ditch battle between good and evil, she promises to be a fierce challenge to the scared little man in the White House feebly mewling she's "very, very nasty." As some have noted, he ain't seen nothin' yet.

On social media, multitudes celebrated the vision of an America where "human lives will be more important than whether the DOW is moving up or down." Bone-weary after lo these many years of apocalypse, many strove to identify an inchoate, exotic feeling they suspected was once called hope. Meanwhile, Harris' fellow-VP-contenders, showing the same grown-up  generosity as Biden - who Harris trashed during debates on busing - swiftly rose together, "Avengers, Assemble"- like, to congratulate her. There were other reasons for joy: More appearances by Maya Rudolph, SNL's resident Harris impersonator; the spectacle of Harris "murderizing" Mike Pence in their October debate; the possibility of Rep. Katie Porter running for Harris' Senate seat in California. For a reminder of what Ms. Yes-Or-No Harris is capable of, see her confront and eviscerate a series of slimy GOP stooges - Jeff 'Elf on a Shelf' Sessions, a cringey Kavanaugh, an ever-repulsive Barr - in hearings. And, urges one patriot, "For the love of God, vote."