My wife Kathy says I'm married to my phone. This week I won't deny it:

It's the most exciting political week I've experienced since the Watergate hearings led me to journalism as a career 50 years ago. 

Last Sunday, I was nearing despair, figuring out where to move after Donald Trump crushed Joe Biden in the presidential election. I was losing faith Biden would see the wisdom—the absolutely necessity—of his dropping out of the race. Then, just as quickly, he dropped out and passed the torch to his vice-president.

What followed was stunning. She raised $100 million in less than two days, 62 percent from first-time donors to this campaign. Her campaign signed up 28,000 new volunteers in a day. Her initial remarks, praising Joe Biden at a White House event to recognize young athletes and at campaign headquarters, were pitch perfect. Her first rally, in Wisconsin, drew the most excited Democratic crowd of the year.

Suddenly we have a campaign, and the vigorous candidate is on the Democratic side. What happens from here is unknown. This country has never had a woman president. It's had one bi-racial president. And Harris' 2020 campaign fizzled fast.

I can't swear 2024 will be different. But the vibe sure is.

Reliable polls measuring the new race likely are a week or two away. So, I’ll simply give my best guess of why Kamala Harris will at the least give Donald Trump a run for his money. At best, I believe a significant majority of the American people may finally decide the would-be emperor (or dictator) has no clothes and start stepping away from Trump and his cult of personality.

Here's why:

1)    The age issue has shifted sharply against Trump.

He’s now the oldest candidate ever nominated to seek the presidency. His last few speeches have run 90 minutes. He confused Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi multiple times in the same speech. And he’s about to come under much tougher scrutiny for his own mental acuity (which in my view has never been all that stellar).

2)    Kamala Harris already has two strong messages to build on.

A) The first is the cop versus the criminal (or more specifically the prosecutor versus the convicted felon). As I wrote on these pages immediately after Trump’s conviction on 34 counts in New York City, Democrats need to hang that verdict around Trump’s neck and tug on them daily. Harris seems willing to do that.

B) Harris’ second message is that her campaign represents the future and Trump the past. That suggests that Trump is trying to take the country backward. But it also suggests he’s old and worn out.

3)    Kamala Harris has an edge.

She is a long-time prosecutor and not afraid to bring the fight to Republicans. In Wisconsin, she talked about the draconian 900-page Project 2025. Before she’s done, American voters will understand a lot more about this blueprint for authoritarianism set out by some of Trump’s most fervent backers.

4)    Kamala Harris speaks with authority about women’s reproductive rights.

Why, she asked, should the government be in charge of their bodies? The Pew Research Center reports that 63 percent of Americans now believe abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances. Voters from deep-red Kansas to deep-blue California have sided with abortion rights supporters on ballot measures and another 11 states could have abortion measures on the ballot in November. Harris will speak frequently and effectively on abortion rights and other women’s health issues in this campaign.

5)    Donald Trump is an extremist, even if it is an extremism the Maga base has embraced.

He is a congenital liar, a misogynist, a grifter and a bully. CNN reported that J.D. Vance, his own vice-presidential nominee,“ repeatedly indicated in 2016 that he believed Donald Trump had committed sexual assault.

Majorities of Americans, in multiple polls, have agreed that Trump is dishonest.

Is this really the man America wants to re-elect as president? I don’t think so.

That said, Trump is a vicious fighter and a skilled entertainer. He and his staff will go after Harris with no-holds-barred and do all they can to smear her record and cast her as a “DEI hire.” Trump already has called her “dumb as a rock.” He and his minions also will try to turn the tables on her background as a prosecutor by casting her as a failure who was weak on crime and failed at the border.

For her part Kamala Harris needs to do four things:

a)    Build the case that she is the future.

She started by talking about the need for affordable pre-school and early education for all families. It’s a great issue and one that deeply concerns young families. If she comes up with a proposed program, it could create excitement.

b)    Keep the spotlight on the cop vs. the crook and leave it to Republicans to over-reach on race.

Sadly, this country has never come to terms with its racism, never fully confronted the stereotypes and bigotry heaped on any and all who aren’t white and straight (and preferably male), never acknowledged that “white privilege” is not some exotic, “woke” term but a reality of our history dating back to the country’s founding.

Still, generation by generation it is changing. In 2022, nearly 1 in 3 married, same-sex couples in the country were interracial, nearly 1 in 5 opposite-sex couples were. We are a long way from a fully integrated society, but a whole lot of voters have long ago tired of the hateful stereotypes that some Republicans likely will spew during this campaign, turning some in their own party against them.

c)    Retain her independence from the Biden-Harris White House even while honoring Joe Biden.

In my view, Joe Biden has been a highly effective president. But Harris can’t win on his record any more than he could. She needs to make its accomplishments clearer than Biden did on most days. She also needs to set forward her own future agenda.

d)     Pick an eloquent partner as her running mate.

I’ll leave it at that. There are a bunch of good candidates being vetted.

Tonight, I’m tired and elated. I believe democracy can survive past the election of 2024. And though I’m scared to death that something big will yet blow up during what is sure to be a tough and nasty campaign, I believe Kamala Harris can be and will be the first woman and first African-American woman president of the United States.

And that would be something.