Kamala Harris’s mother is from India, her father Jamaica. She challenges Republican prejudices against immigrants just as much as her biracial ancestry clashes with their desire for white supremacy. Joe Biden has thrown red meat at Republican core supporters who whooped and hollered when Trump called Mexicans’ rapists.

This display of courage by Joe Biden calls into question the belief that Obama’s Vice-President is too old for the job. At a gut levels he knows how to fight. There is nothing feeble about choosing the California Senator who will be a target for Trump’s antipathy.

Although he is old at 74 the President has no fear of contradiction. He says Biden is too “sleepy” for the job and that Harris is too “nasty.” The Senator has a sharp tongue raising the President always high level of anxiety, but he will vent his hostility on her. Republicans are likely to say she will be running the country with her left ideas. But it is improbable that the charges of socialism will work, Bernie Sanders isn’t running.

By all accounts Harris is eager to engage in this battle.

Biden has no plans for a passive presidency. Time and again he says what he will do will depend on who is in Congress. Translation, the more Democrats the more far reaching the reforms. This is a promise Biden can keep. He has spent a career in the Senate and working through them will come easily.

Biden campaigned against Medicare for All, but Covid 19 proved that American medical care can’t organize or mobile a sudden increase in disease. Biden’s reforms will be in the name of the public option, but here is hoping he will challenge Republican prejudice against government assistance.