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Senator Kamala Harris listens as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event, their first joint appearance since Biden named Harris as his running mate, at Alexis Dupont High School in Wilmington, Del., on Aug. 12, 2020.CARLOS BARRIA/Reuters

Kamala Harris is a woman of dynamic power. Joe Biden – “Sleepy Joe” to his Republican detractors – needed someone extra tough as a running mate to take on Donald Trump. He’s got that someone.

The California senator is as strong a presence as you’ll find in Washington. She is so strong that should the Democrats win in November, she could very well take on a role more like that of a co-president than a vice-president, given Mr. Biden’s advanced age.

With her selection Tuesday – a popular one despite her abject failure in the presidential nomination race – Ms. Harris has become the face of the Democratic Party of the future.

As the daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father, she reflects the diversity of the party and the country. She is more articulate, more poised, more energetic and more cold-blooded than Mr. Biden. She is steeped in the Black culture of America. Her career in criminal justice is a fit for the times. At 55, compared with Mr. Biden’s 77, she is the bridge to the next generation.

Owing to these circumstances and her stature as the first racialized woman on a presidential ticket, she will attract much more attention both on the campaign trail and in the White House (should she get there) than normal running mates and vice-presidents.

Given the perception that he will only be a one-term president, Mr. Biden had to decide whether he wanted someone as visible as Ms. Harris in the VP role – someone who might overshadow him. He could have chosen a lightweight, as Hillary Clinton mistakenly did in selecting the feckless Tim Kaine as her running mate in 2016. To Mr. Biden’s credit, he didn’t go that route.

“Joe Biden nailed this decision,” former president Barack Obama said. “He’s underscored his own judgment and character.”

All that said, Ms. Harris is not the safe pick so many are saying she is. In her biggest test as a politician to date, the Democratic nomination race, she dropped out before the first primary test in Iowa. There’s no guarantee she won’t disappoint again.

Being a policy moderate, her selection will do little to mobilize the large left flank of the party, whose adherents were hoping for a more ideological pick. On the plus side, the choice leaves the Republicans with less of a target. They’ve been eagerly trying to paint the Democrats as freedom-shredding socialists.

There’s a good likelihood that a Biden-Harris ticket can recreate the Obama-Biden coalition of 2008, which brought out the African-American vote by the score.

In taking the fight to Mr. Trump, Ms. Harris has skills Ms. Clinton and Mr. Kaine lacked. Both visually and vocally, she commands the arena.

In Washington, everyone noted the way she took down witnesses at committee hearings: her studied gaze; the authoritative, piercing timbre of her voice; her precise marshalling of facts. Her victims included Attorney-General Bill Barr, his predecessor Jeff Sessions and Gina Haspel, a nominee for CIA director.

Democrats are already eagerly anticipating the prospect of her thrashing the blank-faced bore Mike Pence in the vice-presidential debate. Her skills are especially needed because Mr. Biden has hardly exhibited stalwart campaigning prowess. In the primaries, he was wiped out in Iowa and New Hampshire, but got very fortunate when candidates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar folded their tents after he scored one big win in South Carolina.

He hesitated for the longest time, floating many other names, before settling on Ms. Harris. Reasons? Doubts about her being a team player, given her harsh attacks on him in the campaign debates. As California attorney-general she did not have a strong record of prosecuting white police officers. She has little experience in major policy areas such as the economy and foreign policy. She’s made statements about Mr. Biden that Republicans will pounce on, such as saying last year of the women who accused him of inappropriate touching: “I believe them.”

If the Democrats win, they will inherit staggering problems, particularly on the economic front, that could doom the ticket. For the moment, though, optimism is high. Joe Biden needed a second-in-command worthy of becoming the first. In Kamala Harris, he has that.

There is a charismatic air about her, a sense of destiny that few politicians evoke. Having failed once, she has been granted a second glorious opportunity to make something of it.

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