Whatever the case, the pick is in. And it’s Kamala. Why did it have to be Kamala?

I’m not asking that question as a conservative. I’m not even asking as a TV viewer, who found her debate performances absolutely unwatchable. I’m asking as a man adrift, as someone who genuinely can’t see the appeal here. Fifteen years ago, the late-term abortion-supporting, Green New Deal-loving Harris would have been too left-wing to get the Democratic presidential nomination. Today, at least among Democrats, she’s more like the Goldilocks candidate, only at a time when passions are running high and “just right” won’t cut it. She’s too liberal for the moderates and not liberal enough for the left-wing activists. She’s too soft on immigration for the law-and-order crowd and too tough on crime for Black Lives Matter.

She checks the identity politics boxes, to be sure, the first African-American woman and Asian American to ever be on a presidential ticket. But she’s also best known for having locked up a hell of a lot of African Americans at a time when police abuse is a nationwide sore spot. She hails from California, not a known swing state. She ticked off Catholics, whom Biden needs to win, when she implied last year that membership in the Knights of Columbus could be grounds for disqualification from a federal judgeship. She’s awkward for Biden personally, having once said she believed women who accused him of making them feel uncomfortable (this was before Tara Reade came forward—someone should ask her about that, too).