Biden exit turns presidential race upside down

Will Sunday July 21 be one of those turning points in history whose importance we don’t really grasp until long afterwards?

Of course, the same could be said about the moment something, maybe a bullet, nicked a man’s ear while he was giving a speech in the afternoon sun.

Still, Joe Biden’s decision to step back from the race to be US president has accomplished multiple things simultaneously.

Those in his party who wanted him to drop out can breathe again. Donor cash is reportedly flowing to the party’s coffers like the Amazon in the rainy season.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s main platform of attack — that Biden was too old, too slow, too sleepy to be the leader of the Free World — has at one stroke dropped away beneath its feet. Trump is 78, opening the way for the ageist boot to be firmly on the other foot.

Whether the Democrats will wear it is another thing. The party’s own internal squabbles have not done much to reassure US voters that the Dems have much of a plan either.

All eyes will now be on Kamala Harris, who is either the right woman at the right time — or the worst of all possible contenders for president. It all depends on who’s doing the shouting.

Whether Harris clinches the nomination is not signed and sealed. There’s likely to be more jockeying in the run-up to the Democratic national convention in Chicago in August. By then the Dems may be speaking, roughly, with one voice. Or there’ll be a battle royale with presidential contenders being voted for by delegates, with the winner snapping up the ticket to compete to sit in the Oval Office.

Trump’s chance of beating the older guy who beat him has meanwhile wafted away like a red balloon on the breeze. Ah, politics ...