There are numerous reasons for this Trump success. I would say it shows the power of authenticity. Some might not prefer Trump’s blunt, even at times crude style, but no one could honestly say that the billionaire sounds or looks fake. Or addled. Or lost.

Stacked against an opponent who read everything off teleprompters and dodged questions completely or with incomprehensible word salads punctuated by defensive giggles, the familiar executive seemed safer.

Trump also had his own record as proof of accomplishment – strong economy and job growth, enhanced defense posture, reduced taxes, and energy independence, among others.

The Harris campaign organization, which was actually the Biden campaign with a few Harris cronies grafted on, was saddled with the administration’s record of incompetence – inflation, poor job growth, the globally mortifying Afghan exit, and creating, allowing, and even facilitating the open southern border with 10 million-plus illegal-crossers.

She also placed far too much trust in the abortion issue, which she ironically called reproductive rights. Trump easily defused that by pointing out, accurately, that’s now a state issue.

The incumbent vice president attempted to frame herself as an agent of change. But then, on national TV, she was asked what she would have changed in Biden policies. Clueless, she paused, then said nothing came to mind. //

A burst of initial party enthusiasm for Harris that was actually relief over Biden’s departure faded quickly. Like Republicans after their 1964 drubbing by Lyndon Johnson, Democrats are calling now for a thorough campaign autopsy.

Trouble is, the would-be party coroners were all complicit in causing the campaign’s terminal condition.

Republicans need to be wary, though, of over-confidence. Nothing is permanent in U.S. politics. Only four years after Democrats’ decisive 1964 landslide, they lost four of the next five White House elections.

Revealing of the Biden character, besides his chronic lying, is the quiet but obvious undermining of his replacement’s campaign by inserting himself all fall, as if his discarded persona could help.

Joe and Jill can now claim until their deaths that they would have done better on Nov. 5, should anyone care. The good news from such pettiness is we are now forever free politically of both Bidens and Harris.