IF a week used to be a long time in politics, now it is an absolute age. During the past seven days, everything in American politics has been turned over.
An assassin’s bullet narrowly missed Donald Trump a week ago. Had the wind moved the direction of that bullet by a few millimeters then America — and the world — would be in serious trouble.
Had the gunman hit his mark, the Republican Party and its supporters would not only be filled with justifiable rage, the party would be tearing itself apart to nominate someone, anyone, to even begin to fill its Trump-sized hole.
As it happens, the bullet hit Trump’s right ear and, instead of tearing itself apart, the Republican Party came together.
At a remarkable convention in Milwaukee this week, Trump’s entire family took to the stage and his political rivals came around in a show of support.
Even Nikki Haley, who was Trump’s last rival for the Republican Party’s nomination, turned up on Sunday evening to speak from the stage and unite the party.
Every evening, the wounded Trump sat on a balcony overlooking the speeches from the floor, and looked pleased and genuinely humbled by the support and unity that had been unleashed by the assassin’s bullet.
On Thursday evening, when he finally spoke, he showed a side of himself that not many have seen. He showed himself as very human — humble, grateful and not taking anything for granted any more.
He spoke compellingly — and for the only time, he said — about what had happened at last Saturday’s rally in Pennsylvania.
He paid tribute to former fire chief Corey Comperatore, who was killed while protecting his wife and daughters.
And, most importantly, he strove to unite the nation.
Trump does not tend to go easy on his political opponents, and in recent years has had plenty of bad things to say about US President Joe Biden.
But on Thursday night, he hardly mentioned him. In fact, he pointedly mentioned his name only once.
But he did recite the litany of things that have gone wrong on Biden’s watch, at home and abroad. He talked of the crisis on America’s southern border and of a world that has grown more unsafe.
Even eight days earlier, this might have been water off the Democrats’ back — but no longer. Because, as the assassin’s bullet tried to find Trump, the Democrat Party was already trying to find a way to move aside Joe Biden.
It has been an open secret for years that Biden has not been firing on all cylinders.
In June, they were still saying the current Biden is the best Biden. A few weeks later and most left-wing, Democrat-supporting media were finally calling for Biden to step aside
Trump tried to make this an issue at the 2020 election. But then he arguably over-did it, lowering expectations and meaning that all Biden had to do, for people to regard him as fit for office, was remember his own name.
Fast-forward to 2024 and the open secret has become an open embarrassment.
Biden’s faltering debate performance last month put everything in humiliating view.
And Democrats who previously said it was mean — and “fake news” — to say Biden was ageing now admitted they had known all this for a while.
What a turnaround the left-wing media and others performed.
In June, they were still saying the current Biden is the best Biden. A few weeks later and most left-wing, Democrat-supporting media were finally calling for Biden to step aside.
But for who?
The money Biden has raised for his campaign can only be transferred to a ticket including his Vice President, Kamala Harris. And it is, in any case, almost certainly too late to move her as well as him from the Democrat ticket.
So, while trying to edge out a president, the party are stuck with one of the worst-performing and most unlikable vice presidents in modern American history.
Harris was chosen because of her sex and the colour of her skin, by Biden’s own admission.
Now, the party’s diversity hire is someone they are stuck with. Almost nobody can work out how she should not be allowed to run for the presidency if she wants to.
Does Harris know how bad she is? Does she have any idea how badly she comes across in speeches and interviews? How unnatural and forced her manner is? How vapid and empty her speeches are?
Probably not. She seems to have laughed her way to the top — and potentially to the top job in the world.
Harris was chosen because of her sex and the colour of her skin, by Biden’s own admission
Or not. With the Democrat convention still to come next month, it seems certain the party will tip its nominee overboard and manufacture a ticket that can compete with Trump in November.
Will they manage it?
Well, the Democrats are good at surviving, and may manage some surprises yet. But whether they do or not, the next few months in American politics will feel like an age.
The most important job in the world is up for grabs. It looks like it will be fought over between a man who is desperate to get his old job back and has made a surprising pitch for unity, and a woman who may prove the only person apart from Hillary Clinton who could lose to him.
If American politics can turn upside down in a week, just imagine what can happen between now and November.
