Note: I’m sick today and will be in bed for much of the day. I’ll try to get some flower art photos up today; they are essential to some people and vital to me. Zinnia is doing her very faithful companion dog thing and is locked to the bottom of my chair. Bless her sweet soul; she won’t move a muscle. In the meantime…

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Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign is off to a strong start despite endless assaults on her race, competence, and decency. She’s already been called a bum, a Marxist extremist, stupid, and a fake African-American.

She has sent her opponent out of the earth to outer space, shouting at his rabid and suddenly desperate followers, turning the stomachs of almost everyone else.

He’ll never survive being taunted by a strong woman who laughs at him. His near hysterical melt down with the black journalists is a preview of the weeks to come.

With the addition of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, we now have two people on the same ticket we, along with the rest of the country, are curious to know better—two people who project niceness.

This week, they are traveling together all over the country.

We’ll get a good look.

I see two incredibly likable and cheerful candidates on the same ticket for the first time. That usually is the difference.

Neither one of these people takes themselves as seriously as Mr. Trump. I like that. I know better than ever to take myself seriously.

Trump seems to have lost it after Joe Biden’s retreat; he’s like a fire hydrant spouting out of control while the fire trucks chase after him, in his case with insult and pure hatred. I don’t find him frightening as much as depressing.

He is a sad man. He had it in the bag but is blowing it again. He must be nicer than he seems, but he can’t show it. Governor Walz is an astonishing counterpoint to JD Vance. They could hardly be more different.

Trump’s Vice President candidate’s latest burst of strangeness is blurbing a new book that suggests progressives are subhuman. It just gets worse or better, depending on how you look at it.

Vince will become a hero to the broken people of the country but everybody else he’s already a disaster. Walz will do better.

Vance makes Trump look like Mahatma Gandhi, which might be the point. I can’t stop laughing at the cat lady thing or the suggestion that people without children are, by definition, sociopaths.

(I hope Kamala Harris remembers that if she ever gets to debate Trump, ask him to define what a “radical Marxist” is. There is no way that he knows or could memorize it.)

I’m curious to know more about Tim Walz.

When I covered politics, I came to believe that one of the most essential qualities of any politician is being likable. Lots of people already seem to love Kamala (and Trump, too, to be honest.)

When I went on my annual book tour, I was always sent to the Midwest, a country region. I liked those visits.

I found it to be very different from the East or West Coasts. Life goes on at a slower pace; the streets are broader and quieter, and the people seem kinder and more polite to me. They had strong values.

When I see Governor Walz, who was born and raised in Nebraska and has a storybook Middle American resume – military, football coach, teacher, popular governor, I see someone who is almost instantly likable.

He looks like a nice guy who cares about people. He has softened the whole affair.

As Trump will learn, people like that are almost bulletproof politically. It’s hard to smear a beloved teacher and football coach – he won a state championship.

You can’t look at that cheerful, kind Midwestern face and buy the idea that he is both a radical Marxist and is subhuman.

I had time to sniff about him this morning since I can’t go out or get dressed. I’m looking forward to the week, and I haven’t said that about politics in some years.

Thanks once more to Maria for taking such good care of me and to Zinnia, the sweetest and most faithful creature on earth.