Joe Biden's choice of Kamala Harris as his running mate is not just historic, it also is energizing, party-building, visionary.
Harris, a 55-year-old sitting senator from California and former California state attorney general, now becomes the first woman of color and only the fourth woman chosen for a spot on a major-party presidential ticket.
The daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, she is the first Black and Asian American woman chosen for a presidential ticket, yet she defines herself simply as "a proud American."
Her real strength, however, is her talent for being "real" - much as Biden himself is "real."
Don't let that realness cause you to underestimate her, however. She has shown herself to be thoroughly professional as a tough senator (recall her questioning on the Senate floor of Brett Kavanaugh?), a tough San Francisco prosecutor, a gifted orator and a strong administrator, as an attorney general overseeing more than 4,500 lawyers, investigators, sworn peace officers and others.
Biden says she shares his care and interest in people, and she has demonstrated this by advocating for people by taking on big banks, protecting women and children from abuse and delivering billions in settlement money to consumers.
Former President Barack Obama was quick to congratulate Biden and Harris, saying Biden "nailed this decision."
"By choosing Senator Kamala Harris as America's next vice president, he's underscored his own judgment and character," Obama wrote in a statement. "Reality shows us that these attributes are not optional in a president. They're requirements of the job. And now Joe has an ideal partner to help him tackle the very real challenges America faces right now and in the years ahead."
In the words of Biden himself, our nation is facing "the worst pandemic in 100 years, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the most powerful calls for racial justice in a generation. And we have a president who has both failed to lead on the virus, costing lives and decimating our economy, and fanned the flames of hate and division. I need someone working alongside me who is smart, tough, and ready to lead. Kamala is that person."
He added: "She will wake up every day - like I will - thinking about how to make life better for people. How to rebuild our country back better. How to make it more just. How to win the next fight in the battle for the soul of this nation."
We couldn't agree more.
Go get him, team. Make Donald Trump's presidency just a bad memory.