Harris v Trump presents starkly different Americas

There is widespread relief this week that the race for the world’s most powerful job will at last be a real contest. Joe Biden took an honourable exit and stopped running for an office that he was manifestly not capable of carrying out.

Seven days ago, energised by a failed assassination attempt and comfortably campaigning against an enfeebled president, Trump seemed to have acquired a bubble of inevitability around himself. Now Ms Harris, the incumbent vice president, is pressing and challenging. Trump’s national lead outside his MAGA base is soft, while Ms Harris and the Democrats have plenty of leeway to improve.