Paul Waldman writes:

“I call her laughing Kamala,” Donald Trump recently said about his new opponent. “You ever watch her laugh? She’s crazy. You know, you can tell a lot by a laugh — she’s crazy, she’s nuts.”

He’s right about one thing: You can indeed tell a lot by a laugh. And you can also tell a lot by how people react to a laugh. Perhaps Trump will choose “Laughing Kamala” as his go-to nickname for Vice President Harris, to follow on “Crooked Hillary” and “Sleepy Joe.” I can’t help but hope so, because Harris’ laugh clearly fills conservatives with fear; to paraphrase Margaret Atwood, men are afraid that women will laugh at them, while women are afraid men will kill them.

Harris laughs easily, boisterously, and frequently. It’s one of the most appealing things about her personality, and something you don’t see often in politicians. And Trump? Not only does he almost never laugh himself, he is positively obsessed with the idea that other people may be laughing at him. Which makes Harris’s laughter all the more delicious. This is just one element of the emotional transformation Democrats have undergone since last weekend: After a Biden campaign that felt like a grim march toward doom, Kamala Harris is bringing some joy to the presidential race. [Continue reading…]