WHAT’S UP WITH KAMALA HARRIS? When Al Gore lost the presidential race in 2000, he grew a beard, disappeared for a while, and got weirder than ever. After John McCain lost in 2008, he often said he slept like a baby — “sleep for two hours, wake up and cry, sleep for two hours, wake up and cry.”

So, it would not be a surprise to learn that Vice President Kamala Harris is taking defeat hard. But Harris is a different case. McCain was a senator when he lost, so his slipping into despair for a while would not affect the course of government. Yes, Gore was vice president when he lost, but the president, Bill Clinton, was 54 years old and entirely compos mentis while serving the final weeks of his term. There was no real need for Gore to be ready should Clinton somehow falter.