Jeet Heer compared Harris’s deft work on Tuesday to Muhammed Ali’s “famous rope-a-dope technique,” in which the famed boxer “made himself into a punching bag, which tired [George] Foreman out and allowed Ali to deliver the winning punches.” Harris, Heer writes, teased Trump into getting ever angrier and more incoherent.

If that weren’t enough to make this Harris’s week, Taylor Swift, America’s biggest pop star, officially endorsed her following the vice president’s powerful debate performance. This is a big deal, Joan Walsh emphasizes, not only because Swift didn’t endorse Hillary Clinton in 2016 but also because the megastar boasts 283 million followers on Instagram, including many young people and historically red-leaning country music fans. Swift is suddenly no longer worried that she might hurt Harris with her own baggage: If she can unburden herself of needing to think through misogynistic equations before stepping into politics, then so can we.

-Alana Pockros

Engagement Editor

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