Kamala Harris’ moment is here. The Democratic candidate will take the stage in Chicago on Thursday night to accept her party’s nomination for the presidency of the United States and, if she is to fulfil the hopes and dreams of the faithful, kick Donald Trump squarely in the electoral nuts - metaphorically, of course, although you wouldn’t need the services of Messrs Gallup and YouGov around the United Centre, this week’s host venue, to reveal a stout majority in favour of the literal act.

So far in her four and a half week stint as the Democratic nominee and “saviour of American democracy”, the Vice President has, to use a technical term not often used in American political science, played an absolute blinder. Stepping in a short notice to replace Joe Biden, Harris immediately, and with uncanny ease, tapped into a long-hidden desire amongst a sizeable cross-section of American voters for optimism and positivity, and then translated that into a polling advantage that - despite her insistence that she is the “underdog” - has made her a marginal favourite to replace her mentor and friend Joe Biden in the White House.

“She has brought back the joy,’’ her running mate Tim Walz has declared numerous times.

He would say that, of course, but the evidence is undeniable this week, both inside the United Centre and beyond. While Barack and Michelle Obama laid out the case for the Democratic ticket to the convention audience, the Democratic ticket itself was at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, speaking to a raucous and, yes, joyous crowd of 15,000 supporters.

Harris and Walz were there to make the political case against Donald Trump, flailing him over stances on abortion and judicial appointments, but also to make a contrast. Trump and the Republicans held their nomination convention in the same venue early last month and whilst it was many things, joyous it was not. “Not only do we have massive energy at our convention, we’ve got a hell of a lot more energy at where they had their convention, right here,’’ Walz said, his voice cracking as he tried to make himself heard.

Meanwhile, back in Chicago the convention has been winding up steadily towards Thursday night’s finale. Biden, showing a vigour that was largely absent in his own campaign, appeared on Monday n to remind Americans of his legislative achievements over the last three and half years. Tuesday night belonged to the Obamas, Barack and Michelle, who moved the spotlight onto the the future and to Harris, portraying her as a “fighter” for middle-class Americans in her pre-political life as a prosecutor, taking on  serious criminals and corrupt business, and as a national politician, where she helped shape Biden’s political achievements.

Michelle Obama, who was the favourite of many to step in and take over when Biden announced he would not seek a second term, delivered the line of the week about Trump. “His limited and narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who also happened to be Black,’’ she said, referring to herself and her husband. “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘black jobs’?”

She also spoke beautiful words about Harris. “She is one of the most qualified people ever to seek the office of the presidency, and she is one of the most dignified – a tribute to her mother, to my mother, and probably to your mother too, the embodiment of the stories we tell ourselves about this country. Her story is your story. It’s my story. It’s the story of the vast majority of Americans trying to build a better life.”

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Barack Obama followed his wife to the podium. “I’m the only person in America stupid enough to speak after Michelle Obama.”

Harris could be forgiven for having the same thought, although she will at least have had 48 hours to come up with a speech that might match the fierceness, power and eloquence of the former First Lady.

In truth, she could read a page from Donald Trump’s Art of the Deal and still get a standing ovation. Frankly, the Democratic party en masse simply cannot believe the transformation in political fortunes that Harris’ ascent to the top of the ticket has wrought. From being four points behind Trump in the national polling average, the Democrats’ nominee is now just under three points ahead. From being behind in every single one of the crucial swing states, Harris is ahead or tied in all of them.

Nevertheless, she needs to hit her marks on Thursday. Despite being the vice president she is a largely unknown quantity to voters, the majority of whom , it would be fair to say, are not particularly engaged in politics outside of election times. She needs to tell them who she is and what she believes in. The Trump campaign, and in particular Donald Trump himself, has sought to portray her as “dumb” and “a communist who will destroy our country”. She is neither of those things, of course, but she needs to prove it. She must also, to hark back to the Walz’s evocation,  bring  the joy, to make it clear she has no interest in sustaining the  slimy political discourse that has darkened American public  life since 2015, when you-know-who came down his golden escalator.

Finally, she needs to put Trump back in his box. For good.

This is both easier, and harder, said than done.

Easier, because her mere presence in the race has already driven Trump batty.

The former President is an incurable attention addict but in the last month or so, the American heartland has turned its lonely eyes to someone else.

Kamala, Kamala, Kamala, Kamala. The name has transfixed voters. And how it has hypnotized the 78-year-old Trump. Back and forth, back and forth, like a swinging pocket watch, sending the batty old man into semi-comprehensible fits of anger and frustration.

“Do you mind if I turn off the Tele-prompter for a few seconds,’’ he said just a few minutes in a heavily-trailed speech about his economic plans the other day. He did not wait for permission, of course. A column in the Wall Street Journal about Harris’ personal appearance had caught his attention. “They said Kamala has one big advantage, she's a very beautiful woman. She’s a beautiful woman. But I say that I’m much better looking than her. Much better. Much better. I’m a better looking person than Kamala,” he said, drifting off into wistful riff about a recent Time Magazine cover illustration of Harris which “made her look like the most beautiful actress in the history of the world…like Sophia Loren….or our beautiful First Lady Melania.”

It was weird. It was creepy. It was electoral arsenic.

One could picture Trump’s campaign advisers off to the side of the stage, getting ready with the throw net to take down their man before he did any more damage.

But here is the hard part. Does Harris go in for the political kill or not? She has raw material to hand and oratorical gifts to make it sing, and sting. Such a speech would go down an absolute storm in the hall, no doubt. But in giving Trump the flailing he deserves, and the attention he wants, she could be denying the country the future it appears to want.  On recent form, expect her to avoid any such mistake.