It may not be the Happiest Place on Earth (that’s Wally World?), but I just visited what’s undoubtedly the Happiest Place in Port Townsend — the Democratic Party campaign outlet located inside the old drycleaners at 1820 Jefferson Street, which is the west end of what used to be known as the PT Mercantile building.

This was right after Kamala Harris’ ascension to Dem Presidential candidate, and spirits were high, putting it mildly. I decided, on the spot, that I wanted to be party to the ongoing party festivities and high spirits. So, I signed on as a volunteer to hand out merch and campaign freebies. 

It’s certainly been a long-awaited upbeat and hopeful political time since President Biden’s classy withdrawal. Hope is alive and scintillating. 

One female Harris supporter held up a sign on television that I loved: Over a photo of the presidential convicted felon she had written, “Does This Ass Make My Country Look Too Small?” 

While Dems were upbeat, things weren’t in GOP Land. Headline jokester Andy Borowitz posted: “Trump Confuses Helicopter Crash With His Campaign.” And clever standup comic John Fugelsang called the GOP hit squad “The Gang That Couldn’t Smear Straight.” 

Instead of an existential threat, Trump is looking more and more like a bad joke — and we know how much Cadet Bonespurs loves being laughed at.  San Francisco radio talk host Ronn Owens told me, “it’s fun to watch him fall apart.” That it is. Trump is a guy I’ve never once seen laugh.

There’s scant reason for him even to smile these days. 

Harris’ ticket mate Tim Walz, meanwhile, looks like the epitome of  the word “avuncular.” 

Walz was a Command  Master Sergeant in the Army, which reminds me of something my Dad, a career army officer, said often: “Sergeants run the Army.” (The Russian army, on the other hand, has no sergeants running things, only officers and privates, which military experts say is a serious structural weakness.) 

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, plugging her new book, “The Art of Power” on MSNBC, recently revealed that during her first private conversation with the delusional Trump, he told her, “You know, I won the popular vote against Hillary.” “No, you didn’t,” she boldly told The Orange One.

Pelosi also writes in her book, “I’ve had a lot of conversations with Donald, and at the end of all of them, I think ‘Either you are stupid, or you think the rest of us are.” I vote for the former. 

Meanwhile, funny political pundit Rick Wilson and his Democratic cohort Molly Jong-Fast are embarking on a barnstorming lecture tour billed as “Rick Wilson’s Stop The Weirdos” tour. And Trump and runningmate JD Vance are nothing if not weird. I’d prefer “creepy.”

Media suggestion: Canada being ignored by U.S, media is nothing new. That’s why it’s not surprising, if still regrettable, that in all the biographies of Kamala Harris on American TV, rarely is the fact that she graduated from high school in Montreal ever mentioned. 

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PT In the media: I’d been waiting for several weeks to see the piece about Centrum’s Fiddle Tunes that was recorded weeks ago for PBS’ “News Hour.” It finally aired last week, and I believe you can still find it on You Tube. It was a well-produced piece, a shot in the arm for Centrum and PT. Nice drone shots of the Fort, too.

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Also great for PT: The Seattle Times’ big spread on Page One of its Northwest section about the student vegetable gardens at Salish Coast Elementary School, Blue Heron, and PT High, was well-written by reporter Denise R. Superville. They’re part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s fast-growing Farm to School program. Kids growing and enjoying veggies? Imagine.

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It costs an exorbitant 75 cents to get cash back on ATM purchases at one local grocery store. Too much. But I won’t even tell you the initials of the place.

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Finally, Wilson’s classic line for the loathsome Texas GOP Senate hatchetman: “There are two kinds of people in the world: People who hate Ted Cruz…and Ted Cruz.” 

PT humorist and local liberal lackey Bill Mann is also available at newsmann9@gmail.com.