Leubsdorf: Will this time be different?

It didn’t last. Interviews revealed damaging gaps in Palin’s knowledge, and McCain’s weak reaction to the banking crisis turned the crucial economic issue strongly in Obama’s favor.

By October, Tina Fey’s portrayal of Palin on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” helped turn her into more laughingstock than serious candidate and the GOP ticket lost decisively.

By contrast, the Democrats’ first woman vice presidential nominee, New York Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, never had a chance. She, too, stirred excitement when 1984 Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale picked her in a “Hail Mary” effort to change the dynamic that saw Republican President Ronald Reagan headed for a decisive reelection.

Ferraro, like most vice presidential nominees, had little impact on the outcome. Reagan cruised to victory, capturing 59 percent of the popular vote and every state but Mondale’s home of Minnesota. Like most Hail Mary football passes, this one failed.

Palin and Ferraro were picked to boost underdog candidacies. The next time, a female candidate won a place on the national ticket on her own. That was when former first lady, New York senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton captured the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination after a surprisingly stiff primary challenge from Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders.

A jubilant Democratic Convention acclaimed Clinton, as she gave her acceptance speech clad in white symbolizing the women’s suffrage movement. Polls showed her headed for victory over insurgent Republican outsider Donald Trump.

But Clinton suffered from the sense that she was respected more than liked. In several Pennsylvania focus groups I attended that year, women voters said they considered her well-qualified but waffled on voting for her. On Election Day, to the surprise of most — including Trump — Clinton lost, accentuating doubts that the country was ready to elect a female president.

Four years later, after a primary contest in which three female Democratic senators made strong bids, presidential nominee Biden picked Harris as the party’s second female vice presidential nominee and its first of color.

Their victory made the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants the first woman to win one of the nation’s top two offices. And until recently, the Biden-Harris team was on track to represent the Democrats again — with uncertain prospects, at best.

But Biden’s withdrawal under pressure from party leaders catapulted Harris to the party’s presidential nomination, and the big crowds surrounding her initial campaigning created a wave of excitement at this week’s Chicago convention.

Now, as Democrats wonder if this time will be different, it’s already evident that Harris’ greatest advantage may be her positive persona. Unlike the often dour Clinton, she comes across as an upbeat, often smiling, sometimes laughing figure. And polling suggests her personal attributes are offsetting voter concerns about her positions on issues.

A new ABC-Washington Post-Ipsos poll showed her leading Trump marginally overall and on personal characteristics such as honesty, mental sharpness and representing your values. The former president led on issues such as immigration, inflation and the economy.

The result may depend on whether she can maintain that advantage, especially in debates likely to be marked by issues-based questioning. If she can, this time will be different.