There's nothing that angers me more about politics than the simpering, sickly sweet manufactured sentiment that permeates campaigns on both sides.

Politics has never been a barrel of laughs  At its best, some politicians are able to lift the soul, present a compelling vision, or have supporters nodding their heads in agreement. 

So when liberal media sites try to goose Democratic voters by claiming that Harris and Walz have brought "joy back" to politics, I don't have to stick my finger down my throat to get the desired reaction. The bile rises naturally and easily.

"Harris Used to Worry About Laughing. Now Joy Is Fueling Her Campaign," gushes the New York Times.  

"Harris and Walz seize on joyful message in contrast to darker Trump themes," celebrates the Washington Post.

"'Bringing back the joy': Kamala Harris' rally blows away JD Vance's weird appearance across town," grossly exaggerates Salon.

Trump's themes are "dark" because anyone with half a brain looks at the country and doesn't see anything to be "joyful" about. 

But this manufactured sentiment isn't because of anything Hamala Harris or Tim Walz has proposed to fix what's ailing the country. The Democrats are "joyful" because they now have a legitimate shot at winning the election not because Harris or Walz actually brings joy to their hearts. If their polls go south, let's revisit this "joyful" thing and see if it still applies.

The Democrat's "joy" is more like the "irrational exuberance" made famous by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan in 1996 when commenting on the precarious dot com bubble that soon collapsed. 

Like the dot com bubble, the Harris campaign's "joy" is a product of wishful thinking and media desperation. There's a breathless, wide-eyed, near-hysteria that's driving media coverage and it's covering Harris-Walz in a sickly sweet sheen of artificial sweeteners. 

Washington Examiner:

Joy is fueling her campaign? You bet it is — no less a figure than Walz himself declared that Harris “emanates the joy.” MSNBC went along to declare that Harris and Walz “campaign with joy.” The Washington Post reported that the two Democrats have “seized on a joyful message.” The New York Times, again, announced that Harris and Walz are running a “joyful campaign.”

In Harrisworld these days, joy is everywhere — in food, in clothing, in campaigning, in everything. NPR loved Walz’s “folksy fashion sense — Carhartts and camo.” And everyone, just everyone, loves Walz’s apparently voracious, just-folks appetite. “Tim Walz loves food,” declared the Atlantic. Corn dogs, cinnamon rolls, his very own “Turkey Trot Tater-Tot Hotdish” recipe, and more, all washed down with prodigious quantities of milk. It all brings joy, the Atlantic declared — “cold milk on a hot day; a perfectly cracked egg; a steaming casserole dish full of God knows what.” By being so joyous about food, the publication concluded, “Harris and Walz are making theirs the candidacy of terrestrial pleasure and straightforward abundance.”

Walz and Harris have latched on to this "joy" meme and are driving it hard.

“All the things that make me mad about those other guys and all the things they do wrong, the one thing I will not forgive them for is they tried to steal the joy from this country,” said Walz, 60, at a Detroit rally Wednesday. “But you know what? ... Our next president brings the joy! She emanates the joy!”

When was the last time a politician of any party used the word "joy" three times in one paragraph? Sheesh.

That's what I mean by "manufactured." The Cackler has plastered a smile on her face and brags about bringing "joy back to the campaign. She reminds me of The Joker. Not the brilliant, bizarro take on the character by Joaquin Phoenix. Rather, the far more desperate and sinister Joker played by Heath Ledger in the 2008 film "The Dark Knight."

Former Obama campaign manager David Axelrod is also warning of an "irrational exuberance over Harris.

"There’s a lot of irrational exuberance on the Democratic side of the aisle right now because there was despair for some period of time about what November was going to look like,” Axelrod said on CNN. Now, precisely what Axelrod warned against is happening every minute of every day, not just among Democrats but among their allies in the media. For the moment at least, no one wants to do anything that might spoil the joy.

We'll see how long the "joy" lasts. Voters, like children, can only play "pretend" for so long before realizing it's just a game and giving it up.