From the Left
/Politics
How Kamala Can Win the Debate
The stakes could not be higher. Tens of millions of people will be watching, hopefully including those who (like me with baseball) tune in just in time for the World Series. Kamala Harris has to do two things: fill in the blanks in her own platform; and let Trump be Trump.
It's hard not to like what you see with Kamala Harris. Since she ...Read more
Back to School
"Welcome to MIT!" the flyers being handed out to incoming students announce, next to a drawing of Tim the Beaver, MIT's mascot. The flyers go on to comment on the conflict in the Middle East and the State of Israel in particular, and they list more than 20 additional resources.
One of the "resources" they list is the Mapping Project, a ...Read more
The Definition of Kamala Harris
What Kamala Harris has managed to do in a month is totally redefine herself in the eyes of American voters. She went from being a mostly disapproved of vice president to being a positively viewed candidate in the space of four weeks. What it proves is what I've suspected all along: that the disapproval of her was not deeply rooted. It was ...Read more
She Nailed It
Kamala Harris did exactly what she needed to do. She introduced herself to the American people. She addressed the most important issues facing our country. She drew sharply the contrast with Donald Trump, a small and unserious man who is a serious danger to American freedoms. She displayed the force and command that qualifies her to be ...Read more
The Obama Magic Can't Change a Close Election
It was that kind of night. The Obama Magic was on prime display.
Warning the country of the kind of attack that they should expect Kamala Harris will be on the receiving end of, Michelle Obama said:
"My husband and I sadly know a little something about this. For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us. ...Read more
Beyond Boring
Donald Trump, with his familiar rants and raves, is definitely boring. But it's beyond that.
He is a man who is out of control. He often sounds demented and divorced from reality, raising the question of whether he really is suffering from progressive dementia. It certainly sounds like it.
For weeks now, his aides and allies have been urging...Read more
Religious Freedom on Campus
"Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. This fact is so unimaginable and so abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that it bears repeating."
So wrote Judge Mark C. Scarsi in issuing a preliminary injunction this week to three Jewish students who sued...Read more
Crazy
Donald Trump is clearly flailing. He has reportedly taken to complaining about his campaign, which candidates tend to do when they are looking for someone to blame. He is, in the words of The Washington Post, "steaming" at what has happened to him. This is what he posted on Truth Social on Tuesday afternoon:
"What are the chances that Crooked ...Read more
A Safe and Smart Choice
From my point of view, it was the best night of the 1988 general election campaign. It was the night of the vice presidential debate. With a single comment, Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, the Democratic nominee for vice president, skewered Sen. Dan Quayle, his Republican counterpart. "I knew Jack Kennedy," he said. "Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. And...Read more
'Donald Being Donald'
In her 2019 memoir, Kamala Harris wrote, "My mother understood very well that she was raising two black daughters. She knew her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as black girls, and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident, proud black women."
As she did, when she dismissed Donald Trump's unbelievable attack on her ...Read more
Because He Can. And He Means It.
"I love you," Donald Trump told an audience of Christian conservatives on Friday. "You got to get out and vote. In four years, you don't have to vote again. We'll have it fixed so good, you're not going to have to vote."
What does that mean?
That there will be no election in four years? That Donald Trump will not leave office in four years? ...Read more
The Republicans Need a New Set of Talking Points
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is right. He called two of the most popular talking points Republicans are using right now "dumb" and "stupid." This is what he said to NBC News:
"Two attacks I've heard Republicans give that are totally stupid and dumb to do is the DEI attack, OK? The other attack that I would not do is saying that the ...Read more
The Same Old Don
He can't help himself.
On Thursday night, Donald Trump was supposed to give a unifying address, recounting the assassination attempt that he survived and uniting not only his own party but the country. He was supposed to convince independent and undecided voters that he was not the angry and bitter victim that he displays on social media, but...Read more
The Campaign of a Thousand Leaks
How do you convince a stubborn old man that he needs to step aside? The answer is not simply to tell him -- because he is not listening to what he doesn't want to hear -- but to force him to read about it. Leaking.
The leaks are escalating. Biden supporters -- a dwindling group -- managed to sell the story, for a very few days, that the ...Read more
Speaking Truth to Power
"I think if he is our nominee, I think we lose," soon to be Sen. Adam Schiff said during a fundraiser last Saturday, according to a person with access to a transcription of a recording of the event. "And we may very, very well lose the Senate and lose our chance to take back the House."
This was last Saturday, according to The New York Times,...Read more
What Unites Democrats
It's painful for Democrats to see our party so divided at a time when Republicans are marching in lockstep to coronate Donald Trump. Their convention will be a model of single-minded control, scripted from beginning to end by Trump. They have managed to excommunicate, intimidate and enforce discipline on anyone and any group that might offer a...Read more
Biden in the Bunker
He just doesn't get it. And neither do those closest to him.
Asked by George Stephanopoulos how he would feel if he loses, he told the truth and it was the wrong answer. "I'll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the good as job as I know I can do, that's what this is about."
No, it's not. What this is about is not Joe Biden doing "the...Read more
Blind Loyalty
California Gov. Gavin Newsom says he has President Joe Biden's back. It's almost enough for me to take him off my list of possible successors to the incumbent president. Having Biden's back is not a matter of loyalty.
Biden has been a fine president. He inherited a country in crisis, roiled by the pandemic, and righted the ship of state. The ...Read more
King Trump
"With fear for our democracy," Justice Sonia Sotomayor concludes in her brilliant dissent in Trump v. United States, "I dissent."
She is right. Very frighteningly right.
After reading what happened at the oral argument, I knew what was coming. The court was looking for a way to carve up the baby, giving some form of immunity to former ...Read more
Is This Really the Best We Can Do?
It was painful to watch. Two men vying for the most important job in the world. And neither of them making the cut.
Trump was Trump -- just as expected, bragging and blustering, lying and threatening, refusing to say he would accept the results of the election, defending the Jan. 6 rioters. It is no exaggeration to say he is a threat to our ...Read more