"As for California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Harris wrote that he told her he was hiking and would 'call back' but 'never did.'..."

"Newsom addressed the excerpt during a news conference Friday in California, downplaying any tension with Harris and ribbing a reporter for asking about it. 'Trivial doesn’t even begin to describe how inconsequential my comments are about to be,' Newsom said, going on to confirm he was hiking and saying he missed a call from an unknown number. 'At that exact same moment, [I] was working with my team to put out a statement to endorse her. I assume that’s in the book as well.'"

From "Harris book ignites tensions with potential 2028 presidential rivals/In her upcoming memoir, Harris recounts her presidential campaign, offering blunt observations of top Democrats she could face as future opponents" (WaPo).

What a great line: Trivial doesn’t even begin to describe how inconsequential my comments are about to be.

ADDED: Also in that article: "Harris portrayed [Josh] Shapiro as overly ambitious and confident, a characterization that a Shapiro spokesman, Manuel Bonder, called 'simply ridiculous.'" What's wrong with being ambitious and confident... other than the worry that he'd outshine her? Anyone capable of serving as President is going to be "ambitious and confident." I assume Bonder mean it's ridiculous to think those qualities are bad and not it's ridiculous to think Shapiro has them. 

"The man accused of setting fire to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence Sunday indicated he was motivated by his views on the Israel-Gaza war and believed Shapiro needed to stop the killing of Palestinians..."

"... a newly unveiled search warrant says. Cody Balmer, 38, made the declarations in a 911 call after he left the property, in which he reported his own attack to dispatchers.... Balmer — who reportedly struggled with untreated mental illness — said the governor needed to stop having [Balmer's] friends killed and said 'our people have been put through too much by that monster,' according to the affidavit. He also said, 'All he has is a banquet hall to clean up.' Balmer allegedly identified himself by name and told the dispatcher he would “confess to everything that I had done.... Shapiro has expressed support for Israel, and last year pushed for the University of Pennsylvania to disband a pro-Palestinian encampment...."

From "Suspect who targeted Shapiro cited views on Palestinians, warrant says/Cody Balmer, 38, described his views in a call to 911 reporting the attack. His brother said that Balmer suffered from mental illness" (WaPo).

We're told that Cody Balmer's brother Dan says Cody "was diagnosed with bipolar disorder" and has expressed the belief that his sister-in-law is a witch. And: "Dan Balmer also said Cody Balmer was politically independent and had urged his family to vote for Donald Trump in November."

The Governor's mansion, after the fire.

The man arrested for the crime, Cody Balmer, 38, has confessed, the NYT reports.

"Ambitious Democrats Have a New Game Plan: Yak It Up About Sports/Prominent leaders are flocking to sports radio shows and podcasts, an early sign of how the party is trying to reach apolitical young men...."

A NYT article that begins:

“I hate the Packers,” Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota said of his state’s rival football team from Wisconsin....

He's trying to show his aptitude for national politics by insulting the people of a swing state. Genius! The "coach" has a "game plan."

“The Sixers suck right now,” declared Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, lamenting the decline of Philadelphia’s basketball team.

Yeah, at least insult your own team. 

The hot takes are flowing as a parade of ambitious Democrats talk sports, trying to accentuate their salt-of-the-earth credentials and forge stronger bonds with voters.

Count the metaphors:

"'He’s hot as shit, you must acquit' demanded one woman online, while others wrote: 'Free Luigi!'..."

"Among the viral posts on Twitter is a photograph of a woman privately messaging Mangione after his arrest, which has been viewed more than 3.2 million times. 'Baby, I know you don’t know me, but I will be praying for your entire exoneration and freedom from this point forward. In exchange, I’m begging you to start an Only Fans account,' she wrote. 'Fan cams' worshipping the 'Gen Z assassin' have also appeared on TikTok, with users uploading musical montages featuring images of him shirtless and smiling.... The reaction to the murder has forced American authorities to remind the public that 'this killer was not a hero'.... Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania... said... 'In America, we do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or express a viewpoint....'" 

From "'The hot assassin': how the internet became obsessed with Luigi Mangione/The 26-year-old charged with the murder of Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare chief executive, has found support among social media users" (London Times).

Pre-postmortem, Part 2: "Democrats start to point fingers even as they hope for Harris win."

A headline at The Hill.

“People are nervous and they’re trying to cover their ass and get a little ahead of Election Day,” one Democratic strategist said of the sniping. “It’s based on anxiety, stakes and the unique nature of this cycle."

“We didn’t have a traditional process for this election. We didn’t have a primary. People just had to fall in line,” the strategist added, saying “it’s not surprising to me” that some of the blame game is happening even before Election Day....

“[Harris] is going to look real silly for not picking Shapiro,” one former aide in the Obama White House said....

[E]ven before Garbage-gate, there were whispers that Biden would be responsible for a Harris defeat....

For Pre-postmortem, Part 1, see the previous post. 

"Zelensky’s arms-factory visit reeks of partisan foreign-election interference."

Says the New York Post Editorial Board.

Zelensky got flown into battleground Pennsylvania aboard a USAF C-17 plane on Tuesday; he then toured the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant accompanied by Gov. Josh Shapiro, Sen. Bob Casey, Rep. Matt Cartwright — the last two being active Democratic candidates. And it looks like no GOP candidates got invited — trapping a foreign head of state into apparently taking sides in US domestic politics....

"So the Trump campaign and its allies moved to quietly kneecap [Josh] Shapiro."

"It did so by forging a de facto alliance with the enemy of its enemy, the progressive left, which opposed Shapiro—the only Jewish candidate on Harris’s shortlist—largely because of his pro-Israel stances. The result was a swelling of progressive opposition (some of it organic, some artificially fed) that, among other things, saw Shapiro’s online critics dub him 'Genocide Josh.' 'Where we could, we amplified the leftists on Twitter....'... On Tuesday, after the vice president announced her pick of Walz, there was a sense of relief.... Publicly, GOP operatives flooded social media and the airwaves with criticisms of Walz’s record on transgender therapies for minors, his progressive views of criminal justice and immigration, and his leadership of the state amid the Minneapolis riots after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd....."

From "Trump World Fueled an Anti-Shapiro Whisper Campaign/Now that the Pennsylvania governor is out of the way, are they ready for Walz?" (Bulwark).

KH picks Walz.

"Harris picks Tim Walz as VP ahead of multistate tour" (WaPo).

ADDED: This was expected, and what can we say about it? 

1. If it were a race for the presidency, Josh Shapiro would be the stronger candidate, but for that reason, I'm happy to see him left out of the position of subordination to the already subordinate person, Kamala Harris, the sitting Vice President, sitting in the shadow of the barely-there President Joe Biden. Better for Josh Shapiro to remain active and independent, accomplishing things in Pennsylvania, and to launch a presidential campaign in his own right in 2028 or 2032. He'll have a stronger position than Tim Walz, if Tim Walz is the sitting Vice President, hoping to run in 2032. A Vice President always looks inert, and he tends to have been chosen to strengthen someone else. Do you realize how rare it is that a sitting Vice President gets elected President? It's only happened twice in U.S. history — 4 times if you count the first 2 Vice Presidents (which you shouldn't, because they did not get there as the winner's running mate).

2. What does this say about Kamala Harris's position on Israel? Is she appeasing the pro-Palestinian forces within the Democratic Party? Was anti-Semitism involved or some kind of idea that Kamala Harris, being triply intersectional, needed a running mate completely composed of traditionally privileged elements?

3. I'm interested in watching the onslaught against Walz. In the last couple weeks, Democrats have unloaded on JD Vance, so it's time for the retaliation. What form will it take? How intense will it be?

4. Or is it better to yawn? From my morning textings:

5. Do I hear a Walz?

6. Is there something about "Tim"? Hillary picked a Tim too. Did you know that "tim" was "A term of personal abuse" in the 1600s (according to the OED). From Ben Jonson's "The Alchemist": "Then you are an Otter, and a Shad, a Whit, A very Tim." 

7. The name Hillary has been uttered, and she is summoned. Up she pops, and she is thrilled:

"The bronze sheen on our presidential candidates... used to be organic: the result of hours spent in the sun rallying crowds and shaking hands..."

"But even if the campaigning is done in the confines of a television studio, you’ll still see sun-kissed skin, glowing just the right amount for the HD cameras.... Makeup telegraphs the way politicians see themselves — or how they want others to see them. The men on Harris’s short list for vice president have portrayed themselves as middle-of-the-road, no-nonsense everymen, an image complemented by their polished but natural makeup looks. The Republican National Convention in July brought forward a different kind of male face: Kardashian-bronze, a look favored by party standard-bearer Donald Trump.... This parade of copper-colored men were a united front of Trump aesthetics: highlighting the strange cocktail of masculinity favored by Trump himself — a mix of swashbuckling American masculinity and Hollywood sensibilities, expressed in deep tans and bandaged ears, a kind of gilded populism."

From "Color theory for male politicians: Am I a gold, copper or bronze? The 2024 presidential election season has given us an eyeful of the glorious highs and perilous lows of men’s makeup" (WaPo).

Are the 2 parties really doing different colors? Here's Josh Shapiro as he appeared last week:

Is he not orange? Seems to me all the men have adopted the ridiculous color Trump has used all these years — to endless mockery. 

"A series of prominent Democrats were tested in a head-to-head ballot against Donald Trump."

By Emerson College Polling:

• Vice President Kamala Harris: 49% Trump, 43% Harris, 8% undecided
• Senator Bernie Sanders: 48% Trump, 42% Sanders, 10% undecided
• California Governor Gavin Newsom: 48% Trump, 40% Newsom, 12% undecided
• Former Vice President Al Gore: 47% Trump, 42% Gore, 11% undecided
• Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: 48% Trump, 41% Clinton, 11% undecided
• Senator Elizabeth Warren: 49% Trump, 39% Warren, 13% undecided
• Secretary of State Pete Buttigieg: 49% Trump, 39% Buttigieg, 12% undecided
• Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro: 46% Trump, 38% Shapiro, 16% undecided
• Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer: 48% Trump, 38% Whitmer, 15% undecided

Meanwhile, Trump beats Joe Biden by only 46% to 43%, with 11% undecided. That is, Biden loses to Trump by only 3 percentage points. All those other possibilities are worse: Harris loses by 6, Bernie by 6, Newsom by 8, Gore by 5, Hillary by 7, Warren by 10, Buttigieg by 10, Shapiro by 8, and Whitmer by 10.

I like how the most surprising inclusion — Gore — does best.

Saddest exclusion: Kerry. If Gore is in, it's mean to leave out Kerry.

Most interesting effect on Trump: Shapiro. Trump is at 48 or 48 for everyone else, but slips to 46 for Shapiro. There's a lurch toward undecided.

"For [Biden] to remain the Democratic candidate... would be an act not only of self-delusion but of national endangerment."

"It is entirely possible that the debate will not much change the polls; it is entirely possible that Biden could have a much stronger debate in September; it is not impossible to imagine that Trump will find a way to lose. But, at this point, should Biden engage the country in that level of jeopardy? To step aside and unleash the admittedly complicated process of locating and nominating a more robust and promising ticket seems the more rational course and would be an act of patriotism.... To stay in the race would be pure vanity, uncharacteristic of someone whom most have come to view as decent and devoted to public service. To stay in the race, at this post-debate point, would also suggest that it is impossible to imagine a more vital ticket. In fact, Gretchen Whitmer, Raphael Warnock, Josh Shapiro, and Wes Moore are just a few of the office-holders in the Party who could energize Democrats and independents, inspire more younger voters, and beat Trump."

Writes David Remnick, in "The Reckoning of Joe Biden/For the President to insist on remaining the Democratic candidate would be an act not only of self-delusion but of national endangerment" (The New Yorker).

Does trying to "energize" people — at this late stage — about Gretchen Whitmer/Raphael Warnock/Josh Shapiro/Wes Moore seem "more rational" to you? Gretchen Whitmer/Raphael Warnock/Josh Shapiro/Wes Moore did not go through the primary process, interacting with real people across the country and standing up to months of scrutiny, outlasting others. And what would this alternative process — this "admittedly complicated process" — consist of? It seems as though it would resemble the process of picking the VP candidate — similar to the way Kamala Harris was picked 4 years ago. Why would voters be "inspir[ed]" to have such a person foisted on them by the same people who presented Biden as excellent and are now asserting that he's hopelessly decrepit? I know they just want to win, but that's not the stuff of hopes and dreams.

Remnick worries about Biden's "self-delusion," but what about his?

By the way, is it "entirely possible that Biden could have a much stronger debate in September"? Not only is it entirely possible for Biden to have a much stronger debate in September, it's entirely possible that if you calm yourself, clear your head of preconceptions, and cue up last Thursday's debate and watch it again, you will perceive it as a much stronger debate than it seemed on first watch. 

And I will resist putting my time into a little exercise in cynicism, but this sentence is begging for a paraphrase: "To stay in the race would be pure vanity, uncharacteristic of someone whom most have come to view as decent and devoted to public service." 

Must we commemorate January 6th? Is it going to be an annual occasion for reflection and disingenuity?

I'll just check the front page of The Washington Post and The New York Times.

The Washington Post is  not making an occasion of the 3rd anniversary of the insurrection/"insurrection." Here's the top of the page. There's one story, buried down there between something about Alaska Airlines and the recent doings of Elvis Costello:

If you scroll a little farther, though, you'll see that there's a piece by the Editorial Board, "Three years later, beware dangerous revisionism of Jan. 6."

I'll talk about that in a minute. First, let's compare the NYT front page:

"Declaring Emergencies and Banning ‘Latinx’: First Acts for 9 New Governors."

A NYT article by Maggie Astor. 

From the list of Democrats:

Wes Moore... the first Black governor of Maryland... issued an executive order to establish the Maryland Department of Service and Civic Innovation. One thing it could oversee would be a program he suggested to let high school graduates do a paid year of community service....

Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania/Through an executive order, Governor Shapiro opened the vast majority of jobs in the state government — 92 percent of them — to people without four-year college degrees.

From the list of Republicans: