"The battle to become Vice President Harris's running mate is turning increasingly ugly as a decision nears and Democrats rally around their own preferred picks.

"Progressives angered by Israel's war in Gaza have increasingly targeted Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), who is Jewish, over his stances on Israel and handling of pro-Palestinian protests. Separately, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) also flagged concerns about Shapiro to Harris's team, according to Politico.

"The left wing of the Democratic Party is increasingly pushing for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) to be the Harris pick. A number of House Democrats have been trying to boost Walz, a source familiar with the conversations said.

"Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), another top contender, has seen some union leaders publicly question whether he should get the nod, though the talk has not reached the nastiness of the debate over Shapiro."

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"For the past four years, inflation has rattled local small businesses across the country. The inflation rate peaked in 2022, but of course the cost of goods never went back down.

"In fact the prices just kept rising, just not at the same clip they had been rising at the peak.

"In short, gas prices, food prices, housing prices, energy prices, and insurance costs are still blowing away everyday people's budgets, making them cut costs on essentials or drive up credit card debt despite the Biden-Harris administration consistently dismissing their plight for two years.

"On Friday, things just became worse for middle America's economic concerns when the latest jobs report for July showed that not only has job growth slowed to an alarming number, only adding 114,000 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis when experts had been expecting 176,00 new jobs, but the June and May jobs reports were revised lower by 29,000 jobs.

"This means that 10 out of the last 14 reports have now been revised lower."

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"Last week's American Federation of Teachers (AFT) convention was, effectively, a campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris. The labor union formally endorsed Harris last Tuesday, and it spent much of the week heaping praise on her while demonizing school choice and its champions.

"The union did not spend the week talking about how to solve the devastating learning loss caused by the school closures it intentionally prolonged. It also did not meaningfully address fixing the chronic absenteeism crisis or the total breakdown of discipline that has led to many of its members being unsafe at work. Neither did Harris, who focused on student debt cancellation, gun control, and repeating a false narrative about Florida's parental rights law.

"If students were doing well, the AFT and Harris would want to shout it from the rooftops. But there is painfully little to brag about for government-run schooling. Four years since the Covid-19 lockdowns, and after $189.5 billion in federal relief funding for K-12 schools, students are still struggling."

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"As Michael Kinsley defined it, a gaffe occurs when a politician accidentally tells the truth.

"Joe Biden passed the test when he explained why he was pushing a radical overhaul of the Supreme Court.

"It's because Donald Trump made him do it. ...

"Whatever the reason, Biden's confession Monday at the LBJ Presidential Library perfectly captures the cause of the turmoil that has reshaped American public life in the last nine years.

"Starting in 2015, Trump's political rise set off a chain reaction of lunacy and hatred the likes of which we have not seen in modern times."

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"This week, President Biden introduced his plan for 'reforming' the Supreme Court, featuring an unconstitutional proposal for imposing term limits on justices. This development follows years of relentless leftist attacks and unfair criticism towards the constitutionalist justices on the Supreme Court, particularly Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

"President Biden claims these 'reforms' are necessary because 'what is happening now (on the Supreme Court) ... undermines the public's confidence in recent court decisions' and has negatively impacted 'our personal freedom.' In reality, the political left simply doesn't like that recent rulings have held up the Constitution's limits on the power of government."

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"Behind the public jubilation over Vice President Harris's swift rise to become their party's likely nominee for president, Democratic lawmakers are privately anxious about her prospects of defeating former President Trump, acknowledging that she is largely untested as a candidate and faces serious challenges.

"The anxiety, for the most part, has been set aside out of a deep sense of relief that President Biden decided to drop his reelection bid. After months of unease over the 81-year-old incumbent, Democratic lawmakers are glad to rally behind Harris in hopes she will rev up Democratic donors along with young and minority voters.

"But concerns are already bubbling up over Harris's ability to connect as well as Biden did in 2020 with white working-class and union voters in three states that were critical to defeating Trump: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin."

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"Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a forceful message to American lawmakers during a Wednesday congressional address, saying that the Jewish state's war against Hamas and the terror group's Iranian benefactors is vital to American interests and helps protect the United States.

"'If you remember one thing, one thing, from the speech, remember this: Our enemies are your enemies, our fight is your fight, and our victory will be your victory,' Netanyahu said to widespread applause. 'All our enemies should know this: Those who attack Israel will pay a very heavy price.'

"The Israeli leader's speech before Congress comes amid a contested U.S. election season. The Jewish state's war has divided Democratic leaders and fractured the party's foreign policy establishment. Scores of Democratic lawmakers boycotted Netanyahu's speech, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), and Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.).

"Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, declined to preside over the address in favor of a political event with a college sorority, prompting criticism from GOP lawmakers and signaling that support for Israel's war is again emerging as a key issue ahead of the November elections. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), a vocal anti-Semite and fierce opponent of Netanyahu's government, attended the speech and used it as an opportunity to protest. Tlaib sat in the crowd, scowling, while she held signs that read 'Guilty of genocide' and 'War criminal.'"

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"The astonishing political events of the last four weeks make plain, once again, how much of America's history depends on what voters have come to accept as the choice of one person: each presidential nominee's choice of a vice presidential candidate. Even as the nomination process was expanded, half a century ago, to include millions of primary voters, the choice of the vice presidential nominee has devolved from smoke-filled rooms of bosses who represented large constituencies to the choice of a single person.

"Consider the 47-year-old Barack Obama's selection of 65-year-old Joe Biden in 2008. For 2016, Obama shoved Biden aside in favor of the rival he bested in the February 2008 primaries, Hillary Clinton. The Biden family and many others think their man would have beaten Donald Trump and would be in the twilight of an eight-year presidency now."

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"Before she was Joe Biden's understudy the last four years, Kamala Harris ran offices as a California prosecutor and senator. Often, scandal and failings followed in her wake.

"As California Attorney General, Harris was widely criticized for failing to take on prosecutorial misconduct. In fact her office was 'called out' by judges for 'defending convictions obtained by local prosecutors' who had inserted false confessions, lied under oath, and withheld evidence. A federal appeals judge even admonished officials in 2015 to talk to Harris 'and make sure she understands the gravity of the situation' involving prosecutorial misconduct.

"Likewise, Harris' top deputy was accused of sexually harassing a staffer while working for Harris at the California Department of Justice, costing the state $400,000 to settle the case."

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"They didn't soulfully consider Joe Biden's marked decline and decide, for the good of him, his party and the country, that he had to step down.

"They lied, and they got caught.

"The Democratic Party line on President Biden was that he had turned in an exceptionally effective State of the Union address. He might mess up a name here or there, but he had gotten better with age.

"He should be judged on his achievements, which rivaled those of LBJ. Anything suggesting he was in decline was a paranoid lie, or -- in a truly ridiculous neologism -- 'a cheap fake.'"

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