Kamala Harris was a terrible district attorney in San Francisco; an abusive and failed California Attorney General; a nonentity as a U.S. Senator; and an embarrassment as Vice President. Still, she may "fail up" once again.
First, the argument against her. She is, or was, a terrible campaigner in 2020, dropping out in 2019 before a singe primary vote was cast. She is an awful speaker, repeating vapid platitudes ("unburdened by what has been" ).
He has a record of radicalism and failure, from bailing out rioters (and joining them), to failing to stop the migration crisis at the southern border, to... the list just goes on forever. She has no proven ability to do anything whatsoever.
Still: she is black (and Indian) and female. Amid all the cackling about DEI and its failures, politics does not really care about qualifications for office. She represents a chance for a historic first, which Democrats will feel good about.
The party has united behind her and its fear of defeat will motivate it to fight harder, not to capitulate. That is as it should be: we are Americans, and we do not go down easily. This will be a close election and Trump's victory is uncertain.
This week's show will be slightly different from the norm: we'll focus on clips and topics, rather than guests -- and that, hopefully, will mean more input from the callers (unless you are all watching football on opening weekend).
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This week's Torah portion includes several laws about conduct in civic and personal life, the common theme of which is boundaries -- setting bounds to what one may do at home, at work, and even in the battlefield.
One noteworthy passage concerns Amalek, the evil nation that attacked the Children of Israel as they made their Exodus from slavery to freedom. Deuteronomy 25:17-19 commands Jews to obliterate Amalek's memory.
The South African government accused Israel of genocide on the basis of a story about Amalek in the Book of Samuel, in which King Saul was commanded to wipe out the entire evil Amalekite nation.
Because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quoted this week's portion -- "Remember what Amalek did to you" (25:17), the South African government claimed he was commanding soldiers to commit genocide.
It was an absurd and malevolent misreading of the Bible and of Jewish tradition. The commandment, as observed by Jews today, is to remember the evil of Amalek and fight ...