IT’S POLITICAL: The bloom is off the Kamala rose as the Vice President tonight in Philadelphia engages in what could be her only debate with Donald Trump. Harris’s dramatic surge in the polls over President Biden’s numbers has stalled and now she’s fighting for every tick in the percentages. A good performance in debate could make a huge difference.

  The job for Harris will be to keep her cool and make sense while Trump rambles and spews a river of fictions, lies, fantasies, and insults. Immigration and the economy are the big issues.

  The NY Times has the national polling average at 49 percent Harris, 47 percent Trump. But the Times’ own poll has Trump ahead, 48-47. Real Clear Politics says the average is a 1.2 percent lead for Harris, down a bit. Nate Silver’s average has Harris up by 2.5 percent.

  Silver, for instance, has Harris leading even if only slightly in five of the critical swing states, including Pennsylvania, which could be the state that decides the election.

  An advantage for Harris is that she’s a woman and Trump has a long record of belittling and denigrating women. He said last month, “I think I’m entitled to personal attacks. I don’t have a lot of respect for her.” Harris needs to find a way to turn that against him.

  Expect Trump to treat Harris as if she’s been president and calling the shots on policy for the past 3 ½ years. She’ll need to make it clear she has not been in charge without disavowing administration policies.

  Harris also could illustrate Trump’s threat to democracy without sounding like Chicken Little. Trump prepped for the debate by threatening to jail election officials who cheat him out of votes. “WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again.”

LOCKSTEP: House Republicans and Democrats issued dueling reports on the US exit from Afghanistan with the Republicans blaming President Biden for the messy and ultimately tragic end of the war for 13 American troops killed in a suicide bombing.

  In step with the current campaign talking point, the report holds Kamala Harris responsible saying she worked “in lockstep with President Biden behind the scenes to withdraw all US troops.”

BALLOT CHOICE: A Missouri judge ruled that a November ballot measure on abortion is invalid because it does not list which laws it would repeal, potentially restricting it from reaching a vote. The measure is a constitutional amendment that would make abortion legal in Missouri up to the point of fetal viability.

  Cole County Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh said the measure’s proponents did not sufficiently inform voters who signed petitions for the proposed amendment of its ramifications, echoing arguments made in a legal challenge by antiabortion advocates.

  Limbaugh said he will allow the issue to remain on the ballot for now, giving Missourians for Constitutional Freedom time to appeal.

DRIVING WHILE BLACK: Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill was stopped on his way to Sunday’s game by four Miami-Dade motorcycle cops then handcuffed and made to lie on the street. It happened about a block from Hard Rock Stadium.

  Video taken by a passing motorist shows an officer telling Hill to roll down his window then immediately telling him to get out of the car. One of the officers claimed Hill was uncooperative.

  Hill was eventually ticketed and released before going on to score a touchdown in the Dolphins’ win over the Jacksonville jaguars.

  One of the officers was put on administrative leave while the incident is investigated.  

THE OBIT PAGE: Actor James Earl Jones, a star of Broadway and Hollywood whose gravitas was the ominous voice of Darth Vader in “Star Wars” and Disney’s animated Mufasa in “The Lion King,” died at home yesterday in Dutchess County, north of New York City. He was 93.

  It was his voice that used to intone, “This is CNN, the world’s news network.”

  Once a child who didn’t speak because he stuttered so badly, Jones overcame poverty and abandonment by his parents to become a revered actor with a long career. He had parts in dozens of plays, nearly 90 television dramas and episodic series, and about 120 movies. 

  Among his movies, he was a nuclear bombardier in “Dr. Strangelove” (1964), a boxer in “The Great White Hope” (1970), and a baseball writer in “Field of Dreams” (1989) with Kevin Costner. 

THE SPIN RACK: Britain’s Princess Catherine announced that she’s done with chemotherapy and is cancer free. “Doing what I can to stay cancer free is now my focus,” Kate said in a video message. The royals have never said what kind of cancer she had that required abdominal surgery and chemotherapy. — Apple says its new iPhone 16 they revealed yesterday will have artificial intelligence capability. The company said that the phones will be able to sort messages, offer suggestions about your writing, and its Siri virtual assistant will be smarter. — Hockey playing brothers Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau who were killed by a drunk driver while riding their bicycles, were buried in Pennsylvania yesterday in a service attended by professionals who played with the older of the brothers known as “Johnny Hockey.” His wife announced at the funeral that she’s pregnant with the couple’s third child. Matthew’s wife is pregnant with their first.

BELOW THE FOLD: Conservative activist Charlie Kirk posted on twitter/X that Haitian immigrants in Springfield Ohio “are eating their family pets, another gift of the Biden-Harris mass immigration replacement plan.” He said, “Save our pets. Secure our borders.”

  Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance took up the cry posting, “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?”

  Springfield authorities say there are no credible reports that any of this is true.

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