Donald Trump signaled in a social media post yesterday that he may be backing out of the only scheduled debate with Kamala Harris. Concerning ABC, he fumed, concerning what he called ABC’s ‘Panel of Trump Haters,’ “Why would I do the debate against Kamala Harris on that network?”

The most eloquent summary of last week’s Democratic National Convention I’ve read so far comes from the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne Jr. in today’s edition, entitled, “The DNC Was a Master Class in Coalition Building.” The headline did not do justice to the piece, which began, “It all seems simple and obvious: if you want to win, embrace patriotism, talk incessantly about freedom and be joyfully hopeful.”

“The beauty of a patriotism rooted in welcome and neighborliness is that her (Harris’ — ed.) story becomes exceptional in the way that America itself, at its best, has always been exceptional…The Harris campaign will implicitly be a running argument for the idea that embracing pluralistic democracy, not skin color or blood or longevity of residence, is the true hallmark of a patriot…Her very definitions of patriotism, freedom and opportunity…activate a new majority not just to defeat Trump but to leap right past Trumpism.”