I was prepared to tell Democrats what a brilliant choice they made for vice president.

Where Donald Trump had blundered, choosing a lock-step ideologue in J.D. Vance, Kamala Harris was building beyond her base and shoring up perhaps the most important swing state for her electoral success.

A week ago, all markers pointed to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro — a well-respected leader who had first made his mark in the Keystone State as a tough, aggressive attorney general.

He had the right credentials. Georgetown Law. Magna cum laude at the University of Rochester. He is a family man and religious Jew who has run the state as a centrist, proving he can comfortably reach across the aisle.

Because of that, he was one of the most popular governors in the country.

Add to that his fight. Good on his feet, telegenic, articulate, Shapiro was already taking it to the Republicans, telling Donald Trump to stop badmouthing the country.

He would have been a great choice for Harris. The spotlight was turning toward him.

And that’s when it started.

The progressive backlash.

The far left was miffed that he had bad-mouthed campus protesters who were carrying Palestinian and Hamas flags and calling for the annihilation of Israel and its people.

If Shapiro was appalled at what happened Oct. 7, it would seem a crucial act of self-preservation. Hamas terrorists slaughtered some 1,200 mostly Israeli Jews that day. They were rewarded almost instantly with antisemitic chants on American college campuses.

The........

© Arizona Republic