I'm a born skeptic, so I'm waiting for something to go wrong with the Harris campaign, especially once the GOP attack dogs start to fear-and-smear her in every way possible and knowing that DJT's own deeply flawed persona will continue to get a free pass, as just Donald being Donald, every time he verbally abuses her and distorts reality.
I'm a born skeptic, so I'm waiting for something to go wrong with the Harris campaign, especially once the GOP attack dogs start to fear-and-smear her in every way possible and knowing that DJT's own deeply flawed persona will continue to get a free pass, as just Donald being Donald, every time he verbally abuses her and distorts reality.
That said, I'm also trying to see this from the 30,000-foot level, and from that vantage point, there seems to be so much more energy and vitality here than I ever thought possible. There appears to be a genuine enthusiasm to her campaign, one that most media outlets probably are underestimating. It is like a massive dose of Gatorade to a crowd that was dying of thirst. I listened to her speech in Milwaukee on the radio yesterday, and you could feel the electricity in the air. It has been a radical change, and I'm not sure how the GOP counters that with more of the same (DJT's rambling rants and lack of any real professional agenda) and a newcomer (Hillbilly) who is both boring to behold and as irritating as a mosquito.
Maybe it is just the moment, but it does feel like this is a real inflection point if the Democrats can keep up the pressure, ward off the inevitable attack ads by focusing on both policy successes and the real need for justice for DJT, and hammer home the message of it being about going forward versus moving backward. I'm looking forward to the next three-plus months -- something I don't think any of us were feeling deep down just three days ago. There is a lot of work to do, but it feels good to be back in the game and to see how energized the base has become. Onward.
It likely gonna be the response to a new “mother-nature” factor that will shift things. Some kind of extreme weather, racial, economic event that you can’t really plan for. Republicans need a new event to project fears onto because the current ones largely have answers that paint Trump and Republicans in a bad light. Absent those, I think missteps will be far and few between as long as the voters can maintain their enthusiasm. Trump could dump JD at this point and it wouldn’t matter because the elderly felon who dreams of being an authoritarian is still the prime issue.
I agree with Bill that the next 3 weeks are do or die. That’s how long the campaign has to get to A.B. Stoddard’s “that’s my girl!” feeling for anyone more susceptible to tipping away.
Hopefully his deeply flawed persona won't continue to get a free pass - the Harris campaign can call him out loudly every time and pull no punches. In a way that's going to get press. Not Harris herself, necessarily, but her surrogates. Dems have been too polite for too long.
I'm worries as well– but worried in the way that all challengers should worry about being defined by their opponents. If I were Harris, what I'd do, is run on the parts of Biden's record that worked (the economy, debt relief, gun safety, public health), but then let Biden fall on the sword for the things that didn't work– and offer a contrast. "That was Biden's policy. It didn't work. I'm willing to try something new." She can then use this to pivot to "There were things I advocated 5 years ago. I have new information, now. And because of the new information, my position is different. I'd opposed fracking. But during Biden's time in office we laid the groundwork for real reduction in carbon emissions while simultaneously producing more oil than we ever have. Ever. Inflation was 15% in 2022. I helped pass the Inflation Reduction Act. Now it's 3%. Same thing with the border. We tried lots of things. But our most recent policies have border crossings down 20%. Also, unlike Trump, we've actually prosecuted and deported people! And if elected, I'll work with Sen. Lankford to get his bill passed. The one Trump killed. I've proven that I can be held accountable, and respond. Donald Trump never accepts responsibility. He has never been accountable. And he wants to go back to the same policies the led us to a recession in 2020 and that caused crime to increase all 4 years that he was in office. Mass shootings were up. And so were riots. Each year we've been in office, crime has dropped. Mass shootings have dropped. Rioting and looting has dropped. When I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong and I change. And America gets better."
Or something like that. If she can do that, she'll win b/c a) defining her may be more difficult that ppl might like to think; and b) she'll show that she'll accept responsibility and be accountable. Trump never has and never will.
JVL raised the possibility of it being a perfect storm. We just don't know the cone of certainty. For all JVL's positivity yesterday, he gave Harris a 35- 40% change. I would argue it is 50 % at this point. Here is something also encouraging. Two polls ( Washington Post and Ipsos) show that Americans believe Trump should withdraw from the race;57% and 60%. (Republicans 29%) Could this become an intractable narrative that now haunts Trump like it did Biden?
Trump is running to avoid prison not to become the actual president. He will never volunteer to step down Kamala should hammer that home with a jack hammer.
I too am skeptical, but about the same issues Bill Kristoll elucidated - that the enthusiasm is fantastic right now, but the greater American public will still be susceptible to a barrage of simple, repeated phrases and stories from the trump media that will have 3 months to sink in and forge themselves into the subconscious, non-analytical parts of their brains. Repetition and spread of simple exaggerations and lies is very hard to counteract in people who tend not to pay much attention to national politics until the eve of the election.
I'm hoping 3 months is too short for normal people to catch the FOX News trickle-down into headlines. It takes a while for the propaganda to be turned into a form that reaches people who don't listen to right-wing news sources.
But they’ve been hearing garbage from the mouths of of lying DJT and his buddies for almost ten years. I think most people are sick tired of it and tune out whatever they say.
Monday, when Polis answered the question about his potential as a veep pick with “Look, if they, if they do the polling and it turns out that they need a 49-year-old, balding, gay Jew from Boulder, Colo., they got my number." I was really struck by the flippant nature of it.
When was the last time a Democrat made a giddy joke about the campaign? Not ever, for this campaign. It's been an exhausting year.
Kamala really showed something in Milwaukee, too- it was excellent speechwriting, but her delivery was excellent.
Things will hit a bog point, certainly, but for the moment she's being what a lot of the public really wanted and needed to see- energy, that oft-cited happy warrior vibe.
Another thing struck me, watching JVL get all puppy-dog-eyes about her on Youtube last night- the moment with her sister and the contrast it creates. She cracks a joke and they both flop around in their chairs giggling.
That's perfectly natural to her because that's who she is. Trump never, ever has moments like that. Most of the time, he's very mindful of his presentation and how he perceives that he'll be perceived- projecting the tough guy image, the SIR SIR stories and so on. The only time he really just cuts loose with his unshielded inner self is when he's whining or making really crass jokes about people. He doesn't have those just let go with somebody close to him moments because he's incapable of those sorts of human connections.
I was hoping for adequate. What we've gotten has been brilliant.
She's got the energy, she's got the room to maneuver, Trump's campaign still hasn't settled on a line of attack* so she's getting to establish her own definition. She's got a slogan that resonates.
*I've seen his post with "Lyin' Kamala" and I've heard he's also trialed "Laughin' Kamala" and god those are such generic weak tea. "Crooked Hillary" and "Sleepy Joe" worked because they were contextual. But Kamala's laugh isn't a weakness and they haven't nailed her on any lies so far.
It's a sign of just how bankrupt they are ideologically at this point. What platform they do have (Project 2025) is being turned into a cudgel to beat them with. Beyond that, there's tired screeching about the border, something they've been stirring as an issue for decades and warning of doomsday over since Obama.
Then there's DEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII which is one of those trigger words for Fox viewers but doesn't mean much to the general public and rebounds poorly, which is why the House caucus is already trying to get their members to stop throwing it at her.
Past that, it's schoolyard crap being thrown at a woman who so far is showing a relaxed, mature, carefree attitude and bursting with pent-up energy. The thing that struck me last night is that Kamala's been just as shackled to the situation as the rest of us, and now she's finally off the hook and ready to go at some people, and it shows.
I had the same thought, that she’s basically had to sit on her hands. For me she has been a revelation, a smart, beautiful, joyful woman in her prime. I saw a MAGA ad this morning through a link on Dan Pfieffer’s (sp?) newsletter that was hanging everything people haven’t liked about Biden around her neck. But yesterday they were saying she didn’t do anything. WHICH IS IT PEOPLE. Ideologically bankrupt indeed.
I have never seen Trump have a moment where he just seemed HAPPY, just joy with no undercurrent of malice. Harris has poured water on the desert that was the Democratic Party.
All the people whose names I’ve seen floated as possible choices for VP seem good ones, especially Kelly, whose wife had more than her ear grazed, and Shapiro. I hadn’t heard that droll, self-deprecating remark from Polis, but anyone with the ability to make that sort of quick, witty retort sounds good to me, too.
You haven't seen that out of Trump because of how deeply broken he really is. If he weren't such a danger, he'd be an object of pity. It is my suspicion that he couldn't tell a joke with a punchline to save his life.
The contrast with Kamala is my last, best hope that people outside the MAGA bubble finally will tire of DJT's schlock and start to tune him out for what he is -- a tired,, old, more-of-the-same orator whose amateur Don Rickles act is past its sell-by date. I also suspect a lot of them underestimate her youth appeal and freshness, something that the GOP simply cannot offer with its current slate. (Hillbilly is young, but that's it -- he excites youthful voters about as much as a can of Coke without the carbonation.) Beyond MAGA and fealty, Hillbilly was chosen as a direct contrast to Biden's age and as the heir apparent. 72 hours later he looks like a fish out of water as Kamala sucks the oxygen out of the room. Time will tell if it lasts, but so far, so good for the Dems and their effort to hit the reset button and begin to define the race on their terms.
I think we have pretty strong evidence that people were already tired of it.
As bad as the news cycle was for Joe, after years of getting beaten on for his age and then having the disaster of a debate, he was still down an aggregate three points in the national polls. If he'd been facing say a Nikki Haley? It would've been doomsday altogether.
Trump has a high floor but his ceiling is not very far above it.
And he's going to look even worse when she picks a more capable and charismatic white guy as her running mate. I'm really warming to Kelly, and think of the contrast.
Hey! Hands OFF our fantastic governor! Yes, he would be a great pick for the VP job, but we’ve got the Democratic trifecta happening in MN right now, and the momentum has been incredible. We need to squeeze as much out of it (and Walz) as possible while we still have it.
Meanwhile, Trump and Vance are coming to St. Cloud MN this weekend for a rally— that’s one of the Trumpiest bits of the state, just an hour away from the Dem stronghold of the Twin Cities metro. Not only are there scads of very conservative Catholics and Lutherans there, there’s been a huge influx of Somali immigrants there in the last decade+, and a lot of the St. Cloud natives are pretty mad about it. It’s the MN 6th district— formerly Michele Bachmann’s, and now Tom Emmer’s. Needless to say, Trump/Vance will enjoy their visit.
Yeah, I heard him on here on Monday and dismissed him because the sample size of me hadn't heard of him. I saw him mentioned in an article recently too.
We'll see what they do, but he's going to need a lot more buzz to break through, IMO.
I was against Kelly as well (worried about his replacement) but I’ve really warmed to him. Son of 2 cops, took over a position his wife left after getting shot, just 60, Astronaut.. etc etc. seems like the perfect compliment to Harris
Kelly and Bashear are great picks. Many have floated Shapiro but he needs to stay in PA. The state could still flip to fascism. There's a reason why people from Philly and Pittsburgh refer to the rest of the state as Pennsyltucky.
I got nothing against Bashear, but I don't know what he brings. He isn't going to flip KY, and it is too small to matter if he did. Other than parts of PA and NC, Appalachia isn't really in play for Dems. And yeah, those can be pretty important, but Kelly brings AZ and I think helps boost all swing states. What does Bashear bring to WI or MI?
In my mind Bashear is a counter to JD, but JD was a bad pick, so he doesn't need countered regionally, he can be countered with a better vet / more experienced pick.
All that said, I'm open to hearing the reasoning for Bashear.
Your point about Kelly and AZ is a good one, for sure. Bashear has a very high approval rating as a Dem in a very red state, meaning he can attract people from the other side. He did a great job on the response to catastrophic flooding in Eastern Kentucky. He is a man of (actual real) faith. And as Sarah (I think?) said on the pod the other day, speaking in a southern accent which codes as R can give some of the middle of the road Rs who are not MAGAts an exit ramp to leave the crazy team.
My concern with all of that is that it narrows the gap in a bunch of states that stay red. Now, maybe it moves GA and NC, but that's high risk high reward vs. the must win states around the Great Lakes.
My theory is that a VP can only move things so much, and outside of his home state and for those following politics, I think that movement is limited. Kelly moves AZ and combat vet and astronaut gets through in a way that response to flooding won't.
I don't know for sure of course, and I'm not trying to be argumentative. Just hashing it out.
Absolutely, good points! Gotta talk through all this to get all the info for an informed decision. Which is hopefully the same things the Harris team is doing. 🙂
I found Hillary likable enough, and I thought she would have been a very competent Commander in Chief.
She was damaged by the whiff of corruption that followed Bill around and the hardcore misogyny that hits a woman swinging at a glass ceiling. That said, she’s surprised me by being a much better party elder statesman than I would have anticipated. You’re right tho—she ran a terrible campaign.
Agreed. I think we are objecting to Hillary riding on her husband's coat tails. People have wondered if her marriage hurt her election chances as by then the narrative on Bill Clinton had changed to "friend of Jeffrey Epstein."
She was qualified, no doubt. But her political career got its boost and start by being First Lady. And we can wish people had enough consistency in their thinking to completely discount someone like Trump and his success since he inherited $400M and turned it into a smaller fortune than an index fund would have, but unfortunately that's not how things work in too many people's minds.
There's a latent sexism built into a hell of a lot of people that discounts a woman with a successful husband. It isn't fair of course, but the problem is that it comes from a lot of people who aren't really sexist in the way we normally think of the term.
True. We're collectively idiots. Nothing against Michelle, but as far as I know, she has about zero experience for the job. Though her being wise enough not to want it is definitely a mark in her favor.
“The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
That's where the youth vote becomes critical. They have a very different way of looking at things and people than previous generations do/did. They are the wave of the future, and if MAGA doesn't derail it in November and rig the game, they will become a powerful force for change before long. The GOP is genuinely scared of their influence, thus their efforts to hold onto power at all costs, up to and including insurrection. These people and those people largely are incompatible.
Sure, but it was what it was. She was the second most unpopular candidate in my lifetime and about the only one I think among the viable contenders who would've managed to lose to Trump.
I still subscribe so I can look at the front page and then play all of the games and do the crossword. They make a princely $4/month from me. If it ever goes up I’m out of there.
To be fair, I probably wasn't going to watch another Clooney film regardless. What's up with older male actors insisting on playing the same types of parts these days? Everyone wants to be a cowboy fireman soldier hero. We already have a Clint Eastwood.
I'm a born skeptic, so I'm waiting for something to go wrong with the Harris campaign, especially once the GOP attack dogs start to fear-and-smear her in every way possible and knowing that DJT's own deeply flawed persona will continue to get a free pass, as just Donald being Donald, every time he verbally abuses her and distorts reality.
That said, I'm also trying to see this from the 30,000-foot level, and from that vantage point, there seems to be so much more energy and vitality here than I ever thought possible. There appears to be a genuine enthusiasm to her campaign, one that most media outlets probably are underestimating. It is like a massive dose of Gatorade to a crowd that was dying of thirst. I listened to her speech in Milwaukee on the radio yesterday, and you could feel the electricity in the air. It has been a radical change, and I'm not sure how the GOP counters that with more of the same (DJT's rambling rants and lack of any real professional agenda) and a newcomer (Hillbilly) who is both boring to behold and as irritating as a mosquito.
Maybe it is just the moment, but it does feel like this is a real inflection point if the Democrats can keep up the pressure, ward off the inevitable attack ads by focusing on both policy successes and the real need for justice for DJT, and hammer home the message of it being about going forward versus moving backward. I'm looking forward to the next three-plus months -- something I don't think any of us were feeling deep down just three days ago. There is a lot of work to do, but it feels good to be back in the game and to see how energized the base has become. Onward.
It likely gonna be the response to a new “mother-nature” factor that will shift things. Some kind of extreme weather, racial, economic event that you can’t really plan for. Republicans need a new event to project fears onto because the current ones largely have answers that paint Trump and Republicans in a bad light. Absent those, I think missteps will be far and few between as long as the voters can maintain their enthusiasm. Trump could dump JD at this point and it wouldn’t matter because the elderly felon who dreams of being an authoritarian is still the prime issue.
I agree with Bill that the next 3 weeks are do or die. That’s how long the campaign has to get to A.B. Stoddard’s “that’s my girl!” feeling for anyone more susceptible to tipping away.
Hopefully his deeply flawed persona won't continue to get a free pass - the Harris campaign can call him out loudly every time and pull no punches. In a way that's going to get press. Not Harris herself, necessarily, but her surrogates. Dems have been too polite for too long.
And now they can do it by calling out how little sense he is making.
I'm worries as well– but worried in the way that all challengers should worry about being defined by their opponents. If I were Harris, what I'd do, is run on the parts of Biden's record that worked (the economy, debt relief, gun safety, public health), but then let Biden fall on the sword for the things that didn't work– and offer a contrast. "That was Biden's policy. It didn't work. I'm willing to try something new." She can then use this to pivot to "There were things I advocated 5 years ago. I have new information, now. And because of the new information, my position is different. I'd opposed fracking. But during Biden's time in office we laid the groundwork for real reduction in carbon emissions while simultaneously producing more oil than we ever have. Ever. Inflation was 15% in 2022. I helped pass the Inflation Reduction Act. Now it's 3%. Same thing with the border. We tried lots of things. But our most recent policies have border crossings down 20%. Also, unlike Trump, we've actually prosecuted and deported people! And if elected, I'll work with Sen. Lankford to get his bill passed. The one Trump killed. I've proven that I can be held accountable, and respond. Donald Trump never accepts responsibility. He has never been accountable. And he wants to go back to the same policies the led us to a recession in 2020 and that caused crime to increase all 4 years that he was in office. Mass shootings were up. And so were riots. Each year we've been in office, crime has dropped. Mass shootings have dropped. Rioting and looting has dropped. When I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong and I change. And America gets better."
Or something like that. If she can do that, she'll win b/c a) defining her may be more difficult that ppl might like to think; and b) she'll show that she'll accept responsibility and be accountable. Trump never has and never will.
JVL raised the possibility of it being a perfect storm. We just don't know the cone of certainty. For all JVL's positivity yesterday, he gave Harris a 35- 40% change. I would argue it is 50 % at this point. Here is something also encouraging. Two polls ( Washington Post and Ipsos) show that Americans believe Trump should withdraw from the race;57% and 60%. (Republicans 29%) Could this become an intractable narrative that now haunts Trump like it did Biden?
Trump is running to avoid prison not to become the actual president. He will never volunteer to step down Kamala should hammer that home with a jack hammer.
Talk about headlines that would drive Trump nuts. "Majority of Americans think Trump should drop out too."
Karma?
You know what they say about her. ;)
I too am skeptical, but about the same issues Bill Kristoll elucidated - that the enthusiasm is fantastic right now, but the greater American public will still be susceptible to a barrage of simple, repeated phrases and stories from the trump media that will have 3 months to sink in and forge themselves into the subconscious, non-analytical parts of their brains. Repetition and spread of simple exaggerations and lies is very hard to counteract in people who tend not to pay much attention to national politics until the eve of the election.
I'm hoping 3 months is too short for normal people to catch the FOX News trickle-down into headlines. It takes a while for the propaganda to be turned into a form that reaches people who don't listen to right-wing news sources.
But they’ve been hearing garbage from the mouths of of lying DJT and his buddies for almost ten years. I think most people are sick tired of it and tune out whatever they say.
You aren't wrong, but think of the head start the phrase "Too old" has.
Her theme is the the cop vs. the felon. Implicit in that theme is "I'll be held accountable. I accept responsibility. Trump doesn't."
Monday, when Polis answered the question about his potential as a veep pick with “Look, if they, if they do the polling and it turns out that they need a 49-year-old, balding, gay Jew from Boulder, Colo., they got my number." I was really struck by the flippant nature of it.
When was the last time a Democrat made a giddy joke about the campaign? Not ever, for this campaign. It's been an exhausting year.
Kamala really showed something in Milwaukee, too- it was excellent speechwriting, but her delivery was excellent.
Things will hit a bog point, certainly, but for the moment she's being what a lot of the public really wanted and needed to see- energy, that oft-cited happy warrior vibe.
Another thing struck me, watching JVL get all puppy-dog-eyes about her on Youtube last night- the moment with her sister and the contrast it creates. She cracks a joke and they both flop around in their chairs giggling.
That's perfectly natural to her because that's who she is. Trump never, ever has moments like that. Most of the time, he's very mindful of his presentation and how he perceives that he'll be perceived- projecting the tough guy image, the SIR SIR stories and so on. The only time he really just cuts loose with his unshielded inner self is when he's whining or making really crass jokes about people. He doesn't have those just let go with somebody close to him moments because he's incapable of those sorts of human connections.
When she said “we are not going back” the room exploded. Great message. I hope she gets those kinds of messages on the air soon.
I was hoping for adequate. What we've gotten has been brilliant.
She's got the energy, she's got the room to maneuver, Trump's campaign still hasn't settled on a line of attack* so she's getting to establish her own definition. She's got a slogan that resonates.
*I've seen his post with "Lyin' Kamala" and I've heard he's also trialed "Laughin' Kamala" and god those are such generic weak tea. "Crooked Hillary" and "Sleepy Joe" worked because they were contextual. But Kamala's laugh isn't a weakness and they haven't nailed her on any lies so far.
The right’s attempts to make her laugh a campaign issue are, well, laughable. She has a big, hearty laugh, and it brings me joy.
It's a sign of just how bankrupt they are ideologically at this point. What platform they do have (Project 2025) is being turned into a cudgel to beat them with. Beyond that, there's tired screeching about the border, something they've been stirring as an issue for decades and warning of doomsday over since Obama.
Then there's DEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII which is one of those trigger words for Fox viewers but doesn't mean much to the general public and rebounds poorly, which is why the House caucus is already trying to get their members to stop throwing it at her.
Past that, it's schoolyard crap being thrown at a woman who so far is showing a relaxed, mature, carefree attitude and bursting with pent-up energy. The thing that struck me last night is that Kamala's been just as shackled to the situation as the rest of us, and now she's finally off the hook and ready to go at some people, and it shows.
I had the same thought, that she’s basically had to sit on her hands. For me she has been a revelation, a smart, beautiful, joyful woman in her prime. I saw a MAGA ad this morning through a link on Dan Pfieffer’s (sp?) newsletter that was hanging everything people haven’t liked about Biden around her neck. But yesterday they were saying she didn’t do anything. WHICH IS IT PEOPLE. Ideologically bankrupt indeed.
I have never seen Trump have a moment where he just seemed HAPPY, just joy with no undercurrent of malice. Harris has poured water on the desert that was the Democratic Party.
All the people whose names I’ve seen floated as possible choices for VP seem good ones, especially Kelly, whose wife had more than her ear grazed, and Shapiro. I hadn’t heard that droll, self-deprecating remark from Polis, but anyone with the ability to make that sort of quick, witty retort sounds good to me, too.
trump has no concept of happiness and joy. He was raised by a monster who molded him into his own image.
You haven't seen that out of Trump because of how deeply broken he really is. If he weren't such a danger, he'd be an object of pity. It is my suspicion that he couldn't tell a joke with a punchline to save his life.
Trump is the old guy standing outside yelling at clouds.
Kamala is the compassionate neighbor telling everyone we gotta help the old guy standing outside yelling at clouds.
Love this, wish I could like it ten times.
The contrast with Kamala is my last, best hope that people outside the MAGA bubble finally will tire of DJT's schlock and start to tune him out for what he is -- a tired,, old, more-of-the-same orator whose amateur Don Rickles act is past its sell-by date. I also suspect a lot of them underestimate her youth appeal and freshness, something that the GOP simply cannot offer with its current slate. (Hillbilly is young, but that's it -- he excites youthful voters about as much as a can of Coke without the carbonation.) Beyond MAGA and fealty, Hillbilly was chosen as a direct contrast to Biden's age and as the heir apparent. 72 hours later he looks like a fish out of water as Kamala sucks the oxygen out of the room. Time will tell if it lasts, but so far, so good for the Dems and their effort to hit the reset button and begin to define the race on their terms.
I think we have pretty strong evidence that people were already tired of it.
As bad as the news cycle was for Joe, after years of getting beaten on for his age and then having the disaster of a debate, he was still down an aggregate three points in the national polls. If he'd been facing say a Nikki Haley? It would've been doomsday altogether.
Trump has a high floor but his ceiling is not very far above it.
It is generous to call CFT an "orator"........
Oh, I know. I was merely trying to be remotely objective and professional about it. Granted, he deserves no such courtesy.
And he's going to look even worse when she picks a more capable and charismatic white guy as her running mate. I'm really warming to Kelly, and think of the contrast.
I started hearing the name Tim Walz, Governor of Minnesota, yesterday. White male Midwestern. I thought he was interesting too.
Hey! Hands OFF our fantastic governor! Yes, he would be a great pick for the VP job, but we’ve got the Democratic trifecta happening in MN right now, and the momentum has been incredible. We need to squeeze as much out of it (and Walz) as possible while we still have it.
Meanwhile, Trump and Vance are coming to St. Cloud MN this weekend for a rally— that’s one of the Trumpiest bits of the state, just an hour away from the Dem stronghold of the Twin Cities metro. Not only are there scads of very conservative Catholics and Lutherans there, there’s been a huge influx of Somali immigrants there in the last decade+, and a lot of the St. Cloud natives are pretty mad about it. It’s the MN 6th district— formerly Michele Bachmann’s, and now Tom Emmer’s. Needless to say, Trump/Vance will enjoy their visit.
Yeah, I heard him on here on Monday and dismissed him because the sample size of me hadn't heard of him. I saw him mentioned in an article recently too.
We'll see what they do, but he's going to need a lot more buzz to break through, IMO.
I was against Kelly as well (worried about his replacement) but I’ve really warmed to him. Son of 2 cops, took over a position his wife left after getting shot, just 60, Astronaut.. etc etc. seems like the perfect compliment to Harris
I'm hoping for Bashear. Same effect, also a REAL hillbilly!
Kelly and Bashear are great picks. Many have floated Shapiro but he needs to stay in PA. The state could still flip to fascism. There's a reason why people from Philly and Pittsburgh refer to the rest of the state as Pennsyltucky.
I agree. Shapiro’s time will come. Let him finish a full term as governor.
I got nothing against Bashear, but I don't know what he brings. He isn't going to flip KY, and it is too small to matter if he did. Other than parts of PA and NC, Appalachia isn't really in play for Dems. And yeah, those can be pretty important, but Kelly brings AZ and I think helps boost all swing states. What does Bashear bring to WI or MI?
In my mind Bashear is a counter to JD, but JD was a bad pick, so he doesn't need countered regionally, he can be countered with a better vet / more experienced pick.
All that said, I'm open to hearing the reasoning for Bashear.
Your point about Kelly and AZ is a good one, for sure. Bashear has a very high approval rating as a Dem in a very red state, meaning he can attract people from the other side. He did a great job on the response to catastrophic flooding in Eastern Kentucky. He is a man of (actual real) faith. And as Sarah (I think?) said on the pod the other day, speaking in a southern accent which codes as R can give some of the middle of the road Rs who are not MAGAts an exit ramp to leave the crazy team.
My concern with all of that is that it narrows the gap in a bunch of states that stay red. Now, maybe it moves GA and NC, but that's high risk high reward vs. the must win states around the Great Lakes.
My theory is that a VP can only move things so much, and outside of his home state and for those following politics, I think that movement is limited. Kelly moves AZ and combat vet and astronaut gets through in a way that response to flooding won't.
I don't know for sure of course, and I'm not trying to be argumentative. Just hashing it out.
Absolutely, good points! Gotta talk through all this to get all the info for an informed decision. Which is hopefully the same things the Harris team is doing. 🙂
I like him as well. My second choice right now.
As in 2016, it's a highly qualified woman against Trump. But this moment feels much more like 2008 than 2016.
Kamala's not running on the coattails of her husband, like Hillary did.
Are you talking about a former US Senator and a Sec of State?
What coattails?
Well, that’s a thing that never happened. Let’s hope that kind of sexism has abated a bit since 2016. I think Dobbs has all the misogyny covered.
Hillary Clinton did not lose because of sexism. She was a terrible candidate
and not likable. Harris is very likeable.
She wasn’t a terrible candidate. Misogyny is rampant in this country
I found Hillary likable enough, and I thought she would have been a very competent Commander in Chief.
She was damaged by the whiff of corruption that followed Bill around and the hardcore misogyny that hits a woman swinging at a glass ceiling. That said, she’s surprised me by being a much better party elder statesman than I would have anticipated. You’re right tho—she ran a terrible campaign.
Agreed. I think we are objecting to Hillary riding on her husband's coat tails. People have wondered if her marriage hurt her election chances as by then the narrative on Bill Clinton had changed to "friend of Jeffrey Epstein."
I liked her. A lot.
And she was not a terrible candidate.
I don't know that Madame Secretary was riding on coattails...
Hillary didn’t need to run on ANYONE’S coattails. She was probably the most qualified candidate in US history
She was qualified, no doubt. But her political career got its boost and start by being First Lady. And we can wish people had enough consistency in their thinking to completely discount someone like Trump and his success since he inherited $400M and turned it into a smaller fortune than an index fund would have, but unfortunately that's not how things work in too many people's minds.
There's a latent sexism built into a hell of a lot of people that discounts a woman with a successful husband. It isn't fair of course, but the problem is that it comes from a lot of people who aren't really sexist in the way we normally think of the term.
And yet everyone seemed to want Michelle Obama to run.
We contain multitudes.
True. We're collectively idiots. Nothing against Michelle, but as far as I know, she has about zero experience for the job. Though her being wise enough not to want it is definitely a mark in her favor.
“The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
- Douglas Adams
That's where the youth vote becomes critical. They have a very different way of looking at things and people than previous generations do/did. They are the wave of the future, and if MAGA doesn't derail it in November and rig the game, they will become a powerful force for change before long. The GOP is genuinely scared of their influence, thus their efforts to hold onto power at all costs, up to and including insurrection. These people and those people largely are incompatible.
She was one of the most qualified candidates in presidential history.
Qualified but a terrible candidate and not likeable, which is important.
And carrying enough baggage that she needed a small army of handlers to carry it.
All because of years of Republican smearing
Sure, but it was what it was. She was the second most unpopular candidate in my lifetime and about the only one I think among the viable contenders who would've managed to lose to Trump.
Baggage created by the Right.
Thank God we didn’t elect the e-mail lady, amirite?
And an email “scandal” hammered and overhyped daily by The New York Times.
I still subscribe so I can look at the front page and then play all of the games and do the crossword. They make a princely $4/month from me. If it ever goes up I’m out of there.
I will never watch another George Clooney film.
To be fair, I probably wasn't going to watch another Clooney film regardless. What's up with older male actors insisting on playing the same types of parts these days? Everyone wants to be a cowboy fireman soldier hero. We already have a Clint Eastwood.
What’s up with white male overaged actors thinking I give a rat’s tush about their political opinions?
Shut up and read what somebody else wrote for you, George.
Err..."Shut up and dribble?"
Yep, but for old white guys.
She did mishandle classified information in those emails. She was at best extremely negligent.