I've been wondering that as well. It seems so obvious. My only guess is that the media chalk it up to Donald Being Donald, and the behavior has become so common from him as to no longer be considered newsworthy. Somehow.
It is, yet again, the double standard of how the Democrats are supposed to adhere to standards while the GOP can break them all with impunity. It says a lot about what this country has become. Increasingly, when I look for our collective morals and values anymore, I begin by looking in the toilet.
It’s quite a contradiction. The right is so caught up in their idea of “morality” when it comes to LGBTQ issues, while they violate every one of the Ten Commandments.
It's surpassingly weird that so many people who claim to be serving a moral cause also insist on defending and glorifying such a conspicuously amoral person as the main champion of their cause.
Amen, Sister. But we aren’t reinventing this; it’s the authoritarian playbook. More and more I realize Trump is just a useful figurehead, an empty vessel, ready to dance to whatever tune the right sings, and somehow the rubes follow along like lemmings. As has happened before.
While not seeming to notice that the Bible is pretty explicit about the sin of adultery. Yet we do not see them proposing laws to criminalize adultery.
Jeffrey Goldberg has written about the media's "bias toward coherence," and how their mindset is "Trump sounds nuts, but he can’t be nuts, because he’s the presumptive nominee for president of a major party, and no major party would nominate someone who is nuts." That has really stuck with me since I read it.
I know right? But Teddy's mom is right too, we have somehow arrived in an environment that gives him a pass. Both MAGA SIL and friend have said to me "I don't like some of the stuff he says" or "some of the stuff he says is crazy." I wonder if they have heard him speak or if they are repeating whatever RW media they listen to. Recently one said the deranged left has spent 8 years focusing all their energy into hating 1 man. So I guess if what he said were reported, they would get a lot of blowback about outright lying or being leftist or they have TDS.
I do minimal politic talk with them anymore. Recently I was called an accessory to murder, and incredibly close-minded. I let it pass, because there is no peruasion. One also jumped on me about posting that RW policies on abortion will yield your daughters dying or losing their fertility for lack of medical care for dangerous pregnancies. She was so mad, telling me that is not a thing, that God wants the women to be safe in these cases. I said that is not what you're voting for and cited a bunch of articles, and she just repeated her implication that I was exaggerating and lying.
The media has a bias for what's new, because what's new gets more clicks, and more clicks means more money.
I don't really have a fully thought out theory here, and it's inarguable that the media hasn't figure out how to cover Trump...but there is a real desire for something new in politics, reflected in all the data. In the area of this presidential race, to me it seems like ths media is the symptom, not the disease
It's not just the media. It's we humans who make up the media and we humans who consume the media. Humans learn to make the best of a bad situation when it serves their purposes. Plus humans get tired of writing about and reading or hearing about the same old thing over and over again.
I get what you're saying, but I think media-wise Trumps antics *have* been normalized, that that ship has sailed. Dog bites man, we all know who Trump is. That's just kinda the situation. And that's why P 2025 is more useful to talk about than him being an asshole, because it's "dog has plan to bite all men at once"
This is indeed Trump's overall strategy. He does and says so much that is wrong that it is considered no longer news; it's "What else do you expect from Trump?". In fact, if he becomes president, the first few political opponent he kills by drones will be news. After that, well, it's just Trump being Trump.
I mean, yeah, that's what could happen, because that's how brains work. Political violence is somewhat to very normal in many countries--I'm not talking "banana republics," I'm talking Greece. That's part of why it's important to highlight things like 2025, to separate the signal from the noise
Y'know, I've been mulling this over in my head all day, and yeah we're just randos on the internet--but why not go hash out a central problem of the modern media?
Here's my thinking: MSM's job is to make money. To do that, they need clicks and viewers. If they report on every shit thing Trump says, as he does constantly, they will get fewer viewers because we all *know* Trump is an asshole who says horrific things, him saying another one is on a literal level not news because it's not new.
At core here is the problem of the normalization of Trump. I view that as a cognitive, social phenomenon more than anything else. It's worth being aware of and keeping an eye on, but demanding he not be normalized is demanding that people fight their own brains. I think it's more valuable to call out the most relevant instances than to invest in the everyday normal stuff, and that's the angle I judge the media from.
Anyway, thanks for the food for thought! It is important to keep this from being so normal we forget that it's only normal because it's normalized.
Yeah, the newly unsealed Epstein files aren't getting any coverage either. I keep telling myself this is baked in, the media owners need Trump to survive Wall Street. But I keep being surprised by it nevertheless.
Do you not understand how the game is played these days? YOU HAVE TO MAKE YOUR OWN COVERAGE. Reporters report on what people are talking about. Democratic politicians have to go on cable news, and talk to reporters, and express how unacceptable it is. But being Democrats, there are 300+ other things that each individual politician thinks are more important, which dilutes the story. For God's sake, does the DNC not do "talking points" to its members?
That doesn't mean they love Trump. It's more likely, like many other things, they chalk it up as Trump being Trump and don't report on it. It's the having different standards for Republicans than Democrats.
such as the one posited just above by Susan D, "It would only demean Kamala and not hurt Trump in the least way." A good analytic principle there are almost always more options than just two. It is called the fallacy of the excluded middle.
Terry, it was Liberal who first posted the story circulating. It wasn't covered in the press. So I assumed it was on social media. So this is for him, not me.
I ask people out loud: is that what you teach your children to do? Would that be acceptable behavior from them? If not, why is that man a role model for you?
Of course they don't want to talk about it. Nevertheless it is a discussion that our nation sorely needs to have.
One of the two campaign ads I have in my head is a mom and son in a living room with the tv on in the background. The tv first shows a clip of Trump making fun of the disabled reporter, adn the son asks the mom about why she is voting for him. Then, a clip of Trump calling for violence, and teh kid asking... you get the idea. The last scene is of the kid saying, "...but, Mom."
The Trumpite response is always "We're electing a president, not a role model.' Some even say that a "role model" wouldn't be a good president - just as Trump claimed he would be "totally ineffective" if he didn't have immunity to break the law.
Trumpites don't just insist that his lack of moral scruples must be indulged. They portray it as a strength - and then they pretend to find it inconceivable that he ever violated any laws.
Actually, we ARE electing a role model, in that the person who gets the job represents all of us and projects our image to the rest of the world. He indicates to them how we view ourselves and what our priorities are, what we accept, and in some cases what we do not accept when considering the alternative. But of course you know that. Sad that so many others do not, and that so many people fall for such an intellectually lazy approach to a serious issue.
The dumber MAGAs think the whole world respects and fears Trump. The smarter Trumpites must sometimes feel a twinge of embarrassment, but they always find lipstick to put on the pig - sometimes by saying it doesn't matter what the rest of the world thinks because most other countries are either lost to woke liberalism or they're third-world dumps
I've said it often here, only half-jokingly -- DJT may well have made a Faustian deal with Mephistopheles, and we all are caught up in it by default. It is as good of an explanation as anything else as to how and why we have fallen into this abyss.
And the grotesquely cynical Ailene Cannon will be rewarded one way or another for her shameless fealty to the sociopath who appointed her to the bench.
In the New Testament, Satan tempts Jesus with worldly power, shows him the world, and says, “bow down to me and all this will be yours”. Jesus refuses.
I picture Trump in this scenario, saying, “shut up and tell me where to sign”. The only way I can account for his incredible luck. He could shoot Melania on 5th Ave. and not lose any voters.
For now, yes, quite possibly so. But history books take a long view of things, and I remain certain that they will not judge this era, and that person, kindly when all is said and done. I wish I could live long enough to read it for myself.
Unless of course he wins and the only place you can learn the truth about him is in another country. If he wins, American children will learn how he was chosen as the Hand of God.
He's a lot like Henry VIII. In 500 years -- once the historical consequences have borne out and the dust has settled -- historians will have a lot of fun studying him. Sort of like "wow, can you believe the ego on this f'ing guy?!".
Oh I completely agree. He will go down as the worst president in American history, unless something worse comes down the pike later (what a horrifying thought!).
It's just exasperating that he's never held accountable for any of his actions and instead more often than not gets rewarded for them.
I think there's a theory somewhere that the zeitgeist changes every so often, and while the nature of the change is not predictable, the occurrence of change is. So I see the last 80 or so years, since WWII and the bomb as the atomic/hydrogen age, now we are in a new zeitgeist, characterized by anger, misanthropy, selfishness, meanness. Somehow the UK and France have held off the full-fledged entry into this ugly new age, of which T is the avatar, but we haven't. But I haven't given up hope that we, who know T & Co for what they are, can influence the new zeitgeist.
That's a very cogent theory. Change is constant in the world, and people want fresh faces and approaches every so often. Rational thinking all too often yields to impulse. Connecting those dots helps in part to explain how we went from There to Here. Thanks for sharing.
Unfortunately Trump 2.0 will be missing all the guardrails that were in place for the first Trump administration. There are some nasty people behind him this time with bad intentions and more discipline.
Agree with that. It's also a combination of his mastery meeting five decades of disruptive social change, some of it unprecedented (violating Biblical sexual morality).
Is he truly? Outside of one election in 2016 when he drew to an inside straight to win the Electoral College, he's lost every election including the midterms when he was in office. His business has been shut down because of fraud. He's been convicted of 34 felonies and is still under indictment for about 60 other ones.
All he has to do is win in November and he's coming up roses, and recent events with SCOTUS and POTUS seem to be conspiring to help him win. Also the GOP losing elections doesn't matter to Trump as long as he can keep winning, keep grifting, and stay out of prison.
I know it's tempting to be reassured when we hear that Democratic voters (myself included) are still planning to vote for Joe Biden, but we're not the ones we're worried about.
Its not assuring. Go read the comments over on the NYT Bret Stephens column
-"Bret, this is the first time I've ever agreed with you"
-"I can't believe I'm saying this, but the Democrats are gaslighting us and are no better than the Republicans"
-"I can't vote for Biden in good conscience: he should not be running the country in this condition".
-"tell me how this is one of the most important times in American history and yet you're willing to lose because you don't want to hurt an old guy's feelings".
-"stop saying that this is an important election. I look at my one-year old and wonder what kind of country he's going to grow up in. And the Democrats don't care: they'd rather hand out participation trophies".
Sometimes it is not enough to do our best: we must do what is required-Winston Churchill.
My responses: If Biden is the nominee, you have to vote for him. He's in a bad condition but he doesn't run the country alone. If Trump wins, we lose the Constitution. Democrats are struggling with a crisis, and a lot of them are in denial, a perfectly normal response. Republicans are in a personality cult, which is not normal. The Dems are better.
Agree, Sandy. I definitely vote for Joe Biden, if he is the Democratic nominee, but I will still be mad at the Democratic hierarchy that put us in this position.
I keep thinking about those honorable French men & women who qualified in Round 1 of the French election to run for Parliament in Round 2, but stood down, because the left-wing party & Macron's party compromised via tactical voting & asked candidates not to dilute the vote, in order to defeat Marine LePen's far right fascist party. In other words, those patriotic men & women stood down for the good of their country.
I too will be very mad at the Dem hierarchy which has been led by Biden. As president, he is the leader of his party. If he steamrolls it all the way to a loss in November, there will be an enormous reckoning in the party.
The thing is whether he stay or goes, trump could still win either way. By enormous reckoning, you mean mean vicious recriminations. If Biden stays and loses, he will blamed by today's naysayers. If he is replaced and loses, that decision will also be blamed. And if the Dems keep the presidency either way, we still can't say it was because of whichever decision. However, that won't stop one faction or the other from claiming vindication.
I've seen the opposite at both the NYT's and WA PO
Looks about 50/50, one can think it was a bad performance and that he is old and still think he is the best bet. So, people can say he is too old, but vote for him anyway for other reasons
When people complain about how this "Joe has to go" furor is a pundit/media led distraction they may not have Sarah's focus groups in mind, but it's all part of the same BS.
I volunteer 5 days a week in one of the swingiest districts in one of the swingiest states and I answer the phones for many hours per week. I get 2 kinds of calls from concerned voters and I speak to each one, often at length: From those who think Joe must go, which largely come from people who identify as Democrats and/or Biden supporters but say that they will vote for Trump (or occasionally RFK, JR) instead and whose reasoning is largely based on incorrect information or barely concealed "isms," mostly against immigrants. IOW they were only nominally in Joe's camp to begin with.
The other calls come from Joe supporters, a few of whom base their position on the "realpolitik" judgment that only Joe can beat Trump or that it's too late to make a change but MOST OF WHOM support Joe because they think he is the BEST candidate. All of them refer to his record and his fundamental integrity; sometimes they refer to him as a "good person."
I'll put my randoms up against your scientifically selected panels any day, Sarah.
Thank you for your volunteer work! my parents were active in politics and I grew up with democratic volunteers coming to our house for dinners and parties. I was 13 when I first worked the phones at headquarters. Your post brought me back and reminded me that people like you are the best of America.
Which is exactly what the press is doing by ignoring the Orange Snake and his insanity. In a better, saner world, his rantings, his crimes would be plastered across the country and condemned by Rs, Ds and everyone in between. Now? Nothing to see, folks.
The Press IS reporting on Trump’s craziness - but the public can’t digest it because Biden has created a big target on himself. It’s Biden’s fault not the press.
Blaming "the media" & Bill Kristol for the Democratic Party's failure to have a slate of younger, more vigorous candidates lined up months ago does no good. It may feel great to rant, but Bill told us months ago that Joe probably wasn't the best one to take on Trump again. We all (including me) just ignored him, because he used to be a Republican.
But maybe Bill Kristol had taken the time to look up all 23 sitting Democratic Governors - some so popular that they're in their second terms! And some are governing in "must-win" states, like Mich, Pa & Wisc. Bill probably saw some great potential that the rest of us missed. That's on us & the Democratic Party, not Bill or the media.
I can honestly tell you that I had never heard of Jimmy Carter, the Governor of Georgia, or William Clinton, the young Governor of Arkansas, before either man threw his hat in the ring.
gotta say that as great as he has been as gov in wisconsin - not sure anyone would call Gov Tony Evers charismatic :) so I don't think he would carry the rest of the country in a presidential contest.
Biden did not create the target. The emotional over-reaction from Dems created the target. And now look where Dems are coalescing: keep Biden or replace Biden with Harris. Replacing Biden with Harris is functionally equivalent to keeping Biden, because if it should turn out that Biden is unable to complete his second term, Harris steps in anyway. We could have had the same result without the public panic.
No one pays attention to Trump's insanity because he's been insane for the last 10 years, nothing he can do or say now surprises anyone, it's old news. Was anyone shocked or surprised by Trump's debate performance? It's the same old barrage of lies that he's been spewing for a decade.
I fear this absolves voters of having any duty to the US. They are viewedvas consumers who must be persuaded or manipulated by candidates. That's very unhealthy for a democracy.
Trump wins electoral college by 50 votes plus. R's win Senate and House. It'll be great. Nothing better than a second Trump administration but a second Trump administration with a mandate.
I for one am waiting for Pelosi’s statement, which she has promised for this morning. If she bails, the ship is sinking. I trust her political instincts more than all of ours.
Dems will win the House and have a real shot at keeping the Senate. Voters are not dumping on the Dem party, it's Biden they don't want to vote for. This doesn't mean they will vote for Trump.
Right on, Colleen. Keep these doom and gloomsters focussed on the real battle, control of the legislative, even if they have decided to give up on Joe and the executive by voting for CFT, whether actively by pulling his lever (don't go psychologist on me and ask which one) or passively by not voting at all.
Your adjective saved you from a blistering reply😉, even though the concept of "sane" and someone who would want to vote for CFT is not one I can get my head around, much less a (here it comes) grip on it ... the concept, of course.
It's hard to ignore poor decision-making when your cities are in rumbles and you lost another world war. The MAGAs complain about this economy while still sending money to Trump for tennis shoes and a bible.
This is a bizarre comment. You are simply giving your opinion. No better or worse than anyone else's but just one voice and apparently not based on any data. I am looking down, to actual voters, to the grassroots if you will and reporting on what I am hearing. You can criticize my "methodology" as unscientific but (a) I've already copped to that and (b) I'll go so far as to say that it's more scientifically based than the average comment here or the average op-ed piece about how the sky is falling.
Poppycock. Look at Politico. NY is now in play. Anyone with the hubris to say their analysis is right and all the other experts are wrong but we’ll just have to see doesn’t pass the smell test.
There’s a meteor hurtling towards the Earth this very second. Some
people aren’t looking up and can’t see it. Others see it and don’t think it’s a big deal. But don’t be fooled! Keep looking up! Train your eyes to focus on the goddamn meteor every second of every goddamn day. Don’t you dare look around at what’s going on around you or you might lose sight of where it’s headed next or if it seems to be slowing down or changing course. Or evenworse, you might not catch if it said “good as” or “goodness” during its interview with George Stephanopolous and any astronomer worth his salt can tell you that assessing stuff like that is key to figuring out how much damage it can do!
I should warn you that there will be naysayers who will try to minimize the threat. They’ll say they’ve seen the meteorite and it’s about the size of a basketball and they aren’t really concerned about it. But don’t let them discourage you from sounding the alarm! Just keep bringing people’s attention back to the meteorite and keep yelling about how we’re all doomed! Human nature will eventually kick in and all the people who didn’t initially see the meteorite or think it was that big a deal will eventually hear all the people around them pointing to the sky and shouting and assume they were wrong. Of course thousands of meteors fall to the earth every year and everyone is perfectly fine [1] but if you live in Florida or other places in the South, the astronomy books are banned so there’s no way to access that information. You should be OK.
Once you’ve successfully freaked out most of the country about the threat of the basketball sized meteor, you and your neighbors should all go grab your pitchforks and head to NASA (or Elon Musk’s house) and demand that they stop whatever actual important space thing they’re working on and focus all their their time and energy to concoct some last minute laser to blast it out of the sky.
Of course since all the rocket scientists are now hyper-focused on stopping the stupid basketball sized meteor, no one is paying attention to the aliens from Magatron who want to take over the country and eventually, the entire planet! France, Britain and Iran were able to hold off the aliens for now [2] but *they* didn’t have a meteorite problem on their hands!
So let’s keep our eyes on the skies!
Does it really matter that while everyone’s head is facing upwards 24/7 working to annihilate the meteor, the aliens from Magatron, armed with with an AK-470 in each of their four arms (Magatronians place a high premium on gun ownership ;) have no problem sneaking past the guardrails around the Whitehouse and the Capitol Building and the Supreme Court?
Does it matter that the Magatronions start giggling as they enter these once hallowed buildings, chanting the name of their orange leader and bow before him as he sits on the throne that the Supreme Justices of the MOCKTUS have spent months building for him? Does it matter that there were no journalists around to report on it because they were all too busy debating about to do about the goddamn meteor?
Nope! What matters is that we’re honest about the meteor! We can’t let our country turn in to some sort of Orwellian dystopian hellscape where people just pretend there’s no meteor just because the government says so. We all *saw* the meteor damn it!!! Don’t try and tell us we didn’t!
And so, just as we’re patting our mutual backs about our unceasing devotion to the truth, ***BOOM*** a loud explosion shatters the stratosphere. The heroes at NASA have finally managed to blast the meteor in to smithereens somewhere above Chicago!!! Everyone cheers! Everyone, that is except the Magatronions. They’re too busy firing all the experts from the government and rounding up humans and sending them to concentration camps.
They come for the people on your block last. As you lay sweating in your small bunk in the camp, a sliver of doubt briefly flits through your mind…Should you maybe have spent more time and energy trying to defeat the aliens instead of getting rid of the scary looking meteor? Nah…you swat the doubt away like an annoying fly. It would have been impossible to fight aliens while everyone was consumed with fear about the meteor. And what if the meteor did end up to be significantly less harmful than the orange alien god king? The scientists all agreed that the meteor would definitely have left behind an unsightly crater - even if it was kind of small. And everyone knows craters suck!
The problem is these Biden supporters are not enough to get Joe over the hump, he needs to win independents and undecideds as well (the other group you describe), and it looks highly unlikely that he will get enough votes from these groups to win the swing states.
Are you saying that the unaligned and undecideds would vote affirmatively for CFT over Joe if Joe stays in? Or that you think they would vote passively by not voting at all? Because those are the only two alternatives if Joe stays in and that group, as a group, decides not to support him in any way.
I think mostly they'll just decide to sit it out and not vote for either, so you could say it hurts both sides, but really it hurts Biden more, because he needs more votes than Trump just to stay even due to the electoral college imbalance.
However you justify if, it amounts to the same thing: A no vote for Joe is a help for CFT because it is a vote against democracy and that is what Project 2025 is all about, even if CFT says he never heard of it.
100% agree. I wish all these "undecideds" felt the same way. If people are still undecided at this point they haven't been paying attention, I find these people exasperating.
You would think they learned their lesson in 2016. In fact they did learn their lesson in time for the 2020 elections which saw historically high turnout and historically low third party votes. Do you think these same voters are going to forget the lesson in Nov 2024?
Back in 2008, black voters did not think that white people would vote for a black man for President. They didn't get on board until he won lily white Iowa.
I think the black electorate is trying to be very pragmatic here, but I do think they're underestimating the extreme dislike for the Bad Orange Criminal.
Can we just say what a terrible Biden campaign it's been so far? No surrogates out there hammering Trump every day, no reaching out the Haley voters, etc. Spent a shit ton of money on TV ads for NOTHING. Truly pathetic. It makes me think they're relying solely on the anti-Trump sentiment without actually making the case.
The way this campaign is currently going, it's going to be a Bataan death march to Nov 5th. It desperately needs a course correction - if Joe Biden can do it, then he needs to do it NOW. If he can't, he needs to step aside and let the party (along with Harris) figure it out.
This is a point that is being consistently missed or slept on. Biden's campaign ads reach me in Jersey, and it's all been Before Times advertising. I think they're trying to convert voters to Biden rather than drive up Trump's negatives.
The election is turning into a referendum on Biden, and that's a game that Trump wins the popular vote at.
First of all, thanks for the volunteer work you're doing. A call here, a call there starts to add up. Again, thank you.
"I'll put my randoms up against your scientifically selected panels any day, Sarah."
Are they scientifically selected? The whole focus group thing is the least useful offering from the the Bulwark, in my opinion. Why is the methodology behind the groups not published anywhere? Who are these people? How are they selected? Randomly? Are the questions administered in a systematic way, and responses recorded in a way that allows drawing valid conclusions? If not, what is the point? I listened to one Focus Group podcast and that was enough for me.
If I'm wrong about this (and I've been wrong before) and the focus group methodology is described somewhere, please paste a link for me.
It's not posted than I am aware of but Sarah has talked about it in pods
They hire a professional group to find the people with the attributes they want to focus on...
It isn't random and it isn't like a poll
Sarah says: we want Trump to Biden voters, and the group screens for those and any other requirements, but nothing else...it is very tailored and specific...
As Sarah doesn't do the actual polling and they aren't asking any questions like a poll, there are no cross tabs
Maybe I'm being too pedantic, but it seems a lot like walking into a random bar and striking up conversations with your fellow drinkers. It certainly could be entertaining -- even provide a few laughs in the Jay Walking sense -- but the basis for political analysis? Not without a description of the approach and methodology and why we should believe in the accuracy of the conclusions. Otherwise it just seems like more noise. Sarah seems to take it all so seriously though. If it's serious, tell us why we should agree.
The whole approach and methodology is they want to ask questions to specific people to see what they think, so she can target them in her RVAT ads to convince them not to vote for Trump, and to get an idea what they think about several things,,,her conclusions are considered accurate because of her reputation at being good at this, why she writes for The Atlantic, WA PO, NYT's etc...and appears on cable news shows...she was a political operative before Trump too
I was excited to finally see something about Trump in today's Morning Shots. Only to find out it was one of Bill's attempts at satire. Jesus Fucking Christ.
From above it's "Whitmer" not "Whtimer" and "Kamala" not "Kamal".
If anyone understood how weak a candidate Biden would be, it's Bill Kristol. The voters have been screaming at Biden for years now not to run again. These numbers are now above 70%. This is a catastrophe.
Just do us all a favor, Bill, and ask a large sample of the "Get Out Joe" crowd whether they would vote for CFT if Joe does not, either by directly pulling the lever for him or by throwing up their hands and not voting as a protest against .... what? Democracy?
The Cook Report and the University of Virginia Larry Sabato's reports are grandular and often more reliable than some of the various polls. Howevrr
Both are showing movement towards trump in areas that were leaning Democratic. I hope, despite our differences, we will all vote the Democratic ticket in November. Joe Biden isn't my first choice now, but he'll get my vote if he's the nominee. There's too much at stake to allow anything to get in our way. I read Project 2025's summary and it is jarring. Please, don't stay at home, vote for a meaningless 3rd party or write in a candidate. Massive turnout and voters willing to vote for whomever happens to be the Democratic nominee is the path to put trump and sycophants down. It's puzzling and frightening how one deranged man has wrought such a degree of darkness and chaos. We can silence his filthy mouth by beating him 'bigly' in November. Well, maybe not completely silence him, but push him into hiding.
We need to do more than vote. We need to support the Dem party with donations and volunteering to (1) persuade swing voters and (2) Get Out the Vote (GOTV).
I wish. I’m so demoralized by “Only I Can Fix It” Joe Biden, I’m contemplating closing my Act Blue account, and putting my meager donations toward fascist-proofing my life. Dems refuse to fight. They are hide bound to loyalty just like the GOP.
Plus, Act Blue has ruined my email and my text messages by overwhelming both as they share my information far and wide. Now I hit “Delete and Report Spam” hundreds of times per day, often missing important other communications. I tried using STOP - but that just puts the invader into the category of “known senders” and lets them through. My online life is small, but ruined.
I've started my letter to the Bidens. First, I present my Dem bona fides (lifelong voter and small donor) and my respect for their ability to survive a loss. During the 2020 campaign, Joe told those who've lost loved oned (I've lost two) that “There will come a day, I promise you and your parents, as well, when the thought of your son or daughter or your husband or wife brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. It will happen."
Then I go on to say I'm asking you to step down and that I've seen a lot of your ego in the last two weeks - hubris and narcissisim - and I don't like it.
I'll finish with something like "Save the party, save the country and save your legacy and step down now."
Oh, I didn't know that about "stop". Thx for the tip. I'm going to cancel my recurring Act Blue donation until he steps down.
But I don't think the entire party is hide-bound to loyalty to the man over what the party stands for. It will be more work for me, but I will donate directly to the three Dem Senators in toss-up races and Jeffries' House Dems fund. Better to put your meager funds there. If Trump wins, there will be a bulwark, if you will, against him in the Congress.
And Biden himself stated on recorded audio four years ago that he saw himself as a “bridge president” towards the next generation. Does he even remember? Has he and his family become corrupted by power? Are we exactly the same as the GOP? My despair is in the stratosphere.
I thought we hired Joe because he would bring a replacement along, train them, prepare them, work with the bench, WHATEVER... instead of letting his ego get in the way of his political acumen.
And why the heck does his family support this madness?
Possibly because NOBODY sees a successful ALTERNATIVE at this point!
He did bring a replacement along. Her name is Kamala Harris, and if it should turn out that Biden cannot complete his second term, she steps in. Besides, Tim Miller counted only 20 bad days in the last 3.5 years.
Yeah it was real funny. Haha I'm laughing so hard my ribs and stomach hurt . Right wingers just don't get humor. Give it up Bill. Morning Shots sucks since Charlie left.
Here's my addition to Trumps brain: God sometimes I hate that Bulwark, but a lot of time I love it. Kristol every morning making the case of Biden needing to go but only half-way supporting any alternatives--just churning the pot and making Dems mad at each other. You should see the comment section!
And then there's Mona Charen. Can you believe it? She's calling Biden out for *his* bad character!
Mona was one of my favorite contributors. I thought Beg to Differ was about civil disagreement. So I am really shocked by the lack of disagreement in the discussions she oversees.
Mona has a good instinct but she needs to rebalance her contributors a bit.
They do, but, if you flagship podcast is "Beg to Differ" and you realize that everybody thinks the same thing (i.e., you've picked people from the same echo bubble), then I expect that someone who really cares to "Beg to Differ" to try to renew the roster or expand it.
The point is that "Beg to Differ" made me think that she loves productive disagreement as much as I do, but the lack of shade between any of the people's positions is disappointing. Someone who earnestly understands the importance of disagreement would do a better job of rebalancing the slates.
She knows how to do it! She is the one who made me discover Noah Smith of Noahpinion, because he disagrees with people in a really interesting and valuable way.
Mona Charren can do what she says she's good at, but she needs to wake up and go back to her basics.
In the end, the choice that each one of us decides to make in November is what matters. We all have various thoughts and opinions. I will vote for the Democratic nominee in November. I hope every Bulwark subscriber will do so. That is how we save our country.
The Biden resurrection story will be more powerful than any candidate who might replace him. Biden is putting on a good show at the NATO conference. He is showing leadership and the value of a strong alliance. Biden remains instrumental at keeping NATO together and focused. Can you imagine Trump even showing up at that conference, or what he would say if he did?
Trump believes he's got it made now that there are so many clips of Biden looking old. But once the press' feeding frenzy about replacing Biden subsides they will focus on Trump, his lies, his cruelty, his lack of understanding about how a government should work, his narcissism, how he is a sexual predator, and a convicted felon. The press and the rest of us have to highland Project 2025, and how Trump should not be allowed to distance himself from it. It was written by his staff. The same people who gave Trump the names for the Supreme Court. Trump is their puppet and they expect him to perform.
Yes, Biden still slurs his words a bit, and he rambles in press conferences, but he has been, and will continue to run the best administration in the last 70 years. If he dies in office then America will get what it needs the most, a strong, assertive, competent Black woman president.
Biden will have more "senior" moments over the next four months and of course the press will cover it because people are interested in it and therefore it makes the press money. They won't cover Trump's outrages as much because nothing Trump does stands out among the flood of b.s. he spews daily. It's unfair but this is the asymmetric warfare JVL talks about. The Democrats and Dem candidates need to be perfect, but the authoritarian GOP can basically do/say whatever it wants and get away with it.
Tim Miller counted 20 in the past 3.5 years. That averages to one about every two months.. So he might be on track for two or three more before the election. We should be so lucky when we are his age.
That was before the debate. Now every single moment of his is going to be scrutinized like never before, and he will be expected to be out and front speaking unscripted on a daily basis, not hidden away and giving only scripted comments as infrequently as possible.
You continue to mischaracterize the situation. No one is hiding Biden, and just because the media would rather cover the seriously incoherent Trump than boring normal Biden does not mean that unscripted events are as infrequent as possible. Personally I am glad he doesn't do those helicopter statement that Trump was so fond of.
But I grant you one point. Biden has been a gaffe machine since he was first elected to office at the age of 29. All the media has to do is wait and then pounce. And yep In order to decrease those gaffes, since his election, Biden has been doing a lot more self-monitoring. That alone will slow him down and sometimes render him speechless. Joe is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. But still, nothing about Biden even compares to Trump's fluent incoherence and danger to us all.
OK I shouldn't have said hiding, that was unfair. What I mean is that he can't continue to simply govern like he has been, he now has to start campaigning which means a lot more speaking, a lot more attention on his speeches, and a lot more opportunities for flubs. He's lost all benefit of the doubt with the debate.
Of course Biden is infinitely better than Trump, but the best candidate doesn't always win. Trump appears healthier and more vigorous, and that registers with voters' feelings, which are much more important to most low-information voters than legislative accomplishments, unfortunately. Those low information undecided voters are the ones he needs to win over. He's already got the Democratic base on his side, but that's only 1/3 of the electorate.
The partisan identification of registered voters is now evenly split between the two major parties: 49% of registered voters are Democrats or lean to the Democratic Party, and a nearly identical share – 48% – are Republicans or lean to the Republican Party.
I agree with you wholeheartedly, except for one crucial thing, the press. I don’t think we can expect for MSM to do the right thing. They are all corporatized and in it for the money. The lopsided coverage of Biden and Trump is frightening. I haven’t read anything by a reporter (NYT/WAPO) that has gotten down to brass tacks and described Trump as cruel or moronic, lacking intelligence (unless it’s the occasional opinion piece). There needs to be more serious reporting on the danger to democracy Trump poses and they’re not doing enough. It’s what worries me.
I don't know what's wrong with the Like button but I can never light it up.
In any case, I agree with you about the press as well!
I recently saw a list of TRUMP DONORS including the CEOs of ABC, NBC, MSNBC , CNN and CBS, New York Times, WaPo and WSJ: Every one of them! The MSM is IN TRUMP'S POCKET!
That's definitely part of it, but I also think security concerns also play a huge factor in the coverage. Hardly any outlet is covering Trump's constant pimping for stochastic terrorist attacks and the miasma of fear this has induced in politics and the media.
That would be some consolation. But it makes their political acumen very poor if they think any of them will survive the first six months of Project 2025.
Agreed! So many are so fearful to take a stand. Everyone who could make a difference are hedging. I hate having a front row seat to how societies fail.
That is up to us. Get involved in GOTV and telling the truth. Write to all of the media you use to get information. Tell them to report about the Biden resurrection. Tell them that waiting for Joe DiMaggio to save us is a terrible strategy. Tell them to tell the truth instead of just being sharks going for blood. Biden has been the best president we have had for 70 years. He is not much different now from what he was a month ago.
That's a big part of what's going on right now. Folks are terrified -- legitimately -- of Trump and want to know that a silver bullet will slay the monster and everything will be all right. Grappling with the fact that there is no silver bullet is creating a lot of panic.
The only problem with your last sentence is that it just takes a minute, literally, to have a stroke. A Feb. physical isn't going to cut it after what we saw on stage. At THIS point I'm willing to consider the whole thing was sorcery or voodoo but we SAW what we saw and it was near-fatal. The WH has done NOTHING to tamp down the fear.
The same is just as true for Trump. He is a heart attack waiting to happen. He is stressed, overweight, eats terribly, and stays up all night ranting. No physical for one without the other. We can all drop dead this afternoon -- especially in the red states where there is no healthcare.
Yes, I don't believe the WH is being honest about Biden's health, this is more than just normal aging/lack of sleep/exhaustion/having a cold, etc.
Either he's been this way for several years, meaning there has been a cover-up, or it has come on suddenly, meaning he could get much worse over the coming few months. Neither option gives me confidence that he is up to four more years.
That's exactly my concern too. Not because I think a dead Biden and prez Kamala will harm America but because I think the fear of it will keep their votes at landslide defeat levels -- 35-45 Million maybe. I don't think that is the rational choice this year but the American electorate has shown little rationality the past quarter century.
Exactly! The Biden administration has shown they are perfectly capable of running the country, but the lack of enthusiasm or confidence in him is really going to hurt him in November at this rate.
If the American electorate was rational Trump wouldn't be the GOP candidate this year, and certainly wouldn't have a fighting chance of winning, argh!
I agree. with this. Both Biden needs to show his strengths and capabilities, continuously and with no major errors, AND Trump needs to be tied very clearly to Project 2025. There is a lot of evidence from Trump's past, first term and recent crap that can be used to tie him to Project 2025, despite his mutterings that he knows nothing about it.
Speaking of the Trump show, I could never understand the appeal of The Apprentice! That show started the fraud that is Trumpster. Before then he was a clown.Now he is a clown with a flamethrower. (as Charlie so often pointed out)
I never watched that show. I have always found Trump to be repulsive. Also, I am not a fan of reality shows, so a double hell no for me. I can understand the appeal, though. A person can vicariously through other people's problems and attacks, and thus feel better about their sad lives.
I never watched it either.I'll go a little further, I Hate reality shows! That is why the networks have gotten so bad. I know they are cheap to produce. Thats why all the good stuff made now a days are on HBO,Amazon Prime etc.
Also Trump still can be a crafty sob when he wants to. When he's talking to donors he tries to behave himself, saving his peak crazy for the rallies.
Sarah made a point a week or two ago that the media not covering Trump's rallies is actually helping Trump because the crazy isn't getting through to the bulk of the electorate anymore like it was in 2016. Along the same lines she said kicking him off Twitter has helped him as well. Almost every day he says something ridiculous on Truth Social, even crazier than the things he said on Twitter, but no one hears it now. The media needs to cover Trump and amplify the horrifying things he is saying and the things his team is planning for his next administration if he wins.
Well gee, “we” police and thanks for your insulting “we” as if “I” am not a part of “your” discussion. And “I” will state for a third time, this statement is delusional.
We as in the community, which if you post regularly you are...the we was all of us we...not a specific one
In order to make a delusional comment, you have to be delusional or lacking in some sense etc, so . yes, it is insulting
Also, it is the only rule The Bulwark has for posting, and JVL especially is big on it...and for the posters to point it out to each other and report if it is really bad
Though it is my preference not to be mean for any reason...I am just following their rules ..as I respect them ( rules and people)
My dad died in 2009. He had grown up in small town Oklahoma attending segregated schools until HS when he was sent to the integrated HS.
He couldn't believe that a black man was elected president in his lifetime after drinking in 'black only' water fountains and swimming at 'black only' pools as a kid.
I remember him telling me 'I'm scared. They are either going to kill him or burn the whole country down.' He didn't live to see Obama's presidency or his reelection. He also didn't' live to see the 'burning down' part we are experiencing now.
That's why I don't think Harris is an option. The country is issuing retribution and payback in spades for electing a black man president is going to suddenly elect a black woman?
So then you are looking at an entirely new candidate to try to vet and campaign for the biggest office in the country in 120 days? It's fantasy. It's crazy talk.
I know people are feeling like it's a 'layup' to beat a crazy Trump with the power of Dobbs, the fear of Project 2025 and so many anti-Trump voters, but it's not.
It shouldn't be that way. The stakes are so high that people should be willing to vote against Trump regardless of their reservations about Biden's age.
But that's mostly people who have the privilege or ignorance to feel like as high as the stakes are, there is actually a choice to be made in this eleciton.
They took over the Republican party, but voters still vote.
The election is a toss-up. If only 30% of the people supported Trumpism, this wouldn't be close.
The fact it's close despite all of Trump's glaring faults, radical policy ideas, seeing rights stripped away for 3 years and a literal published blueprint for the dystopia of a second Trump term is 50% of the country willing to burn the country and democracy down.
Would it be surprising to learn that Trump has had a clone made of himself? He has the lunatic self-regard, the casual disregard of the law, and the money to get it done. Perhaps the clone will be unveiled at the convention as his running mate. Republicans would quickly get on board.
I never thought he would get a running mate anyway. Especially after his lapdog pence did what he was supposed to do.
These guys that are vying for the part - they're all younger, and highly intelligent and aggressively ambitious. They might get in there and 25th Amendment him because of, you know, "Saudi Arabia and Russia rippity doo ahhhh...
That would be his inclination. America is apparently only great when he’s the head of it, but I think there’s a good chance he’ll pick Tom Cotton, who seems a mean-spirited nebbish. He’d certainly never pull a Pence.
Mikie Sherill and Abigail Spanberger ... who are they?
New Democrats, evidently. Okay, fine. But here's the thing ... I read and watch a lot of news coverage. I try to keep informed. I do my due diligence. Yet I don't recall hearing about them, to the best of my knowledge -- at least not more than in passing. Maybe they're great. Maybe not. I dunno. But if I don't know who they are and what they stand for, for all of my efforts, how many other people outside of their districts have heard of them? And how many unaware voters would put in the requisite time and effort to get to know who they are, what their positions are on important issues, and why they should vote for them?
In any campaign, never mind a short one, name recognition matters. No name recognition = no chance. Whatever happened to that "deep bench" the DNC keeps bragging about, with names most people have heard of already, at least in passing? We recognize all of the GOP shortlist names for VP, and often otherwise. Why do many people struggle to name who the Dems are after Biden and Harris?
So many questions, so little time, so little evident preparation by the DNC for a future beyond the top of the ticket. My three cents' worth, adjusted for inflation.
Exactly. People were floating Bashear (correct spelling?) as a VP pick for Harris. His name was familiar but I didn't know who he was or his positions on the issues.
Had to look them up. Both are D women. Su-r-r-r-re they'll be on a ticket together. Spanberger is running for Governor of VA instead of running for reelection to the House. Sherill is running for reelection to the House, and making headlines for demanding Biden go away.
I read that whole tweet as wishful, not serious. Bill's national security leaning: Sherill (NJ) is Air Force veteran and centrist and Spanberger(VA) is ex CIA and centrist. Each is considering gubernatorial run in her state. Spanberger isn't running for reelection to focus and Sherill hasn't declared.
This ticket throws nothing to liberals but has general election positive. No name recognition which is why I think it's part of the joke of the tweet.
Maybe so. Perhaps I make the mistake of taking a very serious issue very seriously. I'm glad Mr. Kristol is able to find some humor value in it. I lost that ability some time back.
At any rate I stand by my main point that most people do not know who the main Democrats are behind Biden and Harris. In our bubble here we are better informed. But the typical voter I see, not exactly eager to research candidates and issues as opposed to, say, playing with their devices and texting in their spare time, doesn't have much of an idea of who sits on that supposed deep bench. That's not a good circumstance, and even more so if The Powers That Be decide that Joe must go.
Abigail Spanberger is legit awesome, and will likely be the next governor of Virginia.
But to give you a taste of how the "average voter" makes these decisions, when she was running for Congress here in Richmond I heard some bimbo talking at the bar about how she wasn't sure if she could vote for someone whose name sounded like "Spam Burger." 🙄
I recognize the problem. Many folks put far more time into decisions about trivial things in their lives rather than taking a little time to dig around to find out if what they hear about presidential candidates on social media or elsewhere is true, false, a bit of both. It baffles me that a good percentage of people don't vote at all. Or they waste a vote on someone who can not win, or write in Abe Lincoln. Choosing a president isn't a joke, but it may as well be if you don't vote. Off topic a bit, but social media caught on so quickly and got out of hand well before the repercussions were carefully considered by Congress. The connecting with family and friends seemed to override the inherent dangers of those platforms. I read the accounts of the Sextortion scams resulting in suicides of teen boys. I don't have children, but I am stunned that all parents aren't loudly raising holy hell and demanding action by lawmakers. I suppose it's similar to the disinterest in regulating guns. If it doesn't happen to your family or someone you care for, it isn't a problem. I rarely see news about Frances Haugen, FB Whistleblower, in press coverage. The apathy is disappointing.
The few younger Dems most people know something about are now in the House and Senate. I can't see them leaving their seats anytime soon, plus we need them where they are now. We need voters to pull their heads out of their asses and vote Dem so we can have a chance to vote for those capable younger candidates in 2028.
With all due respect, both Rep. Mikie Sherill & Rep. Abigail Spanberger have been guests on Nicole Wallace's Deadline Whitehouse numerous times. But I don't see them being stronger candidates than any of the Democratic Governors so popular that they are now serving their second terms in office: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (Mich), Gov. Tony Evers (Wisc), Gov. Jared Polis (CO)Gov, Jay Inslee (WA), Gov. Gavin Newsom (CA), Gov. JB Pritzker (ILL).
I live in VA. Abigail Spanberger is currently in Congress and is running for Governor. I agree with you. Neither she nor Mikie Sherill have national name recognition. There are problems with the short-sighted DNC. We have a lot of things to fix in America. If we can stop the Maga threat, we'll have given ourselves a chance. I wonder if the citizens at large will realize how very close we were to the edge if a Democrat defeats trump. As a collective we tend to have short memories.
That's the major dilemma for any candidate not named Harris (and perhaps Newsom). No one outside of their states excepting political junkies like the Bulwark staff know who these people are.
-Swing voters overwhelmingly want a different candidate and have very serious concerns about Biden.
-Black voters, who are Joe Biden's most loyal supporters, prefer Joe Biden, but will vote for anyone against Trump
Given those two facts, why wouldn't you consider putting up someone who can actually win independents, who will determine this election, and make this race more competitive?
Yes, because it looks at their reasons for wanting Joe to stay and how they'd react if he left. That provides a more complex and well-rounded insight than just "yes or no / up or down." And it does in fact put some dents in the notion that replacing Joe would be an offense to all black people everywhere.
The fact that I'm a vegetarian doesn't change the fact that I'd vote for a ham sandwich before I'd vote for Trump, either.
BTW: Trump is 78, not 77. Biden has done a lot of excellent work, both with Obama and for the last 3 and a half years. He has plans to do a lot more good for our country. Trump, on the other hand, plans on becoming a human wrecking ball. Joe has been looking well rested and delivering as a leader and a campaigner since the debate. The media created this drama, and has no compunction about editiorializing their bullshit, smug opinions. Hey, being lazy sure beats getting out there and being a real journalist. The President is not leaving office, and undermining him is certainly benefiting Trump. Everyone I know who was pro Joe prior to the debate is still Ridin' with Bidin'. Come up with a new story.
This post could have been super interesting if Bill Kristol had tried seriously to imagine Trump's behavior and motivation.
But he doesn't, he's using this as a satire to cover the same points.
For instance, Trump is such a showman and makes so much noise, it is noteworthy that he is staying silent right now. He is even lowering the amount of noise he makes on his veepstake.
Trump is exhibiting the lesson from Sun-Tsu: "Never interrupt your enemy while he is making a mistake."
Right now, substituting anybody against Biden is a mistake, and that is why Trump is doing everything to stay out of the way.
Whenever he speaks, he's using reverse psychology. That's because the *only* thing Trump has again Biden is his age. That's why Sinclair (see Judd Leggum's amazing reporting) blasted false clips about Biden being old. That's why the NRCC has been circulating made up clips of Biden having dementia.
Biden is a stellar candidate and the best way to beat him is a psyops against Democrats — with the help of the media — to trick Democrats into dropping their best asset.
But — forget Bill, JVL posted a substantive counter-analaysis yesterday that I am still noodling over and digesting. Thinking about JVL's case for Biden staying — and trying to break it down (as JVL asks) is more interesting than playing around with Bill Kristol.
Bill Kristol is really depressed, and I like him and find his command of history very valuable, but right bow history doesn't seem to serve him, and right now he's a broken clock.
Comments on Trump’s rally performance from Scott Dworkin’s Substack this morning: But the most terrifying part was, as always, when the twice-impeached felon was speaking. He jumbled and confused his words, struggling to string sentences together, and on numerous occasions just couldn’t say a word and moved on from it. Trump had trouble saying the words synagogue, feared, NATO, and hospital, and could barely put the words together when trying to attack Biden’s cognitive abilities. This is more proof that the media should examine Trump’s broken brain.
Trump challenged Biden to a game of golf and blabbed about his good friend Hannibal Lecter. He then blamed Kamala Harris for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Seriously.
Trump talked about how much Rep. Byron Donalds loves bacon, and repeatedly rambled about Biden in a bathing suit on the beach.
The felon also bragged about his plan to set up the largest deportation in history and said more than every job goes to migrants. I don’t even know what that means.
I scanned the rally video by WPost and it was one of his better days in terms of slurring. The bacon stuff is about inflation and he also did well talking about Joe as a part time President with Hunter and Jill running the government. I didn't see or hear the Harris Ukraine segment.
These are the clips that need to start airing on TV. Even more important if we are stuck with Joe so the difference in impairment is clear. Joe may reference dead people but he still operates on Earth 1.
There's a clip going around of Trump calling Kamala a "fucking bitch". Too bad that couldn't get a little coverage.
I've been wondering that as well. It seems so obvious. My only guess is that the media chalk it up to Donald Being Donald, and the behavior has become so common from him as to no longer be considered newsworthy. Somehow.
It is, yet again, the double standard of how the Democrats are supposed to adhere to standards while the GOP can break them all with impunity. It says a lot about what this country has become. Increasingly, when I look for our collective morals and values anymore, I begin by looking in the toilet.
It’s quite a contradiction. The right is so caught up in their idea of “morality” when it comes to LGBTQ issues, while they violate every one of the Ten Commandments.
It's surpassingly weird that so many people who claim to be serving a moral cause also insist on defending and glorifying such a conspicuously amoral person as the main champion of their cause.
Amen, Sister. But we aren’t reinventing this; it’s the authoritarian playbook. More and more I realize Trump is just a useful figurehead, an empty vessel, ready to dance to whatever tune the right sings, and somehow the rubes follow along like lemmings. As has happened before.
His lack of moral scruples is a big part of what makes him so useful to others who actually have a political agenda.
The 'moral majority' ain't so moral, are they?
It’s a 100% inversion of the usual definition of morality. Theirs is basically about dominating others with a code of their own devising.
While not seeming to notice that the Bible is pretty explicit about the sin of adultery. Yet we do not see them proposing laws to criminalize adultery.
Give them time. Criminalizing adultery will only apply to their opponents, not to themselves. The Handmaids Tale feels more real every day.
Jeffrey Goldberg has written about the media's "bias toward coherence," and how their mindset is "Trump sounds nuts, but he can’t be nuts, because he’s the presumptive nominee for president of a major party, and no major party would nominate someone who is nuts." That has really stuck with me since I read it.
And I’d add that the media has a bias towards clicks. Trump has delivered.
Glad you brought that up. Here's the link: https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/editor-in-chief-newsletter/
Thx! ". . . reality is what we must live with long after the debates and rallies are over."
Trump wins.
I read something on Xitter recently and then lost it. I’d love to credit the guy who thought it up.
His take was that the media reports news. Because Trump says and does crazy things all the time, that’s not news so it doesn’t get reported.
We need reporters to treat him like hurricanes, where they’ve happened before but you still need to be prepared for this one.
I know right? But Teddy's mom is right too, we have somehow arrived in an environment that gives him a pass. Both MAGA SIL and friend have said to me "I don't like some of the stuff he says" or "some of the stuff he says is crazy." I wonder if they have heard him speak or if they are repeating whatever RW media they listen to. Recently one said the deranged left has spent 8 years focusing all their energy into hating 1 man. So I guess if what he said were reported, they would get a lot of blowback about outright lying or being leftist or they have TDS.
I do minimal politic talk with them anymore. Recently I was called an accessory to murder, and incredibly close-minded. I let it pass, because there is no peruasion. One also jumped on me about posting that RW policies on abortion will yield your daughters dying or losing their fertility for lack of medical care for dangerous pregnancies. She was so mad, telling me that is not a thing, that God wants the women to be safe in these cases. I said that is not what you're voting for and cited a bunch of articles, and she just repeated her implication that I was exaggerating and lying.
I mean...it is Donald Being Donald, though.
The media has a bias for what's new, because what's new gets more clicks, and more clicks means more money.
I don't really have a fully thought out theory here, and it's inarguable that the media hasn't figure out how to cover Trump...but there is a real desire for something new in politics, reflected in all the data. In the area of this presidential race, to me it seems like ths media is the symptom, not the disease
It's not just the media. It's we humans who make up the media and we humans who consume the media. Humans learn to make the best of a bad situation when it serves their purposes. Plus humans get tired of writing about and reading or hearing about the same old thing over and over again.
Because those things are not "new" when they come from him. Not an excuse but an explanation of why the media ignores it.
I get what you're saying, but I think media-wise Trumps antics *have* been normalized, that that ship has sailed. Dog bites man, we all know who Trump is. That's just kinda the situation. And that's why P 2025 is more useful to talk about than him being an asshole, because it's "dog has plan to bite all men at once"
This is indeed Trump's overall strategy. He does and says so much that is wrong that it is considered no longer news; it's "What else do you expect from Trump?". In fact, if he becomes president, the first few political opponent he kills by drones will be news. After that, well, it's just Trump being Trump.
I mean, yeah, that's what could happen, because that's how brains work. Political violence is somewhat to very normal in many countries--I'm not talking "banana republics," I'm talking Greece. That's part of why it's important to highlight things like 2025, to separate the signal from the noise
Y'know, I've been mulling this over in my head all day, and yeah we're just randos on the internet--but why not go hash out a central problem of the modern media?
Here's my thinking: MSM's job is to make money. To do that, they need clicks and viewers. If they report on every shit thing Trump says, as he does constantly, they will get fewer viewers because we all *know* Trump is an asshole who says horrific things, him saying another one is on a literal level not news because it's not new.
At core here is the problem of the normalization of Trump. I view that as a cognitive, social phenomenon more than anything else. It's worth being aware of and keeping an eye on, but demanding he not be normalized is demanding that people fight their own brains. I think it's more valuable to call out the most relevant instances than to invest in the everyday normal stuff, and that's the angle I judge the media from.
Anyway, thanks for the food for thought! It is important to keep this from being so normal we forget that it's only normal because it's normalized.
Yeah, the newly unsealed Epstein files aren't getting any coverage either. I keep telling myself this is baked in, the media owners need Trump to survive Wall Street. But I keep being surprised by it nevertheless.
Scott Dworkin did a piece on Trump’s rally performance. Bill might want to view it and comment as well.
Trump would have a meltdown running against a black woman. That alone is a reason to do it.
Do you not understand how the game is played these days? YOU HAVE TO MAKE YOUR OWN COVERAGE. Reporters report on what people are talking about. Democratic politicians have to go on cable news, and talk to reporters, and express how unacceptable it is. But being Democrats, there are 300+ other things that each individual politician thinks are more important, which dilutes the story. For God's sake, does the DNC not do "talking points" to its members?
And if the media coverage happened the question would be "Is Trump right?" and "How big a bitch IS she?"
Wonder what percentage of Trump supporters enjoyed that description?
75%
My guess was at least 50%. You’re probably closer to the mark.
Why air it? It would only demean Kamala and not hurt Trump in the least way.
You do have a point there. It is part of the asymmetry we are dealing with.
The misogyny is baked into the cake already.
So either the press is ignoring it on purpose because they love Trump or it's not valid meaning it's fake. I see you have assumed it's the former.
There are more options than "the media loves Trump" and fake news.
Such as? You have assumed they've ignored it on purpose, yes?
Yes, I think they are ignoring it on purpose.
That doesn't mean they love Trump. It's more likely, like many other things, they chalk it up as Trump being Trump and don't report on it. It's the having different standards for Republicans than Democrats.
"they chalk it up as Trump being Trump and don't report on it." This is the correct answer. News people want to cover something that is "new."
I put up with it because it's my kink. 😉
such as the one posited just above by Susan D, "It would only demean Kamala and not hurt Trump in the least way." A good analytic principle there are almost always more options than just two. It is called the fallacy of the excluded middle.
Thx, Terry.
I still don't know if it's legit or not.
I don't understand. 1. How do you know the story that's been circulating on social media is false? 2. Is MSM covering it or not?
I would say avoid social media. It has proven to be a social net negative.
Terry, it was Liberal who first posted the story circulating. It wasn't covered in the press. So I assumed it was on social media. So this is for him, not me.
I ask people out loud: is that what you teach your children to do? Would that be acceptable behavior from them? If not, why is that man a role model for you?
Of course they don't want to talk about it. Nevertheless it is a discussion that our nation sorely needs to have.
One of the two campaign ads I have in my head is a mom and son in a living room with the tv on in the background. The tv first shows a clip of Trump making fun of the disabled reporter, adn the son asks the mom about why she is voting for him. Then, a clip of Trump calling for violence, and teh kid asking... you get the idea. The last scene is of the kid saying, "...but, Mom."
Better yet, same scenario, but the son is handicapped because of gun violence.
The Trumpite response is always "We're electing a president, not a role model.' Some even say that a "role model" wouldn't be a good president - just as Trump claimed he would be "totally ineffective" if he didn't have immunity to break the law.
Trumpites don't just insist that his lack of moral scruples must be indulged. They portray it as a strength - and then they pretend to find it inconceivable that he ever violated any laws.
Actually, we ARE electing a role model, in that the person who gets the job represents all of us and projects our image to the rest of the world. He indicates to them how we view ourselves and what our priorities are, what we accept, and in some cases what we do not accept when considering the alternative. But of course you know that. Sad that so many others do not, and that so many people fall for such an intellectually lazy approach to a serious issue.
The dumber MAGAs think the whole world respects and fears Trump. The smarter Trumpites must sometimes feel a twinge of embarrassment, but they always find lipstick to put on the pig - sometimes by saying it doesn't matter what the rest of the world thinks because most other countries are either lost to woke liberalism or they're third-world dumps
Calling magats and those undecided/swing voters who will vote trump because "vibez" intellectually lazy, is being kind.
For the Americanus Politicus member of the species, strong and wrong beats weak and right (Bill Clinton).
That is the perfect question to ask.
I mean, maybe it would influence some undecided black voters and female voters?
We all should hope it would ... or you can just flush.
I believe a lot of folks just don't want to think about any of it. Americans (and maybe others in the world) have got lazy when it comes to thinking.
I don't believe in god either, but Trump's incredible luck may be enough to get me to believe in the devil.
I've said it often here, only half-jokingly -- DJT may well have made a Faustian deal with Mephistopheles, and we all are caught up in it by default. It is as good of an explanation as anything else as to how and why we have fallen into this abyss.
And the grotesquely cynical Ailene Cannon will be rewarded one way or another for her shameless fealty to the sociopath who appointed her to the bench.
In the New Testament, Satan tempts Jesus with worldly power, shows him the world, and says, “bow down to me and all this will be yours”. Jesus refuses.
I picture Trump in this scenario, saying, “shut up and tell me where to sign”. The only way I can account for his incredible luck. He could shoot Melania on 5th Ave. and not lose any voters.
A perfect political cartoon. I can imagine a whole series . . .
Her successors are already lining up. Surprised she's lasted this long.
He's the luckiest s.o.b. in American history!
For now, yes, quite possibly so. But history books take a long view of things, and I remain certain that they will not judge this era, and that person, kindly when all is said and done. I wish I could live long enough to read it for myself.
Boy do I agree with you on this. He will be studied, and not with admiration. More like Covid.
Unless of course he wins and the only place you can learn the truth about him is in another country. If he wins, American children will learn how he was chosen as the Hand of God.
My balloon just burst.
He's a lot like Henry VIII. In 500 years -- once the historical consequences have borne out and the dust has settled -- historians will have a lot of fun studying him. Sort of like "wow, can you believe the ego on this f'ing guy?!".
Oh I completely agree. He will go down as the worst president in American history, unless something worse comes down the pike later (what a horrifying thought!).
It's just exasperating that he's never held accountable for any of his actions and instead more often than not gets rewarded for them.
There's still hope for Merchan's sentencing
He has already gone down as the worst president history according to the most recent historians' ranking
I think there's a theory somewhere that the zeitgeist changes every so often, and while the nature of the change is not predictable, the occurrence of change is. So I see the last 80 or so years, since WWII and the bomb as the atomic/hydrogen age, now we are in a new zeitgeist, characterized by anger, misanthropy, selfishness, meanness. Somehow the UK and France have held off the full-fledged entry into this ugly new age, of which T is the avatar, but we haven't. But I haven't given up hope that we, who know T & Co for what they are, can influence the new zeitgeist.
That's a very cogent theory. Change is constant in the world, and people want fresh faces and approaches every so often. Rational thinking all too often yields to impulse. Connecting those dots helps in part to explain how we went from There to Here. Thanks for sharing.
FYI, this theory has been advanced. See "What Does Our Current Fourth Turning Hold For Us?" (https://youtu.be/uAxBjl7VYOM?si=uYOZzb1yPC2ZsmQU).
Problem is that he won't be around to suffer the humiliation that he so richly deserves.
He's also the best in American history to weaponize the fear card. It's not all luck.
I would argue that America's fortunate that Trump is not very good at being a demagogue. Thank God.
Unfortunately Trump 2.0 will be missing all the guardrails that were in place for the first Trump administration. There are some nasty people behind him this time with bad intentions and more discipline.
Agree with that. It's also a combination of his mastery meeting five decades of disruptive social change, some of it unprecedented (violating Biblical sexual morality).
Is he truly? Outside of one election in 2016 when he drew to an inside straight to win the Electoral College, he's lost every election including the midterms when he was in office. His business has been shut down because of fraud. He's been convicted of 34 felonies and is still under indictment for about 60 other ones.
All he has to do is win in November and he's coming up roses, and recent events with SCOTUS and POTUS seem to be conspiring to help him win. Also the GOP losing elections doesn't matter to Trump as long as he can keep winning, keep grifting, and stay out of prison.
Whom he has obviously made a deal with. I missed that chapter in The Art of the Deal.
I know it's tempting to be reassured when we hear that Democratic voters (myself included) are still planning to vote for Joe Biden, but we're not the ones we're worried about.
Its not assuring. Go read the comments over on the NYT Bret Stephens column
-"Bret, this is the first time I've ever agreed with you"
-"I can't believe I'm saying this, but the Democrats are gaslighting us and are no better than the Republicans"
-"I can't vote for Biden in good conscience: he should not be running the country in this condition".
-"tell me how this is one of the most important times in American history and yet you're willing to lose because you don't want to hurt an old guy's feelings".
-"stop saying that this is an important election. I look at my one-year old and wonder what kind of country he's going to grow up in. And the Democrats don't care: they'd rather hand out participation trophies".
Sometimes it is not enough to do our best: we must do what is required-Winston Churchill.
My responses: If Biden is the nominee, you have to vote for him. He's in a bad condition but he doesn't run the country alone. If Trump wins, we lose the Constitution. Democrats are struggling with a crisis, and a lot of them are in denial, a perfectly normal response. Republicans are in a personality cult, which is not normal. The Dems are better.
Agree, Sandy. I definitely vote for Joe Biden, if he is the Democratic nominee, but I will still be mad at the Democratic hierarchy that put us in this position.
I keep thinking about those honorable French men & women who qualified in Round 1 of the French election to run for Parliament in Round 2, but stood down, because the left-wing party & Macron's party compromised via tactical voting & asked candidates not to dilute the vote, in order to defeat Marine LePen's far right fascist party. In other words, those patriotic men & women stood down for the good of their country.
Something to remember.
I too will be very mad at the Dem hierarchy which has been led by Biden. As president, he is the leader of his party. If he steamrolls it all the way to a loss in November, there will be an enormous reckoning in the party.
The thing is whether he stay or goes, trump could still win either way. By enormous reckoning, you mean mean vicious recriminations. If Biden stays and loses, he will blamed by today's naysayers. If he is replaced and loses, that decision will also be blamed. And if the Dems keep the presidency either way, we still can't say it was because of whichever decision. However, that won't stop one faction or the other from claiming vindication.
And also if it should turn out he is unable to complete his second term, Harris steps in. No need to preemptively replace him.
I've seen the opposite at both the NYT's and WA PO
Looks about 50/50, one can think it was a bad performance and that he is old and still think he is the best bet. So, people can say he is too old, but vote for him anyway for other reasons
I voted for Mondale in 1984. That didn’t go well.
When people complain about how this "Joe has to go" furor is a pundit/media led distraction they may not have Sarah's focus groups in mind, but it's all part of the same BS.
I volunteer 5 days a week in one of the swingiest districts in one of the swingiest states and I answer the phones for many hours per week. I get 2 kinds of calls from concerned voters and I speak to each one, often at length: From those who think Joe must go, which largely come from people who identify as Democrats and/or Biden supporters but say that they will vote for Trump (or occasionally RFK, JR) instead and whose reasoning is largely based on incorrect information or barely concealed "isms," mostly against immigrants. IOW they were only nominally in Joe's camp to begin with.
The other calls come from Joe supporters, a few of whom base their position on the "realpolitik" judgment that only Joe can beat Trump or that it's too late to make a change but MOST OF WHOM support Joe because they think he is the BEST candidate. All of them refer to his record and his fundamental integrity; sometimes they refer to him as a "good person."
I'll put my randoms up against your scientifically selected panels any day, Sarah.
Thank you for your volunteer work! my parents were active in politics and I grew up with democratic volunteers coming to our house for dinners and parties. I was 13 when I first worked the phones at headquarters. Your post brought me back and reminded me that people like you are the best of America.
Yeah, don’t pay attention to that meteor headed straight for US democracy… don’t look up.
Which is exactly what the press is doing by ignoring the Orange Snake and his insanity. In a better, saner world, his rantings, his crimes would be plastered across the country and condemned by Rs, Ds and everyone in between. Now? Nothing to see, folks.
The Press IS reporting on Trump’s craziness - but the public can’t digest it because Biden has created a big target on himself. It’s Biden’s fault not the press.
The media is a large part of the problem in American politics.
Blaming "the media" & Bill Kristol for the Democratic Party's failure to have a slate of younger, more vigorous candidates lined up months ago does no good. It may feel great to rant, but Bill told us months ago that Joe probably wasn't the best one to take on Trump again. We all (including me) just ignored him, because he used to be a Republican.
But maybe Bill Kristol had taken the time to look up all 23 sitting Democratic Governors - some so popular that they're in their second terms! And some are governing in "must-win" states, like Mich, Pa & Wisc. Bill probably saw some great potential that the rest of us missed. That's on us & the Democratic Party, not Bill or the media.
I can honestly tell you that I had never heard of Jimmy Carter, the Governor of Georgia, or William Clinton, the young Governor of Arkansas, before either man threw his hat in the ring.
Kristol is still a Republican and his wanting two people on a Dem ticket that meet his criteria isn't going to happen.
Let him clean up his own party.
gotta say that as great as he has been as gov in wisconsin - not sure anyone would call Gov Tony Evers charismatic :) so I don't think he would carry the rest of the country in a presidential contest.
Exactly. They were trump enablers in 2016 as well.
Oh right, it's the media's fault for Joe Biden's inability to complete sentences unless he's on the teleprompter.
Biden did not create the target. The emotional over-reaction from Dems created the target. And now look where Dems are coalescing: keep Biden or replace Biden with Harris. Replacing Biden with Harris is functionally equivalent to keeping Biden, because if it should turn out that Biden is unable to complete his second term, Harris steps in anyway. We could have had the same result without the public panic.
No one pays attention to Trump's insanity because he's been insane for the last 10 years, nothing he can do or say now surprises anyone, it's old news. Was anyone shocked or surprised by Trump's debate performance? It's the same old barrage of lies that he's been spewing for a decade.
"No one pays attention to Trump's insanity because he's been insane for the last 10 years, nothing he can do or say now surprises anyone"
Agreed. It's the old "man bites dog" problem.
The media has its faults. But if we don't have a candidate that can prosecute the case against Donald Trump, we have no chance.
It's Trump for pete's sake. Biden should be able to beat him from his basement again. What's wrong with the voters?
I fear this absolves voters of having any duty to the US. They are viewedvas consumers who must be persuaded or manipulated by candidates. That's very unhealthy for a democracy.
Trump wins electoral college by 50 votes plus. R's win Senate and House. It'll be great. Nothing better than a second Trump administration but a second Trump administration with a mandate.
But at least Joe Biden will be sure to tell us he gave it his all while American democracy burns.
Sigh....
I for one am waiting for Pelosi’s statement, which she has promised for this morning. If she bails, the ship is sinking. I trust her political instincts more than all of ours.
She went against him though not very stridently...odd as her progressive members are pro Biden
She left space for him to bow out is how I see it. It’s a diverse caucus. She suggested waiting until after the NATO meeting, which makes sense to me.
Dems will win the House and have a real shot at keeping the Senate. Voters are not dumping on the Dem party, it's Biden they don't want to vote for. This doesn't mean they will vote for Trump.
Right on, Colleen. Keep these doom and gloomsters focussed on the real battle, control of the legislative, even if they have decided to give up on Joe and the executive by voting for CFT, whether actively by pulling his lever (don't go psychologist on me and ask which one) or passively by not voting at all.
What sane voter would want to touch the Trump lever much less vote for him.
Your adjective saved you from a blistering reply😉, even though the concept of "sane" and someone who would want to vote for CFT is not one I can get my head around, much less a (here it comes) grip on it ... the concept, of course.
Germany had to suffer through world war II before they wised up to Hitler
It's hard to ignore poor decision-making when your cities are in rumbles and you lost another world war. The MAGAs complain about this economy while still sending money to Trump for tennis shoes and a bible.
Yep, clearly what MAGA tells pollsters about how they feel about the economy is not true.
and a Project 2025
The mandate never to stand for another election because there will be no others?
That is most certainly not knowable.
This is a bizarre comment. You are simply giving your opinion. No better or worse than anyone else's but just one voice and apparently not based on any data. I am looking down, to actual voters, to the grassroots if you will and reporting on what I am hearing. You can criticize my "methodology" as unscientific but (a) I've already copped to that and (b) I'll go so far as to say that it's more scientifically based than the average comment here or the average op-ed piece about how the sky is falling.
Poppycock. Look at Politico. NY is now in play. Anyone with the hubris to say their analysis is right and all the other experts are wrong but we’ll just have to see doesn’t pass the smell test.
***Don’t Look Around*** or Why Craters Suck!
There’s a meteor hurtling towards the Earth this very second. Some
people aren’t looking up and can’t see it. Others see it and don’t think it’s a big deal. But don’t be fooled! Keep looking up! Train your eyes to focus on the goddamn meteor every second of every goddamn day. Don’t you dare look around at what’s going on around you or you might lose sight of where it’s headed next or if it seems to be slowing down or changing course. Or evenworse, you might not catch if it said “good as” or “goodness” during its interview with George Stephanopolous and any astronomer worth his salt can tell you that assessing stuff like that is key to figuring out how much damage it can do!
I should warn you that there will be naysayers who will try to minimize the threat. They’ll say they’ve seen the meteorite and it’s about the size of a basketball and they aren’t really concerned about it. But don’t let them discourage you from sounding the alarm! Just keep bringing people’s attention back to the meteorite and keep yelling about how we’re all doomed! Human nature will eventually kick in and all the people who didn’t initially see the meteorite or think it was that big a deal will eventually hear all the people around them pointing to the sky and shouting and assume they were wrong. Of course thousands of meteors fall to the earth every year and everyone is perfectly fine [1] but if you live in Florida or other places in the South, the astronomy books are banned so there’s no way to access that information. You should be OK.
Once you’ve successfully freaked out most of the country about the threat of the basketball sized meteor, you and your neighbors should all go grab your pitchforks and head to NASA (or Elon Musk’s house) and demand that they stop whatever actual important space thing they’re working on and focus all their their time and energy to concoct some last minute laser to blast it out of the sky.
Of course since all the rocket scientists are now hyper-focused on stopping the stupid basketball sized meteor, no one is paying attention to the aliens from Magatron who want to take over the country and eventually, the entire planet! France, Britain and Iran were able to hold off the aliens for now [2] but *they* didn’t have a meteorite problem on their hands!
So let’s keep our eyes on the skies!
Does it really matter that while everyone’s head is facing upwards 24/7 working to annihilate the meteor, the aliens from Magatron, armed with with an AK-470 in each of their four arms (Magatronians place a high premium on gun ownership ;) have no problem sneaking past the guardrails around the Whitehouse and the Capitol Building and the Supreme Court?
Does it matter that the Magatronions start giggling as they enter these once hallowed buildings, chanting the name of their orange leader and bow before him as he sits on the throne that the Supreme Justices of the MOCKTUS have spent months building for him? Does it matter that there were no journalists around to report on it because they were all too busy debating about to do about the goddamn meteor?
Nope! What matters is that we’re honest about the meteor! We can’t let our country turn in to some sort of Orwellian dystopian hellscape where people just pretend there’s no meteor just because the government says so. We all *saw* the meteor damn it!!! Don’t try and tell us we didn’t!
And so, just as we’re patting our mutual backs about our unceasing devotion to the truth, ***BOOM*** a loud explosion shatters the stratosphere. The heroes at NASA have finally managed to blast the meteor in to smithereens somewhere above Chicago!!! Everyone cheers! Everyone, that is except the Magatronions. They’re too busy firing all the experts from the government and rounding up humans and sending them to concentration camps.
They come for the people on your block last. As you lay sweating in your small bunk in the camp, a sliver of doubt briefly flits through your mind…Should you maybe have spent more time and energy trying to defeat the aliens instead of getting rid of the scary looking meteor? Nah…you swat the doubt away like an annoying fly. It would have been impossible to fight aliens while everyone was consumed with fear about the meteor. And what if the meteor did end up to be significantly less harmful than the orange alien god king? The scientists all agreed that the meteor would definitely have left behind an unsightly crater - even if it was kind of small. And everyone knows craters suck!
[1] https://www.iberdrola.com/innovation/meteorites-earth#:~:text=Most%20meteorites%20reach%20the%20Earth's,fall%20to%20Earth%20every%20year.
[2] https://apnews.com/article/uk-france-iran-elections-left-far-right-8b219c4475484d366c8c64601fc55fc4
The problem is these Biden supporters are not enough to get Joe over the hump, he needs to win independents and undecideds as well (the other group you describe), and it looks highly unlikely that he will get enough votes from these groups to win the swing states.
Are you saying that the unaligned and undecideds would vote affirmatively for CFT over Joe if Joe stays in? Or that you think they would vote passively by not voting at all? Because those are the only two alternatives if Joe stays in and that group, as a group, decides not to support him in any way.
I think mostly they'll just decide to sit it out and not vote for either, so you could say it hurts both sides, but really it hurts Biden more, because he needs more votes than Trump just to stay even due to the electoral college imbalance.
However you justify if, it amounts to the same thing: A no vote for Joe is a help for CFT because it is a vote against democracy and that is what Project 2025 is all about, even if CFT says he never heard of it.
100% agree. I wish all these "undecideds" felt the same way. If people are still undecided at this point they haven't been paying attention, I find these people exasperating.
You would think they learned their lesson in 2016. In fact they did learn their lesson in time for the 2020 elections which saw historically high turnout and historically low third party votes. Do you think these same voters are going to forget the lesson in Nov 2024?
Back in 2008, black voters did not think that white people would vote for a black man for President. They didn't get on board until he won lily white Iowa.
I think the black electorate is trying to be very pragmatic here, but I do think they're underestimating the extreme dislike for the Bad Orange Criminal.
Can we just say what a terrible Biden campaign it's been so far? No surrogates out there hammering Trump every day, no reaching out the Haley voters, etc. Spent a shit ton of money on TV ads for NOTHING. Truly pathetic. It makes me think they're relying solely on the anti-Trump sentiment without actually making the case.
The way this campaign is currently going, it's going to be a Bataan death march to Nov 5th. It desperately needs a course correction - if Joe Biden can do it, then he needs to do it NOW. If he can't, he needs to step aside and let the party (along with Harris) figure it out.
This is a point that is being consistently missed or slept on. Biden's campaign ads reach me in Jersey, and it's all been Before Times advertising. I think they're trying to convert voters to Biden rather than drive up Trump's negatives.
The election is turning into a referendum on Biden, and that's a game that Trump wins the popular vote at.
Yep, expertise is a myth and data is nonsense, that'll work out
First of all, thanks for the volunteer work you're doing. A call here, a call there starts to add up. Again, thank you.
"I'll put my randoms up against your scientifically selected panels any day, Sarah."
Are they scientifically selected? The whole focus group thing is the least useful offering from the the Bulwark, in my opinion. Why is the methodology behind the groups not published anywhere? Who are these people? How are they selected? Randomly? Are the questions administered in a systematic way, and responses recorded in a way that allows drawing valid conclusions? If not, what is the point? I listened to one Focus Group podcast and that was enough for me.
If I'm wrong about this (and I've been wrong before) and the focus group methodology is described somewhere, please paste a link for me.
It's not posted than I am aware of but Sarah has talked about it in pods
They hire a professional group to find the people with the attributes they want to focus on...
It isn't random and it isn't like a poll
Sarah says: we want Trump to Biden voters, and the group screens for those and any other requirements, but nothing else...it is very tailored and specific...
As Sarah doesn't do the actual polling and they aren't asking any questions like a poll, there are no cross tabs
Maybe I'm being too pedantic, but it seems a lot like walking into a random bar and striking up conversations with your fellow drinkers. It certainly could be entertaining -- even provide a few laughs in the Jay Walking sense -- but the basis for political analysis? Not without a description of the approach and methodology and why we should believe in the accuracy of the conclusions. Otherwise it just seems like more noise. Sarah seems to take it all so seriously though. If it's serious, tell us why we should agree.
The whole approach and methodology is they want to ask questions to specific people to see what they think, so she can target them in her RVAT ads to convince them not to vote for Trump, and to get an idea what they think about several things,,,her conclusions are considered accurate because of her reputation at being good at this, why she writes for The Atlantic, WA PO, NYT's etc...and appears on cable news shows...she was a political operative before Trump too
Thanks.
I was excited to finally see something about Trump in today's Morning Shots. Only to find out it was one of Bill's attempts at satire. Jesus Fucking Christ.
From above it's "Whitmer" not "Whtimer" and "Kamala" not "Kamal".
What a bag of wind. I'm glad he's tickling himself.
If anyone understood how weak a candidate Biden would be, it's Bill Kristol. The voters have been screaming at Biden for years now not to run again. These numbers are now above 70%. This is a catastrophe.
Just do us all a favor, Bill, and ask a large sample of the "Get Out Joe" crowd whether they would vote for CFT if Joe does not, either by directly pulling the lever for him or by throwing up their hands and not voting as a protest against .... what? Democracy?
The Cook Report and the University of Virginia Larry Sabato's reports are grandular and often more reliable than some of the various polls. Howevrr
Both are showing movement towards trump in areas that were leaning Democratic. I hope, despite our differences, we will all vote the Democratic ticket in November. Joe Biden isn't my first choice now, but he'll get my vote if he's the nominee. There's too much at stake to allow anything to get in our way. I read Project 2025's summary and it is jarring. Please, don't stay at home, vote for a meaningless 3rd party or write in a candidate. Massive turnout and voters willing to vote for whomever happens to be the Democratic nominee is the path to put trump and sycophants down. It's puzzling and frightening how one deranged man has wrought such a degree of darkness and chaos. We can silence his filthy mouth by beating him 'bigly' in November. Well, maybe not completely silence him, but push him into hiding.
We need to do more than vote. We need to support the Dem party with donations and volunteering to (1) persuade swing voters and (2) Get Out the Vote (GOTV).
I wish. I’m so demoralized by “Only I Can Fix It” Joe Biden, I’m contemplating closing my Act Blue account, and putting my meager donations toward fascist-proofing my life. Dems refuse to fight. They are hide bound to loyalty just like the GOP.
Plus, Act Blue has ruined my email and my text messages by overwhelming both as they share my information far and wide. Now I hit “Delete and Report Spam” hundreds of times per day, often missing important other communications. I tried using STOP - but that just puts the invader into the category of “known senders” and lets them through. My online life is small, but ruined.
I am completely demoralized.
I've started my letter to the Bidens. First, I present my Dem bona fides (lifelong voter and small donor) and my respect for their ability to survive a loss. During the 2020 campaign, Joe told those who've lost loved oned (I've lost two) that “There will come a day, I promise you and your parents, as well, when the thought of your son or daughter or your husband or wife brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. It will happen."
Then I go on to say I'm asking you to step down and that I've seen a lot of your ego in the last two weeks - hubris and narcissisim - and I don't like it.
I'll finish with something like "Save the party, save the country and save your legacy and step down now."
Oh, I didn't know that about "stop". Thx for the tip. I'm going to cancel my recurring Act Blue donation until he steps down.
But I don't think the entire party is hide-bound to loyalty to the man over what the party stands for. It will be more work for me, but I will donate directly to the three Dem Senators in toss-up races and Jeffries' House Dems fund. Better to put your meager funds there. If Trump wins, there will be a bulwark, if you will, against him in the Congress.
And Biden himself stated on recorded audio four years ago that he saw himself as a “bridge president” towards the next generation. Does he even remember? Has he and his family become corrupted by power? Are we exactly the same as the GOP? My despair is in the stratosphere.
I am very afraid you are accurate about this!
I thought we hired Joe because he would bring a replacement along, train them, prepare them, work with the bench, WHATEVER... instead of letting his ego get in the way of his political acumen.
And why the heck does his family support this madness?
Possibly because NOBODY sees a successful ALTERNATIVE at this point!
RFK Jr anyone?
He did bring a replacement along. Her name is Kamala Harris, and if it should turn out that Biden cannot complete his second term, she steps in. Besides, Tim Miller counted only 20 bad days in the last 3.5 years.
I appreciate your comment.
Yeah it was real funny. Haha I'm laughing so hard my ribs and stomach hurt . Right wingers just don't get humor. Give it up Bill. Morning Shots sucks since Charlie left.
Here's my addition to Trumps brain: God sometimes I hate that Bulwark, but a lot of time I love it. Kristol every morning making the case of Biden needing to go but only half-way supporting any alternatives--just churning the pot and making Dems mad at each other. You should see the comment section!
And then there's Mona Charen. Can you believe it? She's calling Biden out for *his* bad character!
Mona Charen is the Phyllis Schlafly of the Bulwark.
Mona was one of my favorite contributors. I thought Beg to Differ was about civil disagreement. So I am really shocked by the lack of disagreement in the discussions she oversees.
Mona has a good instinct but she needs to rebalance her contributors a bit.
I think people self-select into her discussions. I don’t listen to her podcast or read her pieces, for the most part.
They do, but, if you flagship podcast is "Beg to Differ" and you realize that everybody thinks the same thing (i.e., you've picked people from the same echo bubble), then I expect that someone who really cares to "Beg to Differ" to try to renew the roster or expand it.
The point is that "Beg to Differ" made me think that she loves productive disagreement as much as I do, but the lack of shade between any of the people's positions is disappointing. Someone who earnestly understands the importance of disagreement would do a better job of rebalancing the slates.
She knows how to do it! She is the one who made me discover Noah Smith of Noahpinion, because he disagrees with people in a really interesting and valuable way.
Mona Charren can do what she says she's good at, but she needs to wake up and go back to her basics.
I agree if she’s good at it, she should do it.
Yeah beg to differ has become always agree. It’s just people reaffirming their opinions
In the end, the choice that each one of us decides to make in November is what matters. We all have various thoughts and opinions. I will vote for the Democratic nominee in November. I hope every Bulwark subscriber will do so. That is how we save our country.
The Biden resurrection story will be more powerful than any candidate who might replace him. Biden is putting on a good show at the NATO conference. He is showing leadership and the value of a strong alliance. Biden remains instrumental at keeping NATO together and focused. Can you imagine Trump even showing up at that conference, or what he would say if he did?
Trump believes he's got it made now that there are so many clips of Biden looking old. But once the press' feeding frenzy about replacing Biden subsides they will focus on Trump, his lies, his cruelty, his lack of understanding about how a government should work, his narcissism, how he is a sexual predator, and a convicted felon. The press and the rest of us have to highland Project 2025, and how Trump should not be allowed to distance himself from it. It was written by his staff. The same people who gave Trump the names for the Supreme Court. Trump is their puppet and they expect him to perform.
Yes, Biden still slurs his words a bit, and he rambles in press conferences, but he has been, and will continue to run the best administration in the last 70 years. If he dies in office then America will get what it needs the most, a strong, assertive, competent Black woman president.
Biden will have more "senior" moments over the next four months and of course the press will cover it because people are interested in it and therefore it makes the press money. They won't cover Trump's outrages as much because nothing Trump does stands out among the flood of b.s. he spews daily. It's unfair but this is the asymmetric warfare JVL talks about. The Democrats and Dem candidates need to be perfect, but the authoritarian GOP can basically do/say whatever it wants and get away with it.
Tim Miller counted 20 in the past 3.5 years. That averages to one about every two months.. So he might be on track for two or three more before the election. We should be so lucky when we are his age.
That was before the debate. Now every single moment of his is going to be scrutinized like never before, and he will be expected to be out and front speaking unscripted on a daily basis, not hidden away and giving only scripted comments as infrequently as possible.
You continue to mischaracterize the situation. No one is hiding Biden, and just because the media would rather cover the seriously incoherent Trump than boring normal Biden does not mean that unscripted events are as infrequent as possible. Personally I am glad he doesn't do those helicopter statement that Trump was so fond of.
But I grant you one point. Biden has been a gaffe machine since he was first elected to office at the age of 29. All the media has to do is wait and then pounce. And yep In order to decrease those gaffes, since his election, Biden has been doing a lot more self-monitoring. That alone will slow him down and sometimes render him speechless. Joe is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. But still, nothing about Biden even compares to Trump's fluent incoherence and danger to us all.
OK I shouldn't have said hiding, that was unfair. What I mean is that he can't continue to simply govern like he has been, he now has to start campaigning which means a lot more speaking, a lot more attention on his speeches, and a lot more opportunities for flubs. He's lost all benefit of the doubt with the debate.
Of course Biden is infinitely better than Trump, but the best candidate doesn't always win. Trump appears healthier and more vigorous, and that registers with voters' feelings, which are much more important to most low-information voters than legislative accomplishments, unfortunately. Those low information undecided voters are the ones he needs to win over. He's already got the Democratic base on his side, but that's only 1/3 of the electorate.
The partisan identification of registered voters is now evenly split between the two major parties: 49% of registered voters are Democrats or lean to the Democratic Party, and a nearly identical share – 48% – are Republicans or lean to the Republican Party.
I agree with you wholeheartedly, except for one crucial thing, the press. I don’t think we can expect for MSM to do the right thing. They are all corporatized and in it for the money. The lopsided coverage of Biden and Trump is frightening. I haven’t read anything by a reporter (NYT/WAPO) that has gotten down to brass tacks and described Trump as cruel or moronic, lacking intelligence (unless it’s the occasional opinion piece). There needs to be more serious reporting on the danger to democracy Trump poses and they’re not doing enough. It’s what worries me.
I don't know what's wrong with the Like button but I can never light it up.
In any case, I agree with you about the press as well!
I recently saw a list of TRUMP DONORS including the CEOs of ABC, NBC, MSNBC , CNN and CBS, New York Times, WaPo and WSJ: Every one of them! The MSM is IN TRUMP'S POCKET!
That's definitely part of it, but I also think security concerns also play a huge factor in the coverage. Hardly any outlet is covering Trump's constant pimping for stochastic terrorist attacks and the miasma of fear this has induced in politics and the media.
That might be true if those CEOs cared about anything but their own wealth. I don't see signs of it. "Greed is good" is killing us.
History is littered with people who thought autocracy would just be bad for ‘those other folks’
I don’t get how big business feels a Trump presidency and autocracy will be ‘good for business’.
Big business is run by people who see no reason for History to be on the curriculum in college, especially in business and MBA programs.
It's not just the CEO's. It's threats across their entire outlets and at reporters and production staff.
They probably also donated to Biden. That’s what they do; play both sides hoping to curry favor, like the knights of olde.
That would be some consolation. But it makes their political acumen very poor if they think any of them will survive the first six months of Project 2025.
Agreed! So many are so fearful to take a stand. Everyone who could make a difference are hedging. I hate having a front row seat to how societies fail.
me too
Those that go along with the New Order will survive. One or two examples will be plenty.
Not uncommon, they don't want him coming after them...lots of businesses donate to both sides...
The trouble is will voters credit Joe for his NATO appearance? Just like they don't credit him for anything else.
That is up to us. Get involved in GOTV and telling the truth. Write to all of the media you use to get information. Tell them to report about the Biden resurrection. Tell them that waiting for Joe DiMaggio to save us is a terrible strategy. Tell them to tell the truth instead of just being sharks going for blood. Biden has been the best president we have had for 70 years. He is not much different now from what he was a month ago.
"Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio? Our nation has turned its lonely eyes to you." By the way,I agree.
That's a big part of what's going on right now. Folks are terrified -- legitimately -- of Trump and want to know that a silver bullet will slay the monster and everything will be all right. Grappling with the fact that there is no silver bullet is creating a lot of panic.
Love your Joe DiMaggio analogy.
The only problem with your last sentence is that it just takes a minute, literally, to have a stroke. A Feb. physical isn't going to cut it after what we saw on stage. At THIS point I'm willing to consider the whole thing was sorcery or voodoo but we SAW what we saw and it was near-fatal. The WH has done NOTHING to tamp down the fear.
The same is just as true for Trump. He is a heart attack waiting to happen. He is stressed, overweight, eats terribly, and stays up all night ranting. No physical for one without the other. We can all drop dead this afternoon -- especially in the red states where there is no healthcare.
Well, ok, but Trump is the Undead so i don't think it works on him.
Oh, I needed a laugh!
Good one!
Haha, at times I feel the only thing that can save us is Trump finally meeting his maker sometime within the next four months.
Yep, we all know that Trump and his team will cover up and deny any and all evidence of decline. Asymmetric warfare again.
Yes, I don't believe the WH is being honest about Biden's health, this is more than just normal aging/lack of sleep/exhaustion/having a cold, etc.
Either he's been this way for several years, meaning there has been a cover-up, or it has come on suddenly, meaning he could get much worse over the coming few months. Neither option gives me confidence that he is up to four more years.
That's exactly my concern too. Not because I think a dead Biden and prez Kamala will harm America but because I think the fear of it will keep their votes at landslide defeat levels -- 35-45 Million maybe. I don't think that is the rational choice this year but the American electorate has shown little rationality the past quarter century.
Exactly! The Biden administration has shown they are perfectly capable of running the country, but the lack of enthusiasm or confidence in him is really going to hurt him in November at this rate.
If the American electorate was rational Trump wouldn't be the GOP candidate this year, and certainly wouldn't have a fighting chance of winning, argh!
The NYT’s piece this morning is about how rattled our NATO allies are.
NATO has been rattled for months. The NYT's piece is not exactly breaking news.
I agree. with this. Both Biden needs to show his strengths and capabilities, continuously and with no major errors, AND Trump needs to be tied very clearly to Project 2025. There is a lot of evidence from Trump's past, first term and recent crap that can be used to tie him to Project 2025, despite his mutterings that he knows nothing about it.
As Trump is now saying regarding project 25; "I know nothing. I see nothing". *Sergeant Schultz
I enjoyed Hogan's Heroes a lot. I do not in any way enjoy the Trump show.
Speaking of the Trump show, I could never understand the appeal of The Apprentice! That show started the fraud that is Trumpster. Before then he was a clown.Now he is a clown with a flamethrower. (as Charlie so often pointed out)
I never watched that show. I have always found Trump to be repulsive. Also, I am not a fan of reality shows, so a double hell no for me. I can understand the appeal, though. A person can vicariously through other people's problems and attacks, and thus feel better about their sad lives.
I never watched it either.I'll go a little further, I Hate reality shows! That is why the networks have gotten so bad. I know they are cheap to produce. Thats why all the good stuff made now a days are on HBO,Amazon Prime etc.
"I know nothing but I know what I like."
And he will switch his allegiance in a New York minute and do as he’s told once elected. Trump is a useful marionette.
As I have always said, Trumpster is merely following his base, not leading it.
A salesman to the bone. Tell the people what they want to hear.
And know your audience, like a comedian does.
Somehow he doesn’t agree with a lot of it in spite of knowing nothing about it.
It is amazing how much he knows about stuff he's never heard of. Much like all the amazing people he put in his administration that he's never met.
In happy news, "Project 2025" is a more popular Google search right now than "Taylor Swift" -- according to a stat The Man saw last night.
That's great, but who has to google Taylor Swift at this point? ;)
Also Trump still can be a crafty sob when he wants to. When he's talking to donors he tries to behave himself, saving his peak crazy for the rallies.
Sarah made a point a week or two ago that the media not covering Trump's rallies is actually helping Trump because the crazy isn't getting through to the bulk of the electorate anymore like it was in 2016. Along the same lines she said kicking him off Twitter has helped him as well. Almost every day he says something ridiculous on Truth Social, even crazier than the things he said on Twitter, but no one hears it now. The media needs to cover Trump and amplify the horrifying things he is saying and the things his team is planning for his next administration if he wins.
Maybe this'll be how the story ends up.
If Biden never has a bad night again.
And if there aren't any medical revelations about his cognitive state.
Respectfully, your comment is delusional.
We prefer to respect one another here. Your comment is unhelpful. We all understand your fears; we share them.
“We”? Who made you the class monitor? The comment is delusional, not necessarily the person.
Still a n insult..which we frown on here, you can disagree without insulting people
Well gee, “we” police and thanks for your insulting “we” as if “I” am not a part of “your” discussion. And “I” will state for a third time, this statement is delusional.
We as in the community, which if you post regularly you are...the we was all of us we...not a specific one
In order to make a delusional comment, you have to be delusional or lacking in some sense etc, so . yes, it is insulting
Also, it is the only rule The Bulwark has for posting, and JVL especially is big on it...and for the posters to point it out to each other and report if it is really bad
Though it is my preference not to be mean for any reason...I am just following their rules ..as I respect them ( rules and people)
My dad died in 2009. He had grown up in small town Oklahoma attending segregated schools until HS when he was sent to the integrated HS.
He couldn't believe that a black man was elected president in his lifetime after drinking in 'black only' water fountains and swimming at 'black only' pools as a kid.
I remember him telling me 'I'm scared. They are either going to kill him or burn the whole country down.' He didn't live to see Obama's presidency or his reelection. He also didn't' live to see the 'burning down' part we are experiencing now.
That's why I don't think Harris is an option. The country is issuing retribution and payback in spades for electing a black man president is going to suddenly elect a black woman?
So then you are looking at an entirely new candidate to try to vet and campaign for the biggest office in the country in 120 days? It's fantasy. It's crazy talk.
I know people are feeling like it's a 'layup' to beat a crazy Trump with the power of Dobbs, the fear of Project 2025 and so many anti-Trump voters, but it's not.
It shouldn't be that way. The stakes are so high that people should be willing to vote against Trump regardless of their reservations about Biden's age.
But that's mostly people who have the privilege or ignorance to feel like as high as the stakes are, there is actually a choice to be made in this eleciton.
"The country is issuing retribution and payback in spades..."
"The country" is not, the 30% that are hayseeds are throwing a fit after having captured one of the parties.
They took over the Republican party, but voters still vote.
The election is a toss-up. If only 30% of the people supported Trumpism, this wouldn't be close.
The fact it's close despite all of Trump's glaring faults, radical policy ideas, seeing rights stripped away for 3 years and a literal published blueprint for the dystopia of a second Trump term is 50% of the country willing to burn the country and democracy down.
Trump will pick himself as running mate. “I am the only one qualified to replace me”. ( perhaps a warning here).
Would it be surprising to learn that Trump has had a clone made of himself? He has the lunatic self-regard, the casual disregard of the law, and the money to get it done. Perhaps the clone will be unveiled at the convention as his running mate. Republicans would quickly get on board.
I never thought he would get a running mate anyway. Especially after his lapdog pence did what he was supposed to do.
These guys that are vying for the part - they're all younger, and highly intelligent and aggressively ambitious. They might get in there and 25th Amendment him because of, you know, "Saudi Arabia and Russia rippity doo ahhhh...
*shrugs*
that would be fun
That would be his inclination. America is apparently only great when he’s the head of it, but I think there’s a good chance he’ll pick Tom Cotton, who seems a mean-spirited nebbish. He’d certainly never pull a Pence.
Seems like Kristol used his Trump voice today to show how Kristol is right about everything. Fairly obnoxious.
I hate these forking pieces where Bill Kristol pretends to be the voice of Trump.
Me too, but a lot of people seem to really enjoy them so \_(•*)_/ diff'rent strokes and all, let 'em have their fun, why not?
Okay, I'll ask out loud:
Mikie Sherill and Abigail Spanberger ... who are they?
New Democrats, evidently. Okay, fine. But here's the thing ... I read and watch a lot of news coverage. I try to keep informed. I do my due diligence. Yet I don't recall hearing about them, to the best of my knowledge -- at least not more than in passing. Maybe they're great. Maybe not. I dunno. But if I don't know who they are and what they stand for, for all of my efforts, how many other people outside of their districts have heard of them? And how many unaware voters would put in the requisite time and effort to get to know who they are, what their positions are on important issues, and why they should vote for them?
In any campaign, never mind a short one, name recognition matters. No name recognition = no chance. Whatever happened to that "deep bench" the DNC keeps bragging about, with names most people have heard of already, at least in passing? We recognize all of the GOP shortlist names for VP, and often otherwise. Why do many people struggle to name who the Dems are after Biden and Harris?
So many questions, so little time, so little evident preparation by the DNC for a future beyond the top of the ticket. My three cents' worth, adjusted for inflation.
I hear that there's a Democratic county clerk somewhere in Missouri that might have a really good shot at flipping Missouri. Hey, why not?
If Bill Kristol is endorsing them then they won't be attractive to Dem voters.
Exactly. People were floating Bashear (correct spelling?) as a VP pick for Harris. His name was familiar but I didn't know who he was or his positions on the issues.
Had to look them up. Both are D women. Su-r-r-r-re they'll be on a ticket together. Spanberger is running for Governor of VA instead of running for reelection to the House. Sherill is running for reelection to the House, and making headlines for demanding Biden go away.
I read that whole tweet as wishful, not serious. Bill's national security leaning: Sherill (NJ) is Air Force veteran and centrist and Spanberger(VA) is ex CIA and centrist. Each is considering gubernatorial run in her state. Spanberger isn't running for reelection to focus and Sherill hasn't declared.
This ticket throws nothing to liberals but has general election positive. No name recognition which is why I think it's part of the joke of the tweet.
Maybe so. Perhaps I make the mistake of taking a very serious issue very seriously. I'm glad Mr. Kristol is able to find some humor value in it. I lost that ability some time back.
At any rate I stand by my main point that most people do not know who the main Democrats are behind Biden and Harris. In our bubble here we are better informed. But the typical voter I see, not exactly eager to research candidates and issues as opposed to, say, playing with their devices and texting in their spare time, doesn't have much of an idea of who sits on that supposed deep bench. That's not a good circumstance, and even more so if The Powers That Be decide that Joe must go.
Abigail Spanberger is legit awesome, and will likely be the next governor of Virginia.
But to give you a taste of how the "average voter" makes these decisions, when she was running for Congress here in Richmond I heard some bimbo talking at the bar about how she wasn't sure if she could vote for someone whose name sounded like "Spam Burger." 🙄
I recognize the problem. Many folks put far more time into decisions about trivial things in their lives rather than taking a little time to dig around to find out if what they hear about presidential candidates on social media or elsewhere is true, false, a bit of both. It baffles me that a good percentage of people don't vote at all. Or they waste a vote on someone who can not win, or write in Abe Lincoln. Choosing a president isn't a joke, but it may as well be if you don't vote. Off topic a bit, but social media caught on so quickly and got out of hand well before the repercussions were carefully considered by Congress. The connecting with family and friends seemed to override the inherent dangers of those platforms. I read the accounts of the Sextortion scams resulting in suicides of teen boys. I don't have children, but I am stunned that all parents aren't loudly raising holy hell and demanding action by lawmakers. I suppose it's similar to the disinterest in regulating guns. If it doesn't happen to your family or someone you care for, it isn't a problem. I rarely see news about Frances Haugen, FB Whistleblower, in press coverage. The apathy is disappointing.
The few younger Dems most people know something about are now in the House and Senate. I can't see them leaving their seats anytime soon, plus we need them where they are now. We need voters to pull their heads out of their asses and vote Dem so we can have a chance to vote for those capable younger candidates in 2028.
With all due respect, both Rep. Mikie Sherill & Rep. Abigail Spanberger have been guests on Nicole Wallace's Deadline Whitehouse numerous times. But I don't see them being stronger candidates than any of the Democratic Governors so popular that they are now serving their second terms in office: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (Mich), Gov. Tony Evers (Wisc), Gov. Jared Polis (CO)Gov, Jay Inslee (WA), Gov. Gavin Newsom (CA), Gov. JB Pritzker (ILL).
I live in VA. Abigail Spanberger is currently in Congress and is running for Governor. I agree with you. Neither she nor Mikie Sherill have national name recognition. There are problems with the short-sighted DNC. We have a lot of things to fix in America. If we can stop the Maga threat, we'll have given ourselves a chance. I wonder if the citizens at large will realize how very close we were to the edge if a Democrat defeats trump. As a collective we tend to have short memories.
That's the major dilemma for any candidate not named Harris (and perhaps Newsom). No one outside of their states excepting political junkies like the Bulwark staff know who these people are.
Takes a focus group of Democrats that want Joe to stay 24-3 and turns it into, it'll be ok to replace Joe.
I mean, here's the gist of what Sarah has said:
-Swing voters overwhelmingly want a different candidate and have very serious concerns about Biden.
-Black voters, who are Joe Biden's most loyal supporters, prefer Joe Biden, but will vote for anyone against Trump
Given those two facts, why wouldn't you consider putting up someone who can actually win independents, who will determine this election, and make this race more competitive?
Yes, because it looks at their reasons for wanting Joe to stay and how they'd react if he left. That provides a more complex and well-rounded insight than just "yes or no / up or down." And it does in fact put some dents in the notion that replacing Joe would be an offense to all black people everywhere.
The fact that I'm a vegetarian doesn't change the fact that I'd vote for a ham sandwich before I'd vote for Trump, either.
Yeah, she confused me there, her analysis of what this meant wasn't at all what I heard?
BTW: Trump is 78, not 77. Biden has done a lot of excellent work, both with Obama and for the last 3 and a half years. He has plans to do a lot more good for our country. Trump, on the other hand, plans on becoming a human wrecking ball. Joe has been looking well rested and delivering as a leader and a campaigner since the debate. The media created this drama, and has no compunction about editiorializing their bullshit, smug opinions. Hey, being lazy sure beats getting out there and being a real journalist. The President is not leaving office, and undermining him is certainly benefiting Trump. Everyone I know who was pro Joe prior to the debate is still Ridin' with Bidin'. Come up with a new story.
This post could have been super interesting if Bill Kristol had tried seriously to imagine Trump's behavior and motivation.
But he doesn't, he's using this as a satire to cover the same points.
For instance, Trump is such a showman and makes so much noise, it is noteworthy that he is staying silent right now. He is even lowering the amount of noise he makes on his veepstake.
Trump is exhibiting the lesson from Sun-Tsu: "Never interrupt your enemy while he is making a mistake."
Right now, substituting anybody against Biden is a mistake, and that is why Trump is doing everything to stay out of the way.
Whenever he speaks, he's using reverse psychology. That's because the *only* thing Trump has again Biden is his age. That's why Sinclair (see Judd Leggum's amazing reporting) blasted false clips about Biden being old. That's why the NRCC has been circulating made up clips of Biden having dementia.
Biden is a stellar candidate and the best way to beat him is a psyops against Democrats — with the help of the media — to trick Democrats into dropping their best asset.
But — forget Bill, JVL posted a substantive counter-analaysis yesterday that I am still noodling over and digesting. Thinking about JVL's case for Biden staying — and trying to break it down (as JVL asks) is more interesting than playing around with Bill Kristol.
Bill Kristol is really depressed, and I like him and find his command of history very valuable, but right bow history doesn't seem to serve him, and right now he's a broken clock.
Comments on Trump’s rally performance from Scott Dworkin’s Substack this morning: But the most terrifying part was, as always, when the twice-impeached felon was speaking. He jumbled and confused his words, struggling to string sentences together, and on numerous occasions just couldn’t say a word and moved on from it. Trump had trouble saying the words synagogue, feared, NATO, and hospital, and could barely put the words together when trying to attack Biden’s cognitive abilities. This is more proof that the media should examine Trump’s broken brain.
Trump challenged Biden to a game of golf and blabbed about his good friend Hannibal Lecter. He then blamed Kamala Harris for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Seriously.
Trump talked about how much Rep. Byron Donalds loves bacon, and repeatedly rambled about Biden in a bathing suit on the beach.
The felon also bragged about his plan to set up the largest deportation in history and said more than every job goes to migrants. I don’t even know what that means.
I scanned the rally video by WPost and it was one of his better days in terms of slurring. The bacon stuff is about inflation and he also did well talking about Joe as a part time President with Hunter and Jill running the government. I didn't see or hear the Harris Ukraine segment.
Trump has same issues with good and bad days.
These are the clips that need to start airing on TV. Even more important if we are stuck with Joe so the difference in impairment is clear. Joe may reference dead people but he still operates on Earth 1.