Ninety-eight Days to Go

98 days to go. 98 days to go.
Take a frown. Turn it upside down.
97 dizzy days to go…

and a whole lot of hard work to do in the meantime.

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88 thoughts on “Ninety-eight Days to Go”

  1. Attribution: Harris’ Democratic ducks by John Cole, The Scranton Times-Tribune, PA

  2. Jon Stewart tackles Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race, new presumptive nominee Kamala Harris, and the reactions on both sides, from a re-energized Democratic party to flailing Republicans’ flimsy coup claims. Plus, Josh Johnson on the right’s new strategic talking points against Harris, which range from sexist all the way to racist

  3. more of Jon

    “What’s the point of having a conversation if you’re not speaking to people who don’t already agree with you?” Pete Buttigieg talks to Jon Stewart about why he goes on Fox News, the significance of President Joe Biden stepping aside to make room for Kamala Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee, the possibility of being vetted for vice president, and his thoughts on Trump’s own VP pick, JD Vance.

  4. runner-up ‘toon

    Attribution: Manly GOP Men by Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune, UT

  5. Chris Evans
     
    I don’t know who in the Kamala Harris campaign was behind the strategy to call Donald Trump and JD Vance “weird” but I cannot remember the last time something so simple has had the entire right wing this triggered. They are truly punching air.

    covie_93
    The people who go around wearing maxi pads on their ears wants y’all to stop calling them weird!

    People whose favorite musicians are Nugent and Skid Rock are weird.

  6. The gopers are really upset because they can’t find the magic purple band-aid.  

  7. Each side rolled out new ads this morning with huge buys in battleground states.

    Trump.. https://x.com/i/status/1818257338538590597

    Harris.. https://x.com/i/status/1818261413774643364

    Kamala’s positive-negative mix more sophisticated. Trump’s is just a hatchet job, not forward looking.

    Trump tag line I’m seeing on all their messaging: “Failed, Weak and Dangerously Liberal”. The race to define Kamala is on, now we wait a week or so to see if Trump attack moves her favorables — they shouldn’t have waited until they already went up so much but they’ve got the money to make up for it if this ad campaign is effective

  8. Sturg, Tim Walz was the first I heard say “they’re just weird”. And I like what he added when he first said it: “But we’re not afraid of weird. We’re a little creeped out by it, but we’re not afraid of it”

  9. Yeah I was thinking Walz was the guy who said that….at first I thought it was just a toss-off line but now I think he may have pondered that a bit.  

  11. This Trump ad campaign is a test whether the old-school “liberal” tag still hurts. It worked in 1988. When I interviewed Lee Atwater for my book he told me the story of how they developed the “liberal” assault on Dukakis, who was 17 points ahead after his convention and widely seen as a moderate. For a focus group of undecided voters they ticked off a few things like his support for gay adoption and early release for criminals like Willie Horton, and one of them said, “Well then, he’s a liberal.” Atwater said he and the others behind the soundproof glass cheered and immediately locked in the ad campaign. They knocked Dukakis down 15 points overall in three weeks and moved ahead among independents. Can this still work 35 years later???

  12. The autopsy on Dukakis campaign was they were wrong to ignore the attacks, left them unanswered. I am seeing Harris surrogates do that on air when counterparts tick off the liberal charges. It’s difficult to counter without looking defensive and giving the charges more currency, but also dangerous to pretend they’re not there.

  14. Movie of the Week:
    ”Boogie Man”.  The Rose and fall of Atwater.  Wonderful movie about a Columbia SC moo-Jician who got what was coming to him.    

     

  15. Throw it back at them, like what Trump-the-Puppet did to Hillary. 

    “I’m rubber, you’re glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.”

  17. I don’t know what else we need in a running mate.

    Walz knows how to attack (“they’re just weird”) and how to defend.

    Here’s his answer on CNN to the charge that he is too “liberal”:

    “What a monster. Kids are eating and having full bellies, so they can go learn, and women are making their own health-care decisions. And we’re a top five business state, and we also rank in the top three of happiness.
        Look, they’re going to label whatever they’re going to label. He’s going to roll it out, mispronounce names to try and make the case. The fact of the matter is, where you see the policies that Vice President Harris was a part of making, Democratic governors across the country executed those policies, and quality of life is higher, the economies are better, all of those things.
        Educational attainment is better. So, yes, my kids are going to eat here, and you’re going to have a chance to go to college, and you’re going to have an opportunity to live where we’re working on reducing carbon emissions. Oh, and, by the way, you’re going to have personal incomes that are higher, and you’re going to have health insurance.
        So, if that’s where they want to label me, I’m more than happy to take the label.”

  18. What a monster. 

    Magas have kindergarten-level maturity, so stands to reason that kindergarten-level arguments are what reaches them. 

  23. I remember when Fulghum rolled out that book and I thought it was genius.  I was just coming to the end of a 6 year stint at Outward Bound, trying to help folks learn through experience that if you work together, are nice to each other and pitch in to help when someone around you needs help you’ll be happier and more successful in your dealings with others.  Of course then I went to law school…

  24. I didn’t read it because we didn’t have no kindergarten.  First grade was all you got around these parts    lol

    Actuall I didn’t read it because once I’d read I’M OK, YOU’RE OK and a couple of Dale Carnegies I figured that was about enough of that crap.

  26. I’ve got no illusions about pop psych self help books being the way, the truth and the light, but spend 3 weeks on a 30 foot open boat with 10-12 people and Fulghum begins to make sense. And man do I agree about I’m OK, You’re OK. 

  27. Fred Trump Jr. on The View.   Orange Adolf must be extra livid now.   ps – Fred offered to campaign for Harris, if asked.

    Listened in on the Women for Harris call last night.  Wish I could do more than donate a bit, but I’d be afraid to do anything that let the folks around here know I’m for Harris. Consolation: There are probably others like me around here; we just can’t be public about voting for Harris.

    pogo – Those books may be the way a bit of light gets in for those without the support, finances or physical accessibility to professional help.

  28. I like Walz, and he might bring in some Midwesterners, but the details of his wiki resume aren’t impressive.  I’m sticking with Kelly or Pete for the two who could step in if called to do so.   

  29. I’m ok you’re ok is actually a really good self help book by Robert Ringer….right up there with Dale Carnegie, who wrote some excellent advice.  I actually give copies of those to the young ones around me.

  30. Jon Stewart last night: “Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden on the ticket last week, and Republicans are workshopping what exactly it is they hate about her” 

  31. I do like Shapiro and would be happy with him but was a little turned off yesterday by all the shouting in his speech. Somebody tell him we have these things called microphones that amplify without losing your voice. And he was a bit over the top with the cliches and empty political rhetoric.

  33. Alienating women and Black voters is the MAGAt brand.  Misogyny and racism are their bread and butter.

  34. The interview with Fred Junior on The View was interesting, as to why Orange Adolf doesn’t laugh and hates those who do.   Adolf’s old man told him it was a sign of weakness.  Sociopaths. 

  35. Oh no, not Sid!

    Donald Trump agreed with a radio interviewer that second gentleman Doug Emhoff is a “crappy Jew” and “horrible Jew,” and falsely claimed that Kamala Harris “doesn’t like Jewish people.”
    Said Trump: “Number one, she doesn’t like Israel. Number two, she doesn’t like Jewish people. You know it, I know it. Everybody knows it, and nobody wants to say it.”
    He added: “If you’re Jewish, if you vote for a Democrat, you are a fool. An absolute fool.”

  37. Magas are not behind Israel because they care about Jews. They want Jerusalem so Jesus can come back. Hell with the Jews. 

  38. Actually magas don’t know what the hell they’re doing or why. It’s the ‘gelicals running the show. 

  41. As an unabashed Shapiro advocate forever, meaning these last few explosive weeks, I did cringe when Josh began waving the mic, stepping away from the podium, and began yelling. I haven’t heard much from Kelly lately, but oh man, is Walz creating a presence.  Harris is said to say she will announce her choice early next week.  She also said she has not decided yet.  
    All the coverage today is about the retaliatory strike by the IDF, targeting the #2 in command of Hamas. No body, Hamas says he is alive.  All the retired admirals & generals are worried about an all-Region massive war breaking soon.  No word from Biden.

  42. The local ad I was seeing here last night was that Biden made Kamala his “Border Czar” and that she is WEAK on immigration! They used some clip of her “slowly” talking about the border in 2022. The big worry here for the primaries next week is that pretty much every county commission seat has 2 Republicans vying for it, while only 1 Democrat is running for each seat. The ads I received in the mail stated: Democrats are voting in our primary! Also, our incumbent county commissioners held a rally last night. This is a pic from it. My response is, “The hell it is!”

  45. Harris has wiped out Trump’s lead across seven swing states in the latest round of the Bloomberg News / Morning Consult poll. The poll found a big Dem lead in Michigan, a more modest Trump lead in Pennsylvania and close contests everywhere else. 

  46. So, this is it, they”ll be leaning on the females of the Trump gang to do the dirty work. 

    “It reminds me of — there was this bag that a very famous designer designed — this was several years ago,” she said. “And it literally was a trash bag, but they sold this thing for like $2,000, thinking that people would actually buy it. It’s a similar situation with Kamala Harris.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/30/us/politics/lara-trump-kamala-harris-trash-bag.html

  47. what relatable analogies the party of spite has

    “While you think about how best to manage your family’s budget, Lara Trump is thinking about handbags”

    They’re writing their own ads against themselves, what a gift

  49. Poobah, I don’t get PA.  do you know whether the samples adequately capture the percentage of Pittsburgh, Philly and Harrisburg suburban votes from the 2020 election?

  50. The DNC is holding several online events.
    I’ve signed up for “How to Control the Democratic Narrative” 8/29

    Bink – I think you should be teaching this one. 

    Thanks for the correction, Craig.  Fred isn’t a junior, he’s a III.  
     

  51. Oh, and kudos to USWGT – Gold, baby, GOLD. WaPo.

    PARIS — The U.S. women’s gymnastics team has returned to the top of the medal stand at the Olympics. Three years after Simone Biles’s withdrawal derailed the team’s gold-medal hopes, the Americans cruised to the gold here, with Biles as their steady leader.
     

    The U.S. women finished with a 171.296, nearly six points ahead of silver medalist Italy. Brazil took the bronze, and no team was capable of challenging the United States.
    ***

    Biles officially sealed the gold with the final routine of the evening. She was welcomed onto the floor with a roar and then worked through her difficult tumbling passes. She stepped out of bounds twice, but it was more than enough. Biles and her U.S. teammates had been so strong all evening that the gold was nearly certain before Biles’s music began.
     

    Among the Americans, Jordan Chiles had the only major error — a fall when she mounted the beam with a difficult front pike salto — but otherwise the United States towered above the field with its poise and complex routines.

    Cool, no?

  53. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/01/politics/josh-shapiro-pennsylvania-governor-democrats/index.html
    From January, 2023, long before there was any VP talk. 
     
    ”Josh Shapiro had a massive spending advantage and a weak Republican opponent…”
     
    “Former President Barack Obama told Shapiro directly that he’s among the 2022 generation of Democrats who need to have a voice in the future of the party, according to people familiar with the conversation.”
     
    ”Famed consultant James Carville called Shapiro’s campaign the best of 2022. He’s already being chattered about by many Democrats as perhaps the future first Jewish president.”
    “He had a running start heading into his gubernatorial campaign: Since his election as attorney general in 2016, Shapiro and his team had made publicizing the work he was doing a central part of the strategy, from pressuring a huge state insurance company by having news conferences with women who’d been through breast cancer treatment, to mounting campaigns to have supporters write open letter op-eds to CEOs they were after, to setting up a hotline for church abuse victims to call in with their stories.”
     
    “Shapiro’s Republican opponent, Doug Mastriano, raised only $7 million, had an account full of QAnon-friendly tweets, was seen in a picture dressed up in a Confederate uniform, held events where men claiming to be security blocked reporters from entering and paid consulting fees to the antisemitic website Gab.”
     
    “The result for Shapiro: He set a record of winning the most votes ever for a Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate. As his campaign has proudly pointed out, his win was so big that he could have gotten there even without a single vote from Philadelphia and its suburbs: In Erie County, which Biden won by 1 point in 2020, Shapiro won by 21 points; and in Washington County, which Biden lost by 22 points, Shapiro only lost by 2.”
     
     
     

    Hmmm, while he was able to show the folks in PA what he did as AG to become Governor, he just doesn’t have the name recognition nor military background that I think we need.

    Kelly has been quiet.
    Pete has been everywhere.

    Does that mean something?

  54. ty ❤️ 
     
    the GOP can’t afford to be be quiet but only make things worse when they open their mouths, just enjoy the process in the meantime is my suggestion
     
    i think women got this, though.  i also think the country was ready for a female president in 2016, but HRC wasn’t charismatic (but still won the popular vote) and Kamala is
     
    i also don’t think Kamala put herself in this position to **** it up now, so following her lead is probably a good idea

  57. here’s some game-winning messaging for free
     
    ”One day you’ll tell your grandkids you votes for the first female president”
     
    that’s how you get da yout to the polls

  59. Harris on immigration:

    “When I am president I will actually work to solve the problem”

    That’s a contrast with Trump on every issue 

  64. She did answer the immigration question: She was AG of a border state, walked the tunnels, prosecuted smugglers, and when she’s POTUS she’ll sign the bipartisan border bill into law, the bill tRUMPsky told MAGAt Mike Johnson and the Republicans not bring up for a vote so Orange Adolf could run on it. 
    ENERGY! 

  65. https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/30/politics/biden-democratic-national-convention-opening-night/index.html

    “Monday night is Joe’s night,” said a source familiar with the planning. “And then he’ll turn the keys over” to allow the event to focus on Vice President Kamala Harris.
     
    “Biden is expected to deliver a primetime speech during the opening night of the Chicago convention, according to three sources familiar with the planning, with the evening’s programming centering on Biden’s legacy and achievements. That programming will include highly produced televised content aimed at telling the story of how the country moved beyond the pandemic-era of four years ago, before literally and figuratively passing the baton to his onetime running mate.”

  66. Something interesting is reading the media headlines or column headlines and comparing to social media. It has the usual five columns or headlines about sfb and one about Harris. Same as when Joe was running. Back then, a fortnight or so ago, the social media was hand wringing and spreading garbage from elite media about how bad things were with Joe.
     
    Today, the social media was the far right white nationalists complain about how how a woman was kicking them in the gonads.  It was covering how Kamalot is developing and the next generations after the Boomers were getting into voting for the first woman president.  The media headlines were still five to one about sfb.  But with a lot of questioning how they are being left behind.

  67. Mike Murphy
    @murphymike
    If Trump is watching this he’s getting a big taste of what a full-press Democratic campaign without a 81-year old, wobbly performer as candidate feels like. Assuming a strong convention, she will have a solid lead in polling by end of month and he will literally go into orbit…

  72. In the Kamala ad I saw, she says, “We….have…a…strong border.”  It’s a different ad, but it carries the same message. So, if I vote in the primary, I can vote for certain Republicans in an effort to eliminate the “Ottawa Impact” Republicans from the get-go? That’s what I gathered from the postcard I received from the Democratic candidate in my district.

  74. More vintage Walz tonight:

    “JD Vance’s schtick is talking about guns. I guarantee you he can’t shoot pheasants like I can, but you know what, I guarantee I don’t want weapons of war in classrooms and there’s no reason you can’t have reasonable restrictions.” (CNN)More vintage Walz tonight: “JD Vance’s schtick is talking about guns. I guarantee you he can’t shoot pheasants like I can, but you know what, I guarantee I don’t want weapons of war in classrooms and there’s no reason you can’t have reasonable restrictions.” (CNN)

  75. Thanks for the ad tracking, Corey. You’re in the field of fire out there, keep us posted! I’m curious if any ads running with Olympic coverage — expensive buy but probably a good place to reach swing voters.

  77. Now this is weird — RNC Chair Lara Trump filming herself drinking wine while her kid cries..

  79. Mark Kelly just put up a Navy/NASA video and it was just his name at the end. Not for AZ, nothing about the Senate, just his name.
     
    If Kelly is the nominee, that’s gonna tick off all of the flat Earthers. LoL

  81. Day drinking with the kiddies.  She’s trying to relate to suburban moms?  Somebody call CPS. 

  83. I stream Pluto TV a lot. That is where I am seeing a lot of ads. Another ad I’m seeing is for Mike Rogers who is running for the US Senate here in Michigan. He has been endorsed by Trump. Republicans here really bashed Trump for that, mentioning “The Patriot Act”. But, Stephen A Schwarzman CEO of the Blackstone group has donated $2 million dollars to the “GLCF” PAC in support of Rogers. Another brief ad I saw last night was for RFK, Jr.  It posted a video showing him saying that he supports a women’s right to choose and that he is a Progressive Liberal. That is “THE REAL” RFK, Jr. That’s basically all it said.

  84. Did Orange Adolf say Harris didn’t like Jewish people because he was afraid she’d pick an astronaut and was pushing her to Shapiro? 

  85. lol nice pic, Mr. C, i see what you did there 👀 

    (oh wait, maybe that’s not Kelly’s head)

    Ok, i’m going to be a team-player regardless of who the pick is because the stakes are too high

    We can all be done with the lunacy if we play our cards right 🙏

  87. All along this 10 day pathway, I kept thinking about Dukakis in 1988. Seventeen points up in late July as Craig posted, I remember.  I was sure he was a winner. I never bought the military helmet event was what doomed him, but didn’t know the Atwater angle. Now I know.  Some said Kitty D’s problems hurt Dukakis.  Whatever, Bush41 won easily. I also remember listening to very-red WLW-AM Cincinnati radio on election eve and it seemed Romney was a sh00-in to beat Obama.  Today, all these polls are in the margin of error, but Trump is surging in Pennsylvania.  As always, the housewives of the western Philadelphia suburbs that Chris Matthews always mentions will decide the PA delegate win.

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