My notes on Kamala Harris CNN interview last night:
A+ for staying focused on bread and butter issues voters want to hear about, not on political insider stuff.
Refreshing to hear a stable, mature and intelligent person talk about what matters instead of the infantile incoherent ravings of the other guy.
Live ratings are meaningless. It’s the clips across the next news cycle that matter, and I expect they will be mostly positive, nothing that blows up in her face, as Trump’s always do.
I liked that she wasn’t talking to political junkies. She stayed focused on voters, their housing costs, child care, groceries, etc. (the boring stuff to DC insiders) — shows she is thinking about them, not herself. That’s the contrast with Mr. ME-ME-ME that wins this race.
Swing voters will REALLY like appointing a Republican to her Cabinet. Campaign obviously planned to make this a newsy item that comes out of this interview. That’s how you can drive coverage when your candidate isn’t a pinball machine.
Harris: “It’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican.”
That is a smart political move for reminding swing voters how Trump viciously demonizes the other side, rejects bipartisanship.
I also liked her answer on day one priority. Presidents shouldn’t do anything on day 1! They aren’t kings! Happy that Kamala isn’t fabricating some BS executive orders that will immediately go to the courts. Shows me she’s a serious responsible person. But I would have suggested saying, “Well I can tell you that on day one I won’t be trying to be a dictator”
And this was well played …
Q: I want to ask you about what Trump said last month. He suggested that you ‘happened to turn Black,’ questioning a core part of your identity
Vice President Harris: Same old tired playbook. Next question please
Q: That’s it?
Vice President Harris: That’s it
craig, any notes on what Walz said during the interview or was his just a potted plant role?
today’s ‘toon for the coach:
Attribution: Media coverage of Walz by Dave Whamond, Canada, PoliticalCartoons.com
lincoln project twiXted:
@realDonaldTrump: your campaign is failing, crowd sizes shrinking, and your ratings are plummeting. You’re being sabotaged from the inside.
https://x.com/i/status/1829353355627638797
what the WSJ as of yesterday is saying about the race
A new Wall Street Journal poll shows Vice President Kamala Harris is one point ahead of former President Donald Trump. While Trump still leads on key issues like the economy and immigration, Harris had 48% support to his 47% in a head-to-head test, claiming an advantage within the survey’s margin of error. WSJ breaks down the major takeaways from the poll. Chapters: 0:00 WSJ poll 0:40 Harris’s visibility 1:42 Key issues 2:24 Favorability 3:15 What’s next?
“That’s it?”
”That’s it.”
Well played.
Just a reminder of what Kamala said when Dumbass made his stupid remarks at NABJ when she poke at the Sigma Gamma Rho’s 60th International Biennial Boulé in Houston the day of his blathering.
Almost sounds like she was consistent in her response to his idiotic comments. She’s the only one of the 2 candidates capable of that.
PatD, I think he was only there to push back attacks on him while she was there to hold the limelight. In other words she was his crutch, not the other way around as the right wing mob was saying.
i’m kind of tired of the pandering to Pennsylvania and their dumb boutique issues like “fracking”
You’re probably not sitting on a lottery ticket, random Pennsylvanian. Vote on more important issues
And lest his chickenshitness gets lost in the shuffle, CNN
Why the DA’s office didn’t object…?
Where do you stand on destabilizing the geology of entire communities to profit the few and would you appoint a vampire?
Pressing issues! Tough questions!
Bink, I agree the fracking issue is overplayed, even for Pennsylvanians. They are not ‘all or nothing’ on this issue, as Trump world makes it sound. They’ve elected two Democratic U.S. senators and a governor with balanced positions to regulate natural gas development while not banning it.
I’ve been keeping a list of the right wing mob’s juvenile attacks on Harris. I didn’t hear anything in the interview that fuel any of their claims, despite so many of the questions (all but 4 by my count) essentially dignifying their attacks in the form of a responsible-sounding question.
Harris Attack Themes
• She’s a D.E.I. hire
• She only recently became Black
• She’s Comrade Kamala: a radical communist
• She laughs like a lunatic
• She’s “kama-kameleon,” whose positions change depending on her surroundings
• Nickname: Kamabla (I believe this is supposed to be pronounced “Kama-blah” — as in, she’s “blah”)
• Nickname: KamalaCrash (she causes markets to crash)
• Her crowds are A.I.-generated
• She’s phony and Canadian
• She’s dumb
I wish Dana would have used the actual language of these attacks instead of repeating them with sanitized words.
That’s it? Yep.
That is the way to control the interview, and the headlines, and the news cycle. Don’t feed the monsters.
Harris/Walz 2024
tRUMP/Project 2025 Never!
Adolf has 11 days until he has to debate or get on a plane and fly away or, I don’t know, are bone spurs an excuse to avoid a debate?
speaking of magaTs and DEI
Attribution: D.E.I. Hire by Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune, UT
Going into Labor Day it’s a horse race in the battlegrounds. Only Wisconsin and Nevada outside the margin of error.
Nice of the Trump campaign to offer a preview of his attack lines for the debate (if he can remember them).
“Kamala said her values ‘have not changed’ three separate times. She’s still a San Francisco radical,” the campaign claimed in a statement, before listing all the issues that Harris “avoided”:
“Kamala’s support for ending cash bail for violent criminals.
“Kamala’s fundraising for the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which freed rioters.
“Kamala’s tiebreaking vote for American Rescue Plan, which economists say fueled inflation.
“Kamala’s support for defunding the police.
“Kamala’s comments comparing policing to slavery.
“Kamala’s repeated praise of Bidenomics.
“Kamala’s support for Medicare-for-All, a socialist takeover of our healthcare system.
“Kamala’s support for closing immigration detention centers and freeing thousands of criminals into American neighborhoods.
“Kamala saying we need to start ‘from scratch’ with ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and comparing ICE officers to the KKK.
“Kamala’s support for reparations.
“Kamala’s support or decriminalizing prostitution.”
Ummmm, shouldn’t those be things avoided be things Dana avoided?
Nailing down the 8-year-old boys vote…
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Posted Aug 29, 2024, 11:49 PM
Dana was not the best choice for interviewer, she is not a graceful questioner, this is not an interrogation. Time for that later, if necessary.
Worst of all was the falsely-premised question about a “better economy” under Donald. People were dying by the thousands, households were losing their breadwinners.
“And every other policy is subtlety and nuance. To the credit of the Harris campaign, they did pick the easiest one. Dana Bash occasionally lives up to the term journalist, probably above the average at CNN.
She would be a D plus, but usually not. She is also lifeless enough that you wonder if they have to slip a mirror under her nose periodically to make sure she’s still, you know. Of course, after this, so as of sometime late Thursday night, what will follow next is demands by every other reporter to interview Harris immediately, and the replacement complaint to replace the one in which they say, she hasn’t done any sit-down interviews, which is, it has now been filled in the blank days, since Kamala Harris gave a one-on-one interview.
And don’t forget, there are no press conferences yet. And then, there will not have been any press conferences while she was standing on her head in a bucket of piranha fish. To quote the Python joke.
There is one legitimate criticism here, which is as follows. CNN? They’re doing this on CNN?”
From Countdown with Keith Olbermann: TRUMP ACCUSES HIMSELF OF RIGGING THE 2020 ELECTION – 8.28.24, Aug 28, 2024
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/countdown-with-keith-olbermann/id1633301179?i=1000666858080
This material may be protected by copyright.
probably the most honest thing both sides can say —
Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Dan Meuser, a longtime Trump supporter, on Harris’ interview: “Certainly, last night it appears she avoided a train wreck.”
She absolutely got through this unscathed but I question the risk of waiting so long to do an interview, letting the hype and expectation build to a point where any slip-up could have been magnified beyond reasonable proportion. It has been the only campaign decision I’ve disagreed with so far (would have preferred getting it over with before the convention). Now that the pressure is relieved a bit, why not just do them regularly so that each one isn’t a cliffhanger and there’s plenty of time for any necessary clean up in the next one.
Feel sorry for Vance, he inherited the Pence role of chuckling his way through what Trump actually says all day and pivoting to the issue they want him to talk about.
BERMAN: Would you describe Trump’s posts over the past 48 hours as lifting people up? Reposting QAnon statements & misogynistic memes about Hillary Clinton?
JD VANCE: I’d much rather have a candidate who is willing to tell some jokes
BERMAN: Alright.
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1829509601282113969?t=FoeFYe_PNx9CYAPwJHy68A&s=19
More Betman
BERMAN: Last night you posted a clip from Ms Teen US 2007 — Caitlin Upton. When you posted that, were you aware she thought about committing suicide for the attention that received?
JD VANCE: No, certainly not.
B: Would you like to apologize?
V: I’m not going to apologize
My post on the occasion of Brian Lamb’s retirement:
https://x.com/cspan/status/1829525129597964519?t=7WuJ2FliBcuZUOKkYpCQwQ&s=19
New Yorker cartoon
The New Yorker has some of the most well curated cartoons out there.
future first family…. it looks like America to me…
OK, so when confronted with the meme he posted last night -LAST NIGHT , mind you – of Caitlyn Upton from the 2007 Miss Teen USA pageant blowing her response to a softball question about being unable to find the US on a map, JDouche explained it this way:
Let’s run with that. If he really thought that the real crises that we should focus on are “that American families can’t afford groceries or health care or young families can’t afford to buy a home to raise their families in”, why did he post a meme last from 20 years ago of Caitlyn Upton blowing a response to a question about being unable to find the US on a map … and refuse to apologize to her instead of something, anything, about American families and groceries or health care or housing?
Waiting…
The more I think about it I recognize how genius was her handling of the “flip-flop” issue, essentially saying my positions might change but “I have not changed my values”. Distinguishing “positions” and “values” is a clever formula for all politicians (and people too) who need to justify changing their minds, as all do at some time or another.
Lincoln Project asking Garland to investigate if tRUMPsky broke the law (again) with his promise to give a position to RFK Jr. for dropping out and endorsing the orange fascist.
Probably because I’ve read articles about Venezuela and Nicaragua, I’m getting Spanish-language ads for immigration lawyers, the latest specializing in Venezuelans. Weird.
https://newrepublic.com/post/185473/robert-f-kennedy-rfk-jr-plan-trump-swing-state-ballot-north-carolina
“The quixotic ex-candidate is already part of Trump’s presidential transition team, helping to craft policy and select staff members should the Republican presidential nominee win in November. The move has drawn the ire of at least one major GOP donor in Eric Levine, who described Kennedy as “an anti-vax kook who sees conspiracies behind every tree and under every bed.”
CC: “Swing voters will REALLY like appointing a Republican to her Cabinet.”
In politics this is known as the thin edge of the sword. Keep PartyTRUMP the hell out of The White House. Maybe Lankford, nobody the hell else.
CNN interview got nearly 6 million total viewers…1.06 million in 25-54 y.o. key network demo.
That’s about 10 times their ratings in that slot on an average night, and three times what ratings winner Fox gets.
https://lincolnproject.us/
https://x.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1829560864946475019
“Attorney General Garland:
“The Lincoln Project formally requests that your office open an investigation into Donald Trump (“Trump”) to determine if he violated 18 U.S.C. § 599 (“Section 559”)…”
“These are criminal violations subject to fines and imprisonment.”
OK, Office Pool
How long before RFKJr begins to drive them all so bat shit crazy that he gets unceremoniously booted out the swingin’ doors. You just know he’s gonna be all up in everybody’s shit, squirrelly little creep.
“They wouldn’t speak to me, they wouldn’t even meet with me and then they kicked me out the front door. “
I’d say that worm ate up a good sized chunk of brain.
Noel Casler
Listen guys, they call her Dana Bash for a reason. It’s not Dana Insightful, or Dana Informed it’s Dana Bash
Dex, I took her Republican in cabinet maneuver also as a shout out to never trumpers to endorse her now. With his prominent speech at the Democratic National convention I’m guessing Kinzinger has a leg up for VA Secretary.
looks like Gwen’s another happy warrior for the campaign on the trail
Kinzinger is certainly an outlier, so I wouldn’t scream in defiance at his appointment. He doesn’t offend people like, say, Comer or Gaetz. While from 1861 to April 1865 Lincoln had Bates, Seward, and Chase in his Cabinet and that worked for Lincoln, I hope Harris thoroughly vetts any Republican she considers helpful in running the nation.
Trump’s proclamation about IVF had me up off my chair , no way will he insist on what I heard is a $7.8 B cost to start up free IVF treatments to “any American who needs it”. This is another Trump lie. Then he said he is against the Florida ballot issue regarding time…”I believe they need more than 6 weeks.” Somebody got to Trump to say these things as , as Craig says, Trump’s campaign is flailing. But still close.
Will you, in the spirit of bipartisanship, appoint a member of the party that did nothing for the last 4 years but obstruct everything?
…in the spirit of “bipartisanship”??
if you asked a Republican the same question they’d laugh
Will you appoint a member of the party that killed their own border bill out of pettiness?
******* laughable non-journalism
My $2 is also on Kinzinger.
Will you appoint a member of the party that spent two years on an impeachment investigation out of spite that yielded nothing, in the spirit of bipartisanship?
Kintzinger, yes. Liz Cheney, no.
ps – Mitt Romney, UN Ambassador? IDK, throwing him a bone like the dog in the carrier strapped to the roof of his station wagon. Beats a decaying whale head.
Will you appoint a member of the party that is under exclusive control of one treasonous, aspiring autocrat, who actively undermines peace negotiations and hostage release deals while holding no office, in the spirit of bipartisanship?
Will you appoint a member of the party whose state-level officials in gerrymandered legislatures are actively trying to contravene popular referenda, so that the nonpartisan electoral will of the people can be denied, in the spirit of bipartisanship?
Will you appoint a member of the party that refuses to disavow their nominated and official leader who spends most nights hate-tweeting overly racist memes?
In the spirit of bipartisanship! You know, with the party that tried to overthrow the country! 🇺🇸
I am against anyone who is not a Dem in the Cabinet. If Kintzinger has renounced the magat (I think he has) AND changed parties, fine, consider him. Cheney is a never, she is still the very far right republican she has always been. Too many of the repubs have just performed hand wringing, but have not changed parties to Dem. Another Manchin is always a disaster.
Yeah, but what about in the spirit of bipartisanship
Why don’t you want to try and govern with the people that have no interest in governing? So partisan!
ok pardon me, i’m a little pissed-off this race is anywhere close to even, wtf is wrong with people
ok let’s go Kam and the Coach 🏈 🦅 🇺🇸
3rd and 4, top of the 7th, gotta be tough in the paint, Sturge, let’s gooooo, marathon not a sprint
Walz blames his gaff about carrying an M16 “in war” as a product of his not being good at grammar.
From “The Week”, regarding Blumenthal a few years ago: “Blumenthal, who appeared destined to win a U.S. Senate seat in November, was forced to admit last week that he has occasionally embellished his military record, suggesting publicly that he had served “in” Vietnam when in fact he had served stateside in the Marine Reserve during the war. “On a few occasions, I have misspoken about my service,” Blumenthal said, “and for that I take full responsibility.” Blumenthal, 64, now begs our pardon, said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. ”
Walz never said he takes full responsibility for lying, he just says his grammar is lacking. Bullshit. In this regard, Blumenthal handled it better than Walz. Last night he danced around the question from Bash. I know he hopes this will go away; it went away for Blumenthal, who is a damn good Senator now. I won’t mention this little faux pas, this error in “grammar”. I hope it dies on the vine. My belief is that boots-on-the-ground Viet Nam veterans usually have done and/or seen things there they simply cannot talk about, and take to their graves. While I was not in offensive operations as a medic, I was under mortar and rocket attacks regularly and was shot at with small arms fire as well, just not hit. So when someone, by error of grammar or just plain bloviating braggadocio, says they were in war and were lying, in the parlance of my high school days, it “rankles my ass”.
Trump now on stage at PA rally…
Sounds like a dictator to me. Trump just now: “If you touch a monument against the will of authority you get ten years” in prison.
Trump still talking, on Harris: “Every single place she’s touched has turned to shit”
Every accusation is a confession.
Adolf has gotta go, and the only one who has nothing to gain is rich, old Willard as UN Ambassador.
ps – I care more about Project 2025 than I do about this Walz thing, however you want to characterize it, from decades ago.
pps – Eff Cadet Bone Spurs! and his creepy shadow.
ppps – MAGAt Mike Johnson shouldn’t be so close to the OO, either. Vote blue up and down ballot.
Is he talking about Black people? Trump just singled out Rep. Byron Donalds in the crowd at this rally: “He’s one of the smart ones. You have smart ones and then tge ones who aren’t so good”
Dexter – something I am seeing is similar to what happened with WWII vets. After a number of years/decades all who served during WWII were referred to as “WWII Veterans”. Serving in a combat zone or not, all were lumped together. Same with Korea. What is interesting is Korea was still considered a combat zone when I was in even though the actual fighting ended in 195ish. North Koreans did take pot shots at troops serving there.
I do think the distinction between in country and combat is the combat medal. Show me that and I know what you are talking about.
Chump just proved that Arlington Cemetery ain’t so hallowed after all. He seems to be good at unhallowing places.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4856299-donald-trump-florida-abortion-rights-measure/
“Former President Trump said Friday he will vote against an upcoming ballot measure in Florida that would bar future state legislation limiting abortion access and overturn the state’s current abortion ban.”
“Trump in a pair of interviews earlier this week said the six-week ban is “too short,” signaling he may vote in favor of the ballot measure to overturn the Florida law.”
”But his campaign rushed to clarify Thursday that he was still undecided in the face of backlash from anti-abortion activists.”
His campaign clarifying that he lied, he’ll say anything, he doesn’t know….
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/shouldnt-trump-release-latest-tax-returns-right-now-rcna168192
“Shouldn’t the Republican candidate at least face some questions about whether he’ll release his tax returns — even if we know the answer will be no?”
I want to see his tax returns and a close-up of his right ear.
Plumpty says it was the families’ fault, not his, so okay, I blame the families. They are selfish and don’t care about any of the other grieving families who don’t want controversy added to their grief.
That is the reason for the rule for all to abide.
BiD – during the last week I saw a pic of the orange idiot ear taken as he was being tossed around. The thing I saw was a white shard of something stuck in his upper ear. This supports the teleprompter being hit and shrapnel going around.
What has not been released is what hit the Secret Service personnel. They had to have been hit with something. The magat firefighter being killed is like it never happened. Something happened and it is not being reported.
He did the awful, disrespectful thing on purpose. Distraction.
Project 2025! Don’t let it happen to you!
Yes, BB. It’s too quiet. Others were injured. Crickets. Just chirping crickets. The whole thing smells. The weird blood-like substance running down his shirt? That could be from blood thinners, though. And WTF was the deal with his shoes? Way too quiet, and every couple of weeks there’s a bit of nothing news, like yesterday’s photo dump of weapons.
desecrating a grave is already the metaphor for being reprehensible
https://www.texastribune.org/2024/08/29/texas-renewable-investment-lawsuit-esg/
“A progressive business group sued Texas on Thursday over a 2021 law that restricts state investments in companies that, according to the state, “boycott” the fossil fuel industry.”
“The American Sustainable Business Coalition filed suitagainst Attorney General Ken Paxton and Comptroller Glenn Hegar, alleging that the law, Senate Bill 13, constitutes viewpoint discrimination and denies companies due process, in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.”
Trump is Disrespect Incarnate- the living embodiment
…a few more comments like that and i’ll be qualified to be his VP pick
I’m reading that the VFWs and American Legions are mighty pissed. I hope they are and they do rally to the cause of defeating the Donald. Begs the question, if true, what groups are left who are still filing into his rallies. Who are these people?
DAV
VA
**
Blue Bronc, that CIB medal is special, military personnel, active and retired, who have earned that medal always got my total respect. Of course, I knew many of them, and some of their stories of attaining those meaningful badges. I never was in combat as the closest I came to firefights was when I was pressed into Dust-Off Hel Amb duty 7 times. 283rd Dust-Off out of Nha Trang, but there’s no record of me flying with them as I was attached to the 575th Med Det from assignment to the 6th Convalescent Center at Cam Ranh. In Nha Trang was where we were regularly attacked with both mortar lobs and rocket fire. I and my buddy Frank were shot at by a sniper in a tall tree, but missed by his bullets. Pure luck. I always made sure I told my dad’s WWII service story by saying he was a WWII era veteran. In the Navy, a toothache got him scrubbed off the manifest of the USS Franklin , departing Alameda Naval Yard. That ship made it to the Pacific and was immediately kamikazied and 38 US sailors perished. It continued to be attacked, sent back to Philadelphia for repairs, and sent back out to the theater. Finally, in 1966, it was purposefully sunk in the Atlantic, totally worn out. Dad could have said he was out there, but he never embellished the fact he stayed stateside, for the toothache that may have saved his life.
Now I am over it and I support K&W. Hell, if picking the brains of enemies (well, some don’t think all Republicans are enemies like I do) serves her well when she takes command, let it be. If Walz has bad grammar as he says, get him a tutor. Of course he doesn’t need that. Politics tears a person apart and discovers foibles. Nobody is perfect. Yeah, but some are just felonious scumbags through and through. There he goes: Trump the rapist.
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