First debate between VP Harris and Trump...The only one? Tues 10 Sept 2024, 9pm EDT

Late night shows (Kimmel, Colbert, Meyer, Daily Show) have been brilliant the last couple nights.

 

Dude was a total pro -- Miller melted down when the reporter refused to accept his BS spin. Classic.

 

I'm not sure 4 minutes was long enough for him to change his diaper.

 

The “weird”stuff really hurt him (and republicans in general) because it mocked him….something he cannot stand. A line like what you proposed(or harsher) would have broken him.

 

Really good job….though to be fair to other journalists ….its much easier to control the interview when you control the mic.

 

He will be in the parking lot to pick them at 10, you mean.

 

I’ve been reconsidering my previous comment where I doubted whether the debate would change much, primarily because Trump’s supposed implosion - to me - wasn’t any different from, and in many cases was toned down from, what he’s been doing for years at his public appearances. I still think that’s largely true. But I think, too, that the issue might be broader than I previously argued, based mostly on which groups constitute the pool of so-called persuadable voters. The focus in here, and in much of the coverage I’ve seen, has equated “undecided,” or independent voters with persuadables. And, fine, those people exist, even though many just seem like nut jobs when they’re given time in the spot light.

But the persuadable category has to be more multi-dimensional than that. Like old school GOPers who just can’t take it anymore (for whom things like Dick Cheney’s endorsement might mean something). Or casual voters who don’t follow politics closely, might have seen the debate, and for whom seeing Trump do his thing was a new experience that got their attention. Or young, newly eligible voters who don’t tend to turn out in high percentages, who never would have watched two 80 year old white dudes yelling at each other for 90 minutes, but see Harris all over TikTok and decided to tune in (Swift’s endorsement doesn’t hurt here, either). Or those young, male voters who maybe weren’t eligible to vote in ‘20, like Rogan’s podcast, are Trump-curious, but hadn’t paid close attention to him until Tuesday night. Or some voters in the military, who were already annoyed at Trump’s Arlington NC stunt, have heard him repeatedly disparage people in uniform, and maybe only this week heard Harris’ full-throated statements of support for the military, saw the two potential commanders-in-chief side-by-side, and concluded that Harris seems up for the job while Trump doesn’t.

It’s a long list, could be longer, and is perhaps a bit wishful. Still, I don’t see Harris-Walz losing anyone the way they’re going. For Trump, it’s possible, even if we all know the losses will never be large. But a dozen categorical pin pricks in his support, each leaking a trickle of voters can make a difference in an election this close.

My wife’s parents passed away in 2016 and early ‘17. They lived in Atlanta, where my wife’s sister and her family also live. Her father was a former naval aviator. Both were rock-solid, old school Republicans. She and I have spoken, numerous times over the years since about what they - especially her father - would have made of Trump. Also, how they’d react to a grandson of theirs in Atlanta who’s decided to begin transitioning to a granddaughter, but that’s a different story. Anyway, maybe it’s wishful thinking, but it’s hard to believe they’d have stayed on the Trump train. I’m not sure they’d vote for a Democrat, but you never know. And we’ll never know.

 

Or children's testicle smashing enthusiast Alberto Gonzalez, who endorsed Kamala yesterday.

 

A republic, if you can keep it.

 

Haitians fearing backlash for that dog/cat eating malarkey. JV Vance like "oh well. Whatevs"

My story for @nbcnightlynews from Springfield, Ohio where Haitian immigrants told me they are hurt and scared because of the baseless claims being spread about them by former President Trump and Senator JD Vance. pic.twitter.com/0gkEOHg4mD

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) September 12, 2024

 

NEW: A General Services Administration spox tells NPR that as of 11 a.m. ET today there have been 306,422 visitors to https://t.co/WXfQ7iuhYq referred from Taylor Swifts’s URL she shared on Instagram last night

— Elena Moore (@ElenaMMoore) September 11, 2024

Most of these will be first time voters and lean liberal/progressive, probably quite strongly. They certainly won't be "pro-life".

All Trump and especially Vance had to do was keep their stupid mouths shut. incElon Musk offering to impregnate her was just the cherry/turd on top.

That 300K will probably treble by this time next week. Since it's nationwide, it's not enough in itself but an extra 10-15k Harris votes in Michigan, Penn and Wisconsin could make a big difference

 

seeing clips of the the Tw@t's debate performance will (surely to God!) scare the crap out of young votres. but I think the H-W campaign would be well advised to run ads showing his "greatest hits" that they may not be familiar with - to reinforce just how bad he has always been, and make it clear that Tuesday wasn't just a poor night for him.

it wouldn't hurt to remind people of all ages, actually.

there's so much to choose from - mocking a disabled man, "inject with bleach", "good people on both sides". "losers in the military" etc etc.

he's on the ground - start kicking!

 

It's hobson's choice: correct him on every lie and the whole debate would break down, plus the cultists' BS whining about bias acquires some superficial plausibility.

A handful of corrections on not just blatant, but actually bizarre lies reminds people that he's the liar they've been told he is. The non-hardcore cultists will absorb that and be demotivated, not enough to vote Dem in large numbers, but enough to not vote at all or do a write-in.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the GOP side with a noticeable level of undervoting (people voting for a party's down-ballot candidates but not candidate at the top of the ticket) come November.

 

Yeah, I haven't been following her, but I recall how she used to be. I was wondering if it was a different person with the same name. Like me being mistaken for a 6'5" Black point guard who played for Duke in the '90s.

 

He was anti-Trump a decade before Trump set foot on that damn escalator. Even before Bush left office, it was clear that he was troubled by that administration's policy failures - as he put it in one interview "Who? Us? isn't going to cut it" - and the birther bullshit was a breaking point.

As an admirer of his style and a good deal of his politics, I suspect he'd find a lot to admire in Pep's response to the Super League fiasco: "it's not sport [politics] if you can't lose."

 

Speaking of David Frum

"Haitians are eating cats in Ohio."
"No."
"Possibly it's geese and ducks."
"You liked Duck Dynasty. They killed and ate ducks."
"Outside city limits."
"You voted to legalize open carry of guns inside Ohio cities."
"That's for scaring people, not for shooting birds."

— David Frum (@davidfrum) September 12, 2024

 

Yamiche is a national treasure.

 

Back when Miller was emerging into the limelight, I read a profile which did something of a deep dive into his background and spoke to people who'd known him back in high school, where he'd always been outspokenly right wing. One friend who'd joined him some of his "edginess" towards liberals and progressives in the school corridors said "what you have to understand about Stephen is that, Jewish or not, he's SS. This is what he is."

For that guy and his friends, it had been about shocking the pearl-clutchers: a bit of fun to make a point, a tool to pick up from time to time and then put away. It was the only tool Miller could use, or wanted to.

By the time graduation came around, Miller was doing his "provocations" alone. His friends grew up. He hasn't