Tuesday Open Thread

13 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

1. Leonard Leo invests $1 billion in new project to ‘crush’ liberal America 

   First you buy the Supreme Court justices.

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   1. Pay site (Financial Times) with pay wall.

      This isn't new info. Shadowy right wing billionaire Barre Seid gave Leo over $1 billion a couple years ago. And the MAGAs always talk about Soros while ignoring their own billionaires. 

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2. Trump Meltdown Watch. EmptyWheel.

   Trump's crazy-evil is not the worst part; it's that so many people buy his koolaid. There are reports that his rally attendees are leaving early, bored and confused by his rambling. Why doesn't his dementia not make a bigger consequence?

   Here's hoping lots of Trump suporters tune in to the debate. And, here's hoping that Harris can provoke him into a drooling, gibbering moron. That's something Biden couldn't or wouldn't do, perhaps because he's basically a decent, normie, and Trump's personality is fundamentally unknowable & unbelievable to a normie. (I've been in a disfunctional relationship. Even while you're getting gaslit again, you can't see it.)

   Polls show that almost a third of voters will look to the debate to learn more about what Harris stands for — which likely is code for “feels.” But pundits are focused on whether Harris can define her policy agenda, or whether Trump can succeed in branding her with policy failures on immigration, inflation, and the Afghan withdrawal.

   There has been far less focus — or just as often, outright misunderstanding — on Harris’ efforts to make a Trump meltdown more likely. I’ve argued that was one purpose of Brian Fallon’s very public effort to get ABC to allow live mics. Even though the effort failed, it sets up a focus on the worries from Trump’s own handlers that he’ll lose his cool.

   And yesterday and today, Harris has taken steps to make that more likely. Today, she released an ad based on President Obama’s mockery of Trump’s obsession with [cough] crowd sizes.

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   1. Politicical Posturing of Professional Wrestling. David Kurtz at TPM.

      There’s no reason to think that tonight’s debate stage won’t be a tableau of dominance politics, especially with the dynamic of Trump facing off against a biracial woman. But it comes with heightened awareness on the Democratic side that Harris stands to lose if she lets Trump dominate the physical space like he tried to by stalking Hillary Clinton on stage in 2016 or by talking over Biden in 2020 or by deploying rapid-fire falsehoods in 2024.

      It’s the professional wrestling-ization of our national politics, a reality TV version of exaggerated masculinity with puffed-out chests, cock-of-the-walk strutting, and bulging veins. Democrats have long ceded this base-level stagecraft to Republicans. But with Trump himself a product of pro wrestling and intuitively familiar with its themes, even to the point of his willingness to play the heel role, the Harris campaign seems determined not to retreat from confrontation on the lizard brain level.

      I find this all a dreary way to approach watching tonight’s debate, but this is where we are.

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      1. I think she (Harris) will have to assertively demand that Trump step back and give her space. Is his cruising the stage even allowed under the rules? We need a moat, with miniature sharks, and tiny electric boats motoring around, between the candidates.

         I predict that Trump will ,in fact,try to rattle Harris by invading her space – it's his go-to move with women. Probably., his base will like it.

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         1. Like Pro-wrestling chest thumping.

            Maybe Hillary Clinton should sneak up on stage behind Trump and put bunny ears on him.

            Or how about a posse of clowns or over-the-top drag queens doing a cheer leading routine. Ridicule is the best medicine against Trump

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         2. Here's another idea. Infantalize Trump.

            Harris could somehow imitate Donald's mother's voice. Whenever he starts acting out, she can say "Now Donnie, remember your inside voice. If you can't play nice, you can go sit in the corner."

            Or Whatever. Anything to get under his skin an make him blow up.

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         3. A sharp elbow to that copious gut will do if he tries that lurking behind her crap that he did to Clinton. As a prosecutor, I should think Harris knows a thing or two about throwing elbows. 

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   2. More interesting observations from Marcy at EmptyWheel.

      …most campaign journalists are not accounting for the fact that Harris did in the last 51 days what Trump did (or was supposed to do, but the Guardian reports he has not) in the last twenty months: lay a foundation for the rest of the campaign: Set up offices, recruit volunteers, identify likely voters, prepare a voter persuasion and mobilization plan.

      While pundits were focused on crowd sizes, Harris used those huge rallies for a very specific purpose: to very quickly recruit a ton of volunteers who would find and turn out every possible vote. Tim and Gwen Walz and Doug Emhoff are swooping into campaign offices and randomly getting on phone calls that volunteers are already placing to identify and persuade voters, something that wows the voters, but also inspires volunteers that their efforts are not isolated from the larger whole.

      But Harris has done something else in the last 51 days that has largely been measured only in terms of enthusiasm, if at all. She has:

      • Provided a permission structure (most recently with the Liz and Dick Cheney endorsements) for Republicans to support her
      • Elevated reproductive rights from one of many issues to the most important issue for many voters
      • Gotten a whole lot of younger voters of color, especially women, to register to vote

      All three of those things are a foundation. Only the first one — a permission structure via which self-identified Republicans first consider and then, maybe, vote for Harris — will play a very important role tonight.

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      1. Some numbers to give context to the importance of the ground game. In 2020, Biden won Pennsylvania by 80,000 votes, about 1%.  Approximately 2,000,000 registered voters in Pennsylvania did not vote. Harris leads Trump by over 30% (58% v 27%) nationwide among voters 18 – 29. In 2020, Biden got 55% of the female vote in Pennsylvania (v. 44% for Trump). Pennsylvania (and Arizona, Nevada, Mich., Wisconsin, Georgia, and NC) will be won by the candidate that gets their voters to the polls (or mailing their ballot). For Harris, that means young people, many of whom have not previously registered, and women. Trump has a religiously committed base, but Harris has the potential to recruit new voters. If she does, she wins. 

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3. Pastor Paula White Cain (Founder, Trump National Faith Advisory Board) called for a "national fast" on a call last night to give Trump "the advantage" in tonight's debate. 
    

   White Prosperiry Geezuz works in mysterious ways….

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   1. Can they drink?

      I’m imagining a hangry drunk mob of MAGATs xit-posting on Xitter.

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   2. No cheeseburgers for Donnie??!

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