I count on David Rowe to use the time difference between here and Sydney to comment on events while American cartoonists are still selecting their nibs.
In this case, I think he misjudges last night’s Fox News interview with Kamala Harris, not because it went well for the Trump crowd but because I can’t believe Trump himself would think it was disastrous.
Part of that is Trump’s unassailable narcissism, but I also think, for dedicated Trump/Fox fans, it wasn’t obvious that Harris held up very well in a half-hour exchange that was more like a prosecution than an interview.
As the NYTimes put it
For a Democratic presidential candidate, appearing on Fox News is about as close (to) going into the lion’s den as it gets. On Wednesday, the lion was Mr. Baier, who repeatedly interrupted the vice president and tried to talk over her.
Brett Baier came out of the blocks ready to overwhelm her and, if it had been a trial, her attorney would have protested that he was badgering the witness.
However, Harris has prosecuted enough real trials that she wasn’t going to be intimidated, silenced or tricked into a back-and-forth that would make her look defensive and, well, bitchy.
She kept her cool, parrying and thrusting in a calm, deliberate manner, and while I didn’t hear anything new from her, I’ll bet a lot of Fox viewers did.
I’d also bet a fair number of women heard Baier being a bully, though, given his home field advantage, perhaps they like him enough that it didn’t register.
The Hill, which leans conservative, has a good rundown on the evening, and Aaron Rupar, who speaks from the left, had an extremely worthwhile blow-by-blow on Xitter. Here’s the Threadroller version of Rupar’s analysis, if you prefer not to visit Elon’s playhouse, though the video clips on it won’t play.
Bottom line: It was a very strong performance by Harris, and, while Fox/Trump loyalists may not agree with that assessment, she at least blunted the criticism that she won’t do hard interviews.
Her poise was admirable, despite the interruptions and provocations.
Meanwhile, back at the sock hop …
Cartoonists jumped on Trump’s bizarre break with reality the other night, but John Deering (Creators) gets the trophy for mocking the sanewashing that ensued.
Someone at the dog park yesterday said what partisans have been saying on social media, which is that, had Joe Biden stopped talking and started dancing, the media would have been all over it. And he asked “How can the race be so close?”
Which may be a case of answering his own question.
Over at Blue Sky, @elleisanisland.bsky.social started a thread by posting the Wall Street Journal’s sanewashing headline:
To which she responded “Hindenburg’s inaugural flight ends in fireworks.”
Others added
Titanic’s maiden voyage ends in pool party.
Donner Party journey ends in potluck dinner.
Lives of Pompeii residents reach spectacular conclusion
Famed actor John Wilkes Booth an unexpected visitor to presidential box at Ford’s Theater.
Which brings us to this
Juxtaposition of the Day
To quote Jake Barnes, “Yes, isn’t it pretty to think so?”
But ambition is an ugly thing, and it doesn’t make room for pretty ideas like Kristi Noem questioning why she’s stuck in the midst of Trump’s psychotic break, or JD Vance wishing he could admit that Trump lost in 2020.
I was stunned to see Noem at a rally in Pennsylvania. I assumed, after the whole dog-and-goat shooting spree, she’d been stuffed into an oubliette in the middle of the prairie.
And if Vance once thought Trump was another Hitler and an idiot, he changed his tune when high office was dangled in front of him.
Now he’s a full-blown election denier: “So, did Donald Trump lose the election in 2020? Not by the words that I would use.”
The words he would use being “Yes, Boss! Yes, Boss! Anything you say, Boss!”
Kevin Necessary warns that Dear Leader intends to surround himself with pliable, ambitious drones like Noem and Vance in his next administration, avoiding the people like Mark Milley, Mike Pence and John Bolton who reined in his extremist impulses during his first four years.
Moreover, he has voiced intentions of arresting and jailing those who disagree with him, including members of Congress, and of shutting down media that fail to toe the line.
Raising once more the question “How can this race even be close?”
However, fans of the 41-121 Chicago White Sox may cover their heads with grocery bags, but they still show up for the games. Team loyalty is not based on team performance.
Nor is it based on careful parsing of plans and promises, or how could you support a candidate — fascist or freedom-loving — who repeatedly promised to release his taxes, to release medical reports, to release a plan to replace Obamacare and never kept any of his promises?
Perhaps you assume he won’t keep these, either. But what if this was the one time you should have taken him seriously and literally?
All of which leads us to
Juxtaposition of the Day #2
The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee (KFS)
I’ll give the White Sox fans this: They pay attention to trades, injuries and other factors that impact their team’s performance. I wish I could feel that Trump supporters were so well-versed in what is on the table before us.
Horsey suggests they know the truth and choose to reject it, but I think he’s off-target.
Having done man-on-the-street interviews, I know how easy it would be to string together interviews that prove your thesis, and, in a crowd that came hundreds of miles to see Trump speak, you can readily cherry-pick the loonies and declare them typical.
I’m not accusing Horsey of that, but focusing on MAGAts misses what makes the polls so close.
My experience is that random, typical Trump voters often live in silos where all they see is Fox, Newsmax, etc.
They’re not rabid, they’re not stubborn. They don’t reject other information.
They never see it.
Many are, like Edison’s grandfather, simply uninterested and, therefore, uninformed
That’s not a plot. It’s reality.
Exploiting it is the plot.
All of which leaves us, as RJ Matson says, here: Whoever shows up wins.
Be there.
I’ll admit, I’m from the other side: I never watch Fox News, have never seen Newsmax, etc. I’m a biker, fly a patch in a hardcore M/C, have ridden with 1%ers a good part my life, and have no problem with being friends with the hard-core Trump crowd. (I don’t stereotype easily.)
I spent the past weekend at the Colonial Beach (VA) Bikefest, a nice four day mini-Daytona Bike Week type event, which was definitely not a place where you wore a Harris/Walz campaign button. And spent four days of amused bar-hopping with people on the verge of panic that Harris will win the election and, “there goes our country”. People who honestly believe that putting a non-white male in the White House means the death of our country (because we came so close to that happening during two Obama tems). People who believe that “those people” are going to be the death of all that is good about America.
David Horsey’s cartoon is more spot on than you’d like to admit. The only thing he’s overdoing is the mad look in the eyes.
Panel 1 of Edison Lee could stand on its own. If all network news is going to deliver is breathless coverage of its own polls, which are both invalid and landing within their own margins of error, how is it any more edifying than watching a fern grow?
Indeed. “Had enough” is not uninterested or uninformed, it’s knowing yourself – and when to step back and then step up.
Two things: Chisox fans aren’t so dumb. There were late-season games where the press said actual attendance was less than 100. If you’ve already paid for your tickets, it would be a nice way to sunbathe and get snacks with no lines.
and…
JD Vance will put up with having to lie because he’s pretty darn sure that he’ll become President if his side wins this, and then nothing else will matter.
Yes, this. This is what the media is not even mentioning. If DJT wins, I figure Vance has a better than 50% chance of being POTUS within 2 years, either through DJT being incapacitated by a stroke/heart attack or the powers that be invoking the 25th amendment and kicking him to the curb.
Vance as Pres is very scary. He has no practical experience governing and is clearly in the pockets of Thiel and the Koch Brothers. His PR skills will make any of their policy goals seem palatable to enough Americans to keep them in power.
I used to mock the conspiracy nuts but now I think I’m starting to sound like them. Please God, let me be wrong.
It’s not just Thiel and the Kochs, it’s also Elon Musk pouring $$ in to assure a Red Wave and buy the nation for the billionaires.
I saw one of the “most revered pollsters” on an MSNBC show contend that the actual margin of error is 6-10%, not 3-5%. Essentially, that means that even the “most respected”polls have as much validity as a Magic 8-Ball, and paying any attention to them at all is a complete waste of time, not to mention provoking unjustifiable havok on your blood pressure. (My favorite line in the above cartoons is EDISON LEE’s “Harris and Trump both ahead,” since it’s true.)