Kansas Crimson

The joyful reception that Vice President Kamala Harris received from Democrats when President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her was rooted largely in the contrast between the relatively youthful 59-year-old woman and the increasingly frail 81-year-old president. She gives good speeches! She's fun and energetic! And she can campaign aggressively, especially with Biden remaining president, allowing Harris to make campaigning her full-time job. People in focus groups frequently say they haven't seen much of Harris these past four years. Well, that's about to change, since she is well-positioned to give endless interviews, attend frequent events, and give oh-so-many speeches. The contrast with Biden, who struggled to find the energy to campaign on top of running a country, will be notable.

The contrast stands not only with her boss but with her new opponent. It isn't just Biden who has to limit public appearances, lest he get tired and cranky. Donald Trump, at age 78, has also been mostly absent from the traditional campaign rigamarole. He goes to occasional rallies, where his fans swoon over him, but which get relatively little press. There's no incentive to cover his usual incoherent stump speech because he doesn't break any news. He gives interviews to right-wing outlets, which mostly ask him how he got to be so darn perfect while avoiding topics that might draw interest from the larger public. He unloads his far-right venom on Truth Social, but since most journalists ignore that, he might as well be blogging into the void. He golfs a lot and, of course, had to sit in the untelevised trial in May, which resulted in 34 felony convictions. But to average Americans, especially swing voters who will decide the race, Trump is mostly out of sight and out of mind.

This appears very much by design. While they are being graded on a steep curve, Trump's campaign managers are, as reported, more professional and competent than his previous hires. They're no doubt aware that the biggest obstacle to persuading skeptical voters to back Trump is the candidate himself. His overt racism, sociopathic impulsivity, and off-the-charts narcissism turn off everyone who isn't deeply in the MAGA cult. Every time Trump talks, it confirms the Biden campaign's narrative that the former president is a self-centered jerk who will sell out the country for his own interests.

Trump has so far been able to stay out of the spotlight because of Biden. The president had a lightweight campaign presence. He barely did any interviews or press conferences, which only fueled speculation that the Biden team was hiding their candidate's condition from public view. This enabled Trump to hang back, as well. Trump's campaign created the illusion that he was campaigning more vigorously than Biden, by putting him out there in situations noticed by the press but not by ordinary voters. The rallies looked campaign-like while keeping Trump out of the news. Trump gave a lengthy interview to Time, in which he hinted at election violence and supported abortion bans. These views hurt him with swing voters, but almost no one heard about it, because it was a print interview in a publication few people outside of the Beltway read.

Astute readers will remember that the reason Biden wanted a June debate was to remind voters what a vile person Trump is since so many memories had faded. If Biden had been coherent, the plan would have worked. As Heather "Digby" Parton wrote, Trump "couldn't control himself and behaved once again like the undisciplined, lying, vulgarian who half the country already hates." He told laughable lies, such as denying sex with Stormy Daniels. The post-debate fact-checker spoke as fast as he could to debunk Trump's lies and finally had to quit from exhaustion after three minutes.

But once again, Biden's age worked to cover up Trump's myriad deficiencies. It was too troubling, watching the president stumble, to even pay that much attention to Trump's same old lie-and-hate routine. Not just for journalists, either. Voters who watched the debate were too worried about Biden to pay much mind to Trump.

With Harris as the Democratic nominee, however, Trump is caught in a no-win situation. If he continues to hang back from the campaign trail while she's out there hustling, he'll start inviting the questions about whether he's too old and weak, the exact questions that plagued Biden. But if he starts doing more media and events that are outside the MAGA bubble, he will draw negative attention and remind voters why they hate him. In the face of this paradox, Trump's first impulse was to keep pretending Biden is his opponent. As reality sets in, Trump's freaking out.

One sign that Trump doesn't know what to do: He's casting around for an excuse to back out of the debate that's scheduled for September. In doing so, he exposes how cornered he feels. In his posts, he insists Harris is not "competent," a dog whistle to racist claims she's a "DEI hire." But Trump, despite his massive ego, is intelligent enough to understand that any debate with Harris would expose that he's the one with no merit, who only sails by because of race and gender preferences. Harris, on the other hand, would remind voters how much nicer it is when a politician can speak in complete sentences without going off on weird tangents about electric sharks and "the late, great Hannibal Lecter."

For those who could stomach it, Trump's performance at the Republican National Convention was a reminder that he is not doing well these days. After sitting through it, I rewatched portions of his 2016 speech, and even I was surprised by the contrast. In 2016, Trump sounded every inch the fascist he turned out to be. But the 2016 speech at least made sense and was delivered with an undeniable level of bombast that turned the audience into a rabid, foot-stomping horror show. In 2024, even his lengthy, self-pitying story about nearly being killed by an assassin's bullet was an incomprehensible snooze. At one point, Trump rambled about how ears bleed more than other parts of the body. The theme in 2016 was "American carnage." In 2024, the theme was "racist grandpa is up way past his bedtime."

Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) is “making history in the completely wrong way” as former President Donald Trump’s running mate, according to CNN data analyst Harry Enten.

Trump selected Vance to be his vice presidential candidate just days before the Republican National Convention. Vance, 39, was first elected to office in 2022 after being a venture capitalist and authoring the bestselling book, Hillbilly Elegy. The selection has been something of a head-scratcher for some pundits, who see little value in choosing a political novice from a state that the former president is expected to win handily anyway.

Since the selection, President Joe Biden announced he is ending his reelection bid. Vice President Kamala Harris is now the presumptive Democratic nominee.

“Frankly, I don’t really understand the pick,” Enten told Erin Burnett on Tuesday’s OutFront. “And apparently, neither do the American voters because we take a look at the net favorable rating for JD Vance. That’s the favorable minus unfavorable. It’s in negative net territory. Look at that. Negative six points.”

Enten says he looked at every election since 1980 and could not find another veep selection with a net negative rating.

“He is the first guy after, immediately following a convention, a VP pick, who actually had a net negative favorable rating that is underwater,” he went on. “The average since 2000 is plus 19 points, JD Vance, making history in the completely wrong way.”

Enten added that vice presidential nominees are “usually very popular” when they are first selected. “But in this case, he’s dragging Trump down.”

“So what does the JD Vance pick do for Trump?” Burnett asked after noting that Trump is expected to win the senator’s state.

Enten responded by noting that while Vance won his Senate race by six points in 2022, he underperformed Trump’s 2020 showing in the state and ran 19 points behind the state’s Republican governor in 2022.

“He was the worst performing Republican candidate in 2022 up and down the ballot in the state of Ohio,” he said. “He adds nothing there.”

One of the major themes of last week’s Republican National Convention was that the party’s three-time nominee, former President Donald Trump, had been transformed — in a good way — by the assassination attempt a few days earlier in Butler, Pa.

“When Trump stood up after being shot in the face, bloodied, and put his hand up — that was a transformation,” conservative pundit Tucker Carlson said while onstage in Milwaukee. “Everything was different after that moment. Everything. This convention is different. The nation is different. The world is different. Donald Trump is different.”

But according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll, most Americans disagree. Just 28% say that the shooting has changed Trump “for the better” — while a majority (51%) say either that it hasn’t changed him at all (44%) or that it has changed him “for the worse” (7%).

The survey of 1,743 U.S. adults was conducted from July 19 to 22, immediately following the convention. Its results suggest that one of the most eventful periods in recent U.S. history — a period that began with the assassination attempt, continued with the vice-presidential nomination of Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and ended with President Biden dropping out of the race — has had little effect on Trump’s political standing.

In the past, presidential candidates have tended to enjoy a post-convention “bounce.” But Trump remains stuck at 46% in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup with the current frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, Vice President Kamala Harris, who also polls at 46%.

In both 2016 and 2020, Trump won less than 47% of the vote; that still appears to be his ceiling. The last time a Yahoo News/YouGov survey pitted Trump against Harris, in early July, he polled at 47% and she polled at 45%.

Trump’s favorable rating has increased slightly (from 39% to 43%) since the previous Yahoo News/YouGov survey, which was conducted after his June 27 debate with Biden. His unfavorable rating has fallen by a few points as well (from 56% to 53%).

But this mostly reflects a reversion to Trump’s normal numbers rather than some sort of new breakthrough; his favorable rating was actually higher in January (45%), March (45%) and April (44%). Republicans and Republican-leaning independents — among whom Trump’s favorable rating ticked up from 83% to 88% — account for most of the shift.

The shooting, the convention and the VP pick do appear to have had one statistically significant impact: a 5-point increase (from 21% to 26%) in the number of Americans giving Trump a “very favorable” rating, the highest level since late 2020. But again, that change occurred entirely among Republicans and Republican leaners, whose very favorable rating of Trump has risen from 49% to 58% since early July. Recent events have not improved the former president’s very favorable rating among Democrats (2%) or independents who lean toward neither party (10%).

Donald Trump on Wednesday twice denied accusations that he is “cognitively challenged” and “cognitively in trouble” during a rally in Charlotte.

Early in the speech, he delivered a shoutout to Lara Trump ― his daughter-in-law, co-chair of the Republican National Committee, and a North Carolina native ― in the middle of a sentence blaming Vice President Kamala Harris for inflation.

“As vice president, [Harris] cast the tie-breaking votes that created the worst inflation in a half a century, decimating middle class families and hurting very badly as you know all people in North Carolina, and by the way Lara says hello,” Trump said. “Lara. Do we love Lara? How good is Lara? She is terrific.”

He said he had to mention her at that point “because if I forget it later on they’ll say ‘He’s cognitively challenged.’ I don’t want to be cognitively, no, but I want to thank her because she’s unbelievable.”

About 45 minutes later, the speech took a strange turn when he brought his cognition up again as he turned to one of his favorite topics: Comparing migrants to Hannibal Lecter, the fictional serial killer from the “Silence of the Lambs” franchise.

“They go crazy when I say ‘The late great Hannibal Lecter,’ OK. They say ‘Why would he mention Hannibal Lecter, he must be cognitively in trouble,‘” Trump said. “No, no, no. These are real stories, Hannibal Lecter from ‘Silence of the Lambs,’ he’s a lovely man he wants to have you for dinner he’d like to have you for dinner.”

Trump has faced growing questions over his mental acuity, with author Ramin Setoodeh saying last month he found the former president exhibiting “severe memory issues” during their six interviews. Business leaders who met with Trump recently complained he was “meandering” and “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Earlier this year, Trump confused former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who served as his ambassador to the United Nations and was running against him for the presidential nomination, with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance has found himself yet again in hot water, after it was uncovered that he promoted a book decrying progressives as “unhuman,” written by a far-right conspiracy theorist.

Unhumans: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (and How to Crush Them) was written by the Pizzagate guy, Jack Posobiec, and ghostwriter Joshua Lisec, with a foreword by the recently imprisoned MAGA movement architect Steve Bannon.

Vance provided a glowing promotional blurb about the book, which is included on the website of right-wing publisher Skyhorse Publishing, Mother Jones reported Thursday.

“In the past, communists marched in the streets waving red flags. Today, they march through HR, college campuses, and courtrooms to wage lawfare against good, honest people,” wrote Vance. “In Unhumans, Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec reveal their plans and show us what to do to fight back.”

Vance’s endorsement of the book demonstrates just how plugged-in the Ohio Republican is to the extremist, conspiratorial faction of his party.

In addition to run-of-the-mill conservative takes such as election denialism, conspiracies about big-money backers to Democratic movements, and January 6 apologia, Unhumans veers into the ridiculous when discussing the beliefs of conservatives’ progressive enemies.

“On a base level, unhumans seek the death of the successful and the desecration of the beautiful,” Posobiec and Lisec claimed.

When comparing the Black Lives Matter movement to the French Revolution, they wrote: “There is no way to reason with those who manipulate the have-nots en masse to loot and to shoot. They simply hate those who are good-looking and successful.”

Of course, their far-right screed has dark implications. After Trump was indicted in May on 34 criminal charges, Posobiec advocated for violent revolt against progressives. “Take the path of the hunter, and with one singular voice, we are going to make them the prey,” he said.

Since accepting the nomination at the Republican National Convention last week, Vance has been consistently embroiled in controversy over his past statements, including his blatantly sexist comment about “childless cat ladies” and humiliating rumors about having sex with a couch.

Beneath it all, Vance is still part of the intellectual “new right” movement, influenced by pronatalism, techno-authoritarianism, and conservative economic populism. Evidently, his reading list also includes extremist, conspiratorial material—if he even bothered to read it, before lending his name to it. Either way, Vance gave Posobiec, and all of his dangerous and ridiculous ideas, a boost.

jfish26 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 25, 2024 8:21 pm O/U on how many more days before he’s yanked? 11.5?

DeletedUser wrote: ↑Thu Jul 25, 2024 8:33 pm

jfish26 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 25, 2024 8:21 pm O/U on how many more days before he’s yanked? 11.5?

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KUTradition wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2024 7:01 pm i guess the shoes didn’t work

Shirley wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2024 6:11 pm

DeletedUser wrote: ↑Thu Jul 25, 2024 8:33 pm

jfish26 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 25, 2024 8:21 pm O/U on how many more days before he’s yanked? 11.5?

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^^^