90 Comments
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Al Bellenchia's avatar

That was not a press conference. That was a staged media event. A reality TV show for sycophants. Even with all that, he bombed.

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Ann Sharon's avatar

Reality TV began losing viewers about the time Donnie ran for office. Audiences (including ones at his rallies) tend to tire of empty endless drama. I want to see them vote to end the drama.

https://www.statista.com/chart/30931/reality-tv-viewership/

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SPW's avatar

Trump pretty much called it a rally at one point. I would call him sick but he’s really just malevolent to the bone.

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Patris's avatar

It was an audition for his next NBC series: “The Stupid Has Landed”.

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Paul M Sotkiewicz's avatar

Trump is “deeply unwell” as Tom Nichols at the Atlantic has stated it. He physically looks tired and sick, his mind cannot hold together a single coherent thought, he has all but disappeared from the campaign trail. His performance yesterday was that of a sick and demented man who only knows grievance, and doom, and darkness. Trump is the epitome of low energy.

Harris and Walz provide the ultimate antidote! High energy, positive ideas to help improve lives, simple yet coherent in logic and witty in the delivery in ways anybody can appreciate. The energy and enthusiasm of looking forward rather than looking backward is infectious!

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Richard M. Ellis's avatar

He is now what Joe Biden was a month or so ago - tired and unable to hold thoughts together, and the more pressure put on him with overwhelming positivity and TRUTH - he will continue to dwindle into a pile of stinky mush, and poor little JD will be adrift. Thanks Joe for allowing this to happen.

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Nora Dunn's avatar

"Stinky mush"!!!!!

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M3333's avatar

Do you believe in karma, I do! You act like a shit, it will backfire! Trump has acted like a shit since 2015 and is a convicted criminal! He wants to become a dictator. Americans like their democracy. Americans are like Team USA at the Olympics, a wonderful mosaic of white, black, and in between! Team USA is swamping the Olympics and the world in our athletics and our economy is the best! We are moving forward with a wonderful team of Harris/Walz!

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Amy Rubin's avatar

He’s acted like a shit literally since he was born. 2015 was just when the MSM started covering him constantly.

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SPW's avatar

He’s really been a shit almost all of his miserable life.

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Patris's avatar

Apologize to shit please

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SPW's avatar

🤣🤣🤣. It would get messy.

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CAM from 🇨🇦's avatar

Well said. I love that you connected the dots to the Olympics. Although I’m very proud of 🇨🇦 achievements in the Olympics, the US had done extremely well with its 103 medals and its competitors a true reflection of its diverse population.

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JA's avatar

Bravo! Mark - we see it, and you said it! Thanks.

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Ellen Deschatres's avatar

The Harris-Walz campaign needs to stay on message and ignore the buffoon at Mara Lago. Address with dedication, joy and love what makes us Americans. I think many of us were just waiting to be invited to the table; to reawaken that sense of pride in being an American because we know we belong. We know that we have something to contribute to the civic community. We know that we are cherished citizens, each and every one of us.

We are most definitely NOT going back to that tired shtick of a man. I found it hard to believe he was EVER elected POTUS. He needs to “know when to hold up, know when to fold up, know when to walk away, know when to run…”.

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Richard Brody's avatar

He can’t run away fast enough for me.

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HI2thDoc's avatar

I'm rooting for cholesterol

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JA's avatar

One good blood drop . . .

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Phyllis Capanna's avatar

“Invited to the table” is exactly the energy I am getting from the Harris Walz campaign. They seem to know how many former Republicans feel lost and dis-enfranchised in the age of Trump, yearning for something to believe in again.

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Nora Dunn's avatar

Yes! We have been yearning for something to believe in and we are seeing Republican defection because they want to be a part of this. Harris' is savvy. Walz was the smart pick, the down to earth everyman who at the same time is quite extraordinary. He believes in what he's saying. Harris is the brainy, glamorous super star and yet there's an inclusiveness about her. I do believe I'm sitting that their table. I do believe I'm a member of the club.

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Elizabeth Tiller (Beth)'s avatar

Thank you, Steven, for sharing all these statistics that hold the truth underneath all the noise. Education in all modalities is key to saving our democracy. And learning NEVER ends.

As a direct antidote to Vance toxin, did you see the snapshot of Harris and Walz greeting a troop of Girl Scouts at the Eau Claire WI airport? Tim crouched down at their level to talk. The girls were wearing t-shirts with Kamala's sayings emblazoned on them. Well, it brings tears of hope.

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Steven Beschloss's avatar

That Girl Scout greeting was lovely.

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Elizabeth Tiller (Beth)'s avatar

I found a link for the photo for those who didn't see it.

This is a photo of hope incarnate: present and future.

https://www.dailyrecordnews.com/ap_news/us/election-2024-harris/image_95d173a6-8c0e-5c55-b564-5142719b2687.html

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Annette D. (North Carolina)'s avatar

Thank you.

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Rhonda's avatar

Many thanks for posting the picture of the girl scouts.

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Marlene Lerner-Bigley (CA)'s avatar

Thank you, Elizabeth. So fabulous!

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Marlene Lerner-Bigley (CA)'s avatar

I dod not see that! How wonderful!

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Douglas Paul Truhlar's avatar

I agree we or I need to see the stats and how off message the right really is. Stay real I’m not a communist but next to 2025ers I am.

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Martha Franklin's avatar

If one is truly smart, one does not have to tell anyone that one is smart.

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Mike Yochim's avatar

He is the gift that keeps on giving. Useful idiot is usually ascribed to him by Putin. I think he’s become a useful idiot for the Harris-Walz campaign.

Maybe I need more clarity, but it reads in the UMass-Amherst poll that 39% of respondents favor elimination of federal DEI programs. While not close to overwhelming numbers, it’s still notable compared to the other issues.

As an aside, I received an email this morning from Indivisible and a new Marist poll has VP Harris with a 3 point lead. Still within the 3.7 margin of error, but encouraging nonetheless.

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Diane E Bellard's avatar

I think that the gap she has closed since taking over for Biden has been pretty remarkable.

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Ann Sharon's avatar

We know polls are just polls, but they do identify trends.

Ipsos gives Harris/Walz a 5 point lead.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/harris-leads-trump-by-5-points-ipsos-poll-2024-08-08/

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Art Hopkins's avatar

Last night I watched Lawrence O'Donnell demolish Trump and the press for that phony "news conference." Everyone should see it, then demand that the press ask actual questions and demand actual answers from Trump. They act like they're afraid of him, and maybe they have reason to be. Trump has supporters in the management of some media organizations.

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Connie Davis's avatar

Excellent show! Every newspaper and media outlet should watch it... and learn from it.

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Nora Dunn's avatar

O'Donnell always makes me able sleep better. He's brilliant.

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Terrydej's avatar

But the media is not helping! As Lawrence O’Donnell said on his show last night, not one station fact checked his lies, and not one station covered Kamala’s rally at the same time. It’s 2016 all over again!

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Steven Beschloss's avatar

A continuing concern.

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Rita Richards Newhouse's avatar

Not so. A CNN program last night fact checked his rambling press conference with only one Republican stooge there, and he was contradicted.

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Nora Dunn's avatar

I'm not convinced it's all that bad. Trump seemed to be delivering his own eulogy last night and certainly not an economic plan. His lies are tiresome and his cheap laughs are getting no cheers. Smart Republicans are fleeing because they understand the economy and they see through him. Trump is coming off as the loser he is.

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Ann Sharon's avatar

He PROPOSED three debates.

I’m sick of the press reporting that Donnie “agreed to” whichever debates. He announced that he agreed with himself. Other than 1 debate, Sept 10th (He mangled the date.) on ABC, there is no agreement with the Harris campaign.

Perhaps a small point, but an example of how much is made of the nothing-burgers he serves up. The word salad answer he gave on abortion would not be tolerated from any other candidate. Repeated performances like this from other candidates are not be deemed worthy of an hour of live free media coverage.

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Steven Beschloss's avatar

He has once again agreed with himself.

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HI2thDoc's avatar

Yes, his proposing three debates is empty posturing. Most observers say he's terrified of debating Kamala.

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Dawn Kiilani Hoffmann's avatar

I get all this, but the fact is that we need to make sure to VOTE the Harris/Walz team into office! Polls do not cut it! Polls and news about who is favorite, who is crashing, etc is not going to give results, only VOTING for the one team you want will. Make sure you tell everyone that! People tend to stay home if they comfortably think their non-pick will not win. Remember the headlines "Dewey wins"??! We need to make sure we do not have our own version of this! This (inhumane) man with the orange wig and makeup, needs a matching orange jumpsuit and '3 hots and a cot' lifetime sentence in a prison somewhere, with no social media or other privileges either (no matter what his cronies at the SCOTUS say either)! He needs to be done, gone, over, period! You may rejoice at his stumbling, but there is a lot of money supporting him and people who will make sure they vote for him. We need to make sure he does not by a HUGE margin... VOTE~!! Then our country has a lot of healing necessary to do after he is out of the picture. Do not underestimate the damage, or potentials of his continuing influence, staged as a press conference, on his posts, and the people who will rush in to fill his role.

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Steven Beschloss's avatar

Defeat first, laying the groundwork to repair the years of damage they have wrought.

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Douglas Paul Truhlar's avatar

It’s going to take time but whatever it takes maybe a bucket of cold water on trumps head. Or a real asylum, doubtful he knows even now.

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Ann Sharon's avatar

True. The polls also don’t indicate a sufficient margin for Dems to win the Electoral College vote. They should encourage people - not be an excuse to stay home.

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Nora Dunn's avatar

I think we all understand that about polls. But when you're polling well, voters come out. None of us want to hop on losing bandwagon. Trump looks and acts like a loser while Harris' campaign turned the tide pretty much over night and shows no signs of slowing down. She's ready and we are too.

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David Epler's avatar

I know that the Dems don’t have a codified platform yet, but it is important to re-repeat the policies that were enunciated in our article.

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Richard M. Ellis's avatar

I am currently reading Soul of America by Jon Meacham, and current events are so eerily similar to many times in our country's history, like the 1920's with the Klan and especially the 1930's, when fascism was a real threat to America. Huey Long and Father Coughlin were very real threats to democracy in much the same vein as the MAGAs are today. It was different then from today because then there truly was an economic disaster at hand, not what is being contrived today by the MAGAs and their cohorts, especially the Russians., China and Iran and their electronic interference. It was FDR with positive efforts to mend the social fabric and to at least try to pull the country out of the morass. It was positive thought and pressing the thought about fear is about fear itself (you know the right words). Look at what Harris and Walz are doing, right from the get-go - WE'RE NOT GOING BACK!!! They are being positive, forward thinking, laughing not at the idiots, but mostly with the people who are laughing about the idiots. There's a difference, and it is showing in the polls, and we are just beginning. Goddammit this is going to be a hoot!

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Nora Dunn's avatar

I agree. I'm not going to throw any cold water on what's happening. This is exciting and the polling makes it more so. We're going to vote in droves. And Republicans are going to vote with us.

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kdsherpa's avatar

"[H]is anger, fear and madness were lurking close to the surface and not hard to see." Beautifully stated. Your column today is terrific, with the (astonishing to me) numbers of the percent of Americans who stand with Democratic positions versus the percent who stand with "project 2025" (not deserving of a capital letter). I'm going to share your letter with two of my Democratic Facebook groups, if that's OK with you.

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Steven Beschloss's avatar

Please do. Thanks.

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kdsherpa's avatar

Thanks.

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gpm414's avatar

Let's just put him (us) out of his misery and have the election on Sept. 1

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Diane E Bellard's avatar

From the very beginning of that so-called press event, you could see that it was going to be the same old, tired incoherent rant full of lies, hate, fear mongering, division, and personal grievances. His obsession about crowd sizes emerged in 2016, and continues to take up space in his head because of his fragile ego. The mispronunciation of Kamala's name is purposeful disrespect that most of us would not tolerate from our school-age children. The fact that he underestimates his opponent and the deep unpopularity of his policies, most notably abortion, demonstrates that he's terrified of running against Harris and has been unable to pivot from attacking Joe Biden. I cannot wait to see her wipe the stage with him at a debate.

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