The moderators were not moderating the debate they were supporting panicky Tim Walz and still JD Vance was able to kick butt in the debate. It was brilliant. When polling comes in I'm sure it will be a win for Vance. I'm equally sure, though it won't be polled, Vance pointing this out further chipped away at the abysmal levels of trust for the mainstream media.
Unfortunately, I'm also sure this debate will do little to move the polling, as VP debates have only a small impact. I would caveat that a little here; it might mean more than normal, but just not a lot more.
I'm shocked that the fairest debate this election cycle was conducted by CNN (not really). Debate moderators have become useless given that they are all so left-biased now.
How about the questions are pre-packaged and displayed on a screen to the participants and microphones are automated to turn on and off at set times? No people involved whatsoever. Questions can come from sources proposed by candidates and accepted by their opponents. For example Vance could request 10 questions come from Fox and Walz could request 10 from CBS. The questions would be asked alternately between both sources. Just a thought.
Tim Walz was clearly not vetted properly before being chosen as Kamala Harris' running mate. As bad as Walz is as a VP nominee, the two main things this points out are about not about Walz but about Harris herself.
Walz had issues that Harris did not discover, or else think were a problem. Clearly the campaign miscalculated.
The two takeaways:
The pick was primarily political so as not to be Josh Shapiro since he's Jewish and she doesn't want to alienate her pro-Palestinian 'supporters'.
Walz was not properly vetted and that's a clear sign of a shallow candidate, which will ultimately lead to a shallow administration.
How does something like this sneak through the vetting process, unless the vetting process itself is epically flawed or weak?
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Former President Donald Trump chose Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate on Monday, picking a onetime critic who became a loyal ally and is now the first millennial to join a major-party ticket at a time of deep concern about the advanced age of America’s political leaders.
“After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network as the Republican National Convention got underway in Milwaukee.
A solid choice, not my first choice but a solid choice nonetheless.
Donald Trump has apparently decided on his running mate; he's made his VP choice and that person will likely be at this weeks presidential debate on CNN.
With respect to Trump's VP choice in 2016, do you think he chose Pence to shore up his support among evangelicals, or was it to have a non-exciting VP who wouldn't outshine him? Because if the former is true, Tim Scott might be a good bet. If he needs to shore up his support among women, there's only one choice on his apparent short list.
The other choices on the list are from safe Republican states and don't do much for Trump in the obvious Electoral College sense. But there is one other possibility; Trump might put together a Dream Team, to really make a difference. This is his last chance to create a legacy (which for him seems to be that he wants to be the guy who saves America). In that case a number of people on this list make some sense in certain ways - not just for VP, but for various administrative roles.
Trump has also mentioned that first and foremost it has to be someone who would be a good president in case it came to that.
In my opinion there's no better spokesperson for president Trump right now than Vivek Ramaswamy (other than Trump himself). He seems to be off the VP list now, and there are no doubt Trumpian considerations that are behind that. I think he needs to be in a Trump administration in a vital role. Given the state of the nation, Trump needs a dream team of high performing, skilled people in key roles.
But Vivek almost seemed to be out of the inner circle, with his show on SiriusXM. Maybe not; it seems he's still close to Trump in a visible way:
WAS THIS DELIBERATE? RFK Jr. announced his VP running mate, Nicole Shanahan, and she is a raging leftist establishment type. He's shot any chance of a successful presidential campaign in the foot. I'm not sure what the strategy was here; RFK Jr. may feel he's garnered as many conservative supporters as he could and is now making a play to pull voters from Let's Go Brandon's base. He certainly stands to lose some of his independent supporters as a result of a radical leftist pick. And it's hard to see how the left will gravitate to RFK Jr. when they seem to think a defense of democracy is the most pressing issue facing America in 2024. They'll have to vote for Let's Go Brandon out of fear (aka TDS, Trump Derangement Syndrome). But maybe, this was a deliberate self-sabotage.
Nicole Shanahan, the 38-year-old lawyer and investor who will now be Kennedy’s running mate, provides a helpful injection of cash to the campaign, having donated more than $4.5 million to his bid thus far.
Shanahan is a longtime staple of the Silicon Valley scene as an early AI executive, an ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin and, according to the Wall Street Journal, an alleged one-time paramour of Elon Musk.
But potentially more significant than the money she delivers is the way her politics squares with Kennedy’s existing supporters, and what it means for U.S. party alignment.
Looking at Shanahan’s track record, she at first seems the paragon of a loyal Democrat: She contributed to Hillary Clinton in 2016, Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg in 2020, and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), her local representative.
She was a major donor to Measure J, an anti-incarceration California ballot initiative, and her Bia-Echo Foundation names “the world’s greatest challenges” as “Reproductive Longevity & Equality, Criminal Justice Reform and a Healthy and Livable Planet” — which, whatever it actually does, manages to invoke a lot of progressive-sounding buzzwords.
That might make her selection jarring, considering RFK Jr.’s campaign has thus far appealed to a more right-leaning crowd.
It's clear where RFK Jr. is looking to expand his voter appeal; leftward. I don't think it really helps him win anything. But it could torpedo his support and maybe that was the point. It's long been argued that he will pull more support from Let's Go Brandon than he will from Trump, maybe this was a way to end his own campaign so that anti-Trump support drifts back to Let's Go Brandon out of that aforementioned fear of Trump.
As of Monday, per RealClearPolitics polling averages, Trump held a popular-vote lead of 1.7% in a hypothetical one-on-one rematch.
Trump’s advantage, however, rose to 2.3% in the current five-way race, which includes Green Party candidate Jill Stein and independents Cornel West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
So if he is trying torpedo himself it would be a good strategy. But it honestly draws potential support from the wrong side if that is the case. The only way it works as that plan is if it doesn't help him in the polls and he withdraws from the race. It seems likely he will bleed almost as much support as he gains from this move, if not more.
Worse still, she's such a big tech investor type, it almost undercuts his big pharma skepticism that has garnered a lot of support from the types who hate Let's Go Brandon but cannot pull the lever for Trump. It's an odd enough move I could see him bleeding support from both sides. The impact will shake out over the next month.
Is this the Dream Team? It could be. The endorsement speech for Trump from Vivek is great and highly aligned with the MAGA messaging. I believe that Vivek is in no small part, setting himself up for a run in 2028. But I don't believe he has nefarious motivations behind his words; he seems to be authentic in his love for America and in his endorsement of president Trump.
Read Eagle Politics takes a look at the wonky NY Times' potential short list of Donald Trump's 2024 VP choices. I don't entirely agree with Red Eagle's take on every candidate, though he makes some good points. The NY Times' assessment of pros and cons for each potential candidate is mostly laughable as you would expect. Frankly however, the idea of having an article about this shows me a couple of things because it is so early in the process.
Think about it, not one state has held a primary yet. Yes, president Trump holds a massive lead and no one else is going to win. Despite every laughable effort by the leftist political-media complex to discredit and disqualify him, the NY Times has basically admitted that president Trump will be the Republican presidential nominee for 2024. Maybe they are using this as a way to try to skewer potential running mates. They mention Trump's age with more than just a hint of foreshadowing part of how they might go after Trump. That in itself is an interesting takeaway. If they are going after Trump for his age, does that mean the older, senile Let's Go Brandon is not going to be the Democratic nominee for 2024? It makes you wonder a bit. Despite all the whispers, I've always suspected that Democrats would stick with Let's Go Brandon in 2024. Now I'm less sure. True it may be the leftist media and Democrats' desire Brandon steps down but was it ever going to materialize? Maybe so now.
Going back to the first point, it tells me the lawsuits against president Trump are expected, even on the left, to fail. The NY Times has basically admitted it with this article. Reason to be cheerful. But it also shows the real reason they were doing it; to smear him. The great thing about Donald Trump is that those smears only reverberate in their echo chamber.
Normally I wait until Friday to provide a musical interlude on this blog, but since Joe Biden has selected Kamala Harris as his VP I felt it was only fitting to do something today. Since she's positioned herself as both highly progressive and a hard law and order anti-progressive type (more on her two-faced nature to follow) I thought I'd dedicate a song to her that captures her two-faced, chameleon-like nature.
I give you, Culture Club:
For context, here's a discussion on some of her two-faced nature:
Joe Biden has selected his running mate. Kamala Harris. I though that was the wrestler that just died recently but whatever. This was not a big surprise. However, the deceased wrestler would have been a better pick.
It appears that tomorrow Trump will select Indiana government as his VP nominee. It's not confirmed yet but the din around it has grown all day.
Well...
...that's a dull pick, even for a Republican governor with a 100% conservative rating from the American Conservative Union (a definite point in favor of Pence), the pick is still dull. Indiana is a Republican voting state. There's no gain in that regard. In fact, by not picking someone from Ohio or Pennsylvania you could argue Trump actually harmed his chances. If you believe the role of the VP nominee is to deliver a state's electoral votes.
And there's also no flair (perhaps Trump feels he has all he needs). Pence is dull. Pence is not possessing strong approval ratings in Indiana. So that doesn't help either.
But it might steady the nerves of the National Review editorial staff. So there's that.
I'm willing to wait and see, because the press has been sop wrong about Trump, they could bew wrong about this too. Pence would make a good VP, the problem is that he doesn't do anything obvious to help the ticket. You need to win before you get to hold the position. Maybe Pence can help the ticket if his VP opponent turns out to be Bernie Sanders. The contrast will be stark.
There are going to be many takes on the VP debate tonight. Conservatives will agree Ryan won by remaining calm in the face of Biden's interruptions and those of the moderator as well (anyone have a count on moderator interruptions of Ryan vs. interruptions of Biden?). Ryan stuck to his points and didn't blow it. He came across well. Liberals on the other hand will be excited by Biden's assertiveness.
But there's assertiveness and there's arrogant, smug jerky behavior:
Or this version if you prefer. Biden at his smug, jerkiest:
