Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

The willow is too close to the house.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Second rate reporter says what?

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

This really is a full service blog.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Open Thread: Bravo, Team Clinton!

Open Thread: Bravo, Team Clinton!

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Yep, that’s the Eichenwald article Tom Levenson highlighted earlier today. Click on any of the tweets here to read the whole list. Add your own in the comments, if you like!

Reader Interactions

65Comments

  2. 2.

    Yutsano

    It was pretty damn brutal. I haven’t heard of any response yet from TrumpleThinskinned.

    @lollipopguild: Once she’s better, between her and Obama the hits are going to be devastating.

  3. 3.

    RaflW

    This is great, though of course journalists will hate it. They do not like the idea that she is going to do a better job asking questions that they do (Farenthold and a few others excepted).

  4. 4.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Yeah, I saw that in real time. Her Twitter people are good.

    Also too, over the past year or so, I have come to respect Eichenwald.

  9. 9.

    PaulWartenberg2016

    What horrifies me is that every scandal and every black mark that comes up against Trump… he just keeps getting bigger… his shamelessness makes him unstoppable. And he’s driving the frenzy of the Far Right higher and higher to where we’re getting daily assaults of people on the streets.

    There’s been at least five major scandals that ought to have driven Trump’s polling numbers DOWN. Instead, he’s still in this race and even leading in some polls.

    What the hell is happening to us?

  11. 11.

    Mike J

    Noah Gray CNN Verified account @NoahGrayCNN
    As Trump motorcade rolls through Flint, about a dozen ppl get off stopped public bus to throw middle fingers in the air as we pass

  12. 12.

    RaflW

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    @kurteichenwald
    As I watched the news media stumble all over themselves 2 get “exclusive” information about Trump on Dr. Oz, I wanted 2 cry 4 my profession.
    9:13 PM – 14 Sep 2016

  14. 14.

    Mike J

    @amk:

    She dropped millions in ads before. It should have been held back for sep, oct and nov.

    1) she’s not low on cash
    2) much of what she spent earlier was buying avails for sept-oct. Muchmuchmuchmuch cheaper if you buy in advance.

  18. 18.

    RaflW

    @Major Major Major Major: Oh now, that’s just mean! They ask questions!

    It’s just that they ask stupid ones. Or don’t bother to follow up when blatantly lied to. Or focus on their own pet peeves/personal grudges rather than what viewers/readers are interested in.

  19. 19.

    Jeffro

    @PaulWartenberg2016:

    What horrifies me is that every scandal and every black mark that comes up against Trump… he just keeps getting bigger… his shamelessness makes him unstoppable. And he’s driving the frenzy of the Far Right higher and higher to where we’re getting daily assaults of people on the streets.

    There’s been at least five major scandals that ought to have driven Trump’s polling numbers DOWN. Instead, he’s still in this race and even leading in some polls.

    What the hell is happening to us?

    There’s been at least 10 things he’s said or done that would have already caused any/every Dem, or any other Rep, to have to resign from the race in shame. Shameless self-promotion is His. Thing., so it’s time to pivot (ugh) and point that out

    “Donald Trump has been up to so many unethical, immoral, illegal activities it’s been hard for voters (and reporters?) to know where to start, or to be able to stay focused. Just remember: you could pick any one of these things and find that this is not a person you can trust to lead our great country. You can – and should – focus in on any issue from Trump University’s scamming innocent Americans to Trump’s vocal support from the KKK and white supremacists to Trump’s bribing Attorney General(!) Pam Bondi to Trump’s ties to Vladimir Putin, criminal dictator of Russia. In the end, he’s counting on you to be so overwhelmed, and the media to do his work for him, that he squeaks past on Nov 8th”

    “Don’t lower your standards. Don’t accept what used to be completely unacceptable in America and for America. As a journalist recently noted, sometimes in America we have choices between apples and oranges, but this time, we seem to have a choice between an apple and rancid meat.”

  21. 21.

    Matt McIrvin

    @PaulWartenberg2016: Remember: Trump’s poll numbers cratered when he flipped out after the Democratic convention and attacked the Khan family. They stayed down for pretty much the whole month of August.

    There are ways to beat this guy. They seem to involve getting his goat so that he lashes out in some way that people consider unacceptable. When he realizes he’s losing he tends to double down, too. His staff is working hard to rein him in–but they’re not going to be able to control what he does during the debates.

  22. 22.

    bluehill

    @PaulWartenberg2016: It seems like Conway and Bannon are doing an effective enough job in muzzling Trump so that he seems somewhat more reasonable and planting enough BS stories to play into concerns that people already have about Hillary built up over 30 years. They are making it seem like both candidates have equally negative issues, so the race isn’t based on experience but who you like more and for many people it becomes a personality contest. It is depressing, but that’s how we ended with GW Bush.

  25. 25.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Mike in NC: Individual polls mean almost nothing. Large numbers of correctly aggregated polls can actually give an accurate picture of the state of the race. But news stories about polls will focus on the most extraordinary outliers, which give the worst picture of the state of the race. People need to ignore them.

  27. 27.

    Keith P.

    Took a few blood pressure meds and am about to relax and watch the premier of American Horror Story. A welcome diversion from the worries in life.

  28. 28.

    FlipYrWhig

    @bluehill: No, he doesn’t seem reasonable. He’s not doing anything differently or better. He’s a hateful disgusting person and the people who want to vote for him like it that way. The same people are voting for him now that were voting for him a month ago and two months ago. I don’t think he’s winning first-time converts. He’s just getting different numbers in different polls that describe the same set of horrific assholes that dominate the Republican Party, because that’s the nature of sampling.

  30. 30.

    Jeffro

    Since it’s an OT…

    Happened to see that Bruce Springsteen has a new autobiography out, and related links occasionally pop up on my FB feed…it’s absolutely hysterical to see wingers who can’t deal with the dissonance: they love Bruce, but their little lizard brains won’t allow them to either just enjoy the music or at least shut up about politics.

    They’re crazy-livid about saying “shut up and sing, Bruce!” – as if they are owed all their favorite teenage melodies, without the merest thought for what Bruce says (either in the lyrics or in between songs), troubling their beautiful minds.

    It must be tough wanting to enjoy songs you love or have strong connections to, when the merest hint of helping out your fellow Americans/looking out for one another takes away all that good feeling. No wonder they act out like they do.

  31. 31.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Matt McIrvin: Yup. Reporters are in the job of spotting trends and spinning narratives. Outlier numbers make better stories because they intimate drama. They reverse-engineer cause and effect relationships from noise and random fluctuation.

  32. 32.

    tobie

    One newspaper is doing yeoman’s work tonight and saying what the grey lady deplorably won’t say:

    Yet despite these high-profile gestures, Trump remains the least transparent major presidential nominee in modern history. He is the first since 1976 to refuse to release his tax returns. He has declined to provide documentation of the “tens of millions” of dollars he claims to have donated to charity. He has yet to release a comprehensive accounting of his health. And, while Wednesday’s letter about Melania Trump’s immigration from her home country offers a few new details, there is no documentation to back up the claims.

    See the front page online right now of the Washington Post</a.:

  34. 34.

    TaMara (HFG)

    When this election is over, I hope to never have to stray too far into twitter again. I like my nice, safe, list of people I follow. Those comments were just…I don’t have words for those people…basket of deplorables is much too nice.

  36. 36.

    geg6

    @efgoldman:

    I have heard and read numerous talking heads who are looking at the LV polling of some of these polls showing Trump polling ahead. Republicans are being over sampled, white people are being over sampled. I’m not sure their models are correct. The consensus seems to be that a lot of polling organizations are modeling their samples along the lines of the 2004 race. I stick with Sam Wang. He’s the only level head out there. I trust his work. There aren’t many I’d say that about.

  39. 39.

    japa21

    Just got back from my election judge training. My hunch is that several of those that applied are going to decide they have something else to do. The money sounds good until you get a sense of hours ( at least 15-18) and the complexity involved. Nonetheless, I will be there when they call.

  40. 40.

    Jeffro

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I went to law school and a lot of concerts with a Republican Billy Bragg fan.

    That’s impressive! Was he/she training to be a political mole of some sort, or just a BB superfan, or weaning him/herself off of a GOP-indoctrinated childhood, or…? That’s not an easy combination.

    My “libertarian” brother’s #1 fave artist of all time is Bruce Springsteen and he does his best to ignore certain lyrics/whole songs…in the interests of full disclosure, the mean older brother in mean likes that it irritates him here n’ there.

  43. 43.

    bluehill

    @FlipYrWhig: Yes, he is. I agree, but IMO he’s making fewer incendiary remarks or at least they appear less so compared to his post-convention comments. It’s not fair that the “public” seems to judge him by a different set of standards, but you know what they say about fairness. It seems like he’s reading off the teleprompter at almost every appearance so Conway has minimized the changes that he says something really bad. I also can’t recall when he held a press conference or a gaggle or anything like that.

    As for the polls, I’m not a statistician, but the bump that Hillary had post-convention has been trending down for the past several weeks even in polls of polls.

    I think the debates can make a difference, but I think Hillary needs to find a message that resonates better with people still uneasy about both candidates. I’m not sure the message that Trump will be better utter disaster is working with them.

    I’m just trying to understand how this won’t be a blowout election. I expected the polls to tighten but kind of surprised that it’s been this much particularly in some of the swing states.

  47. 47.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Nah. He loved to talk about how wrong they were about everything, but liked the music. What happened is that he got a rare form of skull cancer, that hardly anyone survives, and the various surgeries left him disabled and unemployable, and now he lives in destitution on his parents’ farm in northern Minnesota. That experience completely changed his politics. He was always a socially liberal Republican, and the rest of his views followed.

  50. 50.

    Jeffro

    @Howard Beale IV:

    Did anyone notice that Trump’s BMI makes him obese?

    No offense, but…isn’t that just another shiny distraction from the fact that he’s a moron and a psycho? Who cares if he’s heavy? He crows about our “beautiful destroyers” and how the Iranians “shouldn’t be allowed to make gestures” at our ships & sailors. That’s what he wants to go to war over, already…

  53. 53.

    chopper

    @Jeffro:

    I do think it’s worth noting given that he keeps going after hilz’s health and waving around a doctor’s ‘note’ that says he has the physique of a demigod.

  54. 54.

    Peale

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Yep. As Kay reported from the trenches in Ohio, the voter contact people reported that the support for her is there but that it is soft. So the screener questions for the LV are probably also going to be weeding out more soft voters as not-likely voters. Not certain how to turn that around. Since there’s quite a few people who are very much stuck right now.

  55. 55.

    bluehill

    Some people were talking about the Keepin It 1600 podcast the other day and I’ll add my vote for it. It’s led by Jon Favreau and Dan Pfeiffer, former Obama staffers. They had on Obama’s swing state director last week and he was pretty confident that Hillary was going to win because of the advantage that the dems have in GOTV and their ability to identify and target likely voters. He believes that it would have taken the repubs a couple of cycles to catch up and now with Trump’s disinterest in GOTV the advantage could be even longer. So it’s probably fair to say that the dems data is more accurate than the polls that are being conducted. If they seem relatively calm, then I’ll have to trust that it’s because of the data they are seeing.

  56. 56.

    Ruckus

    A doc I had today asked me how I’m doing and I told him much better now that you got me out of the waiting room having to listen to Crappy News Network. W. Blitzer is an idiot and he works for idiots. But you all knew that. Had on 2 separate reporters to get to the bottom of a couple of issues. Of course they just skimmed the top but the reporters did OK, Blitzer tried to make it sound like everything was OK with Trump and wrong with Clinton, but the reporters pulled him up short. Not very well but better than nothing.
    I can not began to express how much better off I am not having a TV.

  57. 57.

    shomi

    @PaulWartenberg2016: Oh just STFU you pantswetter. That is going to be my standard response to comments like this. If you are wondering “What the hell is happening” then step the fuck away from your fucking computer.

    The world is not getting worse, Things are not getting worse. It’s just that the ability to report what is going on is a lot better. You are just not capable of understanding the modern world. Information is instant. If someone gets shot in Iran protesting, you are seeing a video of it from someones cell phone seconds later.

    Stop sitting on your ass in front of a computer in the comfort of your own home reading every little fucking thing that happens in the world and thinking things are going to hell….lol.

  59. 59.

    shomi

    @amk: Ah yes, the Ball Juice presidential campaign advisor experts who think they know better than actual presidential campaign advisors. You apparently have it all figured out.

  61. 61.

    shomi

    @efgoldman: Yea but…Al Gore…therefore we are going to lose.

    I know because that is the logic I read right here on Ball Juice. I am so well infromed and I have ball juice commenters to thank.

  64. 64.

    shortribs

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:

    My BMI makes me obese, and, while I’m definitely overweight, I’m not obese. BMI is just a terrible way to judge someone’s weight.

    That’s why he released it, it’s a distraction and people will say he’s obese and they’ll quibble that he’s not obese but overweight and instead of spending 5 minutes asking about his health care policies they’ll talk about his BMI and weight and words that all basically say “BMI and weight”.

  65. 65.

    No One You Know

    Anyone who imagines that “lol” is punctuation, humour, or sarcasm, has failed all three. However, this can be anticipated from the content preceding said failure.

    It does validate Emerson’s observation about the relationship between consistency and breadth of mind, so there’s that.

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