Credit where it's due: @realDonaldTrump just sent cherry cobbler (see him pointing at that box?) to the press pool: pic.twitter.com/6QqferHtUE
— Sarah McCammon NPR (@sarahmccammon) September 20, 2016
NPR (Nice Polite Republican) stenographer, this time. Between Trump’s statement that the FDA is ‘an unnecessary burden’, and his kids’ penchant for poison Skittles, why would a sensible person eat anything Donald Trump offered?
Speaking of dinner plans, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Trump aide delivers cherry cobbler to reporters. pic.twitter.com/hVN0uwpxpy
— Sarah McCammon NPR (@sarahmccammon) September 20, 2016
Almost certainly paid for by the Trump Foundation. https://t.co/paf4ggcFLZ
— Kyle Feldscher (@Kyle_Feldscher) September 20, 2016
Of which none of the money originated with Trump https://t.co/HkG7s2baqD
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) September 20, 2016
@2Zuethes @edgeoforever @sarahmccammon It's no tire swing but needs must, right?
— BadExampleMan (@BadExampleMan) September 20, 2016
…analysis after the election suggested the feeding & watering of press lulled some reporters in to less adversarial relationship w Bush camp
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) September 20, 2016
@DanaHoule As @joanwalsh made clear, planet will be paying till the end of time for GWB feeding Panchito lobster https://t.co/M92Okl4mV6
— Regina Schrambling (@gastropoda) September 20, 2016
danielx
Preznit give me turkee!
piratedan
well, that cherry cobbler tweet had more policy in it than most of the stuff coming from the Trump campaign…
Anoniminous
Give US journalists a free BBQ meal and a beer and you’ll be a maverick forever.
Which is good news for John McCain!
Omnes Omnibus
@danielx: That still cracks me up.
Keith G
No need for knotted knickers on this. Schmoozing the press has been around since the time that newspapers expanded their reach beyond the city of printing – and probably before. I imagine that every type of “stroking” imaginable has been employed and it has been bipartisan.
If anything, for most of the last century the Democrats were better at this than the GOP. That run ended with Carter and we have had trouble getting our mojo back. Good on Donald (or whomever) for for showing a rare bit of sense. It won’t last long.
Kay
Can CNN explain (publicly, on the cable channel) why they seem to be violating their own ethics policy exclusively for Donald Trump?
Are the CNN reporters allowed to cover CNN? This is news, right? When a huge cable channel is in the tank for a candidate? The public should know that, I think we all agree. If they won’;t follow any ethics guidelines at the very least they should provide enough transparency so viewers know who works for whom there.
Boy, there sure seem to be a lot of special, one of a kind rules being created for Mr. Trump. What gives with this? Is Trump threatening them or something? Are they being held hostage? Do they need rescued?
chopper
what if I told you three of the cherries in that cobbler were poisoned?
Keith G
@chopper: Brilliant!!
debbie
@chopper:
They would still eat it. They’re reporters.
Hal
Not sure if this has been posted already as it’s days old, but why Gary Johnson has so much millennial support is a mystery to me.
http://m.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/09/why-are-there-any-liberals-supporting-gary-johnson-list
Mary G
@chopper: Ha!
Denali
@Kay,
Why are they afraid of him? No one will stand up and say the emperor haz no clothes. He really needs to be held accountable before the election.
Trollhattan
If it was delivered by Slippin’ Jimmy McGill I’d stay clear of the cobbler. Just sayin’.
Did Walnuts tell Donny about the tire swing?
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Going out for a CHADD board meeting. Somebody on the board used the CHADD credit card to pay some of her own debts when her husband left her and cleaned her out. Should be a fun meeting. After that, I’m coming back and having some of the home made tomato soup I made two nights ago. That should cheer me back up again.
jl
Not sure the food is the real bribe. Joe Biden got them coffee and donuts. it’s the implication of more important blandishments combined with friendly threats if they don’t play along. Biden didn’t bring that along with the coffee and donuts. A real pro like McCain throws RSVP BBQ parties in exclusive digs with a tire swing and a swimming pool.
Edit: or maybe it IS the food. Coffee and donuts pretty pleb compared to cherry cobbler, lobster and BBQ. But then Biden is more of a genuine regular guy, as compared to completely fake ones.
C. Isaac
Shouldn’t this also be classified as ‘our failed media experiment’?
Cuz, really, it’s downright Pavlovian responses with them lately.
Trump: “Here’s a treat!” *waves a box of cobbler*
Press: “Woof! Both sides! Woof!”
BGinCHI
Cherry cobbler is people!
JPL
Darn it .. I want donuts with sprinkles on them… Geez
scav
Thirty pieces of cobbler and the deal’s done, to put it in the vernacular of the superiorly righteous voting for the theoretical purchaser.
It must have been rare enough before to make it reporting-worthy new news, but presumably all the more desired by the fawning entourage.
JMG
Andrea Mitchell just said the debate would be easier for Trump because “all he has to do is appear normal.” And all I need to do to snag Angelina Jolie on the rebound is to appear handsome and really rich. In fairness to MSNBC, the other panelists, Chuck Tood included, had their eyebrows hit the ceiling hearing that.
JPL
I have listening to Chuck Todd, although not for the full hour. I missed where he discussed Trump’s latest policy plan to allow stop and frisk nationwide. I also missed the discussion about immigration being a quality of life issue.
rp
Read the rest of her twitter feed. She comes across as a Trump PR person.
Kathleen
Oooooh! Sarah also tweeted that Mrs. Pence brought food on the Pence plane. And that Ted Cruz said something “nice” about Trump.
Miss Bianca
@danielx: @Omnes Omnibus: OMG!! Where did that come from?!
Kathleen
@rp: I tweeted this to her: “I trust the Trump Cobbler will be dutifully reported on National RePubliCan Radio”.
dexwood
Trump paid for the cobbler with other people’s money. Took up a collection from his Secret Service detail.
NotMax
Was the cobbler made in a sweatshop baked goods plant by foreigners who overstayed their visa? Were the cherries grown in the US? Sugar or sugar substitute? Did reporters from R-friendly places get bigger slices? Why a dessert filling the same color as the flags of the USSR and China? More to come on cherrygate as details emerge…
/vapid TV news talking heads
Mike E
@BGinCHI: Candy Crowley wept.
Miss Bianca
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): I’d advise your Board member to change her name to Trump.
Yutsano
@Kay: Zucker. It all goes back to the long standing relationship Zucker has with Trump. Zucker is an old TV guy and worked with Trump for years. He knows viewers watch Trump. Viewers mean ratings and sweet sweet ad revenue. That is the thought process. All else is commentary.
jl
@JMG: After hearing Mitchell stammer out disjointed and obviously and clumsily framed leading questions with tendentious framing on tired and superficial issues in interview after interview, I can see why she would say that.
And as a small correction, you don’t need to actually snag Angelina Jolie. She could throw up in her mouth at your pass. But you would feel better if all your buddies talked like she fell in love with you instantly and took you back to her fancy digs for constant sexytime. Which I think is the real parallel with the the debates. No undecided voter is gong to be all that impressed with Trump if the best he can do is appear normal all through the debates, and not do something like walk out or dump in his hand and throw it at HRC or the moderators. But the celeb news divas will grade on a curve and some viewers will be swayed. If only getting Angelina Jolie were nearly as easy!
hovercraft
But it’s not as easy to con the American people according to this poll.
The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted Sept. 16-19
So all in all given the way the media has been beating up on her, a good result. GOTV, sign up to volunteer.
Trollhattan
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Does that mean there could be a CHADD hanging?
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: Some NYT reporter got dropped from Iraq coverage because he asked a real question. Someone on the internet did the rest. Details fade from memory.
FlipYrWhig
@hovercraft:
Interesting. My sense was that the Trump voters were madly in love with Trump.
Timurid
Which three cherries in that cobbler are the deadly ones?
hovercraft
@JPL:
Silly, didn’t yo see the data from earlier today that the media has focused on two things this entire election, (1) the horse race, (2) and ‘gaffes’, and there is no third area of focus, it’s all been horse race crap. Oh and also too, pretty much the only discussion of Clintons policies has been in the context of what Trump says about her policies, not on what she’s said. Our wonderful media.
Patricia Kayden
@hovercraft: Woo hoo!! That is some great news. I can breathe a little easier now. She had one bad week and the media went crackers. Hope she pummels Trump on Monday and continues to gain steam. When she wins in November, she’ll not only have defeated Trump — she will also have defeated the media, which worked overtime to normalize a man who is wholly unqualified to be President.
Elizabelle
Just caught CNN’s debate promo a few minutes ago.
It looks like a wrestling cage match promo. “Clinton and Trump. Head to Head.” Why don’t they put the candidates in wrestling singlets?
Jeebus. Have never seen anything that low. I feel so badly for Hillary, having such an awful opponent and a staggeringly ridiculous press. But she will survive and win.
CNN effing sucks. Wolf Blitzer has been woodying over coverage of the Chelsea bomber; top of the hour news, since nothing more important is going on in the US.
Elizabelle
@Timurid: Zing! Well done.
Trollhattan
The Sheriff is…Justin Forsett.
Helps with the punchline if you follow football. Anyway, good for him!
Patricia Kayden
@FlipYrWhig: Trump is madly in love with Trump so he’ll be alright even when he loses in November. He can continue to grift out his “charity” and may even reopen his “University”. Who knows?
FlipYrWhig
@Trollhattan: Oh, man, that’s the best kind of pun — a terrible one.
Trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
In 2012 the campaign’s nadir was debate #1, with Sully running around with the vapors and all, but I suspect we’ve already hit our 2016 nadir.
Elizabelle
@JMG: Andrea Mitchell is good at the “normal” business. It’s not that often you see the forked tongue and the cloven hooves.
In a stable of deplorable NBC “talent”, she’s about the worst. I wish she would retire or get retired.
Which is probably why she’s still there, and has a job for life.
Roger Moore
@Elizabelle:
They want to encourage viewership, not drive people away. SATSQ.
Patricia Kayden
@Elizabelle: For CNN, the debate is nothing but entertainment and ad bait. If putting them in a boxing ring would lead to a bigger audience, CNN would do it in a heartbeat.
hovercraft
@FlipYrWhig:
A lot of the numbers in the poll contradict the ‘narrative’ we’ve been hearing the last few weeks. I have been told there’s just no enthusiasm for Hillary. When Chucky tried to lament the huge turnout drop due to the unfavorable numbers of the candidates, and their disgust at the tone of the race, Bill MacInturf the GOP half of the pollster shot him down pointing out that the same concerns were voiced in 2012, and they were proved wrong which was why RMoney was shocked when he lost. He pointed out that it’s before the first debate and many people are still not engaged. He also pointed out that the GOTV efforts are not equal and she has a big advantage there which will also help her.
FlipYrWhig
@hovercraft: I was telling everybody that Trump didn’t do anything better or more appealingly in recent days/weeks than he had all along. I think the SKY IS FALLING numbers were mostly coming from different firms’ tugging on levers and cranks to try to figure out who the “likely voters” are. I figure she maybe lost a point for the “deplorables” thing, not so much because of the substance but because it started to make Democrats get antsy about her potential for gaffes and, ick, “optics.” And the ZOMG NUMONYA! story was one of the stupidest things I have ever seen in political media.
Jeffro
@hovercraft: good yes but it is still disgraceful the way the media has not hounded every Republican official in this country and gotten them on the record as to whether or not they support or deny Trump
Aleta
@chopper:
-from New York Magazine, September
FlipYrWhig
@Elizabelle: She is truly terrible, and she’s been at it a very long time and has no excuse. Like, Tom Brokaw sucks, and I know exactly why he sucks, and it’s because he has daddy issues and is furiously trying to demonstrate that his performance of gravitas makes up for never having gone to war. Tim Russert, same deal. Andrea Mitchell, why exactly does she have to be so horrible?
Starfish
The FDA has not been doing a lot to earn our faith lately with the whole way that they fund treatments for rare diseases, and companies turn around and patent those same drugs for much more lucrative things or with the recent garbage about a Muscular dystrophy treatment that may not work costing $300,000/yr. Granted some of this may be Congress’s fault for not repairing the institution, but they are not exactly covering themselves with glory.
germy
@Aleta: Polonium-210?
singfoom
@FlipYrWhig:
First of all, kudos for ZOMG NUMONYA!. Secondly, I’m convinced the entire ZOMG NUMONYA! ‘storyline’ was insider baseball for journalists. Another data point in the “she’s secretive” narrative that they all have internalized. Of course, it was a big deal for crazy people who believe she’s got X disease, but they’ll believe that regardless. Anyone who cares that she didn’t disclose pneumonia immediately already thought ill of her on some other issue. It was embarrassing for all journalists involved.
germy
@FlipYrWhig: well, look who she married.
geg6
Can’t remember where I read it today, but someone was saying that Hillary’s ground game advantage isn’t that big an advantage because of the awesomeness of the RNC. That they have always done well in the turnout game, if you don’t count the Obama campaigns, so the Trump campaign’s lack of preparation for GOTV will not be as big a problem as we assume since they will be handling it. But in my experience and to my knowledge, the parties, while doing what they can for the presidential nominee (which usually means sharing resources like lists and some finances) usually concentrate on the down ticket and the presidential nominee’s campaign handles their own end of things. So WTF was this asshole talking about? How mighty can the RNC be if they are splitting their time, efforts and resources in half? Who are these pod people the media hire?
Trentrunner
Assuming Hillary wins this (likely but by no means guaranteed, no complacency, don’t boo–vote, etc.), the scariest takeaway for the future is that someone with Trump’s exact views but with just a bit more political finesse could easily get elected. It’ll be that close.
In other words, the fact that Trump’s outrageous positions haven’t given Hillary a 25-point lead is sobering.
germy
Lester Holt is a registered republican? I guess tax breaks for overpaid TV talkers trumps civil rights and the VRA.
Mnemosyne
As a former entertainment journalist, yep, you gotta feed the press or they become cranky. Free booze is also important. Studios and politicians forget this at their peril.
geg6
@FlipYrWhig:
It’s who she is. She married Alan Fucking Greenspan for fuck’s sake. She’s a goddamn monster.
Trollhattan
@germy:
She stall walks among us, so probably not but a decent guess in any case.
SiubhanDuinne
@FlipYrWhig:
Some are born horrible, some achieve horribleness, and some have horribleness thrust upon them.
JPL
CBS is talking about Trump’s new stop and frisk policies, as well as the blacks being lumped together in one community. Don King’s comment was shown with a bleep. hmmmm
Felonius Monk
@FlipYrWhig:
Because it’s in her DNA. She was born horrible and will be horrible forever more.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
I wish they weren’t hosting it. We have a presidential debate commission, right? Can they just take over the whole thing? I wouldn’t mind, at all, watching it on C-SPAN. No one would. No one would care who hosts it.
CNN doesn’t care about credibility, which means they shouldn’t be rewarded.
I don’t actually believe the debates will be “game changing”. There’s absolutely no reason to believe any of them will get any better at this, suddenly, next week. Clinton is a strong debater- she’s talented at it. That’s all I know. I have looowww expectations for the debate itself.
JPL
@germy: Chris Wallace is a registered Democrat. Sometimes you register to vote depending on local primaries.
hovercraft
@FlipYrWhig:
That’s in the poll, if I remember correctly the percentage of people who were concerned about her comments about Trump supporters was 29 % and those concerned about her health was even lower at 25 % . So given that those percentages are much lower than the portion of the vote he’s getting, not even all of his supporters were as outraged or as oh my god she’s dying, as the media.
Both events were just a chance for the media to freak out but to most voters, not a big deal.
Villago Delenda Est
It’s not so much that they’re wanton prostitutes, it’s how cheaply they can be bought off.
PIGL
On account of one low-down bar I used to frequent near last call, I was acquainted with -not so much a 5 as a 20- dollar crack whore. I am pretty certain she was a much more trustworthy, nicer. more principled person than these here big shot reporters. She definitely laboured under much fewer delusions about her place in the world.
ETA: she was also higher class. $20 would buy one nice rock, but it’ll buy a fuckton of ersatz-cherry cobbler.
germy
MSNBC’s Hugh Hewitt Says ‘Skittles’ Uproar Is ‘Absurd’ And Will ‘Help Donald Trump’
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne:
*applause*
Kay
Donald Trump doesn’t have the authority as President to institute “stop and frisk” in cities and states. How is he planning on doing this? Federalize every police force?
Is anyone going to admit that Donald Trump doesn’t know the first thing about the United States?
He doesn’t know the basic framework of the United States government.
It’s fucking unbelievable. It’s “the emperor has no clothes”. Why are they AFRAID of him? He’s a moron.
Miss Bianca
@germy: Who is this douche-nozzle Hugh Hewitt, anyway?
JPL
@germy: Did he say anything about mushrooms?
germy
@JPL: One bad mushroom can poison a whole village!
mike in dc
Incidentally, Angelina Jolie has way better foreign policy chops than Trump. It’s not even close.
Gravenstone
@Miss Bianca: Yeah, I for one was not aware of that particular internet tradition.
Corner Stone
@Miss Bianca:
Whoever he is, he belongs to MSNBC.
JMG
@Kay: He doesn’t know the concept of federal government at all. When I mentioned this on a non-political Website I frequent, one of the Trump supporters replied it didn’t matter because Obama had already destroyed the Constitution. It isn’t just Trump. There’s an army of deluded, stupid paranoid people out there, 99.9 percent of them white guys. I’m a white guy. I sometimes wonder how did Obama ruin the sex lives of so many of my peer group.
PS: the media’s not afraid of him, they’re afraid of their bosses.
germy
When the only sound on the empty street
Is the heavy tread of the heavy feet
That belong to a lonesome cop
I open shop
The moon so long has been gazing down
On the wayward ways of this wayward town
Her smile becomes a smirk, I go to work
Love for sale
Appetizing young love for sale
Love that’s fresh and still unspoiled
Love that’s only slightly soiled
Love for sale
Who will buy
Who would like to sample my supply
Who’s prepared to pay the price
For a trip to paradise
Love for sale
Let the poets pipe of love
In their childish ways
I know every type of love
Better far than they
If you want the thrill of love
I’ve been through the mill of love
Old love
New love
Every love but true love
Love for sale
Appetizing young love for sale
If you want to buy my wares
Follow me and climb the stairs
Love for sale
sukabi
@Starfish: born that way and or married to greenspan…
Ok, weird that was for flipyourwhig above you…
Omnes Omnibus
@Gravenstone: It was all over Eschaton back in the day.
jl
@germy: I doubt it. Might be different if there were not so much stupid along with the hate. Certain voters might be OK with the hate, but not the stupid.
I heard poll results that indicated Trump is only getting little more than 50 percent of the White vote. That seems low to me. If it is true, we can expect more BS Trump stunts that are pitched to the White bigot vote to try to increase that source of support. Many disguised as some kind of bogus minority community outreach, like Trump’s proposal to adopt a nationwide stop and frisk policy.
Heywood J.
@Yutsano: It’s even better than that. Jeff Sucker is the one who green-lit Drumpf’s pretend-tycoon reality-teevee show. And the Drumpf “foundation” donated $150k to the Manhattan prep school where Sucker’s and Drumpf’s children attend, and where Sucker’s wife just happened to be on the school board. So it’s no surprise that Lewandowski got in CNN right away as a hired shill, while pretending to not work for the scampaign anymore.
These people are working hand-in-glove, and barely bothering to conceal it.
Elizabelle
@JPL: Watching ABC/David Muir and they’ve done a very good job tonight. Still about 2/3 time to Trump, but it’s basically calling him out on maybe 4 incorrect statements. Including a long chyron up about stop and frisk. Footage of John Lewis and PBO to refute the “blacks have it worse today than ever” hyperbole. Re Farenthold stories from WaPost, reporter said Trump campaign called the reporting inaccurate and full of error, whatever the adjective, “but provided no examples.”
Much better than last time I watched, a few months ago.
SiubhanDuinne
@Trollhattan:
In 2000 the campaign’s nadir was Nader.
Kay
@JMG:
Well, just because their leader is a dope and they’re delusional doesn’t mean cities and states won’t object to Donald Trump’s order to institute stop and frisk. They will. They’ll prevail too.
Because Donald Trump is a moron doesn’t mean everyone else becomes one too. How embarrassing is it that he came out of all those fancy private schools. What are they teaching in those places? Nothing?
Elizabelle
@Kay: Why is the media afraid of Trump?
Maybe because the old white critter flying monkey squad has loads of time to bitch and whinge? And are more likely to park their asses in front of the teevee for extended periods of time?
Maybe because he’s the Republican nominee, and thus worthy of more deference than the Democrat?
I don’t understand, myself.
Roger Moore
@Starfish:
It’s mostly NIH that funds the medical research that leads to new drugs. FDA does regulation of drugs that have already been invented, both deciding which ones are useful enough that they can be prescribed and monitoring the manufacturing process to make sure they are what they say they are. FDA also regulates cosmetics and some kinds* of foods.
*The rules about which foods are handled by which agency (FDA, USDA, or state regulators) make very little sense to me. The rule of thumb seems to be that USDA regulates relatively unprocessed foods like meat, while FDA regulates processed foods. OTOH, for whatever reason FDA is responsible for eggs in the shell while USDA is responsible for egg products like dried powdered eggs, and FDA is responsible for pasteurized milk while raw milk is regulated at the state level.
hovercraft
@Miss Bianca:
An asshole conservative radio talkshow host who msnbc hired this year to help balance out their ‘liberals’ on election and debate nights, and as a analyst. Basically he makes Halpern seem reasonable. Everytime he speaks he recites all those ’90’s scandals with some names peppered in that you’ve never heard of. People whom I guess if I listened to the radio would be familiar. But to us normals mean nothing.
germy
@SiubhanDuinne: Debate #1 from 2012 is the reason I get irritated hearing people say “romney was a decent man, not at all like trump” …. except Mitt lied during the entire first debate which completely threw Obama off his game.
sukabi
@Kay: it’s out there, he’s an eavesdropper and probably a high tech peeper….
You can get alot of “leverage” that way… or so some people say
different-church-lady
@hovercraft: good. Because I really wasn’t looking forward to finding out what drain cleaner tasted like.
Heywood J.
@JPL: Of course, Drumpf doesn’t want the stop-and-frisk policy applied to him, lest they find the faux-gold-plated penis pump he carries with him at all times….
Gravenstone
@germy: Some people need to have a single rejoinder to anything and everything they utter. “Have you always been an asshole, or is this just a bad day for you?” Hewitt is one of those people.
Kay
7
If all you watched was CNN you would think Trump was winning. Of course, they also hire campaign operatives and pretend it’s “news”.
germy
@sukabi:
Didn’t Hillary and Bill stay at that hotel a few years ago? I wonder if he heard something he’s saving for the first debate.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kay: They’ve been conditioned for decades to ignore men parading around naked. Shitty grade Z movie star, Poppy “off budget for all the S&Ls” Bush, his son the deserting coward, John “look who I picked as a running mate!” McCain, Mittens “47%” Rmoney, the tiny-fingered, cheeto-faced, ferret wearing shitgibbon. Meanwhile, let’s boil Hillary in oil because the Clintons don’t take a salary for their roles at the Clinton Foundation, and 90% of its income is put into programs, not portraits, legal settlements, or bowls of skittles.
Gravenstone
@Kay: I would put $20 on Trump not being able to pass a junior high civics final exam.
jimmiraybob
Would someone purporting to be a journalist check to see if the bakery actually got paid?
Kay
@Elizabelle:
I hope she wins so she can tell them all to fuck off. They seem to admire that, so why not?
Gravenstone
@Omnes Omnibus: Was never much of a follower of his. Ah well.
JPL
@Elizabelle: Wow! Maybe someone will weigh in about NBC.
jenn
Since a story about Marshawn Lynch started off today, I thought I’d add one about Richard Sherman for the close, since I’ve no idea if it’ll make the national media.
http://www.seahawks.com/news/2016/09/21/seahawks-cornerback-richard-sherman-%E2%80%9C-wrong-and-we-need-do-something%E2%80%9D
lamh36
I’m not sure what more insulting, Black folk willing to be bought & used by Trump or GOP white folks who obviously believe Black folk are either so naive, stupid or dumb that we’d fall for the bullshit Trump and his Black surrogates and the white media folks are spewing…
Just One More Canuck
@SiubhanDuinne: in her case, it’s all three
jenn
Huh, I appear to have gone into moderation. Trying again:
Since a story about Marshawn Lynch started off today, I thought I’d add one about Richard Sherman for the close, since I’ve no idea if it’ll make the national media.
Starfish
@Roger Moore: That is so weird about the eggs.
To clarify, I meant the orphan drug racket has been crazy.
Elizabelle
@JPL: Hazard pay. More chance of a Mitchell-Greenspan sighting. Ssssssssss.
PS: Watching ET on Brangelina! now. PBS has Gary Johnson. But now, police shooting in Tulsa. Tuning in for that ….
Kay
@Gravenstone:
That’s what I want them to ask him at the debate. “What does NATO stand for? What are the countries in the TPP? How many Senators are there? Does the federal government have “police power”? Describe the Commerce Clause in your own words. What are the 17th and 19th amendments?”
They can’t though because it would be too easy for Clinton. They have to pretend he knows something.
They could give her harder questions.
FlipYrWhig
@Gravenstone: I’m not even sure he knows his own age or the current year.
Lizzy L
@Gravenstone:
Civics is not much taught in junior high schools these days. Nor history. Nor what we used to call “social studies.” However, given what happens when Trump is asked any question which requires a factual answer, I think you’d win your bet.
FlipYrWhig
@Kay: I’ll tell you how that would go over, because we saw it with Dubya Bush: “We’re electing a president, not a Jeopardy champion.”
Like you’ve been saying, I genuinely question whether he understands what work, any work, actually is. I feel like for his whole life he’s sat in an office, had people come in with various ideas, listened for about 3 minutes, and then said “yes” or “no.” And that he’s done it maybe twice a week for 2 hours at a time. He doesn’t read, he doesn’t think, he doesn’t like to sit still, he has no attention span. And he knows nothing and is _proud_ to know nothing because it means he can go with his gut and the last thing he heard on TV.
Elizabelle
PBS did not bleep out Don King’s N word.
Both ABC and PBS picked up Hillary’s comment on the two most recent police shootings:
Short, sad, and memorable.
hovercraft
@mike in dc:
A sad truth.
Kay
@Gravenstone:
It would be entertaining to have two tiers of questions- easy/basic for Trump, more complex/ difficult for Clinton.
On TPP, for Trump: “TPP includes which countries?”
Then to Clinton: “TPP interacts with/supplants NAFTA how?”
She’d still win. I would even agree to it.
Elizabelle
When he’s not shouting, Trump has a kind of approachable speaking voice, and he gets to the point. Point may be mistaken or deplorable, but he doesn’t make you wait that long for it.
I think that works for him. Reasonable sounding voice, saying unreasonable things.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
What is CHADD?
Kay
@FlipYrWhig:
None of the Trumps have ever applied for a job. Imagine that. I feel like job-applying was central to my development as an adult. They skipped that whole chapter.
Elizabelle
@Kay: True that. Talk about shooting fish in a silver barrel. And maybe applying for a job elsewhere would be, like, beneath them. Although they did have to apply to college …
@Steeplejack (phone): It’s an ADD self-help group. (Attention deficit)
Kay
@FlipYrWhig:
Those would be good questions. “Have you ever..” applied for a job, been fired, applied for a home/auto loan, gone grocery shopping, pumped your own gas, prepared a meal for other people, flown coach, rented a car- there are hundreds of those.
Kay
@FlipYrWhig:
First answer from Trump himself. Incredible. He doesn’t have to respond to any of these scandals. Just gets a complete pass.
Kay
Okay this is the first time Donald Trump has had to answer a question on the foundation scandal and this is his answer:
It’s gibberish. Imagine ANY OTHER candidate answering a question like that.
Aleta
@germy: Bizarro Red Kryptonite
different-church-lady
@Elizabelle: I’d say it was deplorable, but apparently people get offended by that concept.
different-church-lady
@FlipYrWhig:
And look how well that turned out.
MisterForkbeard
@Kay: Honestly, I would love for people to actually see the video of him answering it. He’s so completely clueness it’s not even funny.
Sab
Driving around NE Ohio today, I saw a Trump Putin 2016 bumper sticker.
Lizzy L
@Kay: It is complete nonsense. Gibberish. Meaningless words. Imagine if he does that in the debate Monday night. Imagine being the moderator — listening to that.
hovercraft
@germy:
Steve Benin had a post this morning about this, back in 2012 he kept a running tally of all of RMoney’s lies. He pointed out at the time that he was the most mendacious candidate ever. This time he says he can’t do it because obviously that would be a full time job and would take more than one person to do so accurately.
JMG
In basketball terms, Trump can’t take a pressure defense. Or any defense. If his line of bullshit is interrupted or challenged, gibberish results. Since most Americans react exactly the same way, it has yet to hurt him too much. Monday might be different.
Kay
@Lizzy L:
“The foundation is really rare” made me laugh out loud. What?
Mnemosyne
@singfoom:
I laughed at the freakout because I remember the time my friend’s teenage son went to Disneyland with walking pneumonia and didn’t realize it.
Hal
Can I be taken out of moderation, please? All my comments with links lately end up that way. I swear I won’t post any spoilers.
Roger Moore
@Hal:
I don’t see why not. Moderation has never been this blog’s strong point; we’re much more of a radical group.
eclare
@Kay: That is Palin quality word salad.
Lurking Canadian
@germy: I’m right there with you. People are talking like Romney was an OK candidate. No, Romney was a horrifying sociopath. It’s just that Trump is somehow worse.
I guess you could argue that a meal of tire rims and anthrax is in some sense worse than a meal of ten-penny nails and botulism, but that hardly makes the latter an acceptable choice for dinner.
schrodinger's cat
@Gravenstone: I bet he fails the citizenship exam.
rikyrah
@hovercraft:
In his own way, Josh Marshall has become the Benen of this election season.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@Lurking Canadian:
Mittens has never come accross as wanting to nuke Mexico like Trump does.
eclare
@Enhanced Voting Techinques: That is how low Republicans have set the standards. Yes, Mitt was awful, and I disagreed with all of his policies, but I could have woken up in the morning not worrying that he had nuked Iran or the New York Daily News.
Hoodie
I’m starting to feel more optimistic now that it appears that Hillary has weathered the recent media-assisted Trump surge. I can’t help thinking that Trump may be analogous to an overhyped underdog that goes into a title game against a no-nonsense juggernaut like Alabama. They may start out with a quick drive and some trick plays, may even score an early TD, but end up losing by 40 after the Alabama O and D lines grind them to dust. If the moderators at the debates do anything more than a Matt Lauer, Trump will be nothing but gibberish within 30 minutes, as his repertoire is very limited once you get past racial stereotypes, conspiracy theories and insults. The audience for the GOP debates was mostly dopes and whackjobs and his competitors were too scared of alienating Trump’s mouthbreather base, which played to his strengths as a fountain of nonsense. There is some hope that democrats working the refs over the past few weeks will have had a positive effect during the debates. The moderators may feel a bit more constrained to actually discuss policy and give Hillary an opportunity to show what an empty grifter he is. She’ll also be able to showcase her stamina to put all the health nonsense to bed, while I suspect that Trump will start getting very tired and grumpy as the debate wears on.
waysel
@Elizabelle: Shades of Reagan.
hovercraft
@Lizzy L:
I need a translation into American please.
PsiFighter37
@SiubhanDuinne: Or thrust into them, because she is married to Alan Greenspan, after all.
I’ll accept your plaudits and thanks for that mental image that you can never erase.
hovercraft
@schrodinger’s cat:
Citizenship test? I bet he has no idea what the amendments are to the constitution beyond the 2nd, and since I’m feeling generous I’ll grant that he knows the 1st protects free speech, but even with that he doesn’t understand it.
JMG
The discrepancy between state and national polls is getting wider and wider — with the latter Clinton’s way. A worrisome note, given how 2012 turned out.
Matt McIrvin
@Hoodie: The moderator at the last one will be Chris Wallace, who will presumably be completely in the tank for Trump. Clinton had better be prepared for that.
hovercraft
@rikyrah:
Yes, so far I’d give him and Farenthold the award for best coverage so far this election.
Frankensteinbeck
@JMG:
With… us… winning?
Hoodie
@Matt McIrvin: Hopefully by that time it won’t matter. Moreover, my impression is that Wallace is not as stupid or committed as the average Foxer, and may realize Trump is a sinking ship not worth saving.
hovercraft
@Hoodie:
Michael D. McCurry who was President Clinton’s press secretary, who is on the debate commission actually said the other day that it is not up to the moderator to fact check the candidates, he said they, the commission, believe that’s between the debaters. He basically said that Candy Crowley shouldn’t have ‘interfered’ in the debate, the moderators should be as unobtrusive as possible and let the candidates duke it out. That’s from a democrat. So my expectations are basically for no pushback from the moderator, and hers better be too.
Jeffro
@FlipYrWhig:
It makes a little sense, though – true Trumpistas weren’t a majority in most (almost all?) of the GOP primaries. 41% of the GOP electorate being genuinely pro-Trump and 51% being too stubborn/too propagandized against HRC to do anything but vote for “The Nominee” seems to fit with what we saw all year.
Hoodie
@hovercraft: It might be too much to expect pushback, but the questions might be more likely to reveal Trump’s lack of substance. Moreover, these “journalists” have massive egos, so debate commission probably does not have much ability to control their behavior. McCurry could be just spouting nonsense.
JMG
@Frankensteinbeck: No, but because it’s the exact opposite of the Obama-Romney dynamic in 2012. That’s why Silver is freaking out. Well, that and because if he’s wrong ESPN will fire his ass.
mike in dc
@hovercraft:
I don’t think Clinton should rebut him point by point, but take the most obvious and egregious lies and call them straight out lies.
JMG
If Holt opens with a question about emails, Rockefeller Center should be looted by an angry mob. But he won’t. Just judging from the topic titles, the idea is to let it be as vague as possible to let Trump just bullshit his way through 90 minutes. Words we won’t hear from Holt “Foundation,” “tax returns,” “racism.”
Jeffro
@Trentrunner:
Same views but no 50-year history of grifting/record of fraud, not dumb enough to go after Gold Star parents and POWs, not a complete pig towards women, etc. This person would be a threat, but I think the national GOP’s heading for one nice, drawn-out civil war next cycle or two. Nouveau Trump might get knifed by the Kochs’ pick before he can make it out of the gate.
You know, that’s true…but whether we like it or not (and we don’t) there are several big advantages Trump has had here. He has to have one of the highest name recognition “scores” in America, and I bet that’s been true for over 30 years. He’s been seen as super-rich (and therefore successful/smart) by folks who don’t know any better. Related to that, he’s not just rich/smart/successful but he’s in BUSINESS don’t you know – and quite a bit of the electorate thinks we need to ‘run this country more like a business’.
He’s also put on this ‘strongman’ persona in the past 8 years, and that is (unfortunately) appealing to a large number of GOP voters. Heck, part of the reason I like Hillary is that she’s tough as hell, if I’m being honest. I just also require brains and a moral compass, so she still passes with flying colors.
Matt McIrvin
@Frankensteinbeck: I think the idea is that in 2012 aggregated state polls were more accurate than national ones, so if Clinton is doing better in national polls that’s bad.
Personally, I think what’s happening here is mostly the time lag in aggregated state data relative to national tracking polls. The state information is working through the terrible national situation from a week ago.
hovercraft
@mike in dc:
I agree if she tried to fact check him, that would eat up all of time. She needs to make a positive case for herself. Let the audience see a contrast between someone who knows what the hell they’re talking about, and a buffoon whose answers need translation into normal people speak.
Matt McIrvin
@JMG: It’s not, though. In 2012, Obama was always ahead of Romney in aggregated state polls. In 2016… Clinton has always been ahead of Trump in aggregated state polls. Silver sometimes has her behind because his models use national ones to track short-term fluctuations.
Jeffro
@Kay:
He didn’t know what the nuclear triad was…he thinks Brexit is great…he wants Japan and South Korea to re-arm, with nukes…
He doesn’t even know the extent of what he doesn’t know. He’s Dunning-Kruger, squared. Cubed.
Jeffro
@Corner Stone:
All I know is, thanks to Betty, he’s ruined cream cheese for me forever.
And that stuff is good in buffalo chicken dip and millions of other things that are not good for my weight.
hovercraft
@JMG:
He may not open with it, but you know it will be a topic, especially because the public doesn’t ‘trust’ her. Every reporter seems to think that they’ll be the one to finally admit that she set it up so that she could smuggle state secrets to Russia and China, and to hide her affair with Huma and Fidel.
Jeffro
@Gravenstone:
I would bet my IRA on it.
I also bet Hillary could give a three-hour lecture on any one of a dozen American History topics, given 15 minutes’ notice.
hovercraft
@Matt McIrvin:
Exactly, the state polls lag the national polls, remember a couple of weeks ago as her national lead shrunk, we were consoling ourselves with the state polls. Then the state polls began to tighten, and now the nationals are stabilizing, while the state polls are again lagging.
Jeffro
@Lizzy L:
Just imagine Hillary pantsing him, again and again, on issues like that.
Actually better yet, imagine her mocking him by asking some of the civics questions that have been noted upthread. “Donald, ______? Donald, _____? Donald, you don’t really know a whole lot about this country, its people, or the Constitution, do you?”
Jeffro
@Enhanced Voting Techinques: @eclare:
I have to agree with you both – Mitt was and is appalling, but he was ‘oranges’ (or at least a pampered, free-range, elitist orange) compared to Obama’s ‘apples’. Trump is rancid meat.
Matt McIrvin
@mike in dc: Yeah… if you set out to rebut every point individually, it becomes like a high-school debate that you can win with a Gish Gallop/”spreading” technique, spewing so much bullshit that the other side loses on points for not rebutting everything you said. Similar to Romney did in his first debate against Obama, though there it was more that Obama wasn’t prepared to call him out at all.
Zinsky
Someone should have taken that cherry cobbler and smeared it all over Trump’s face and his repulsive orange mop of a hairdo.
Matt McIrvin
@hovercraft: The same dynamic happened during the McCain/Palin convention bounce in 2008, and the period after the first debate in 2012. Democrats who wanted solace hung around Sam Wang’s site while the national polls were tanking, and then gritted their teeth and bore it while the state results registered it with a delay.
Tehanu
As Rick Blaine once observed, “I don’t mind a parasite. I object to a cut-rate one.” You’d think these shills would figure out just how cheaply they’re being bought….