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You are here: Home / Politics / America / A Couple of Important Data Points

A Couple of Important Data Points

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While nothing is ever guaranteed and hope, while necessary, is not a strategy, there are a couple of important data points that I think need to be highlighted. The first is new polling by NBC and Marist.

Here’s the pdfs with the actual surveys and responses for Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

The most recent Quinnipiac Poll, which was done farther out from the Helsinki summit than the NBC/Marist poll has the President back right around his hard floor of support.

I know a lot of folks were very concerned about the rise of the President’s approval rating to that 45% mark just post Helsinki, but as has happened every time he’s gotten one of these momentary upticks, the next round of polling sees his approval numbers go right back to his hard floor around 38%. And honestly, with the handfull of spikes in support that never seem to stick, the President’s hard floor is also his long term ceiling of support.

Finally, Senator Cruz has now challenged Congressman O’Rourke to five debates between now and the general election in November. Up till now he’d blown off and ignored Congressman O’Rourke’s challenge for six debates between the end of the primary and the general election.

I’m in complete agreement with Dan Pfeiffer and Josh Marshall that this indicates that the Cruz campaign’s internal polling is not good.

Stay focused!

Open thread.

 

Reader Interactions

149Comments

  5. 5.

    chris

    Ted Cruz’s internal numbers are not headed in the right direction

    Best news I’ve heard all day.

  7. 7.

    Mary G

    Both those items brightened my day considerably. I think Cruz thinks he’ll look more grownup and smart standing beside Beto, and I think he’s gonna regret it. Beto has gone to every county and every group of voters who’ll have him and will know a lot better what people not in the Fox News bubble want.

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    Even if you’re the biggest shitlord in the universe, which Ted is.

    I used to believe this, and then Trump happened.

    It’s like the old saying about idiot-proof designs, that they simply challenge the universe to produce bigger idiots.

  11. 11.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: Marshall, who went to college with Cruz, and whose wife went to both college and law school with him (she must have been burning off some really BAD karma!!!), offered this take:

  12. 12.

    clay

    I’m of the opinion that the more people see/hear Ted Cruz, the less they like him. So these debates should be good news for Beto!

  14. 14.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mary G:

    I’m going to echo something you said earlier — all of this good news is motivating me to work even harder on this election so we can (figuratively) pound these clowns into the turf.

    There’s nothing more fun than a blowout election in our favor. ?

    (Also, did you go to the Aquarium of the Pacific with your honorary niece and nephew yet? If you haven’t, I think you’ll all have a blast.)

  15. 15.

    Major Major Major Major

    That Q poll was brutal.

    It’s funny that Ted Cruz thinks debates make him look good. Nothing makes him look good.

  17. 17.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    This is a BIG risk for Cruz. It increases the likelihood that witnesses will come forward and identify him as the Zodiac Killer.

  18. 18.

    Adam L Silverman

    @clay: That’s essentially what Josh and a bunch of others are arguing. That if Cruz’s internal polling was good, he wouldn’t do this because he’s so personally off putting.

  19. 19.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Yeah, Ted has debating skills in technical terms.

    The problem, of course, is that Academic Debate Team is about a million miles from debating in front of an audience of regular people. I do have mixed feelings about it, because conservatives LIKE shitlords. They find them charming and admirable. Like everything, I think this will come down to how pissed our side is.

  22. 22.

    B.B.A.

    @dmsilev: Cruz is just as malevolent as Trump but actually understands how shit works, which makes him much more dangerous. Honest to God, back in ’16 I thought a Cruz presidency was ten times scarier than a Trump presidency.

  24. 24.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    What is your 2018 vote message?
    MI: 53% check and balance, 33% support Trump agenda

    I love that question, I hope it’s asked in every state, in every district

    TX-Sen and GA- Gov are long shots, but 1) the Rs will have to spend money they didn’t think they would and 2) Abrams and O’Rourke are great candidates who could do a lot to lift downticket candidates and maybe build up the state parties now and in the future.

    Here’s hoping they pass all my litmus tests!

  25. 25.

    Platonailedit

    CW is internal polls are accurate. If so and if their internal poll says that they are about to be whacked, why are they even running?

  26. 26.

    YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)

    When I saw the Cruz debate offer I wondered whether this was a sign of problems for him. Opting for 5 debates may be a sign.

  31. 31.

    dmsilev

    Remembering back to the 2016 primaries, Cruz came off as an unlikeable dick _to the GOP primary electorate_. Deciding that what his general election campaign needs is More Cruz, he’s either delusional or panicked or both.

  32. 32.

    clay

    @Mnemosyne: Hey M, can ask you an OT question? Obviously if you can’t comment, or just don’t know anything, that’s fine:

    What’s the internal situation at Disney regarding the James Gunn firing? Is there any internal debate or pushback against it? Do you think there’s any possibility of the decision being reversed? I can’t really defend Gunn’s tweets, but they WERE jokes and they WERE a long time ago, and he seems like a good guy.

    From the outside, it seems like the firing happened really quickly and knee-jerk. And I hate to see Mike Effing Cernovich score a win with Disney’s help.

  33. 33.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    It’s true, Cruz proposed Friday nights in the fall for the debates. What a talking point for O’Rourke: “I guess in Calgary, folks are home watching TV on Friday nights in September. In Texas, most of us have other stuff to do those nights.”

    Clear eyes, full hearts….

  34. 34.

    GregB

    I think that the Helsinki capitulation was Trump’s Katrina.

    It pulled back the curtain for much of beltway.

    It was also staggeringly hamhanded and really made him look like a weak and doddering buffoon, liar and chickenshit.

    Putin publicly giving hus junior partner a bugger soccer ball was the coup de grace.

  37. 37.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Calouste: It also shows how little Bannon understands politics in Europe and just because the terms right wing or conservative are applied as a label to a party in Europe it doesn’t mean the same thing as in the US. The Polish government did make a hard right turn, but they remember very well both the NAZIs and the Soviets and before the Soviets the imperial Russians. They have no interest in neo-fascism, neo-nationalism infused/inspired/conflated with neo-fascism, or anything to do with Putin’s Russia. I don’t think he realizes that there are no 1st Amendment rights to free speech anywhere in Europe. He sets up shop in Brussels and says the wrong thing and he’s headed to prison.

  38. 38.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    more good news

    Adam Best @ adamcbest
    Look at how much youth registration (18-29) is up in these states:
    AZ: 8%
    FL: 8%
    IN: 10%
    MN: 5%
    MT: 4%
    NC: 6%
    NV: 7%
    OH: 6%
    PA: 16%
    VA: 10%
    WI: 6%

  40. 40.

    NotMax

    Fast note to say arrived in one piece. With flight delays and extra TSA time, around 16 hours travel time.

  42. 42.

    smike

    @clay:
    I hope so. My wife has been working her butt off for him. I’ve seen him twice during his tour and he is inspiring. He draws good crowds, too.

    I live in a red area, but I always get good comments on my Beto shirt at our local HEB.

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne

    @clay:

    Honestly, the company is so siloed that I’m just as much in the dark as everyone else. I’m not even allowed to go into Marvel’s building without someone to escort me.

    As a fan, I’m pissed, and I just know that it’s revenge for Roseanne’s firing. It also doesn’t help that they were rape “jokes” since we have a fair amount of upheaval about sexual harassment ’round about these parts.

    But I have zero inside information. Sorry.

  48. 48.

    Adam L Silverman

    @YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S): Well Beto initially challenged him to 6. Cruz had not really responded until now where he counter-challenged with 5. You don’t make that big a switch if your internals are strong.

    The real question is just how weak are the internals? There’s no way to answer that one.

  51. 51.

    Yarrow

    @Adam L Silverman:

    That if Cruz’s internal polling was good, he wouldn’t do this because he’s so personally off putting.

    This is exactly right. Cruz’s internal polling must be awful. And nobody likes Ted Cruz. Standing up there next to Beto is not going to help him one bit. Beto is smart, funny, good looking and charismatic. Ted Cruz is…not those things.

  54. 54.

    fedupwithhypocrisy

    “Cruz has long expressed openness to debating O’Rourke, but his campaign has resisted making commitments until now. O’Rourke’s campaign first reached out to Cruz’s in April to start coordinating a debate schedule. The letter to senior Cruz staffers proposed six debates, including two in Spanish, and asked for a response by May 10. Though Cruz’s team did not respond directly to O’Rourke’s, Cruz told reporters at the time that his Spanish wasn’t good enough for him to debate in it.”

  57. 57.

    Adam L Silverman

    @dmsilev: Unlikely.
    usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/07/21/julian-assange-ecuador-london-embassy/812335002/

    Ecuador appears to be finalizing plans to withdraw its asylum protection for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange as early as next week, eject him from its London embassy and turn him over to British authorities, according to media reports.

    Ecuador has grown increasingly unhappy with the asylum arrangement in recent months. In March, Ecuador barred Assange from using the Internet from the embassy for violating an agreement he signed at the end of 2017 not to use his communiques to interfere in the affairs of other states.

    Ecuador has toughened its stance following the election in May of President Lenin Moreno, who has described Assange as a “hacker,” an “inherited problem” and a “stone in the shoe.”

    Assange, an Australian computer programmer, particularly drew the ire of Ecuador by angering the Spanish government with his support for separatist leaders in Spain’s Catalonia region who sought to secede last year.

    The Times of London reported last week that British ministers and senior Foreign Office officials were “locked in discussions over the fate of Assange.”

    Glen Greenwald, editor of the The Intercept, reported Saturday that he expects Moreno to finalize an agreement with British authorities during his trip to London on Friday ostensibly for a world disabilities summit. Greenwald said Moreno also notably plans to travel to Madrid during his trip.

    Greenwald quoted an unidentified source close to the Ecuadoran Foreign Ministry and the president’s office as confirming that Moreno is close to a deal as early as this week.

  61. 61.

    oldgold

    Cruz is between a rock and hard place in dealing with Trump.

    Texas Republicans love Trump. But, when Cruz supports Trump, given the gawd awful things Trump said about Cruz’s family, Cruz appears craven.

    Beto should bang on Cruz’s lack of courage and character every damn day.

  62. 62.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Michael Grunwald @ MikeGrunwald
    -Obama never had numbers this abysmal, but the frame for all his coverage was Unpopular President.
    -Of course it never occurred to me to pitch my bosses: Obama’s re-elect #’s are under 50%, how about a story on Democrats who still like him?

  64. 64.

    Mary G

    @Mnemosyne: He earned enough to pay his ticket and his interest in hanging out has dropped a bit. He also got in trouble again because he and his friend smoked dope back of the garage, where it blew right into the open bedroom window of the right wingers next door, who yelled at him over the fence and then showed up demanding I evict the housemates because he “dresses like a cholo” and will come to no good. I was so flabbergasted I did not scream at them to get their racist asses out of my house and have been beating myself up to no end for being a bad ally. I did make it clear that while there will be no further underage toking, they can fuck right off as to all the other complaints they made, and I asked them any number of times exactly how a cholo dresses. The wife is Mexican herself, but all her friends are white and dress like Real Housewives. Rich people are assholes.

  66. 66.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @feebog: AFAIK, that was me auditioning to write for the campaign. They haven’t gotten back to me yet. (Too late to edit out the quotation marks)

  67. 67.

    NotMax

    @Yarrow

    Nope. Am too drained to deal with it effectively tonight. She has got plans mapped out Thurs. And Fri. Gonna sit down with her on Sat. and spring it on her then.

    On the tablet at the moment, may pop back in later when can use her laptop.

  68. 68.

    Kay

    We have such a great fight going on here. It’s local, but Bernie Sanders came up!

    Local bidnessman wants to pump tens of millions of gallons of water out of the sole source aquifer and sell water to various municipalities. It’s really good water-wins awards. There are water awards, BTW. It’s a conservative area but people are freaking out and they’ve all turned on this man- people are screaming at him that he’s “greedy” at meetings and spontaneous protests and various uprisings. The businessman is disappointed because the Republicans on the city council won’t support his new water company so he sent them a series of mean emails which the newspaper got thru a FOIA, and printed. He says the city council are all Bernie Sanders supporters. There is no greater insult :)

  71. 71.

    SectionH

    @NotMax: So fairly short trip. Glad you arrived safely. Did you find a place for what you wanted (breakfast?) in PHX?

  72. 72.

    Yarrow

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Assange, an Australian computer programmer,

    I thought he now has Ecuadorian citizenship and was trying to get approved by the UK to be a diplomat from Ecuador. Perhaps dual citizenship?

  77. 77.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mary G:

    Well, the good news for you is that it sounds like he’s going to manage to earn himself another ticket sooner rather than later, so at least you’ll get some more yardwork done. ?

    Teenage boys are weird little creatures who are far more enslaved by peer pressure than they are willing to admit. If you figure out a way that he can tell his friends that he “has to” go with you, he’ll probably go and have a good time. He just can’t let on to them that he’s so uncool that he would actually want to go to the AotP with his aunt.

  78. 78.

    Ohio Mom

    What is different about internal polls that makes them more accurate — why don’t all polls use the same techniques?

  79. 79.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Kay:
    That’s really amazing. You’ve mentioned before you’re in NE Ohio. So am I. Where is this aquifer and who does it serve? Was curious if it would affect my water at all. Also, it’s hilarious that the asshole thought “Bernie Sanders supporters” was an insult but I guess it would be to Republicans, lingering issues I have with BS aside.

  80. 80.

    James E Powell

    @Kay:

    He says the city council are all Bernie Sanders supporters. There is no greater insult :)

    Really? I would think “Pelosi supporters” would be even worse. You’re over there by Hancock County, no?

  83. 83.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: and severe water shortages in southern Iran, I heard on NPR. And record heat waves in Tokyo, London and Paris. And wildfire above the arctic circle. And the highest (confirmed) record temperature in Africa the other day– 124 degrees F, in Algeria.

    In the 2012 presidential debates, the only question on climate change was during the town hall debate, from a citizen. In the 2016 town hall, Martha Raddatz and Anderson Cooper (IIRC) didn’t select a question on the environment, but found time for two thumb-suckers about all of us getting along, including one from Ken Bone, who yesterday spoke at the same Tea Bagger Youth confab where Jeff Sessions cheered on a “Lock her up!” chant.

    I was optimistic up-thread.

    ETA: @Major Major Major Major: Peggy Noonan called Bernie Sanders “quite daffy” for mentioning it. Her career on MSNBC seems to have been blessedly brief

  84. 84.

    Mnemosyne

    @SectionH:

    One of my lingering regrets about the Denver airport is that I wasn’t hungry when I was waiting for my flight, so I missed my chance to get a crepe at one of the last remaining Magic Pan restaurants I’ve seen in the wild. ?

  86. 86.

    Yarrow

    @NotMax: Well, take care of yourself and get some rest. The time difference must really be messing with your body clock.

  87. 87.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Major Major Major Major: Tell them you got it from the guy who wrote what the Director of Policy at the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy said was the best analytical report on the Syrian Civil War she’d seen. If that doesn’t work, you’re on your own.

  88. 88.

    Marcopolo

    So to keep it real, I have to note in regards to this Marist/NBC poll of the midwest states: they are still not weighting their sample sizes by education level. Folks looking back at the 2016 presidential polling are pretty sure that omission skewed results a little towards the Ds (remember whites with college degrees or better are a lot less supportive of Trump than whites with only HS or less education attainment). A number of well-regarded pollsters have commented on this and think it is possible that while the numbers would still be fairly awful for Trump they might not be quite as bad as they look.

    In other news, they are tracking the early vote in the OH-12 special election to fill the seat vacated by Tiberi. The election is this coming Tuesday and it is the last major special election prior to the midterms. So far the vote is +34D in a district that went +18R in the 2016 general and +15R in the 2018 primary!

    Twitter thread here

    Last but not least, my next door congress critter, Ann Wagner (R) MO-2, who did not run a single TV ad in either 2014 or 2016 has already started running TV ads for November. Think she’s seeing polling numbers she doesn’t like?

    Wait wait no this really is the last thing before I gotta go: keep in mind that the fact that right now the polling numbers are bad enough that Cruz is deciding to debate Beto (who btw out-raised him last quarter), that Ann Wagner is running TV ads, that there are only 7 uncontested US House races in 2018 means the GOP won’t have the same ability to take $$$ raised in TX or other normally “safe” seats and shift it to places like WV, or MO, or ND, or IN. Texas, traditionally the state that generates the largest pot of money to be spread around the country is going to be a money sink for the GOP this year (4 or 5 D TX house candidates out-raised their R incumbent opponents). Combine that with national D fundraising success: and this year the campaign map is radically different. There will be house seats that the Ds will pick up just because the GOP will not have the resources to cover every one of their current member @sses.

    Democratic House candidates dominated fundraising in the second quarter of 2018, a sign of enthusiasm among Democrats heading into November’s midterm elections.

    In 72 of 95 of CNN’s key House races, the leading Democrat outraised the leading Republican, including at least 40 Republican incumbents.

    Of 21 races CNN rated as “toss up,” the most competitive designation, Democrats held the fundraising edge in 17 contests.

    Democrats also had the advantage among races considered more favorable to Republicans, leading 18 of 24 races rated “lean Republican” and 17 of 28 races rated “likely Republican.” And Democrats led 20 of 22 races rated “lean Democrat” or “likely Democrat.”

    My dream pick-up from this kind of scenario would be Audrey Denny in CA-1, Betsey Londrigan-Dirksen in IL-13, MJ Hegar in TX-31, or Amy McGrath in KY-06–or maybe all of them!

  89. 89.

    jonas

    Wow — underdogs are always the one challenging the establishment candidate to debates. Not a good look for Cruz. Cruz believes he’s Cicero redidivus when it comes to debating, whereas he actually comes across as a smarmy, smartass douchebag whose ass you’d just love to kick every time he gets into one of these situations. All O’Rourke has to do is bring the down-to-earth, Biden-style blue collar relatability — which he has in spades — and he’s got this.

  90. 90.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Adam L Silverman:
    So, Adam L. Silverman? Make sure you give M×4 your full CV/resume. All of the letters for the degrees you have will probably be convincing too : )

  93. 93.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Ohio Mom: I’m not an elections specialist, but my understanding from way back in grad school and talking to those in the program that were specializing in campaigning, is that the the campaigns do far more polling and, because they’re localized to the specific electorate – especially for state wide and district specific elections – they have a far better understanding of that electorate’s demographics, they have better data on who turns out, under what circumstances, what’s motivating them, things like that.

  94. 94.

    SectionH

    @Mnemosyne: OMG, Magic Pan? There was one of those in Lexington in the late ’70s. In the then-new Civic Center mall, arena place. I liked it. Had no idea there were still some.

  95. 95.

    AThornton

    @Adam L Silverman:

    That’s the theory. In my experience internal polls range from excellent to atrocious depending on how much money the campaign is willing to spend, generally speaking they get what they pay for.

  97. 97.

    jonas

    @Ohio Mom: From my understanding, internal polls tend to frame questions in a way that tries to elicit more “honest” or complex responses, or survey different demographic groups, so that campaigns have a more fine-grained picture of the actual electoral landscape and strategize accordingly. Of course campaign managers are famous for leaking their supposed “internal polling” to journalists that supposedly shows their candidate in a far better light than the public numbers, so you take it with a grain of salt.

  98. 98.

    Mnemosyne

    @SectionH:

    It was counter service, not the full-on sit-down restaurant of its glory days, but it was a Magic Pan. I also remember it from my 1970s childhood, so now I’m regretting I didn’t get something to go.

  99. 99.

    Yarrow

    @debbie: Ted Cruz might very well know Texans are about football on Friday nights. It might be part of the plan that people don’t watch the debates. Maybe he thinks he can just get a few soundbites he can use in commercials.

  105. 105.

    SectionH

    @Mary G: Oh yeah, Beto. I think he could win – which is a terrifyingly optimistic statement for me. I saw Russ Feingold do the same sort of Go Everywhere thing in WI, and get shot down, but I really think the energy, tide, in TX is on Beto’s side. Never mind the charisma and the actual brains. I’ve been sending Beto’s campaign some money for a long time now. Gonna make it recurring.

    eta: you are a Saint, woman. And I say that as a mother who had a teenage boy once.

  106. 106.

    Adam L Silverman

    @AThornton: That is my understanding. I’m guessing Cruz, or rather the Mercer’s who fund him, are spending plenty of money.

  108. 108.

    Amir Khalid

    @Yarrow:
    If two politicians debate on television and nobody tunes in, do they make a sound? Maybe Ted is hoping that Beto will suggest some other, less football-dominated night of the week; this might give him, Ted, an excuse to claim that Beto is setting too many conditions and call off the debates.

  109. 109.

    trollhattan

    @Adam L Silverman:
    A friend recently returned from a family visit to Austria. We were talking about the long-term Trump impacts and his thought was that maybe this is a necessary phase before a period of meaningful advances and improvements (what a mensch!). So I asked whether the Trump phenomenon was already having a positive European impact by repelling people from recent emergence of far-right and neo-nazi movements and got an enthusiastic yes.Told me he never once had to bring up Trump, everybody did so for him all were equally appalled.

    Aside from Brexit and whatever the hell just happened in Italy, Europe is on this bigly. Now we need to take care of bidnez, beginning with congress.

    The whole world is watching (almost exactly 50 years later).

  110. 110.

    Amir Khalid

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I seem to recall that Ted Cruz gave up his Canadian citizenship not that long ago, and only because he was embarrassed when people pointed out that he still had it.

  112. 112.

    NotMax

    @SectionH

    Two full weeks. None of the places people had recommended were in the same terminal as where I found myelf, plus it was before 6 a.m. PHX time so not a lot of choice. Ended up ordering a very large black coffee from someplace across the corridor from the gate where the departure to NY was scheduled, spiked it with an airplane bottle of Jim Beam, and nursed that while munching a couple of cold egg rolls brought along from Maui as a late dinner. More than filling enough.

  114. 114.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Amir Khalid: Do you have Maple shame? Are you embarrassed at the merest mention of ice hockey? Does buffalo check plaid flannel give you a panic attack? Then we can help. Please call now. Our lines are open, our operators are standing by.

  115. 115.

    Corner Stone

    Without Recent Comments here I may as well be reading some strange local news op-ed page. Fucking garbage,

  116. 116.

    Adam L Silverman

    @trollhattan: If you look at the history of the US, every period of even imperfect progress is almost always followed by a period of severe reactionary and revanchist response and push back. This then remobilizes, or mobilizes in some cases for the first time, those who were happy with the progress, as well as those that made it happen. The US has a religiosity cycle (we’re towards the end of the one that started in the mid to late 70s), it has a criminogenesis cycle (we’re still in the prolonged decline/trough at the bottom of the decline), it has an extremism cycle (this one is currently running in partial overlap with the current religiosity cycle), just as we have business and economic cycles of expansion and contraction.

    As for Europe, they have not had a prolonged war on education as we have in the US. And, unlike in the US, they know that if the worst impulses of the early 20th century return, that it will be in their front yards. And almost no one, other than megalomaniac self deluders like Bannon or grifters like Farage who don’t think it’ll effect them, want to have that happen again.

  117. 117.

    sukabi

    @Yarrow: creepy, smarmy and revolting are the hallmarks of the gop for the last 15 years or so…and those are their good traits. Cruz has all that and more.

  118. 118.

    SectionH

    @NotMax: Experienced travelers have backups…

    Um, no I meant a fairly short trip OGG-NYC (still general designation for all those airports). I was teasing you. My “kids” (son & dil) flew to Malawi from SAN recently. And broke their trip in New York, because they’re not stupid – they were changing airlines. From EWR, it took them 29 hours to get to Lilongwe. I’ve had plenty of 24 hr+ trips US-Oz, so that’s all.

    I SO hope you can get your Mom to try the Kindle you bought her. And I hope you can have a bit of time to enjoy NY while you’re there.

  119. 119.

    WaterGirl

    @Yarrow:

    Ted Cruz is…not those things.

    Ted Cruz is ugly as sin and creepy as shit.

    We should have a thread with *10-word descriptions of Ted Cruz. (10 words or less)

  120. 120.

    trollhattan

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Thanks. re. the referenced “religiosity cycle” it’s ironic to cite Barry Goldwater, but he warned against the Reagan embrace of Christian fundies and has been proven right ever since. Connecting them with the usual looters and knee-jerk warriors got us to this point.

  121. 121.

    trollhattan

    @WaterGirl:

    Ted Cruz is ugly as sin and creepy as shit

    Coincidentally, “Ugly as sin and creepy as shit” has been proposed as the new Texas state slogan. Where’s Gohmert from, again?

  123. 123.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Meanwhile Twitler is posting a Fox News Chryon showing him with an 88% approval rating. Saying “Thank you, working hard” failing to mention the “among Republicans” in tiny letters below the headline(which of course fails to mention that the only remaining Republicans who admit it are those in Congress and those three guys who get together once a week in the Denny’s in Alabama).

  124. 124.

    WaterGirl

    @trollhattan: Maybe that’s on their “So you’re thinking of running as a Republican” checklist?

    edit: I really wanted too ay creepy as fuck, but I went with shit. Oh well.

  127. 127.

    Yarrow

    @Mnemosyne: It’s not a bad move by him, though. Friday night people are tired from the week’s news and less inclined to watch a debate even if they aren’t at a football game. If they do go out, they’re probably less likely to watch a DVR of Ted fucking Cruz on TV for two hours, even with the dreamy Beto to make up for it, when they get home. By Monday whatever happened at the debate, barring any major fireworks, will be old news.

  129. 129.

    Jay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Greenwad’s just recycling a RT agitprop piece, who’s only anchor to reality is that Moreno is in London.

    Arrangements to extradite Ass-ange don’t have to be made face to face, as Green-wad’s and RT’s agitprop suggests.

  132. 132.

    NotMax

    @Section H

    Got tix to see this tonight (Thursday), before the limited run ends this weekend. Also for this, early next week.

    Two outings for theater are plenty in my book. Mom’s already noodging about more.

  134. 134.

    SectionH

    @NotMax: Cool! Mr S would be soooooo jealous [you seeing] both. The Frankenstein one – I’d like to see that! Ok so, give us reviews when you can.

  135. 135.

    Ruckus

    @SectionH:
    My best long trip was 13 hr, from Minn/St Paul to Columbus OH. Was planned as a 1 1/2 hr non stop. About hr 11 we had to stop at O’hare for fuel. It was a less than satisfactory journey.

  137. 137.

    hitchhiker

    @GregB:

    I heard one of the never-trumper Republicans on a podcast the other day talking about Trump’s body language during the campaign debates as compared to his demeanor when standing next to Putin.

    Hadn’t thought about it, but he’s right. Campaigning Trump was all chin-up-chest-out-and-fuck-you … Putin adjacent Trump was cowed & slumpy. I hope somebody makes an ad that plays that up.

    Jeebus Lawwwwd, I hate him.

  138. 138.

    Mary G

    Ryan and McConnell went to the WH today to plead with Twitler not to shut down the government on Oct. 1 (Bloomberg).

    Trump over the past year has called for a “good” government shutdown to achieve up to $25 billion in border wall funding. He also has vowed never again to sign a 12-part omnibus spending bill like the $1.3 trillion law the White House and Congress negotiated earlier this year to fund the government through September.

    A shutdown could keep lawmakers in Washington instead of spending time on the campaign trail ahead of Nov. 6 elections. The GOP is trying to keep control of both chambers as polls suggest Democrats have a chance of gaining a majority in the House.

    So much winning!

  139. 139.

    Jay

    @Ruckus:

    Once flew from Milwaukee, to Dallas, to LA, to Seattle, then had to rent a car and drive home to YVR in a Crown Vic with no snowtires, in a snowstorm.

    It was supposed to be a routine flight from Milwaukee to YVR, but “weather”,

    Did the math and I could have driven home in a lot less time,

    My luggage arrived in YVR with just enough time to wash my clothes in time to fly out again.

    It’s when I came up with my idea for a vending machine for airports, that sells “basics”. Underwear, socks, deoderant, tooth bush, cheap vynel airmattress, vacume packed fleece blanket, inflateable pillow.

  140. 140.

    cwmoss

    @Adam L Silverman: I believe that if (when?) nuclear weapons are next used, it will be precipitated by water fights/drought. Hopefully not during my lifetime or that of my kids or grandkids.

  142. 142.

    Shalimar

    I am semi sort of very concerned because Rick Scott’s numbers were much worse than this in Florida at a similar point in his 1st term and he had no trouble getting re-elected. In fact, it was an intentional by-product of his strategy, which was “do lots of horrible shit in the first 6 months and then count on everyone forgetting by re-election time.” Trump isn’t as smart or politically savvy as Scott, which is saying something, and the economy isn’t going to get better in the next 2 years, but it is upsetting that they don’t suffer negative consequences for things which should lead to permanent loathing.

  143. 143.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Adam L Silverman: It’s one of those truisms I heard from my financial analyst years ago: 20th century wars were over oil, 21st century wars will be over water.

    The peace of the world could really use an inexpensive carbon-neutral scalable desalinization method.

  144. 144.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Shalimar: Look who the Democrats in Florida have run against him. Also, the Villages have a huge effect, especially in non-presidential years, which is when the Florida gubernatorial race happens.

  147. 147.

    Bill Arnold

    @cwmoss:

    From earlier thread. WTF is or was The Editors? I believe they sing/sang the song of my people.

    High-Snark site (sometimes with comics) that helped keep a lot of us sane during the GWBush years. The domain got eaten looks like in 2016, but the wayback machine has some of the material. Another site has the collected comics. There were a few writers; The Editors was the funniest IMO. Much of the political material has not aged well, mostly because, well, D.J. Trump.
    web.archive.org/web/20120215000000*/http://thepoorman.net

  148. 148.

    J R in WV

    @B.B.A.:

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: like any true Canadian, Cruz will punt on the third down.

    …I don’t know what I mean by that.

    Canadian football doesn’t ahve 4 downs like American football. It has 3 downs, and so sometimes they punt on 3rd down. Ted Cruz was born and raised in Calgary, which has a good Canadian football team. Since his parents are Cuban and he was born and raised in Calgary, I dunno how he thinks he’s American.

    OK, his mom may be an American… that would do it if it worked for President Obama.

  149. 149.

    Dupe1970

    @Corner Stone: He will but I’d rather that money is forced to be spent winning Texas (expensive state) and thereby deprive resources to other Senate elections.

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