First, cry harder.
Second, after his NABJ catastrophe, I’m sure Trump’s press conference at his stately pleasure dome will be highly controlled press avail with only the best reporters asking questions that aren’t rude. Still, I guarantee that the “mainstream” press covering it will do everything in their power to clean up any nonsense that Trump spouts, as they always do.
Third, both the Post and the Times are running stories about Walz’ decision to retire after 24 years in the military, where they quote disaffected Republicans who served with him, as part of a campaign of lies and deceit by Trump’s campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, the guy who invented swiftboating. The same media outlets are just slavering to push the “bubble bursting/sugar high is over” storyline on the Harris/Walz campaign. Why should Harris and Walz run to the mics to placate these fuckers when there’s no way they are going to get fair coverage or good questions?
Finally, the voters that Harris wants to reach are not reading the NYT, Post or Semafor, where Benjy Sarlin writes. They’re on social media, because they’re young, and the Harris campaign is tearing it up there. Harris announced her Walz pick officially on Instagram. Her KamalaHQ account is killing it. The “free media” from a press conference pales in comparison to the free media from the social platforms, as well as the media attention given to the rallies.
So, to Benjy and the rest of the whiners, sorry, you’re going to have to suffer and cry for a longer time.
If you want some reasonable takes on the Harris/Walz press conferences, Dave Weigel and Hunter Walker have posts on Bluesky worth checking out.
NC Black Alliance Found Us an External Match, Let’s Take This Home!
Lyrebird
Is that person (Sarlin) joking? Or threatening?
Eff that noise, if it’s the latter. Not that I am worried, but just surprised – have they no shame?
I’m gonna disagree about any narrowing of who the Harris Walz campaign is trying to reach, fwiw, because I would say it includes everyone from the pre-voting-age kiddos in the drum lines and lunch lines up to the certainly retired folks who were dancing with the warmup music in Atlanta, the VoteVets stalwarts, and EVERYbody in between.
But my hat is off to you MisterMix for being able to stand reading some of these folks.
ETA: one of many benefits from MVP’s work background as a prosecutor is that we know for certain that she’s handled threats, including threats from people already convicted of crimes and threats from people who assume ladies can be intimidated with no cost to them. Hah, yeah, we have plenty to do but some of these chumps we don’t need to worry about.
MattF
Likely that TFG will announce that he will make an announcement. It’s his usual ploy for getting attention from OG media.
Mom Says I*m Handsome
Am I the only person who hears “pleasure dome…” and immediately follows it up with “… decreed by Kubla Khan”? Xanadu, baby, it’s what’s for dinner!
Hungry Joe
POSTCARDS UPDATE
Postcards for Tester:
Yesterday — 6
Running total — 39
Postcards to Swing States — Holding at 166
Baud
Eh, she can’t win by young liberal votes alone.
I’m in either way, but I’ll be pleased if she shuns the major media outlets, especially the NYT.
matt
I’d say they should do a conference but have rules about what kind of questions are asked. Also since it’s just Vance doing one maybe have Walz do one.
Ultimately if politicians are making the calculation that press conferences are more downside than upside then they won’t happen and that’s on the press
Just as there’s no reason for Harris to go on Newsmax, there’s no reason for Harris to be interviewed by NYT if she’ll get Newsmax coverage.
Villago Delenda Est
Cry harder, indeed. TCFFG/PAB can’t even give straight answers to his own Harley ridin’ supporters in Sturgis. And Corporal Vance attacks Sergeant Major Walz with outright lies about Walz’s service.
$8 blue check mistermix
@Lyrebird:
Yeah I should have worded that better – my point is that most of these people that Harris/Walz are trying to reach (young or old) do not read the Times/Post…
Villago Delenda Est
@Baud: I have long held that the Vichy Times needs the Ellen Ripley treatment. Glad that OHJB and ,la are holding the line against the nepopublisher crybaby’s tantrums.
Old School
What is “this”? Is “this” a press conference?
WereBear
+5 for “stately pleasure dome.”
There are new, anti-Trump channels, mixing with suggestions for my lefty stuff: Meidas Touch, Hal Sparks, Tennesee Brando, with Glenn Kirschner for law nerd stuff.
I don’t watch Lincoln Project or the like very often, because they are highly dependent on clips from corporate media, including Fox & whatever the others are. However, they will show clips from Trump rallies or Vance stories from other press.
That’s why streaming the rallies works so well, making it possible for people to look for themselves. I am also seeing Walz explaining simple ways people can look things up for themselves, if they are surprised by what he is saying.
Getting those facts in. Just like a teacher.
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: And she should keep shunning them when she’s in the White House. It’s way past time to cut them down to size.
Eural Joiner
@Mom Says I*m Handsome: oh, yeah, classic Rush track from back in the day! 😁
matt
@Old School: Yeah, he’s talking about them putting up like a DAYS SINCE HARRIS GAVE A NEWS CONFERENCE TO US, THE FREE PRESS OF FREEDOM 47 counter on their main webpage and running daily stories about how scandalous that is.
KatKapCC
My neighbor a few doors down has twin 4-year-olds, and even they don’t whine as much as members of the press. I don’t know how these people manage to function with their heads wedged so far up their own colons.
WereBear
@matt: Why should she? Seriously. Biden has been dissing them, too. They probably think they “counted coup” and want another.
Coup enablers.
clay
There’s a grown man who goes by “Benjy”?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
“Time’s just about up”
And then what happens? You’ll use your platform, whatever it is, to do character assassination? That threat doesn’t work if you’re already doing it.
Eyeroller
@Old School: No, “this” means “she won’t talk to us so she’s going to get the Biden treatment.”
Mousebumples
@Hungry Joe: thanks for the updates!
I got 300 postcards up swing states for Wisconsin from a local group (they had 4000 at one point, lol, which may be why the Wisconsin postcards were gone at one point?), so I need to work on those.
This week is busy looking for new insurance quotes. My current insurer is dropping personal lines next year with at least a 25% rate hike this year. Time to check out my options…
matt
@WereBear: They took Biden down. They could stop giving good coverage to the Harris campaign if they got really pissed off. It would be weird having real news suppressed nationwide by the supposed informers of the public, but not the first or second time that happened. Top media are a powerful oligopoly.
Eyeroller
@Steve LaBonne: The biggest problem with the FTFNYT is not their direct influence (they do have about 10M subscribers, supposedly, most of them digital-only now, but that’s still a small fraction of the population). It is their oversized influence on outlets that “normies” do tend to consume, specifically TV news.
BR
@Hungry Joe:
Question for you about postcards to swing states. Do they ask you to write on the cards or is it pre-printed? (I ask because it’s a tradeoff — pre-printed is easier, but probably also gets thrown out as junk mail by folks.)
Frankensteinbeck
@Eyeroller:
She was always going to get the Biden treatment, but it’s not that easy. You have to come up with an attack that makes sense to the public, then you have to get the whole media to repeat it regularly for a long time. Even ’emails’ only worked because a broad swathe of Americans looked at a woman who wanted power and knew she had to be dishonest somehow.
zhena gogolia
@Eyeroller: Yes, this is the problem. The cable news shows (including MSNBC) all parrot whatever the Times is talking about, as we saw recently.
BR
I’d love it if Harris starts doing morning show interviews with local TV (non-Sinclair) in each swing state. Real interviews with reporters but not the national press.
Old School
@Eyeroller: I looked him up to see who Benjy Sarlin is. He’s Washington Bureau Chief for Semafor.
I didn’t bother trying to see who Semafor was.
zhena gogolia
@BR: I’m doing postcards to swing states. They send you the postcards and a list of addresses, but you have to write the addresses and messages on the cards. They provide three sample messages. I chose one of them but tweaked it because I thought one line of it sounded too Big Brother-ish. And you have to provide the stamps as well.
I’m at 180 cards addressed to Nevada — 120 to go.
matt
@BR: Harris needs to cultivate friendlies among the real national press. I think experienced press secretary types would have the needed contacts and knowledge to get that rolling. Right now the coverage is great! That’s driving a lot of her success. Now you and I read crazy blogs with names like ‘Balloon Juice’, but have you tried to get a relative or friend who loves cable news and big time media to do this? You’ll just get laughed at.
CindyH
@BR: blank postcards – easy message to write
Captain C
@Eyeroller:
FTFNYT: “Look at Kamala!!! She’s SO OLD!!!! And Female!!! And unlike the ‘won’t replace us crowd’ who are very good people, she hates Jews!!!”
Yeah, good luck with that, Pravda-wannabes.
Lyrebird
@$8 blue check mistermix: Understood! And a great post!
@Baud: Always a good sign if I am aligned with Baud! 202X!
Ya know, I have long held that @Villago Delenda Est: exaggerated a bit about the Media Village… and I was so wrong.
ETA:
Ugh, exactly! Glad to read your comment. It is to laugh at these fools! Laugh and write more postcards… Honestly they (MAGA and enablers) could get more purchase with their whisper campaign about that if they weren’t using a bullhorn with their own hating!
SiubhanDuinne
@Mom Says I*m Handsome:
“Where Alph, the sacred river, ran”
Love that poem.
BR
@zhena gogolia:
@CindyH:
Thanks!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
TBone posted this Salon article a couple of threads ago about Walz’s “normal dad energy”, aka “tonic masculinity”.
I was struck by this passage:
Biden gave us that too, a genuinely decent guy in everything he says and does.
When my wife and I watched “Moonlight”, I felt like that theme was just everywhere in the film. In interviews with the director, he talked about how it was just about this neighborhood where he grew up. But what I got from it was that every vignette was about how to be a man, both the gay and straight characters, and that gave the film a universality.
I poke fun at the toxic masculinity thing, about guys who are afraid every waking moment that they’re no longer a man and they have to prove it again (unsuccessfully in many cases) to themselves over and over. That silliness we were talking about a few days ago about how small shopping carts are emasculating being just one example.
But I think a lot of us guys do consciously ponder how to be a man in our adolescence and make choices accordingly. It’s really important to have models like Biden and Walz.
jonas
The MSM doesn’t want an interview that will shed light on important policy differences or give us any insight on what motivates the candidates or whatever. They want enough footage to strain out one or two “gotcha” moments that they can use as clickbait and show that the interviewer was “tough,” by which I mean “mindbogglingly obtuse.” Just listen to the questions asked at the daily WH pressers — these people are morons. I can’t think of the last time a single one of them asked a question that made me think “Yeah, that’s a really good point. I wonder what the WH response is?” Most of the time it’s “JFC, you gormless choadbucket, stick that transparently idiotic question back up your ass whence you just retrieved it!”
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Benjy Sarlin and Brian Beutler (sp?) both got their start at TPM. They are always attacking Ds from the left. I know many people here take Josh Marshall and his takes as the word of God.
Of all the TPM alums I like Greg Sargent.
MattF
@SiubhanDuinne: Wikipedia:
The “person from Porlock” is legendary in literary circles.
p.a.
tRump says “JUMP!” and the media is “sir how high sir.”
Media says “JUMP!” and expects Dems to “sir how high sir.” Fuck them.
BR
Somewhat naive question — if I have to pick a state to do postcards to from California, which state has the most positive view of California (to the extent that it matters). Because they’re going to see where I’m mailing it from. Do folks in Arizona like California more than folks in Georgia? Etc.
Hungry Joe
@BR: All the postcards are hand-written — that’s what makes them effective.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
As Charlie Pierce said on twitter, Walz should book himself onto sports-talk shows every Fri night in PA, WI, AZ and TX from 1 Sep thru 6 Nov.
It would be far more productive than anything the campaign could get from dealing with FTFNYT, the Wa(com)Post or Totebagger Radio.
brendancallingd
I’m gonna watch that presser. Trump lost his shit on Fox and Fiends yesterday, and has been melting down on his stupid social media platform all morning, so I have a feeling it will be lit. I’m hoping for an n-bomb, some REAL swearing (dare I hope for a “motherfucker” or “cocksucker? I dare! I dare!), and perhaps even a stroke, Lord willing.
Benjy Sarlin can pound sand.
KatKapCC
@clay: ROFL. I know the spelling is different, but it just makes me picture the dog from those movies…
BR
Ugh, somehow the NYT is *gaining* subscribers — I don’t know who the crazy people are who are subscribing to them, but their leadership is going to keep on doing what they do because the market isn’t giving them a signal otherwise:
https://social.coop/@judell/112927197964545124
Steve Gravelle
@Old School: Granting he’s in good faith (which he may or may not be, I’m not familiar with his work), what he’s posted could be taken as a prediction of where the ROM coverage will be going, not advocating it.
Eyeroller
@Captain C: The Rs have had some difficulty coming up with an attack on Kamala (don’t worry, they’ll find one, but it may be too late by then) so they’ve zeroed in on Swiftboating Walz. Look at recent FTFNYT headlines and stories about that if you doubt they are the R’s puke funnel.
rikyrah
The Orange Menace is going to have ‘Press Conference’ with a bunch of flunkies from the RW Press?
Will you call that shyt out, Benjy?
No?
Go phuck yourself.
Eyeroller
@BR: They’re the paper of record! I need to subscribe to be well informed and also to tell my friends I read the NYT!
suzanne
@Frankensteinbeck: HRC also got a lot of mud splashed on her because of Bill. Which is not fair, but another reality.
WaterGirl
@Hungry Joe: Love the updates!
E.
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: This is very true for me. I am quite tall and can make people uneasy, I am white, 60, have a crappy goatee and wear a ball cap. I look MAGA. Also I am pretty invisible to most people I think of as my allies because the activist ones are all half my age and younger. I am not going to whine about being a white man in America, but I can see how with changing and toxic male ways of being it can be hard for people to understand how to fit in and be okay. Walz shows how.
3Sice
Americans are increasingly not taking their news from TV or online news sites. Print and radio are dead.
This is just the facts of the matter. Pounding money and effort into these outlets is a mugs game.
MisterForkbeard
Kamala should give a press conference or set of interviews. It is a little unusual, though it’s astounding how eager and huffy the media is to try and find a big negative point they can scream about.
But by no means should she give interviews to the NYT for awhile. She should do it eventually (having the NYT as an enemy is a bad idea), but I hope they take the opportunity to talk about how the press is chasing after ridiculous republican smears and moves without even thinking about them. The “Trump agrees to a debate on fox” thing was especially stupid.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: He won’t. He is a part of the media Borg. Their function is to attack or concern troll Ds while giving Rs cover.
Kay
@jonas:
But a good pol can reframe their questions and answer the new question.Harris was an AG. This will be natural for her – no sweat.
She could even take a question to them. The Walz smear is an unfair lie. Why are they doing it?
cain
@Mom Says I*m Handsome:
Hello fellow Rush Fan! Nice to see you :D Now you’ve done it!
During Trump era, I always had these lyrics when thinking of the so called conservatives.
The fact that these lyrics are over 40 years old shows how timeless they are.
ETA I realized you could just be referencing the Xanadu poem :D
E.
@BR: I am a well traveled Californian and I can assure you, you are equally and uniformly hated by all. It’s so fucking tiresome.
Eyeroller
@Kay: What do you mean, why are they (I assume you mean the press?) smearing Walz? Republicans are doing it because it’s what they do. Sort of like the scorpion in the fable. But too much of the political press seems to think its job is to print their lies. The NYT had an article about Vance’s smears that was just he-said-she-said the whole way through.
Evap
A Kristy reference! You made my day
brantl
@clay: Yeah, I think that’s a self-own.
Kayla Rudbek
@BR: I wonder if this is money laundering by foreign actors or organized crime. Mr. Rudbek and I like to discuss “unlikely ways to launder money” and it seems that this would be a very easy way – digital subscription means that there aren’t any physical products changing hands, fake email addresses etc
Kay
Do a ton of them. Flood the zone. She’s good at this and she’ll be fine
But no NYTimes. No reward for bad faith.
Other MJS
“Nice campaign ya got here. Be a shame if something happened to it.”
Marleedog
@schrodingers_cat:
I do not know that they are attacking from the left, rather, they have been subsumed by the Villager ethos. Sad.
Served
Something that’s stood out to me since Kamala became the presumed nominee is that our press corps, especially on cable news, are severely lacking in younger voices.
The ‘brat’ meme segments were the biggest tell. There wasn’t a single young millennial/older Gen Z person they could bring on to talk about this? It was a bunch of boomers and Gen Xers scoffing and bewildered. Young people are/were engaging and driving a candidate’s messaging and brand, and that’s a huge story! It’s gone unremarked completely.
The same is happening with the couch thing. There has been a tremendous messaging shift from Biden’s to Kamala’s campaign, especially on social media. The voice and tone of the posts is now current, engaging with trends, sounds, and vocabulary among young people in a way that feels authentic. Twitter isn’t real life, but social media as a messenger is key to many groups, and is the major driver of culture today,
cain
@matt:
The only way to stop it is to stop participating. For everyone one of us who has a subscription to these newspapers or cable news, we are part of the problem.
Only through market forces can make them change course. This is not a problem Biden, Harris, or Dems can solve. It’s our problem.
Kay
If she does a lot of them she lowers the stakes on each and they won’t be able to seize on one error and blow it up.
Do the opposite of what they expect – one a day.
jonas
Would love to see it!
dww44
@BR:
@BR:
bbleh
They’re still put out that their Serious Analysis and Informed Advice concerning a running-mate were ignored. So personally I’m with the fuck-em team.
But (1) they’re herd animals, so they tend to pile on, (2) they have by now well-known biases, including against women candidates, (3) when they obsess about something, it does eventually filter through to low-info voters when not much else does, and (4) this race is still a squeaker and we really need more of a blowout. So probably not best to blow them off completely.
I wonder whether a good-cop-bad-cop strategy would work. Santa Walz can be the Press Whisperer, easy access, occasional hot tidbits but also c’mon-guys-knock-off-the-nonsense, and Madame President-to-be, former prosecutor, AG and US Senator, Does Not Have Time For Bullshit but will have a discussion with journalists who are willing to be serious.
@brendancallingd: and yeah I kinda wanna see it too. Anybody know whether/where it’s gonna be streamed?
schrodingers_cat
@Marleedog: Not in this instance but I have seen instances of them attacking from the left. And I agree with you about the media borg.
gratuitous
Oh yeah? Well, all you libs who are so happy now, just you wait! You never hear any of President Trump’s military comrades-in-arms talking bad about him. And according to the Swift Boat Rules, if one person badmouths a Democrat’s years of service while literally everyone else who served with him attests to his integrity, the media must report exclusively on the one disgruntled guy’s story, even if there’s no evidence or support for it in the military record.
The felon wins again.
cain
@MisterForkbeard:
She should. To the local tv channels in the places she’s holding a rally.
There is absolutely no reason to give DC Corps any scoop. You send Mayor Pete or Wallz for that. Someone who knows how to stop their both sides bullshit.
The entire thing is to show the media where they stand in this campaign and it’s at the bottom. Local media – radio, local tiktok influencers, etc. Time to throw away the old playbook.
Omnes Omnibus
@Evap: She did a beautiful version, but it’s a Smith’s song.
TBone
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: hugs
cain
@Kay: yes, I agree!
WaterGirl
@Kay: One a day, but with local press. Fuck the lazy, entitled, authoritarian-supporting national press.
WereBear
@E.: I found that, when I watched some fashion videos, found a good hairstyle, and started dressing in pastels… I had to be extra careful not to trigger that “hope you’re not a Karen” look from all the young baristas at the bakery.
SatanicPanic
I think she should just do some interviews. We know why Biden wasn’t doing them, it’s better to have a clean break there. And sure, they might try to make her look bad, but they’re definitely going to if she doesn’t do any. Do it with WaPo, at least make the two papers of note compete for it.
Montanareddog
Elon Musk shares fake news about England rioters being sent to Falklands
It seems unbelievable that this full-time fashy troll can still be the head of major businesses in receipt of huge federal subsidies. Like TCFG, he appears to be degenerating by the day.
bbleh
@MisterForkbeard: @cain: oooh I like the local-stations idea too! Emphasize her down-to-earth humanity, plus reporters less likely to be egotistical assholes.
cain
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
We need to stop defining masculinity in terms of anti-femininity. There are clear traits of men in the way they interact with their own gender and other genders and the subject matters.
I always joke that if men got into knitting as a group – they’d have a great time because they’d do it as a group and it would be the same conversations but they’d just be knitting. There is nothing feminine about knitting.
WereBear
@Kayla Rudbek: There was a very scary John Sandford crime novel about that very subject, Stolen Prey.
hueyplong
That’s some pretty tough talk from Benjy Throw Pillow.
What is it about these RWNJs that makes them think they can bark orders at Harris like they’re guards at Ravensbrück?
Kirk
Just for fun I went and checked readership numbers.
NYT supposedly has 10.5 million readers, including the 9 million or so that are online. (Source NYT)
Instagram has 169.5 million readers in the US, 2 billion world-wide. (source Statista)
KamalaHQ (Tiktok) is getting 1 million+ views per post, with three so far exceeding 10 million views. (source Forbes)
Yeah, we’re in the time window similar to when horse and buggy drivers were still insisting they are dominant on the roads. I mean we were already with radio and TV, it’s just we’re now dealing with interstates.
eclare
@zhena gogolia:
How did you tweak it? Was it the first one saying whether you vote is public record? That doesn’t sit right with me.
rikyrah
@matt:
CLAP CLAP CLAP
3Sice
The Bob Bechel/Mark Penn school of kissing enough village ass to get a job after losing yet another election.
WereBear
And she’s traveling to rallies anyway.
cain
@Kirk: This would be a great post on Twitter to comms to the DC press where they stand. Also to that asshole Elon Musk.
Captain C
@Montanareddog: I’m not saying someone should slip a hotshot into his daily ketamine. That would be wrong. And illegal. But I would totally understand the impulse to do so, and probably not complain too hard about the unethically-obtained result.
WereBear
@Montanareddog: UK has terrible press problems, too.
Ruckus
@Lyrebird:
have they no shame?
You have to ask? Of course they don’t.
They
thinkbelieve their _ _ _ _ doesn’t stink. It can’t – it’s their’s.Their concept of the world is that they are the top of the heap and 1000000% right about everything, even as they prove the exact opposite on an
hourlyminute by minute basis. We ask here how can they follow or believe in shitforbrains? Because they think what they want is to control everything with them at the top. But look at their choice of leader. That’s the top of their heap, the best they’ve got? And the answer is yes, that’s the best they’ve got. That is the one they look UP to/at. It’s all down hill from shitforbrains. They don’t want a country, not in the normal concept/definition of country.Evap
@Omnes Omnibus: doh!
eclare
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
And sports shows in Georgia!
Captain C
@hueyplong:
I suspect that the bolded part is one of their main fantasies.
Mousebumples
@BR: didn’t they buy the Athletic this quarter? I like their sports reporting, so I’m still an Athletic subscriber… But they’re probably using that to juice their numbers.
Kirk
@cain: If I had an account on xhitter, it would be.
KrackenJack
@WereBear:
@E.:
I’m not tall, but old enough and white enough to fit the MAGAt profile. Minorities, especially women with children, still eye me warily. We, as a class, have earned it. Gives me a taste of what it is like to be a PoC in a retail establishment.
different-church-lady
SCENE: ONE OBSERVATORY CIRCLE
a JOURNALIST is seated across a desk from VP. Two SECRET SERVICE AGENTS stand behind him.
JOURNALIST looks nervous
VP glares at JOURNALIST. She stubs out her cigarette and leans back in her chair.
VP: “You shivved my boss.”
JOURNALIST does not respond
VP: “Why should I believe you’re not going to shiv me?”
zhena gogolia
@eclare: That one is terrible. I chose the second one about planning ahead to vote, but I left out “When are you going to vote?” as if they would be able to answer me. It seemed weird. So I have “Thank you for being a voter! Please plan ahead to vote in the Tues. Nov. 5 election!” Short and sweet. At least I’m somewhat using their template — a friend of mine hated all three messages so just writes her own. (Don’t tell anyone!)
Ruckus
@KatKapCC:
I don’t know how these people manage to function with their heads wedged so far up their own colons.
They don’t work – they just stink. On a 24 hr a day basis.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah: As I’ve said before, I think Newsmax would be fairer than the NYT.
zhena gogolia
@different-church-lady: Love it!
K-Mo
@matt: Thanks for explaining. I couldn’t make heads or tails of the Sarlin tweets and I’m a NYT reader.
Harris is out there busting her ass to get her message out. Any outlet that wants to report on it is welcome.
WereBear
@KrackenJack: Oh, indeed. In fact, I was pleased.
I started adding some eccentric touches of my own, and now I know how to cross the “Karen Fashion Line.”
Besides, Karen is as Karen does. It was only a fleeting impression. I never ask for the manager. He comes up to me and we talk cats.
UncleEbeneezer
@BR: I wouldn’t worry about that. These postcard campaigns are coordinated with Dems in the targeted state who know their constituency (likely Dem voters) and have agreed to let people in CA write postcards to them. If they thought that a CA address would alienate a significant % of the intended voters, they would concentrate on only having people from their state (or similar ones) write them. I’ve seen them doing that before where they clarified “seeking only GA (or wherever) residents at this time” because they wanted fellow state residents making the sales pitch.
MomSense
I feel really optimistic with the addition of the Obama campaign alums. They will be breaking down the votes needed by precinct and they will micro target to the voters they need in those precincts. The Obama campaign especially in 2012 (I think that is the more relevant comparison) is incredibly effective at this.
I’ll be looking for events geared to local media, they will utilize radio, yes radio and call in to morning shows, specific mailers, and a lot more. I’m less interested in the national media strategy and more interested in their digital strategy.
BR
@zhena gogolia:
Yeah, NewsMax would throw attacks at her, but everyone knows they’re hyperpartisan, and they also aren’t particularly competent so they wouldn’t be able to thread the needle of sounding centrist while attacking her.
3Sice
prima donald is doing influencer infomercials for Musk, but it is up to Kamala to prop up the smoldering remains of the nineties news cycle.
>Insert Kamala laughing gif here<
eclare
@zhena gogolia:
Thanks! I have updated to your wording. That first one, ugh. Like a principal threatening a student with their “permanent record.”
BR
@UncleEbeneezer:
Ok, thanks. I’m probably overthinking it. (I was thinking about what city I should mail them from here in Orange County that would sound the best. Like should I mail from city of Orange, or Irvine, or Anaheim.)
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Hungry Joe: thank you for doing postcards!
Omnes Omnibus
@BR: You are overthinking it.
Mousebumples
@BR: it might help to sign the postcards
Just to make it clear that you’re not being paid to write these postcards from California. (*or anywhere else
But otherwise, yes, I agree you’re overthinking it.
Though I agree the one message is kinda Big Brother 👀 ish…
sdhays
Harris should shout at her press gaggle over the sound of helicopter blades. That sure informed the public when Trump was President. 🙄
Hungry Joe
@SiubhanDuinne: MAD magazine, early ‘60s:
”Where Alph, the sacred Newman ran … “
I didn’t get it at the time — I was a kid, after all — but when I finally read the Coleridge poem I started laughing, and every time the poem is referenced my first thought is of Alph, the sacred Newman. I have to push that out of my mind before I can appreciate the real thing.
Unless, of course, Alph, the sacred Newman IS the real thing …
Ishiyama
“Will you walk into my parlor? Said the Spider to the Fly.”
SatanicPanic
I’m reading about voters still upset about Gaza in WaPo this morning and I am really losing patience with the foreign policy left. JFC pick an issue that might be solved before climate change forces us all to live in Alaska
MisterForkbeard
@cain: I like this – combine it with Kay’s idea.
She should do pressers and interviews locally when she stops. They can do them quickly after the rally speeches at each location. Just flood the zone.
zhena gogolia
@BR: Yeah. You’d know what you’re dealing with. That NYT interview with Buttigieg was disgusting.
zhena gogolia
@eclare: They claim it’s the most effective message, but I found it creepy.
zhena gogolia
@BR: You are overthinking it!
zhena gogolia
@Hungry Joe: Coleridge had a complete set of MAD that he would read when he was doing opium.
UncleEbeneezer
@Mousebumples: Yeah, “First Name, Volunteer” is the standard that I’ve seen from every postcard campaign I’ve been a part of. The campaigns tell you to do that.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: That actually make a lot of sense,
Delk
@Mom Says I*m Handsome: reminds me of Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
UncleEbeneezer
@BR: I don’t think it matters.
jonas
@BR: I think if you’re writing to registered Dems or likely Dem voters, they probably haven’t bought into the rightwing propaganda that California is some kind of dystopian hellhole, so I don’t think it matters much.
Belafon
She should get a list of all of the US newspapers in readership order, and start at number 5, because I’m assuming the top four are NYT, WaPo, WSJ, and USA Today.
Hungry Joe
@zhena gogolia: Yeah, Ms. Joe and I — she’s doing Ohio postcards, I’m doing Nevada — shortened our messages to pretty much exactly what you’re writing.
Hungry Joe
deleted
zhena gogolia
@Hungry Joe: I guess I go by what I would want to see on a postcard!
rikyrah
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
This isn’t a bad idea.
BritinChicago
A blunt and homely line to counter this stuff about Walz’s military record: “They’re making stuff up.”
Chris
I really want Democrats to make a point of giving interviews to local media everywhere in the country, including New York and DC. Anybody but the NYT and the WaPo. Or CNN.
stinger
@Hungry Joe: Nice job.
delphinium
@zhena gogolia: Yeah, I didn’t like that first message either for the swing state postcards. I signed up to do postcards for 1 of the NY house races and am assuming the message choices will be the same or similar so might do the same type of tweak that you did once my postcards arrive.
Chris
@Eyeroller:
That’s going to happen regardless. As it was with Biden.
zhena gogolia
@BritinChicago: I’m remembering the only letter I ever had published in the NYT. They had some story about how Kerry had thrown his medals away at a protest. I asked them to do a story on what GWB had done with all his medals.
ETA: Back in the day when they would publish a letter like that.
JML
@BR: I think that’s the time that they forced all the subscribers to The Athletic to transition to a NY Times account, so maybe they’re counting all of those as subscribers. I’d put nothing past them.
Geminid
@WereBear: Tim Walz’s pick reminded me of John Sandford’s character Virgil Flowers. Flowers’ fictional home is Mankato, Minnesota, same as Walz’s.
WereBear
@Geminid: You can totally see him as the local principal who helps Virgil crack the case. They both have that straightforward practicality.
KrackenJack
@zhena gogolia: Then why not just print out their voting record on the postcards? Does having someone in a distant state handwriting it make it more effective?
zhena gogolia
@KrackenJack: I have no idea!
bbleh
@KrackenJack: yes. handwriting is personal; printing is not. it’s a little like the difference between seeing an ad on TV with a “real person” and having a real person come to your door.
Baud
I changed my postcards to open with “We know where you live.”
delphinium
@BR: As someone from NY, I feel your pain : ). On the postcards I have done, we are instructed not to include a return address so they would only see where it was from per the postmark, which I think most folks don’t pay attention to. In some examples of postcards, people included their initials and state at the end to make it more personal but I have only ever included my initials.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: 😂 And it’s true!
Bill Arnold
@Villago Delenda Est:
Corporal Vance abandoned his PR comrades in the Marines after 4 years, to pursue political and educational opportunities.
That has the form of a possible counter to the current attempts to swift-boat Walz. It is similarly ridiculous.
zhena gogolia
@delphinium: They told us to put our first name. No return address.
zhena gogolia
@Bill Arnold: They were in the middle of a paragraph!
Kristine
@eclare:
I didn’t like that one either. Felt like a threat to me. I will add that a couple of elections ago I received a postcard with that message and it felt weird/threatening then as well.
I’ve been alternating between messages 2 and 3. I’m using 2 as is because I think the “Please plan ahead!” follow-up softens the “When”
cain
@zhena gogolia: Right? You know what you are getting. The NYT projects a neutral stance but they are snakes.
cain
@SatanicPanic: Very bizarre that they pick an issue that we don’t have that much control over how it goes .Sure, we can stop sending weapons but this is an issue that affects a fairly influential group of voters.
Protestors should also be engaging with Jewish leaders and voters not try to strongarm the govt. But this exercise, like student loans are about punishing the Democratic party by withholding votes. By this time, you have these folks who are not voting for the party because “too little, too late” on student loan forgiveness, “too little, too late” for Palestinians.
I’m trying to understand what the ‘win’ situation is ? Plus these people disappear when a GOP administration is in charge. It’s like it’s no longer an issue.
waspuppet
“A spirited campaign shrouded from OUR scrutiny” didn’t have the same ring, I guess. Just the ring of truth.
And that’s interpreting “scrutiny” generously. And ignoring the fact that the Times shrouds Trump from public scrutiny every time they DO report on him.
MoCaAce
I was thinking the other day that Walz, or Harris should hold a press conference and announce a new presser policy. Get one of those bingo cages and fill it with questions from real people, questions that will actually shed light on policy positions. Then announce that any stupid questions will be ignored and instead they will spin the cage, pick a real question from it, and answer that question. I could totally see Walz staring deadpan at the some idiot from Semafor until he squirms then, without a word, turning to spin the bingo cage!
Citizen Alan
@suzanne: This may sound dark but I have always suspected that if Bill had died from his 2004 heart attack, Hillary would have cruised to victory in 2008 thanks to the narrative of “a heroic widow trying to bring back her late husband’s legacy which had been besmirched and undermined by feckless Republicans.” Don’t know if that would have been good or bad for the country, but that’s what I think would have happened.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kristine: That one voted IS public record. Who or what one voted for is between one and the tabulating machine.
Villago Delenda Est
@MoCaAce: Or, have Kamala herself do it, with the stare she lasered at that heckler in Eau Claire yesterday.
Cowgirl in the Sandi
@Hungry Joe:
You have inspired me. I just got 300 from Swing State for Florida and have done 30 so far! Let’s GO!!
Kristine
@Villago Delenda Est: I know that. Still didn’t like it.
AM in NC
@Mom Says I*m Handsome: you are not the only one. English majors, unite!
AM in NC
@SiubhanDuinne: ” . . . through caverns measureless to man, down to a sunless sea,” if memory serves.
Yeah, that one sticks with you.
jefft452
@Baud: She can definitely win with only people who never read the NYT, Post or Semafor
Steve in the ATL
Completely missed this thread, but wish to note that (1) you have used this song title before, but (2) that’s totally cool because Kristy MacColl is totally awesome!
karensky
@Old School: I think he is the only employee!
Quicksand
@BR: Drive ’em down to San Clemente for some Nixon-related juice.
Craig
@Mom Says I*m Handsome: I hear ‘Relax’, and ‘ The Power of Love’
The Lodger
@zhena gogolia: A better question might be “Do you know when you will vote?” You’re asking for less personal information that way.
Skippy-san
Attacking someone for choosing to retire at 24 years old when he is eligible is ludicrous, especially someone who was a Sergeant Major. Many folks opted to drop their papers when Iraq began—for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that by 2004, the writing was on the wall about what a disaster it was going to be. The Guard could not have accepted his retirement request, but they did. And it’s Walz’s right to do so.
Not to mention, the people who started this story are fanatical Trump Humpers.