Decoy and Shohei with the cutest first pitch you've ever seen. ?? pic.twitter.com/fEoFRxMOH4
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 29, 2024
Sigourney Weaver got emotional speaking about Vice President Kamala Harris at a Venice Film Festival press conference. pic.twitter.com/Eq6cwFUBP5
— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) August 28, 2024
On the road again with @KamalaHarris in Georgia.
All I have to say is: Let’s roll. pic.twitter.com/K9K0sd0iMd
— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) August 29, 2024
From the Associated Press, “Harris, Walz will sit down for first major television interview of their presidential campaign”:
Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will sit down Thursday for their first major television interview of their presidential campaign as the duo travels in southeast Georgia on a bus tour.
The interview with CNN’s Dana Bash will give Harris a chance to quell criticism that she has eschewed uncontrolled environments, while also giving her a fresh platform to define her campaign and test her political mettle ahead of an upcoming debate with former President Donald Trump set for Sept. 10. But it also carries risk as her team tries to build on momentum from the ticket shakeup following Joe Biden’s exit and last week’s Democratic National Convention.
Joint interviews during an election year are a fixture in politics; Biden and Harris, Trump and Mike Pence, Barack Obama and Biden — all did them at a similar point in the race. The difference is those other candidates had all done solo interviews, too. Harris hasn’t yet done an in-depth interview since she became her party’s standard bearer five weeks ago, though she did sit for several while she was still Biden’s running mate…
The CNN interview, airing at 9 p.m. EDT Thursday, takes place during her two-day bus tour through southeast Georgia campaigning for the critical battleground state, a trip that culminates Thursday with a rally in Savannah. Harris campaign officials believe that in order to win the state over Trump in November, they must make inroads in GOP strongholds across the state…
After the CNN interview, Walz will peel off and Harris will continue the bus tour alone, heading to a rally before going back to Washington. On Wednesday, the duo visited a high school marching band to the delight of students, and stopped by a Savannah barbecue restaurant.
Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler said bus tours offer an “opportunity to get to places we don’t usually go (and) make sure we’re competing in all communities.”…
The campaign wants the events to motivate voters in GOP-leaning areas who don’t traditionally see the candidates, and hopes that the engagements drive viral moments that cut through crowded media coverage to reach voters across the country.
The stops are meant as moments where voters can learn “not just what they stand for, but who they are as people,” Tyler said.
Harris has another campaign blitz on Labor Day with Biden in Detroit and Pittsburgh with the election just over 70 days away. The first mail ballots get sent to voters in just two weeks.
BREAKING: MSNBC interviewed rural Georgians and asked if they are excited for Kamala Harris to visit. Their response will shock you. Retweet so all Americans, and especially the media, see the energy and enthusiasm surrounding this campaign. pic.twitter.com/geD99s5ezD
— Kamala’s Wins (@harris_wins) August 28, 2024
BREAKING: Kamala Harris is on the ground, getting barbecue in Savannah, Georgia tonight. Unlike Donald Trump and JD Vance, she is a normal American who can interact with her peers. Retweet to make sure all Americans see this wholesome clip. pic.twitter.com/R7MezQqXcX
— Kamala’s Wins (@harris_wins) August 29, 2024
I want to thank Joe Biden for creating the perfect storm to take out the fat fascist. A true patriot that saved us from Trumpism in the WH for the last 4 years. Now lets make him/America proud and put Kamala in the WH. pic.twitter.com/kwWeKi3s8b
— Ron Fancy Defender of AMERICAN DEMOCRACY (@RonFancy) August 28, 2024
On The Road – frosty – Farmer’s National Bank of Owatonna, Louis Sullivan. Exterior
Jeffg166
A great idea doing the interview together. Lots of laughs to be had. See them in real time discussing policies they would implement in detail. Needless the say the legacy media won’t be happy with this.
TBone
A very special boy, always:
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-media-foreign-executive-us-visa-don-bacon
May teh gawds continue to bless Propublica (they now have a free email newsletter).
Jackie
That ceremonial first pitch… adorable!!!🥰
Jackie
While TCFG was pissing off veterans and Gold Star families, Harris and Walz were having a blast in rural Georgia…
What a media contrast!😁
Which candidate is losing voters?
WaterGirl
@Jeffg166: I also wonder if the media people might be embarrassed (in front of Tim Walz) to ask some of questions they might have asked otherwise.
Butch
Isn’t that ” But it also carries risk” line just a little too typical of our courtier political press?
BR
@TBone:
Where is NYT and WaPo in actual investigative reporting? Nowhere. They abdicated.
Betty
Team Normal enjoying interacting with the public who seem delighted to have the opportunity to meet them.
hrprogressive
In my Fantasy Booking of this interview, if and when asinine and stupid questions are asked, Kamala and Tim just repeat back a stupid question to the interviewer, point out this is exactly why they are ignoring the legacy media, and then say “Next Question”.
Of course it won’t happen but yeah.
It literally doesn’t matter what they say.
The corprofascist media is going to slant it how the shareholders want.
Bots and trolls on social media are going to manipulate and falsify clips to their own narratives.
As long as they keep doing rallies and meeting voters where they are, combined with a smart digital campaign, I am sure they will keep doing fine.
Leto
In case you’re wondering what’s going on with Shitter in Brazil, and why all the Shitter users are now flocking to BlueSky, here you go! Does Apartheid Clyde know how to run a company into the ground, globally, or what???
SatanicPanic
Thanks to everyone who had advice for me last night
dww44
dww44
Patrick Healy , Deputy Opinion editor at NYT is on Morning Joe as I type talking about Interviewing young voters about Harris. He showed some chart showing her negatives versus Trump, mostly because she wasn’t “known”. More of the deal that she needs to reveal her views. I swear to God, that newspaper has lost the plot.
Betty Cracker
The fourth tweet that features a rural Georgia voter who’s excited about Harris and Walz visiting her community rings true for me. The strategy of including rural communities on the tour makes sense on a couple of levels.
First, it can prevent Trump from running up the score in less populated areas — there’s a big difference between 75/25 and 65/35 when the whole state is tallied. Just as importantly, those voters feel seen and valued.
mali muso
Good morning jackals! Glad to be on team sanity.
We are going to take advantage of the extra day off this weekend to go on a little jaunt to Niagara Falls. Kiddo has never seen it, and we get the bonus of visiting Canada for a few days to boot.
Belafon
“President Harris will be a stronger president because she faced off against her toughest foe: Us. Now we will work to continue to make her an even stronger president.” NYT/WaPo, November 6th.
Scout211
Speaking of Musk and his questionable decisions (too numerous to recount), he has hired a political consultant.
. . .
I don’t know where he is going with his Super PAC and his new political consultant hire but I am relieved that he is working for the Republicans and not trying to help Democrats. “Limited and flaky” and “backing out of promises” is on brand for the Republicans these days.
Plus, does anyone really think his goal is to help anyone other than himself?
Betty
I just learned via X and the Free Beacon that Kamala did not include her work at McDonald’s on her resume. Obviously another lie from the Democrat that she worked there.
Marmot
@Leto:
So everyone else doesn’t have to muck around in that thread:
Xitter must appoint a rep in Brazil to operate. Brazil will block it otherwise. It removed its rep there because the rep would face legal actions for the company’s failure to produce the IP addresses and other info of people planning and committing the pro-Bolsonaro coup attempt.
Elon yelps “free speech!” “democracy!” Like he understands those words.
Old Man Shadow
I hope Harris is aware that the media’s job is to destroy her and has prepared accordingly.
Steve LaBonne
@Betty: So wait, they were lying that she never had a private sector job?
Tony Jay
Or words to that effect.
Steve LaBonne
@Old Man Shadow: She is a woman of color who has been in politics a long time. And she didn’t just fall out of a coconut tree.
Suzanne,
@hrprogressive: I would love to see them do some interviews with some of the better, more thoughtful podcasters or YouTubers. One of the few interviews that I really remember with clarity, years later, was Obama’s interview with Marc Maron. Not a campaign interview. Much more interesting.
I think the legacy media doesn’t reach as far as it used to, by a significant measure. I looked this up recently for another thread, and the average age of CNN viewers was in the late 60s, Fox News was a little bit older than that, and MSNBC was even older. I bet the big newspapers have a similar stat.
Matt McIrvin
I’ve been seeing a lot of talk about the election being fixed in Georgia such that Harris needs to basically write it off, and I’m glad she’s not paying attention to that.
Belafon
@Steve LaBonne: Especially after watching what happened to her boss.
SatanicPanic
Can you imagine a Trump and Vance joint interview?
MomSense
Harris is running a confident campaign! I love it. I remember when my friend Mary in Iowa started telling me about her in 2007 after meeting her at multiple events. Definitely a star and I’m glad the timing is right for her now.
schrodingers_cat
@dww44: Patrick Healy was the BUT HER EMAILZ guy in 2016 so this is unsurprising.
Attapooch
@SatanicPanic: There already was one.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Jeffg166: “Just out of curiosity, do you know what The Former Guy’s policy on that is?”
(Blank uncomprehending stare)
“Have you ever asked a Republican what their policy was? About anything?”
(Blank uncomprehending stare)
SatanicPanic
@Suzanne,: Harris and Walz should do a ton of interviews that aren’t campaign related. It’s 2024 most people want relatable content not policy positions.
danielx
@Tony Jay:
And the hits just keep on coming.
West of the Rockies
I’m sorry that I don’t know how to link, but for those who can find it, there’s a damning essay in The Atlantic about Trump, evangelicals, and abortion. Abortions were down 30% under Obama and went up under Trump.
Jeffg166
@Betty Cracker:
They both went out of their way to work the room talking to everyone.
Don Old would have stood there waiting to be admired.
Mousebumples
@SatanicPanic: I vote for high school newspapers!
SatanicPanic
@Attapooch: I guess it wasn’t as big of a train wreck as I expected because I missed it
West of the Rockies
@mali muso:
Niagra Falls!…
Frankensteinbeck
@Leto:
“I’m promoting you to X’s representative in Brazil. Your job is to go to jail for me.” Yep, that will bring the interviewees flocking.
NotMax
Repeated.
All set for Saturday’s meet-up at 5 p.m. at Pershing Square Cafe.
Reservation under my nom de meet-up, Jack Alworthy. (NOT my IRL name; say it aloud real fast.)
Harrison Wesley
@SatanicPanic: Three falls. Fifteen-minute time limit. In the steel cage.
TBone
@BR: getting paid to misunderestimate and pull narratives outta their asses. Propublica shows how it’s done! Puts ’em all to shame.
Jackie
@SatanicPanic:
They did! Shortly after the RNC convention on… Faux. I didn’t see it, so no idea how it went.
lowtechcyclist
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I’m sure they have, but the answer was probably a meaningless stock phrase, and the media questioner didn’t dig any deeper.
Frankensteinbeck
@Scout211:
And Musk will continue to be limited and flaky. He’ll most likely make grand claims about what Young will do, then not fund any of it.
Chris
Ugh, fucking CNN.
I really want Democratic presidents to start giving more interviews to local news outlets. You don’t have to hide from the entire media to tell the nation’s opinionmakers to go fuck themselves.
Suzanne,
@SatanicPanic: Agree with you 100% on this. I know we keep saying that “this is a vibes election” and normally don’t mean that in a positive way….. but I think building a comfort level with voters is an important part of making the case for yourself.
I think most people feel like they end up having some sort of “relationship”, for lack of a better word, with the president. The president takes up a lot of one’s headspace. They are “in front” of us a lot, even if it’s just their picture. Helping people feel comfortable with that is a step.
TBone
@Leto: I hope he gets the FO portion of FAFO in a searing indictment.
An extradition treaty between the United States and Brazil was signed on January 13, 1961 and implemented on February 11, 1965.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jeffg166:
I think you have a point. Harris and Walz together gives them someone more positive and reasonable to respond to, and switches the psychological impression of authority to them.
TBone
@Betty Cracker: her accent didn’t sound very rural Georgia to me. But the strategy is A+
HinTN
@Tony Jay: Come on, man. You’ve got a long way to go to hit Pitchbot pitch perfect. Up your game!😂
OId Man Shadow
@Steve LaBonne: Can you really blame me for being worried when all our hopes rest on voters who decide things on vibes and not on the continuation of a (sort-of) free America and human rights?
BR
@Chris:
Yeah, I do hope they just do all the local morning shows — call in for 5 minute interviews to Pittsburgh Today Live or whatever.
Frank Wilhoit
@TBone:
That whole situation reeks to Hell of espionage.
Eolirin
@SatanicPanic: Policy positions are poison. It lets the other side pull things down into the weeds, distort what you’re saying, and come up with a squid cloud of nonsense about how that can’t possibly work.
We should only ever be talking about the problems we want to tackle and our values. Especially when it comes to the presidential level, when most of the policy questions are matters for Congress.
frosty
I’m a broken record here, but that’s how Fetterman won. “Every County, Every Vote”. When my South PA county gets over 35% Dem, we win the state.
Chris
@Tony Jay:
Waaaay too many words and sentences there for an American political reporter. Way too many. They can’t hold that much in their heads at one time.
BR
From New Deal Democrat on the economy — lots of positive signs lately:
https://bonddad.blogspot.com/2024/08/jobless-claims-almost-all-good.html
TBone
@Frank Wilhoit: 👍
Hopefully, and I remain hopeful(!), that thread will pull out and untangle a whole bunch of stuff with hard evidence!
I want the Leaning Tower of Treason toppled!
West of the Rockies
@Jeffg166:
And I bet Harris and Walz weren’t asking dumb-ass questions: “How long have you been eating here?” (“My whole life.”) “Okay…”
TBone
@frosty: 💙 good eye!
Betty Cracker
@Jeffg166: He would have for sure.
Another thought on this strategy: We’re in a sprint to the election, so it makes sense for the candidates to focus on red parts of states that have a prayer of going blue like GA/NC and to shore up states like MI, WI, PA, etc., by touring red areas.
I don’t expect them to come to places like Florida, which will almost certainly be dumb enough to vote for disgraced veteran-disparager Trump again. Same goes for Ohio, MS, AK, etc.
But in their roles as VP and governor before they became the nominees, Harris and Walz stood up for people in red states. We Democrats who live in those states noticed and appreciated it. IMO, it’s good politics and the right thing to do.
BR
I can also report from a friend in NC that canvassers for Harris have come by his house twice already. Also, he’s not one to get excited by politics (all he cares about is sports), but Harris picking Walz really solidified it for him and he thinks they’re a great pair.
Chris
@Suzanne,:
The legacy media doesn’t reach as far as it used to, but it still sets the tone for everybody else. Especially on political news, a lot of media basically just reposts what the NYT and WaPo are saying, or takes their cues from them.
The other problem with today is that social media is way more of a weaponized right-wing puke funnel than it was ten years ago, or even five years ago. I see it on Facebook all the time – it’s increasingly just bots and influencers, but specifically political and conspiracy theory based bots and influencers. And it’s specifically in the last few years; as late as 2020, if you’d shown me what my Facebook feed looks like now, I wouldn’t have recognized it. I don’t imagine it’s much better on Twitter, given who runs that.
Steve LaBonne
@OId Man Shadow: I’m also very worried about the voters, but not at all worried about whether Harris understands what she’s up against.
Suzanne,
@frosty:
I am interested in how long this will be an effective strategy. The Post-Gazette has been reporting on the fairly rapid depopulation of rural parts of the Commonwealth. Pittsburgh officially grew in population last year, for the first time in a long time. Urbanization is the overall pattern really almost everywhere.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
As Charlie Pierce put it right after Walz was selected:
Eolirin
@Betty Cracker: I dunno. While Florida has been getting worse, Biden only lost it by 3 points. Hillary was even closer. Given how pissed off people are at DeSantis, with the abortion ballot measure, and with it being our best chance of a senate seat pick up, I’m not so sure we should write off the state.
Though I could see them voiding the election results there more than most other contestable places.
Jackie
@BR: This too:
All good news for non republicans 😁
TBone
@Suzanne,: that may be happening, but it’s a slow trickle and skipping over rural people in the meantime is not a good look.
I don’t see “fairly rapid” where I live. Housing prices present a persistent blockage.
Eolirin
@Suzanne,: Well, if it gets to the point where we don’t even need to contest the rural areas to keep down margins, I think we just win.
Baud
@BR:
Thanks, Biden.
Baud
@BR:
👍
Trivia Man
@West of the Rockies: Slowly I turned, step by step
Suzanne,
@Chris:
I agree with this wholeheartedly, but that’s why I think it’s even more critical to get on platforms like podcasts and YouTube channels that have a different audience than the legacy media. The more successful campaigns, in this environment, will not depend on this kind of “passed along” media. The asynchronous nature of podcasts and video channels can kind of cut out the middleman of the social media algorithms a bit.
Abnormal Hiker
@Eolirin: Or as Kim Campbell suuposedly said in the 1993 Canadian election: “An election is no time to discuss serious issues”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Canadian_federal_election#:~:text=Later%20in%20the%20campaign%2C%20a,that%20she%20thought%20Canada%20needed.
She later said that her intention was to say that there was not sufficient time during an election campaign to discuss issues seriously.
Baud
@Abnormal Hiker:
You broke the blog.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@frosty:
We’ve talked about this before and provided at least one example of how it doesn’t necessarily work anymore in certain states. Misery is the one I bring up like a broken record.
McCaskill learned the hard way in her run for governor back in the day about blowing off rural counties because back then, even my country in red, rurl Misery, could typically be counted on providing close to a 40% Dem vote. She learned from that experience and didn’t repeat it.
But, it eventually stopped working. During her last Senate run, she went *everywhere*, Fetterman didn’t invent that stragetery. In fact, she’d stump in blood red counties and start her speech by saying “I’m your US Senator and you’ll *never, ever* see my opponent, now or in the future, here in your county”.
It didn’t matter because even in places like Misery where the population movement remained surprisingly static over the years, people were finally moving away, the draw of metro areas and all they offer, and that includes the suburban and exurban portions of metro areas.
As a result, that ability to draw 35-40% of the vote diminished to now in my old county, if a Dem can pull in 20-25% it’s a miracle.
OTOH, one would think that the supposedly Dem urban areas in states like Misery would continue to overwhelm the rural areas in terms of vote but that hasn’t been the case as people there have also left the state in numbers for better opportunities elsewhere. For example, St Louis City has shed, on average, 6K people per year since forever.
Don’t get me wrong, Dem candidates in situations like this need a statewide presence, they can’t count on rurl Dems to simply vote because they are Dems, again, that’s something McCaskill learned the hard way. They want to feel as if they’re being asked for their vote thru whatever modern communication methods bring the “ask” to their proverbial door.
But it’s been diminishing returns in certain states that’s for sure.
Chris
@Suzanne,:
Yeah. If nothing else, Harris’ team seems to understand that social media platforms are important. It’s a much harder lift now than it was for Obama given its enshittification, but they seem to be doing it very well.
Suzanne,
@TBone: Data show that deaths outpace births in a lot of rural areas.
What’s fascinating about it, to me, is that it’s really a worldwide phenomenon. It was sometime around 2010, more or less, that for the first time in world history, more people lived in cities than in rural areas. The reasons are varied but hugely economic: more people working in manufacturing and services than in agriculture and resource extraction. It’s a pattern that we should expect to continue for a while. However, I don’t know if we can expect that cities would remain “blue dots” as this continues.
Eolirin
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: If there aren’t growing urban centers, unless you’re one of the small north eastern states, the state is going to go red and be stuck like that. I think it’s part of why Republican governance in those states are okay with collapsing their economies in pursuit of right wing policy. It entrenches their power when their state is in a population death spiral.
But if the urban centers are growing, we can stay competitive if not become dominant.
...now I try to be amused
@hrprogressive:
“That’s a clown question, bro.” — Bryce Harper
Steve LaBonne
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Similar dynamic in other non-Confederate red states including Ohio. I think Sherrod Brown will survive this year, but if he retires after the coming term (and I think Connie will strangle him if he doesn’t) he is very unlikely to have a Democratic successor. It’s ironic in a stomach-turning way that Republicans solidify their grip on power by making the lives of everyone but their rich cronies worse.
Baud
@…now I try to be amused:
Good call.
BR
@Suzanne,:
Yeah, we see it with Walz’s subwaytakes cleaning the gutters video — that’s the kind of viral online video that we need more of. There are some old ones of Harris going around now where she’s talking about generational trauma and public health, and similar topics, but that video is from her previous campaign.
AliceBlue
@TBone: I’m a native Georgian and that lady has a classic south Georgia accent. Reminded me very much of my maternal grandmother and great-aunts.
sixthdoctor
@BR: I saw that and was thinking “Hmmm, I should clean my gutters,” so that is definitely effective.
And if Walz goes on Hot Ones and does the Conan O’Brien routine, that’ll be good for >350 EVs…
JML
I think it was very smart for Harris to make this a joint interview with Walz, because now he can be the one to respond to any racist or sexist questions they ask of Harris and it’ll be the older white dude punching back immediately. because you just know these fucktards are dying to call her an “angry black woman” and spend all their time on tone policing and other BS.
I do hope that Harris gives interviews solo to some of the local outlets while on her tour so that the snub of the NYTimes continues to be clear, but that’s just what my heart wants, even if it might be dumb. I suspect they’ll handle it better than I would, seeing as my heart is filled with rage and hate towards those bobos…
mrmoshpotato
@Leto: Great explainer. Thanks.
Steve LaBonne
@Eolirin: Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.
mrmoshpotato
@JML:
Didn’t even think of that.
Omnes Omnibus
@JML: Aside from the fact that the first sit down interview of a new ticket has been a joint one since at least 1976. Somehow both the GOP and MSM seem to forget this little fact.
zhena gogolia
@West of the Rockies: Slowly I turned?
zhena gogolia
@AliceBlue: She doesn’t sound like Scarlett O’Hara! (Just kidding — my friend who grew up in Georgia loves to laugh at the accents in GWTW.)
Kayla Rudbek
@West of the Rockies: whenever anyone asks “why don’t they…” the answer is always money
Betty Cracker
@Eolirin: I agree to some extent; I think it would be smart for Dems to make Florida a long-term project. If they can figure out how to crack it, that’s game over for Repubs. But I’m not sure it makes sense for donors and organizations outside of Florida to invest a lot in the state right now given the truncated timeline. Still hoping for the best this year, and it’s encouraging that DeSantis’s “Moms for Liberty” endorsees went down in flames…
Chris
@Eolirin:
Which is basically the big picture version of what happens in microcosm in each of these small rural locations – economic prosperity goes away, good jobs go away, population goes away, but what’s left behind is one or a small group of landowners who own everything that’s left, whose patronage network encompasses everyone that’s left, and who basically get to be the Boss Hogg of their own little Hazzard County. Sure, it’s a pile of shit, but they’re the king of it.
It’s really sad watching old Westerns these days given that a stupendous amount of them revolve around exactly this conflict – middle-class citizens trying to live with good jobs in a good community versus the local rancher, cattle baron, or other potentate who wants to either drive them out or grind them into submission. This was, in fact, one of the big causes of the Civil War. Northerners wanted the West to be settled in a way that was hospitable to ordinary folk, and were afraid that if Southerners had their way it would just become a playground for landed gentry with a few Haves at the top, a ton of Have Nots working their land at the bottom, and not much of a middle class in between. (There’s a reason the Homestead Act was passed in 1862, after the war was started and the Slave Power was no longer able to hold things up in Congress).
Well, it took a hundred and fifty years, but the “Southern” side has finally won the argument at least as far as rural America is concerned. Rural areas nowadays look economically and politically exactly like Jefferson Davis would’ve wanted them to, and not just in the South and West.
Kathleen
@Betty Cracker: I remember reading interview with a person who worked on one of Stacy Abrams’ GOTV efforts a few years ago and she said they deliberately targeted “rural” voters which turned out to be very beneficial for Dems and I believe it was the first time Dems had targeted those areas.
Manyakitty
I hope while she’s in Georgia, MVP finds time to visit Jimmy Carter. Doesn’t need to be public, but he deserves it if he’s able.
Geminid
@TBone: Sen. Bob Casey Jr. must have done fairly well in rural counties when he won reelection by 600,000 votes in 2018. It could be interesting to compare Casey’s totals in key counties this year with last time.
MisterForkbeard
@Betty Cracker: Kay has talked about this a lot with regards to her home state (Ohio, if I remember right) and it’s important for a ton of reasons.
Keeping a loss to 35/65 instead of 25/75 means the overall lift is much lower in the big cities, and it’s important to keep nurturing the Dems in these areas. If we don’t let them feel heard and appreciated, that 25/75 may go to 20/80 – and who knows what kind of great political talents we might be ignoring.
@Old Man Shadow: They seem reasonably happy with this interview (it already happened) so that’s good. Harris should probably do a 1:1 unscripted interview with some local news people if she can next. No reason to reward the media who having decided to be weirdly critical of her campaign in a way that they ignore for Trump.
fake irishman
@Eolirin:
Case study for this is Ohio:
the main Democratic metros in Northern Ohio have been shrinking for a while (Cleveland and many suburbs) which is exacerbated by first Appalachia falling off the table and then some of the smaller industrial areas tilting GOP (Youngstown is the big one, but there are some others too).
The counterweight is Columbus and its rapidly growing suburbs, and to a lesser extent Cincinnati’s, which are trending Dem, but that doesn’t offset the first three trends, as well as rural areas in western OH dropping from 30-35 percent Dem to 20-30 percent Dem.
In Texas, the rapidly growing suburbs are moving from Red to pink and purple and sometimes light blue and steadily growing urban counties have moved mostly from purple to blue. That is now outpacing Dems falling off the table in rural areas from 1990 and especially from 2010 that completed the state’s trip into GOP dominance.
The wild card the the Hispanic Rio Grande valley, which is trending GOP a bit, but the size of the valley is dwarfed by the big five metro areas. It might be enough to keep TX in the GOP column statewide for a while though. If Beto had performed in the valley at Clinton levels in 2026, he would have made up about a third of his deficit with Cruz.
AliceBlue
@zhena gogolia: An actress named Jean Arthur did a screen test for the role of Scarlett and she had the worst fake southern accent I’ve ever heard in my life.
MisterForkbeard
@Tony Jay: If I was Harris, I would love to get that exact hostile, awful question. There’s so much there for her get righteously annoyed with in a very common-sense and plain spoken way. She doesn’t need to be defensive at all.
“There are 400,000 graves at Arlington. Donald Trump disrespected them all when he broke the law to campaign there. This is a hallowed place, and Donald Trump and his team wanted a photo op so badly that they decided to break the law, yell at a docent who tried to stop them, push her around and then accuse her of having a ‘mental episode’ because she was actually trying to protect and serve our fallen heroes.
I think we need to honor our fallen soldiers. I think the Medal of Honor is the highest honor anyone can receive in this country. Donald Trump just shows up for photo ops and the brags about how his donors are better than the Medal of Honor recipients. And that’s corrupt, wrong, and just plain weird.”
Eolirin
@Chris: No they lost the argument, because the cities exist and they’re doing really well in blue states, for the most part. Even Detroit is resurgent. That’s why they’re so desperate to tear it all down now.
The argument wasn’t just for consolidated power in a return to something approaching feudalism but that that was the natural state of things and there was no better way that a society could be configured.
It’s the same thing that drove the race riots like Tulsa, where the relative success of a black community in excess of the neighboring white community was intolerable and had to be met with violence. As long as the contrast persists their failures are obvious. No one can do better than the failing rural community, because if they’re allowed to, it proves that there is a different, viable, and more effective way to be.
It’s why cities have to be presented as failures, burdened by crime and poverty and moral decay even though all the stats show the more rural areas tend to be worse on every front. But they’re growing, and the people living there are mostly complaining about rents being too high.
zhena gogolia
@AliceBlue: She’s a great actress, though!
fake irishman
@Geminid:
Wikipedia of all places will show you this. For most Senate elections past 2000 or so, they’ll show you a well-sourced county-by county breakdown of the vote.
It’s really interesting to see how Sherrod Brown’s coalition has been shifting over the years since he was first elected to the Senate in 2006. Casey’s is similar: losing ground in statewide rurals and small industrial towns around Pittsburgh (but no too much) and compensating by flipping the suburbs around Philly and the growing small metros around Harrisburg and State College.
MisterForkbeard
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: The sad/dumb thing is that it’s not hard to find Harris/Walz policies. They’re not explained out in painstaking, deliberate detail for the press/republicans to attack, but they exist.
Economic policy: Similar to current, but with additional emphasis on affordability. Reduce price gouging, add additional subsidies, bring back the democratic child tax credit, let the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy expire, add subsidies for low-income folks and for specific behaviors like first-time home buyers.
Voting Rights: The John Lewis Voting Rights Act
Civil Rights: Restore Roe v Wade, or something very similar.
Courts: Support Joe Biden’s push for Court Reform, and in particular support the Supreme Court ethics plan. Unknown: Does Harris support expanding the courts?
Etc. These are all pretty good policies. They have some detail to them – way more than Trump’s signature “I’ll deport 40 million people and won’t explain criteria or mechanics” or his “I’m going to fix inflation by telling my cabinet to take care of while I play golf”
catclub
Lincoln put it as the rule or ruin party.
Eolirin
@fake irishman: I do have some hope that in the long term, assuming we win here so that elections continue to even matter, Ohio will eventually shift back because of the growth in Colombus and Cincinnati and the continued contraction in the more rural parts of the state. The infrastructure and chip fab investments will help.
Chris
@Eolirin:
Not completely the same thing, but as it happens I think the same thing is true about Ukraine and Russia and is what makes the current war so existential from Putin’s side. As long as Ukraine exists as a liberal democracy and functioning society trending towards first world status, Russia’s failure is obvious. Which is why Ukraine has to die.
(Putin’s insistence that Ukrainians aren’t a separate nationality, but are just confused Russians, actually makes this even more true. To some extent you can dismiss the success of democracies in France and Britain by saying, sure, these things may work for those effete and decadent people, but it would never work for Russians! It’s not as easy to make that argument for a country right on your doorstep, culturally much closer to you, and that you continue to insist is in fact identical to you).
Eolirin
@Chris: I agree completely. It comes from a very similar place.
Though the one thing I’d add is that, in typical authoritarian fashion, the west is presented as weak and decadent and also simultaneously the reason for why Russia isn’t as successful as they are.
Baud
@Chris:
@Eolirin:
They hate us cuz they ain’t us.
Eolirin
@Baud: And we’re doing better than them.
Suzanne,
@fake irishman: The thing that I find interesting in western PA is that the city is getting bluer (we have elected black progressives as Mayor and Congresscritter), and the inner-ring suburbs are getting bluer. But those older industrial towns, like “New Kensington”, look like the cover of an angsty Bruce Springsteen album from the 70s and have become red-ass-red.
Scout211
It’s the gift that keeps on giving. Or the grift that has legs.
This morning, The Daily Caller (not linking) revealed in an “exclusive” that Trump was having a difficult time getting into Arlington Cemetery along with his entourage. Then the team contacted Rep. Mike McCaul who also contacted Speaker Johnson. Whatever that intervention was, it got Trump and his entourage into the cemetery for their photo op and eventual campaign video.
So not just Trump, but McCaul and Johnson were responsible for this disgusting display.
Here is the Politics USA version:
stinger
@Betty Cracker: I understand the focus on flippable states, but Dems can’t ignore red states altogether. You have to remind people of the good things Biden and other Democrats have done for them. There are persuadable people even in the reddest of districts. I’m always in favor of Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy. Keep our names and policies out there in front of everyone!
TBone
@zhena gogolia: that woman’s accent in the interview sounds very similar to Nancy Pelosi to me. When I’ve been in Georgia (admittedly very long ago) I haven’t heard that. I will of course defer to AliceBlue since she’s a resident!
Brain fog day for me.
Citizen Alan
@Eolirin: Agreed. Even if Harris can’t take Florida running app the score, there could help us with the senate and with the abortion referendum..
Tony Jay
@MisterForkbeard:
“Well, the grieving military families who invited President Trump to be their guest at Arlington are on record disputing many of those allegations, but just to be perfectly clear, you and your campaign reject the suggestion that you need to apologise for any offence caused?”
MisterForkbeard
@Tony Jay: “I’m glad that we’re able to consistently support and honor our veterans, and I’m very happy to tell you more about the following actions/bills/details of that support, since you appear to be unaware of them”
Etc. Keep it aggressively positive, keep showing that we support the vets, and that Trump doesn’t. Don’t get defensive, and just be cheerfully tearing chunks out of that framing all day while describing what Trump does in plain language.
Doesn’t mean the media will buy it or won’t be really disingenuous, but it’s a good winning argument. Especially here: Trump broke the law and had his people assault a docent when she tried to protect the honor of our fallen soldiers. And then he took a picture grinning over a grave giving the camera a thumbs-up. He’s a weird, lawless dude who’s only there to take pictures and doesn’t care at all.
And then that leads into easy discussions of the many times Trump has disrespected the troops. They’ll bring up that Trump denies it, Kamala can just rejoin that Trump’s own chief of staff has corroborated several of these points and that Trump himself has a huge history of lying about things. And then go back to him lying about crowd sizes, and he’s a pathological liar who only wants to make himself look good. Which is why his campaign attacked a docent and disrespected our dead.
Tony Jay
@MisterForkbeard:
Aye. Positivity and not playing the game are kryptonite to the corporate media
zhena gogolia
@TBone: I had the same thought you did, but I hesitated to comment, knowing how touchy the question is for Southerners. Apparently almost all movies / TV shows set in the South get it all wrong.
fake irishman
@Suzanne,:
YES. A look between the 1988 and 2016 presidential maps show this change so strikingly. GOP win. Statewide result within about 2-3 points. But the shift in county-level voting patterns are stark.
Fun Fact: WV went for Carter in 1980 and Dukakis in 1988.
Sean
@BR:
In this same vein, there’s a video they’re sharing right now from her visit to the BBQ place in Savannah. A younger worker says to Kamala “Sorry for the Sauce on my T-Shirt” and she says (approximation) “It’s all good, I’d think you weren’t working if you didn’t have a little sauce on you” and the kid’s boss is there and says “that’s what I say, sometimes I think he’s just putting sauce on himself and pretending to work.”
Then they’re all just giggling at that together. And that’s such a REAL interaction. Like the stuff I hear all the time when normal people are greeting/meeting. It shows her just acting normal with these folks in Georgia. Solid, solid video. It’s on her personal Social Media, not KamalaHQ (although it may be there now too). I love seeing that stuff so much. I’d rather see than 100x over than Donald Trump’s fucking bizarrely circular maw.
I’ve been stressed out about a lot of features of this race lately, not the least of which are these extremely close polls from the midwest from reputable pollsters, but that video encourages me a lot that they are doing the right work. I hope the upcoming debate will also be defining.
Gloria DryGarden
@Jackie: gods, I wish Harris Walz could have a big successful rally up nw of Atlanta, in MTG district. Rome, at least, is pretty strongly democrat, might it help the democrat running for congress, and move the needle for the presidential election as well?
I care extra, in Georgia, because I have several friends around Georgia, and one is def up outside of Rome in a rural red wasteland.
Gloria DryGarden
@Scout211: So not just Trump, but McCaul and Johnson were responsible for this disgusting display.
thank you for this extra eye opener. Important. That’s our congress.
or, not ours, but we pay for it.
Gloria DryGarden
@Tony Jay: what is an apology?
/s
i have a family member who never apologizes. I can think of many times an apology would have been called for. So, I know what not-apologizing looks like. (Apologising?)
Gloria DryGarden
@Suzanne,: because of big corporate farms, and the (forcible ) decline of smaller local community farmers?
rural and farm folks don’t alway feel their needs and points of view are cared for in the democrat platforms. I think these people need be heard. They can’t all be fans of their worst, least-intelligent-sounding sass-back representatives, such as MTG, or Lauren boob.