It’s all over but the cheating.
I am going to have some fun today. My themes about the “Poltics of the Possible” are taking off, and I love it. And amazingly, Trump has helped, and his cronies have helped him help.
Imo, this is all getting so strange. The news for Trump keeps getting worse, because HE keeps getting worse. I note my ad nausium discussions of the Trumpian feedback loop—stupidity, delusion and incompetence leading to massive criticism leading to even broader stupidity, delusion and incompetence—with some conspiracy theories thrown in. Well, even I never quite envisioned that his deterioration would get as bad as he demonstrated in his Town Bawl last night. He is not longer capable of a single competent thought about “this is how I govern,” and instead he gives us deluded conspiracy theories and complaints about unfair treatment. So, more of the marginal cultists trickle away, and the turnout numbers are getting so amazing that we have shots for Senate pickups that were beyond any of our wildest dream, like two pickup possibilities in Georgia.
And, about his Town Bawl: it reminds me of the old, now-considered-racist Uncle Remus Stories from my childhood: the one about Br’er Rabbit, where he begs hunters not to throw him in the briar patch—which they do, which he actually wanted, and where he just scrambles away. In this case, the question to NBC News was “please don’t give Trump his own televised town hall,” which they did, where he made an utter fool of himself, and where the moderater, Savannah Guthrie, basically kicked his ass.
Savannah Guthrie's questions at NBC's town hall exposed Trump's warped information diet
Analysis by Brian Stelter, CNN Business
Whether healthy or not, almost everything about the Trump era can be understood through his sources of info. It was obvious during his Thursday night town hall on NBC, when Savannah Guthrie repeatedly pointed out that he was misinformed. And he responded with vague assertions like "I read it someplace" and "I've heard many different stories" and "people are saying." Here's the thing: When Trump calls his friends on Fox and other right-wing channels, his evasions and excuses slip right through. Facilitators like Maria Bartiromo and Mark Levin don't second-guess his stats and smears because they subsist on the same info-diet he does. When Trump gives a rare interview outside his pro-Trump media universe, his falsehoods and flimsy sources are instantly exposed.Thursday night was Trump's first time taking tough questions from a TV interviewer since his coronavirus infection — and from a former litigator no less. It was one of the finest moments of Guthrie's career. During and after the town hall, she was widely praised in journalism circles for prodding Trump with followups and pushing back at his distortions. And she was attacked in a statement issued by Trump's campaign, which tells you everything you need to know….“Carlson "misrepresented" the study, as PolitiFact explained here. But the host doubled down on Wednesday night, and Trump brought it up several times on Thursday, including at the town hall. "Just the other day," he said, "they came out with a statement that 85% of the people that wear masks catch it." That's a gross distortion of Carlson's original distortion!Guthrie interjected: "They didn't say that. I know that study. That's not--""Well, that's what I heard," Trump said, "and that's what I saw. And regardless..."That's how it always goes with Trump: "What I heard" and "what I saw." He brought up the 85% figure again a little bit later, and Guthrie was ready: "I looked at that report, it's not about mask wearing, it was neutral on the question of masks."
So, here was Trump throwing Guthrie and NBC news into the briar patch: all of the complaints about NBC News giving Trump this exposure turned out to be wildly incorrect, because all this town hall did was give Trump an opportunity to richly display his delusions and deteriorating coherence. Trump convinced no one, lost a few more undecideds and pushed the remaining undecideds closer to zero. And further raised the alarm about how important it is for people to vote this delusional wacko out of office. The Hill was onto similar themes:
The Memo: Trump's song remains the same amid bleak polls
President Trump keeps singing the same song even as polls show him falling badly behind his Democratic opponent Joe Biden.In recent days, Trump has spoken or tweeted about Hillary Clinton’s emails, the Mueller inquiry and the “fake news” media, among other topics.
He has seized on a controversial New York Post story about Hunter Biden and Ukraine. He has even amplified, through retweets, suggestions that the raid that killed al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden in 2011 was some kind of hoax.
There is a market for those kinds of views. Trump often gets the loudest cheers at his rallies when he plays his rhetorical “greatest hits.” But Republican strategists worry that Trump’s approach is deeply ineffective given his apparent deficit in the polls and the short period of time left before Election Day.
All of this, of course also set up the spectacular contrast with Biden’s town hall. Remember all of the fears about Biden as too old, and too addled? Biden put those permanently to bed last night. He was knowledgeable, detailed, thoughtful, compassionate, caring, smart, and able to make sure that key questions were answered properly. It was a masterly performance from beginning to end—and the end was a half hour late as Biden played Bruce Springstein and kept singing a half hour past schedule. He cares, he showed it, and he made everyone else care, too, including dubious young black questioners who got as much of an answer about their fears as he could possibly give in this format. Some of it got back to my comments from yesterday: Biden is a “moderate” who is in an important position to enact near-radical progressive changes that spectacularly enhance social justices of numerous kinds. That is more than most of us could have hoped for. And, by the way, where are all of the foolish Biden flubs we were supposed to keep worrying about? In close to two hours, not a single important one showed up.
By the way, Biden is also handling the “will he expand the court” question deftly. His answer is: “let’s see what this viscious, corruptly structured court gives us, and I will let you know how I will respond.” He is clearly and—to me joyfully—keeping the doorwide open.
Meanwhile, a few interesting thoughts from some of our more interesing writers, starting with Michael Gerson making a down case for Trump and an up case for Biden, as a candidate for our times. Roundup will be proud.
A conservative’s case for Biden
The reasons for a traditional conservative to oppose President Trump’s reelection grow daily. There is his abdication of leadership in fighting the coronavirus pandemic; his active encouragement of citizens to adopt reckless and unhealthy behavior; his corruption of public institutions for political gain; his cultivation of right-wing extremism; his determined effort to undermine public confidence in an election he seems likely to lose.
One reason is merely strategic, but not unimportant. Because of the terrible damage Trump has done to the Republican Party, it is not enough for him to lose…
First, the restoration of institutions often requires the knowledge and skills of an insider….
The second reason that Biden might be a good fit for our times concerns racial justice and criminal justice reform….
Third, Biden is a reasonable progressive. The initial economic suffering from the pandemic overwhelmingly fell on low-wage and minority workers. Today we are experiencing a recovery that William Galston has called “the most unequal in modern history.”...in our choice between the arsonist and the institutionalist, the institutionalist has virtues of his own.
Meanwhile, Ruth Marcus, perhaps WaPo’s best point person on the Barrett hearings:
Barrett’s hearings were a frustrating charade. But they were still chilling.
...
Flash forward to Barrett before the Senate Judiciary Committee, repeatedly insisting that her role as a judge was limited — that she could not be, as she put it, Queen Amy. “I just don’t have the power by fiat to impose my policy preferences or choose the result I prefer,” Barrett said. “That’s just not my role. I’ve got to go with what you guys have chosen.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) asked Barrett how to square that claim of judicial modesty with her Kanter dissent. That opinion, he said, “seems to usurp the legislature’s role in deciding who should be permitted to have firearms and who should not.”…
He never really got an answer. But, as Barrett prepares for a lifetime seat, at least the question is out there — even if it got buried under a pile of more pressing issues, such as the Barrett family laundry
The message coming out of all of this is consistent with Trump’s Town Hall disaster: picking a lifetime appointment to SCOTUS requires having a sane president, and a set of Rethug Senators who give a rat’s ass when the wheels are coming off. This bunch clearly doesn’t. We are back to another childhood book: we are now fully in Wonderland, as Rethug Senators no longer care that they are in a land where policy matters, and the need of the electorate matters, and the managing of the pandemic matters, and the crises hitting tens of millions of formely middle class families matter. Pelosi is right on the latter, btw: better wait 3-4 months then pass an inadequate pandemic relief bill designed by Rethug Senators for their corporate masters. It’s all part of the same whole, you see: WE NOT LONGER HAVE A REPUBLICAN PARTY THAT CARES ENOUGH TO CHECK TRUMP’S INSANITY, OR TO SET PRIORITIES THAT MATTER IN A DEEP, WIDE, SEEMINGLY INFINITE CRISIS.
I honestly never thought the Rethug part would get THIS bad, but it has. And the damage it has done to itself is actually a joy: we WILL win the Senate, and pick up hugely in down-ballot races, because:
--the Rethugs have defined themselves, awfully, out in public for all to see, and
--Smart Democrats like Sheldon Whitehouse are beating them with their own whips.
And, this doesn’t end with this year’s election, I am confident. I keep reminding that the Rethugs have roughly 21 more seats up in two years; this is thus a wonderful opportunity to tell them to act like they give a rat’s ass about governing, or lose even more seats in 2022.
It’s wonderful to see, amid all of the ugliness. Key authors like that on “Evil Geniuses” and “Caste” are gettting more and more and more atttenition, as more Americans are willing to listen to the story as to how corprate America and the Rethugs have screwed them over during the last 40 years, and how that gave us a massively distorted, ugly version of the supoisedly “great” America. I really believe that older sets of corporate lies, now encrusted in laws and SCOTUS decisions, are going to get a re-hearing that will lead to spectacularly important social change. I finish with one brag: I had a fairly little-read diary after the George Floyd killing talking about the possibility of his face on a coin, as he ends up being remembered as the the beginning of a spectacularly important set of new social justice initiatives. Here:
The “Politics of the Possible” has just taken a 90 degree turn to the left—an optimistic view on the past two weeks. .
Well, that is from 4 months ago, and the momentum remains all on the side of the Dems taking a strong majority in the election, and then having strong opportunities to damned do something with it. The black youth’s plea to Biden last night could actually get some great answers under the new Biden presidency, as the worries about “what happens if we do something bold and important, for all to see?” get some great positive answers.
I almost feel like thanking Trump and the Rethugs for showing their wares in such vibrant,spectacular colors. That include Bill Barr and Rudy Giuliani, of course, as the former gets beat up by a fading Trump and the latter gets beat up, wonderfully, by his own daughter. More and more people all the way up to the conservatively moderate part of the spectrum are being forced to notice, and I love it.
Bottom line: really important social change is in the air, for all to see and smell, and Trump and the Rethugs helped put it there.
Have a wonderful day, and don’t be afraid to dream beyond the election. It’s all coming together out there.