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"Kamabla" Kenta Maeda has more heat on his fastball at this point than this guy does lol

This is also not true...

This obviously is not true...

Curious to know what's funny about this.

I definitely want more cooperation, but from a policy perspective, I'd like two opposition parties who actually push and pull against each other, in good faith, as that often leads to the best policy outcomes. Part of the issue with Trump is that, due to the nature of his personality, it's impossible to really create that situation because he takes everything personally and can't get past his grudges. Because, though he's not diagnosed, he shares a lot of traits of someone who is a narcissist The part of me that's skeptical of Eric on this is the idea that (speaking from experience) you can never be perfect forever with someone with that personality issue.... you'll always slip up and things will inevitably turn toxic. You cannot win. I'm sure that would have happened even with a different initial strategy to dealing with Trump when he first took office.... and it's why it's really not a viable way to run a country IMO

I don't know that Eric is right on this (he honestly might be).... but the idea that for our government to function, it requires the political opposition engaging in flattery and obsequiousness of a President who appears to be a malignant narcissist... that's just not a way to run a country regardless.

Have no idea which direction she will go, but Walz' rise in this competition from relative obscurity is impressive regardless of who she goes with.

The polls are now fake again in Trumplandia

For the record, the Olympics this year have been really enjoyable... It's a shame that some are letting distractions inhibit the really impressive accomplishments by many of the athletes competing this year. Their loss, I guess

Could they have though? This was always going happen. None of the old guard, which includes CCW Cooke here, wants to admit this thing is a cult. They are in denial

Just an insane strategy here... Its like he *wants* to lose Georgia

We've come a long way from the "unity" message after someone took a shot at him A lot of good conversations happened after that... I'm not surprised that nothing that was discussed mattered apparently

It's bad enough that it affects the athletes, but our stupid culture war bull**** affects the families too. SMH

If you aren't pure enough, you get purged... Who wants to be a part of that?

I still think the dynamics favor Shapiro, particularly if she *likes* him personally... But Tim Walz has impressed me a lot. His political instincts and image I think are worthy of the hype he has gotten throughout this process. I'd be fine with all of them, but my guy tells me that it comes down to Shapiro and Walz IMO

Walz has been using the "weird" line for a long time as well... I remember seeing a clip of him from MSNBC from before Thanksgiving last year saying using that toward Trump. One of the criticisms is that this was some sort of work shopped/focus grouped line, and I don't think it's true. I think it went viral because JD Vance, in particular, gave it oxygen. I didn't hear him with Ezra Klein, but I did hear him talk to one of the Pod Bros and he made a good point (one that has probably been adopted by the campaign and should be adopted by supporters) of using it only toward the candidate or his surrogates, not supporters. I don't doubt what you are saying about part of how "basket of deplorables" backfired, but Walz' point is important: keep the focus on the candidate.

Maybe ABC can provide an empty podium if he doesn't show up as well lol

It's amazing how, over and over again in the Trump era, we are told that moves that transparently convey weakness (not strength) end up getting framed as "tactical genius" This is just another example as I see it...

Pretty reasonable take here.

I tend to think this overstates Trump's position here, but YMMV

I agree. Hillary also had a lot of intervening events, such as the Comey Letter being released two weeks in advance of election day and (believe it or not) Wikileaks that helped bring her down as well. Along with poor campaign strategy in terms of where she visited and where she didn't. She was also a Democrat running for a third consecutive D term in a country that generally doesn't reward in-parties like that. All of which to say is that you can point to many different factors in a race that was decided by about 80,000 votes in three states. It isn't just because labeling him a bully didn't work. But I do think that looking at everything through the lens of 2016 (as many still do) ignores the ways in which the electorate and the candidate are much different today than they were eight years ago. Donald Trump was much more of an enigma, much less defined, and (believe it or not) was perceived as much more of a moderate on social issues than he is in 2024. His performance in the suburbs in 2016 was likely the high water mark, and it's possible (if not likely) he will do worse there in 2024 than he did in 2020. Then you get to his personal characteristics... he's 78 years old, much less coherent than he was eight years ago (which is saying something), he's been implicated in legal fights and issues (yes voters are aware of this), isn't focused enough to actually talk policy or carry out a campaign strategy (see: NABJ Conference). He's not a Colossus, and talking yourself into learned helplessness, saying things like "can't do that" or "what about 2016?" over every single thing (such as "weird") that comes up to accentuate the personal or character differences between the two candidates seems like a self-defeating strategy in its own right. Yes, they need to focus on policy and highlighting the phony nature of Trump's populism, but you need to layer in supporting data to support the charge of "phony"... and a lot of that is going to be by poking at their weaknesses in character.