mtutiger

Barbequed dog? You literally cannot make this **** up. Makes Kristi Noem look downright humane by comparison

No argument there

In a vacuum, probably not. In reality, where everything from campaign finance to base maintenance is a consideration, she probably is IMO. I have a real issue with people arguing, correctly or otherwise, about Biden's delusions here who then pump out their own delusions, and who are most of the time uninterested in dealing with any of the cons that would likely accompany those delusions

I think Biden *today* is more qualified for the job, without a doubt. Trump was that bad as President, and is that bad today in terms of where he is mentally. But he's a candidate for this office and it falls on him and his campaign to convince the majority that he is up for it. And he simply failed at doing so and has largely not moved the needle on this over the course of this campaign. I feel firm in my conviction on what I said in the first paragraph, but I'm not going to live in denial on this, the majority in this country disagrees with me and most people on this board. And it's hard to see how the needle starts to move in the correct direction with some four months left in this campaign

If you compare videos from then to now, even, it's clear that he held up better then even with more of the "front porch" style campaign. Was also just legit in better shape for years ago and was up to it at the time But the job of the Presidency ages people a lot... Even Barack Obama, as young and dynamic a President as I'll likely ever see in my lifetime, looked much older and lived in than when he left. I know it seems like I'm riding the fence in my views of this, which more of a testament to just how bad of an option Donald Trump is. But the situation just is what it is. And what concerns me politically is the high likelihood that, in a race that he entered the debate tied in nationally (which means more likely down in the EC), status quo or worse is just not good enough, and this subject looming overhead makes it nearly impossible to change the subject. Especially with a press corps, annoying as they are, who are not likely to let up on this, even in the face of new news events. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but I don't think this is ephemeral; it's going to linger for the rest of this campaign. In a campaign that badly needs a shakeup in dynamic

Exactly...

I like Sarah Longwell, but just pretending Kamala Harris isn't a factor is as delusional as manu people think Biden's campaign is IMO

Meanwhile, the press continues to cover themselves in glory during this whole affair. Like, how dare the Toledo Blade and Naperville Sun cover things happening in Toledo and Naperville? lol

James Carville made a comment that has stuck with me a day or two ago, something to the effect of "this effort will continue until it cannot." I doubt he has any special insight, but essentially, the line of continuing to stay in and fight will continue until the moment its not the party line anymore. Something to keep in mind in the coming days...

100%, it is spin... I don't think they are inured to the idea there is a problem here, whether or not it was preplanned

Put another way, if this is going to happen, it stands to reason that the campaign is going to think through every possible angle... They don't have the luxury of acting out of pure emotion like the NYT Editorial Board does.

I am less concerned with them spinning about this because, if in fact this is a process to bring about a change (IDK at this point), a lot of **** needs to happen in order to do it in the best possible way. It at least buys some time. It's easy to fire off a round on Twitter about Joe needing to stand down, but gaming out what the reaction to him serving out his term, for instance, needs to thought through

Practically speaking, she would just end up not having a VP until if she won the Presidency

My only wish from those demanding Biden step aside is that they recognize the reality that there is no Plan F, Netflix scenario with a contested convention and Gretchen Whitmer emerging. Kamala Harris, for a variety of practical reasons, is the next available option. Those who make the demands while ignoring her presence are hard to take seriously. And frankly, a lot of supposedly serious people (and now editorial boards) are doing that.

The odds have gone up that he drops IMO.

To be clear, I'm not blaming the moderators for this performance. Biden owns his performance in that debate. But both things can be true: Biden sucked and, even if it was a format the campaigns agreed on, there are things they could have done during and after the production that would have served and better informed viewers.

Guessing the campaigns would have had to agree to that...

I didn't watch on CNN (I watched on WGN locally here), but my understanding is that they had Daniel Dale do a pretty thorough segment going through all of the candidates lies.... but, naturally, that segment didn't air until something like 11:45 pm eastern. Like, maybe run that segment immediately at the conclusion of the debate? Do we really need an hour of their hack panels before cutting through some of the BS? I understand Eric's point here, most of it falls on the candidate, and it's like drinking through a firehose when you are going against a profligate liar like Donald Trump. But CNN shouldn't escape scrutiny here.... both in terms of moderation and in terms of production, they could have done better to highlight the falsehoods that were thrown around in a way that would have served the viewer better.

The more fact checking of both candidates, the better

People have their issues with Axelrod (myself included), but he's right here.... there aren't going to be public calls for him to step down. Maybe there's a few party elders (ie. Schumer, Jeffries, Pelosi, Clyburn) *behind close doors* who can have the conversation with him, but ultimately it's a decision that he's going to have to make, in consultation with his family. Expecting a jail break from rank and file or Dem surrogates (ie. Whitmer, Shapiro, Pritzker, etc.) is unrealistic. And there is no mechanism to force him off the ballot that doesn't involve him making that choice. And in the unlikely event that it happens, it will be Kamala Harris. If you are advocating he step aside, be comfortable with that.

I believe that. The overall lack of conversation about the substance really stands out in political media though, and the fact that I hear and see more conversation from more normie / non-political types about the substance than from people who are paid to cover this stuff for a living should be really embarrassing

Not a columnist, but Jonathan Martin is also the worst. Probably makes at least 5x what I make and yet keeps suggesting "West Wing" BS that even novices like any of us know cannot happen in reality

More like Oz's abortion comments in his Fetterman debate (ie. More or less ignored by the media but far more consequential than acknowledged in real time)

My hottest take from what happened last night is that the "black jobs" comment is going to hurt Trump a lot more than people realize. Especially when you consider that a lot of the polling shows Trump overperforming with AAs/Latino voters, and that his polling lead, to some extent, rests on that. We always assume that it's only about style, but on substance, this likely hurt him a lot with a group he has polled relatively well with during this cycle.