Sent this to @realDonaldTrump spox, to ask how he will fulfill promise to give $5M if assured Pres. Obama born in US pic.twitter.com/Uc751PeGrl
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 16, 2016
He has most certainly earned the first Pulitzer for Excellence in White-Hat Trolling.
Also, too, being a genuine billionaire has its perks:
.1) @realDonaldTrump $10mm to the charity of YOUR choice if you let ME interview you for 4 hrs on YOUR policies and their substance.
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) September 16, 2016
"I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me" pic.twitter.com/A537dShcnl
— Gabby Morrongiello (@gabriellahope_) September 16, 2016
***********
Apart from mocking the little man behind in front of the curtain, what’s on the agenda as we start the weekend?
BR
You know the drill everyone: sign up to volunteer. Just requires 30 seconds of your time and your long-form birth certificate. Ok, just your short-form.
Who hasn’t signed up yet?
hovercraft
Is there a scholarship that provides scholarships for Dreamers to go to college?
That would be a nice place for the $ 5 million.
sigaba
Is there some way I can volunteer that doesn’t involve calling people or engaging them in conversation? I did phone banking for Obama in ’08 and I’m pretty sure I scared off the one Obama voter I reached.
BR
@sigaba:
Yes — you can do data entry and/or other back-office type stuff. If you look up your closest office and drop by, they’ll be able to use your help.
Eljai
@BR: Thanks for keeping on this. I’ve always been somewhat fearful about phonebanking, so if you have any tips, I welcome them! Also, I have an opportunity to go to Nevada to canvass next week, so I think I will get off the ledge and go. I’ve done some knocking on doors for Obama and also for my local candidates, and that went pretty well, especially if I was paired with an extrovert.
ETA @sigaba, glad to see I am not alone!
redshirt
Does anyone know if Trump has ever responded to Cuban? I can’t recall any examples. Cuban’s been working him for a while.
BR
@Eljai:
That’s great that you’re going to Nevada! I would say that voter registration, which is important now, is easier than canvassing, so you could ask to do that when you’re there. As for phonebanking, calling undecideds is the hardest, followed by calling general Dem lists, followed by the easiest which is people who have expressed interest in volunteering. You could ask to start with the easiest list and work up from there.
Trentrunner
Sorry, can’t find it now, but according to Twitter, apparently there’s footage of Farenthold yelling out a charity question to Donald today.
Also good news: No 3rd party candidates in the first debate. It’s just Hillary vs. Donald, kids. Hang the fuck on.
Eljai
@BR: Good suggestions, thanks!
Elizabelle
@Trentrunner: Very glad no third party candidates. It would just be derp in stereo.
I hope Johnson never hits the threshold for participating in a debate.
Endorsing Johnson is the cowardly way out. The Richmond Times Dispatch led the way there.
Mnemosyne
Speaking of volunteering, I haven’t volunteered for Hillary yet (sorry!) because I’ve been getting set up to volunteer at one of the local public schools helping kids write plays. I filled out all my paperwork and got my negative TB screening, so I do the training tomorrow morning and meet my kid on Thursday. Nervous but excited.
hovercraft
@Trentrunner:
Donald will have no where to hide. One on one Woman to Man.
Bring It!
Corner Stone
It seems very odd to me how much praise Farenthold is being singled out for. All across cable TV, online media and also here.
Isn’t that the fucking job he’s supposed to be doing? What does it say that one journalist actually staying on a topic or issue gets name checked daily for doing such a good job at just checking lists, calling places and writing Yes or No for each?
“Oh, Farenthold! You’re like the McNulty of investigative journalism! Here are my panties!”
jl
@Trentrunner:
‘ No 3rd party candidates in the first debate. ‘
Good news. Thanks. No bozos at the debates! Oh…. wait…. OK, we need to concentrate on the most dangerous bozo.
And TPM blog commits good journalism again, unearthing a devastating 2011 interview it did with Trump:
Video of Trump Birthering in 2011
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/video-of-trump-birthering-in-2011
Trump’s pathological narcissism may sink him. He just can’t help bragging. People like Newt, Palin and Huckabee might get together and do some grifter shop talk, but they know better than give interviews about their trade secrets.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
Trump Truth Fact(tm) for the day – Donald Trump personally tore down the Berlin Wall. His experience was the inspiration for the Pink Floyd Album The Wall.
jl
@Corner Stone: To encourage the others? Not many doing a decent job these days. That satisfy you?
Edit: and for the corporate media sniveling cowardly hacks, they can say ‘Well, HE reported it out, NOT ME! I’m just saying what he said…’ So, it is an excuse for them to do at least a half ass job.
hovercraft
@Elizabelle:
Some talking head said yesterday that it is probably a good thing for both Trump and Johnson, because right now he is hurting her more than him, taking moderate republicans who can’t vote for Trump. The episode last week where he said “what is Alleppo”, is very typical of his level of knowledge. He knows some domestic policy, but even there he is sketchy, and nothing about foreign policy.
Turgidson
@Corner Stone:
I mean I’m glad he’s doing that work too. But it is kind of weird. I would say that the political media, by and large, lacks the attention span to do what he’s doing, staying focused on one particular issue. But the thing is, they seem to have a limitless attention span when it comes to focusing on any activity of HRC’s that “raises questions” even if it’s utterly benign. So they do have it in them, but won’t do it for Short Fingers. Somehow Farenthold is a hero because he’s not under that spell for whatever reason. Yay?
Joyce H
One thing that today’s weird Trump event established is that despite what he says, Trump is not going to be able to separate himself from his business interests if elected. Because look what happened and when it happened. It’s less than two months till election day, this is the home stretch, ALL his energy and attention needs to be on the election.
But today Trump advertises a political announcement, gets all the media there covering it live, and then forces them to sit through an extensive infomercial for his hotel before getting around to the very brief political announcement.
Kay Eye
Check the NYT piece on the collapse of Trump’s birther lie -in his column described as news analysis, Michael Barbaro describes it as “five years of dodging, winking and joking,” before finally calling it the lie it always was.
I think the 5 mil should go to the charity of President Obama’s choice. Kind of a nice way to offer the apology he is due.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
Don Buchla, one of the pioneers of electronic music synthesis has passed away. Wikipedia article here.
Jeffro
BREAKING: Clinton campaign outright calling Trump’s strategy “that of a 6-year-old…’I know you are but what am I’…psychologists call that ‘projection’…”
Hey Donald, that rumble you hear off in the distance, those are called ‘howitzers’ and they’re for you, mi amigo!
lollipopguild
@Enhanced Voting Techinques: Love it!
jl
@Kay Eye: WH already said that they don’t give a shit about an apology, implying it is all too stupid to bother with and/or long past time for an apology to mean anything. I think it was pitch perfect.
redshirt
@Joyce H: It’s amazing were here and this kook has a chance of winning.
I HATE the Republican party and the MSM. They are literal enemies to the nation and the world.
geg6
@Kay Eye:
I’d be shocked if Trump was liquid enough to come up with $5 million. Maybe his Russian oligarchs can spot him.
singfoom
@Corner Stone: After all the lies, all the bullshit all the fawning, finally somebody is doing a journalism so it gets people excited. It is the job he’s supposed to be doing. I agree that competency should be expected and not necessarily applauded, but as a contrast to others, since he’s competent, he’s excellent because the rest are so piss poor.
At this point someone doing good journalism should be applauded because it serves as an example to others. It’s waaaaay too easy for them to be lazy.
WaterGirl
@Eljai: I had never done anything like that before, but in Dec 2007 I took a leap and went to Iowa before the caucuses. One of the best experiences of my life. Do it!
Turgidson
@hovercraft:
The number of former Berniacs who are saying they’ll vote for Johnson is just mindblowing. I can at least understand the ones going to Stein, even though she’s a loon. She is at least pushing a loonier version of the same issues Bernie cares about. But Gary f’ing Johnson? Aside from wanting to legalize drugs, what the fuck does he offer? A more affable, less socially demented version of the braindead bullshit the Paul family has been shoveling. Berniacs hate Hillary more than they care about the issues Bernie ran on? Dumbfounding.
Corner Stone
Trump’s delay before the birther presser this AM was due to “huddling” with advisers on how to handle this announcement.
/according to Jennifer Jacobs on WADR
Kay Eye
@Eljai: My husband and I volunteered in 2008 to help get out the vote in Las Vegas, New Mexico. One of the most rewarding experiences of our lives. Now our knees are shot, among other body parts, so no longer an option for us.
Walking our own neighborhood for Obama was not near as difficult as we thought it would be, only one door slammed in our faces.
I’m phone-phobic but made myself do some phone banking. Just be your pleasant self, get off the phone quick if it isn’t going well, thank everyone for their time.
Maybe office work for Hillary will be the thing for me this year. Plus some money.
Trentrunner
@Corner Stone: This is truth, sadly.
gene108
@Joyce H:
Isn’t the whole point of being President to leverage the power of the office to enhance your business?
Since his business is now branding, it will be a big boost.
And that’s just the legit way he can make money off the job.
PPCLI
Good that the MSM is finally calling obvious falsehoods what they are: obvious falsehoods.
Has anyone besides Talking Points Memo picked up the fact that one of the guys who introduced Trump was a birther so fanatical that he submitted an affidavit to the trial of a soldier who refused to go to combat because he doubted Obama was legitimately President. The affidavit argued that yes, this was a perfectly good reason to disobey orders. Surely this deserves some ink.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: Wasn’t that your guess earlier today? If so, well done you.
Mnemosyne
@Turgidson:
Those are the Berniacs who used to be Ron Paul fans and needed a new libertarian dude to rally around. The fact that they thought Bernie fit the bill says more about them than it does about Bernie, frankly.
Kay Eye
@jl: Obama is always pitch perfect. Mr. T is incapable of apologizing. Still, there’s that 5 mil and won’t it be fun to see it pried from the Cheeto’s tiny hot hands.
Geeno
@Mnemosyne: Sounds fun – kids have great ideas if you can get them to bring them out; it’s story structure for the ideas they have issues with.
I still can’t herd a story I’m writing to the – too many interesting side ideas make the ending look lame before I get there.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah.
*cracks knuckles slides out of my boxers and jumps into the hammock*
Weekend! Here I is!
jeffreyw
@Corner Stone: Give the man a break! I’m sure he puts food on his family, and is a good father.
dr. bloor
@redshirt: Trump would be out of his mind to let himself wander into the same time zone that Cuban is occupying at any given time.
Turgidson
@Mnemosyne:
There are certainly some of those people, but there are a ton of Bernie-to-Gary millenials too. Plenty of them were probably too young to vote last time, or were solidly for Obama. I just have no clue what they’re thinking, and have to assume that many of them aren’t thinking at all. They know Hillary is a crook, Johnson seems like a nice guy who will legalize pot, and they aren’t voting for Trump so what’s the problem.
Calouste
You should ad tweet nr. 4 from Mark Cuban, where he tells Trump that he can also make out the $10 million check to him directly, if he needs it.
Mnemosyne
@Geeno:
Yep — my role is basically to type as the kid talks, and then help them polish the story into a structure. We work together for about 6-8 weeks, and then there’s a big showcase in December where they have actors come in and perform the plays.
(For LA locals, it’s called Young Storytellers, and they have a website.)
jl
@Kay Eye: I saw it in a news blurb and think it was Josh Earnest, who can do excellent deadpan comedy when it’s required. Or did Obama address the apology issue? I didn’t hear him do that in the sound bites I heard this morning.
Edit: just looked for recording of Obama’s comments, don’t see any. I’m interested in hearing more of whatever press interaction he had today.
gwangung
I don’t think journalism was that much better JB the old days. Same incentive to be lazy, same pressure to be conventional, same rewards to go the usual routes. Much more indulgent these days tho…
BR
@jl:
Obama was asked in the oval office, briefly, about the issue and he said something like “I never had any doubt about where I was born.”
I think his press secretary separately said when asked that he doesn’t think Obama cares whether Trump apologizes or not.
Aunt Kathy
My comment on this got lost in moderation a couple of threads ago, so I’ll post this again,just because it’s absolutely worth your time.
1- Last Sundays Q&A episode on C-Span had David Cay Johnston, who certainly isn’t a Hil fan, but he just did a book that has all the goods on Trumpie. Very entertaining.
2- This morning on Washington Journal, Kurt Eichenwald was on, and I think he was absolutely SHOCKED by the determination of Trump voters to refuse to listen to actual facts. You could see his eyes screaming.
hueyplong
I really, really want Trump to accept Cuban’s offer, making it clear that the money is for himself and not for charity, for Trump to then bail at the “unfair” questioning after an hour (or 15 minutes or whatever), and finally for Cuban to stiff him on the grounds that Trump didn’t perform his end of the bargain.
With a lesson learned that you always get your money up front.
Either that or for Trump to fail to respond to the offer and then get trolled by Cuban for cowardice for the last 50 days of the campaign.
PPCLI
@Aunt Kathy: The Republican Party has been cultivating that resistance to facts ever since Reagan. Scorn and condescension for the “reality based community”. It accelerated with Fox News and Rush. And now it is flowering in all its horrifying grandeur.
Peale
@Corner Stone: I hope you put Purell on that hammock when you’re done. Nude hammocking indeed
Gelfling 545
@Turgidson: well, Matt Tabbai has an article today saying false balance is no big thing and anyway if it is, it’s all our own fault.
Iowa Old Lady
@Turgidson: Some of the younger Sanders people think of Obama as a base line. He’s ok, but we can do better. They don’t remember what it was like to have an incompetent president. Even for longtime voters, the stark difference between W and Obama was shocking to see.
laura
@Eljai: phone banking IS hard, as is door knocking. That said, I’ve always found that the real work of the world is done by face to face conversation -we are hard wired for it.
A somewhat level of confidence comes after repetition -and while some folks just do not want to talk, there are others that will, even if initially reluctant.
It is not uncommon that when you feel strong in your commitment to a candidate, and can give several SIMPLE reasons why you support the campaign and ASK what concerns or issues are important to you -and we ALL have issues, it allows space for real and genuine connection in your community. It is the nuts and bolts of self-governance, it is informed citizenry 101, and if you LISTEN you may find out that you, too play an important role in helping a campaign address the issue.
I hope this helps you, and demystifies the process. Yours truly a veteran campaign worker. Don’t be scared, you can do this. And when you get a hostile Dem, or a Trump supporter, wish the a good day, shake it off and move on.
danielx
Yes! He really and truly is a little man. Not in the physical sense of his great overweight ass, but as a human being.
JPL
So Trump said that Hillary is against guns, maybe it’s time for her dozens and dozens of bodyguards to not carry guns. Let’s see how that works our for her.
edit .. quote
Trump: “I think her bodyguards should drop all weapons. They should disarm immediately. Take their guns away, let’s see what happens to her”
Jeffro
@redshirt:
Post-Inauguration, I’d love to see Donna Brazile & Co. at the DNC give ol’ Reince a list of recommended requirements for all their presidential candidates and nominees going forward…you know, just as a favor to them, since they have had no principles whatsoever for the past eight years.
Some could be hard requirements (all R candidates must publicly release the previous 10 years’ worth of tax returns prior to the Iowa caucuses, all R candidates must complete/release a standard physical, etc) while others could be just for grins (all R candidates must take an oath not to insult POWs, Gold Star families, and the disabled; all R candidates must agree not to talk about their ‘equipment’ in public nor mock the other candidates’ equipment; all R candidates must refrain from wrapping pork products around automatic weapons as a weird sop to the gun lobby, etc)
Or am I just re-fighting the last war here? =)
Oh but what a way to rub their noses in it, after nominating this psycho…
Aunt Kathy
@PPCLI: You and I know that. I think the nice reporter only knew it in theory, lol. He’s acquainted with the reality of it now, poor fella.
Eljai
@WaterGirl:
@Kay Eye:
Thanks for your encouraging thoughts!
Jeffro
@laura:
Phone banking – especially in this day and age (I know I sure hate answering my landline) – is harder. Door knocking is a blast, I think (especially if you take the kids). You get a good walk in, you get to meet some folks, and it helps break down some barriers. Hard to be completely rude to someone who took the time to walk the neighborhood, brought his kids along so they’ll pick up a great civic habit, and hey, exercise!
West of the Cascades
@Kay Eye: Looks like the NYT has fired whoever writes their internet headlines and hired someone unafraid to use the “L” word – that same story now appears with the headline “Trump Clung to ‘Birther’ Lie for Years, and Still Isn’t Apologetic”
SFAW
@Corner Stone:
I must have missed all those other journos doing their fucking jobs. Obviously, I need to pay more/better attention.
WaterGirl
@laura: @Eljai:
All very good advice, to which I would add: you may find the occasional person who wants to engage you just to waste your time so you will knock on fewer doors. If someone counters every thing you have to say, do not get sucked in, just thank them for their time and politely move on.
I got caught up in that exactly once. After that, you can spot it right away.
JPL
Anne, If you are watching the emails… Update to add this
Trump in Miami not on the teleprompter
ABC is now covering when they go low, you go high comment ..
good timing
bmoak
@Turgidson:
Maybe they like privatizing prisons and crippling environmental and labor regulations, which is what Johnson was known for as governor.
Jeffro
@Corner Stone:
Extent of huddling:
Trump: I think she’s almost over the pneumonia and back on the trail…I’m scared, man!
Bannon: Wait…I KNOW! Say that Hillary’s the real racist and you are a ‘closer’ who shook that birth certificate right on out of Obama, to shut her down! You’ll peel off even more white support and get half of ‘the blacks’, too!
Trump: Jesus, you are a genius! All I was gonna do was go out there, promote my new hotel, and stall for time.
Bannon: Um…I gave you that idea yesterday, remember?
Trump: Oh yeah.
WaterGirl
@JPL: Un-fucking-believeable. The man is truly a sociopath.
edit: Not only is he a sociopath, but he doesn’t even seem to know it’s wrong so he doesn’t try to hide it.
Joe Miller
BTW, over on DKos I have a post that will prove VERY helpful to anyone who is looking to volunteer to help out various Democratic campaigns. It’s right here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/16/1571017/-Take-ACTION-Start-HERE-YOU-LL-BE-GLAD-YOU-DID
JPL
@WaterGirl: That’s why I posted twice. All the media needs to focus on how vile, Trump is.
If a dem had said this, it would be replayed 24/7
EllenH
@Eljai: You’re definitely not alone. I resist phone banking because I don’t like receiving the calls, but the pros are adament that they work. I signed up to phone bank with Kirsten Gillabrand in Tucson this Sunday. I have also done both canvassing and voter registration in recent weeks. I didn’t think I’d like going door to door, but they had us knocking on D doors only and had a very cool app for our cell phones to input and upload the data. Most of the time people weren’t home, but almost everyone we actually spoke to were very positive. Only one registered D who said she was undecided, and another woman who said she didn’t intend to vote at all. I recently read an article about how important this data is for GOTV that was really persuasive and made me take the leap. I have wanted to share it with some of my more reluctant friends but unfortunately, I didn’t bookmark it and I haven’t been able to find it again.
rikyrah
You should go back and post the #4 tweet from Cuban. He offers to give the money to Trump himself the money so that he can pretend that he donated it.???
Mnemosyne
@JPL:
Man, conservatives love their completely nonsensical “metaphors,” don’t they? Hillary thinks that crazy people shouldn’t have guns, so let’s take the guns away from her bodyguards while leaving guns in the hands of crazy people.
Somebody needs to photoshop Donald’s head onto the body of the Red Queen from “Alice in Wonderland.” With teeny, tiny hands.
The Other Chuck
@jl:
With a name like that, he was born for it.
? Martin
@West of the Cascades: Hey, progress! It took the times a decade to be able to use the word ‘torture’ consistently.
hovercraft
@Mnemosyne:
Many of us said during the primary that a large number of those Bernie Bros were Ron Paulites, Rand never came close to the numbers his dad had. They migrated towards Bernie, because of the Fed crap and because they felt that Rand betrayed them on foreign policy. They are not democrats.
@Turgidson:
The problem comes in close states like NH and OH if this weeks polls are correct, they could cost Hillary states like Nader cost Gore FL in 2000. Gore lost FL by 500 votes, Nader got over 90,000 votes, too many democrats thought there was no way Bush could win, so they cast protest votes for Nader.
jl
@The Other Chuck: Dayam. You should apply at WH press office under HRC. You wold be a fitting replacement.
TS
Dog awful sad that Trump has to be bribed to do what any other nominee has done for the past 50 years. Money is all it means to this ahole
hovercraft
@Peale:
Corner has a disturbing tendency of roaming his environment in the nude, several months ago he used the excuse of a lack of power to spend several days roaming around in nothing but garlic.
The Other Chuck
@jl: I would be leaping over the podium trying to claw the face off some desperately deserving dipshit within the first week.
Jeffro
@JPL:
This, while at a rally of his where open carry is not allowed…
Won’t be the last time he calls out for various “2nd amendment solutions” between now and November 8th (and unfortunately, probably beyond), either.
I jokingly mentioned earlier that Donna Brazile & Co should help Reince Priebus & Co out with a list of post-election tips for preventing a fraud like Trump from taking over their party next time…but whether directed at RNC PR BS or just as an open letter to the American people, the Dems would do well to point out just how incredibly fraudulent the GOP & its nominee have been with America for the past 18 months.
Twist the knife and hopefully reinforce the facts of the 2016 election one more time, before it all goes down the memory hole as usual…
daves09
@BR: Canvasing this weekend as a break from voter registration. Discouraging number of people the last few days have volunteered that they are not sure a woman should be president. Mostly men but some women.
I can’t remember anyone I talked with in 2008 openly saying that an AA shouldn’t be president. Am increasingly convinced that misogyny will decide this race one way or the other. We have a long way to go on gender equality.
Corner Stone
@jeffreyw:
Now all I can think of is Trump eating sushi off a naked Ivanka laying on a table. Thanks, Obama.
Corner Stone
Joy Reid is ripping Steve Cortes’ asshole out on Tweety’s show.
The Other Chuck
@Corner Stone: Thank god I have a liter of Smirnoff Brain Bleach in my freezer…
hovercraft
Oh I forgot to mention that Halpern doesn’t think this whole birther thing is going to harm Trump because bottom line he admitted he was wrong, and the matter is too complicated foe Hillary and her campaign to exploit. I guess he missed this distillation of my sentiment, (Joy Reid).
SenyorDave
I think Hillary and all major Clinton surrogates except the Obamas (Biden, Warren, Kaine, etc.) should include in all appearances a statement that Donald Trump owes apologies to all the following for his birther crusade: Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Sasha Obama, Malia Obama, and the American people. They should make it clear that each member of the Obama family is owed a separate apology.
The birther thing should definitely be brought up by Hillary in the debate at least once, more if appropriate.
The birther issue is one of those “no context” issues, i.e. there is no context in which it was acceptable, it was not a policy difference.
Wapiti
@Kay Eye:
I think since Trump’s word is worth less than nothing, there really is no point in getting an apology.
Mnemosyne
So I do have ads enabled on my iPhone and I think everyone should be aware that I just got an ad for the new book by rikyrah’s favorite blogger, Luvvie Ajayi, called I’m Judging You.
Yes, that link is the actual ad so Cole gets a few pennies if you click on it.
hovercraft
@JPL:
I was wondering if he would take the bait, if there is one person in addition to Gold Star Parents that he should not attack, it is Michelle. That will not end well for him.
EllenH
@Wapiti: I agree but since he NEVER apologizes for anything, I think bringing it up also drives home that point.
Percysowner
@JPL: So let’s be honest, he’s openly advocating for her to be murdered.
hovercraft
@The Other Chuck:
She is my journalistic hero this election. I’m surprised Steve Cortes came in early for his ritual weekend ass whopping.
Mnemosyne
@daves09:
I wish I could say I’m surprised but since I’m a woman, I’m not. Misogyny is still more socially acceptable than racism and tends to cut across racial lines. It’s not as virulent, but IMO it’s more subconscious and widespread.
RaflW
@Elizabelle:
I heard a snippet on the radio this week that was saying that the multi-person debate format of the GOP primaries enabled the Bloviating Yam to hang back and just drop zingers and say things like “low energy”. It is essential that the stage this fall have just the two candidates.
I’m hoping for some fine moments from HRC along the lines of Obama’s dead-cold “please proceed, governor”. That still gives me a bit of a tingle.
Percysowner
@Jeffro: Yeah. I’m going to canvass and do voter registration this weekend, but I just won’t phone bank. I’ve phone banked before and I leave it for someone else.
jl
@Percysowner: More likely subtext is assassination. A little more respectable when than some of his past ad-libs that she should be lynched by a mob. See, Trump is trying to be more respectable. He is really trying to pivot to the center. Maybe the corporate media pundits will try to give the poor man some credit.
Anyway, if this toxic clown is still tied in national polls after the jackass show of the last 24 hours, this country is in deep trouble.
RaflW
@hovercraft: The societal impacts and poisoning of politics from the birther thing is too complicated for Halperin to understand. That’s all he’s really saying.
Also, too, I will never, ever, forget seeing the image of his shit-sucking simpleton grin as he went joyriding on Trump’s helicopter.
Corner Stone
@jl:
Pivot 5.0!
? Martin
@RaflW: Let’s be honest here – there will never be another Obama. In terms of his ability to do stuff like that, poke fun at himself, roast Trump on TV, he was our apex. The mike drop is so appropriate.
CZanne
@Geeno: something I learned from Carrie Vaughn (who is local to me and occasionally teaches a story structure class or does a con panel) is to use the screenplay format — divide into acts, hit the narrative beats, put hints of those interesting side stories into the main story, but shove those stories into the future file, because those are your sequels. Her phrasing (or someone else at the same event, alas, I have forgotten) was something to the effect of “this book is a 5 year old with a short attention span. If you give it too much, it will have a tantrum. Avoid the tantrum. There will be story time again tomorrow.”
KlareCole
@BR: Helpful volunteering info, thanks. Done the calling to general Dems. Pretty nice in KY. Thinking of trying to help in OH since my state of KY is pretty red.
jl
@Corner Stone: if you are hear, I have an edited and de-typo’d version.
But seriously the dude is trying to pivot. He did start a line about a mob lynching of HRC for her ‘very serious crimes’ a while back, and then had to shush a crowd when they started a little chant on it. Maybe he figures this version will pass muster. And it might.
A lot of people predicted how ugly a Trump nomination would get, Are we there yet? No. Peak Trump shit is a lie!
SiubhanDuinne
I’m canvassing for Hillary tomorrow afternoon. Will see what kind of volunteering they need from here on out and sign up for either some phone banking or back office stuff. During the Michelle Nunn campaign for governor a couple of years ago, I did poll-watching for both the primaries and general election, including all throughout early voting. I enjoyed that, and will put up my hand to do it for HRC if that service is needed.
O/T, a few days ago we were talking about the new issue of Essence magazine with the incredibly sexy photo of POTUS and FLOTUS. I bought my copy today — nice photos, including a page of Michelle’s best fashion moments and Barack’s, well, greatest moments. The twelve-page spread also includes an interview with the two of them, which looks like great fun, and right after that in the mag is a feature on HRC. Can’t wait to settle down later and read it all straight through. Then it will go in my little trove of Obama-on-the-cover magazines, which I’ve been collecting since 2007 :-)
Trentrunner
@Mnemosyne: Truth.
Shana
@sigaba: Offer to make a meal and bring it in to the office.
BR
@KlareCole:
OH is key, especially areas that border KY. That would be excellent if you could.
WaterGirl
@? Martin: I might just miss Obama’s chuckle the most – when he laughs at his own joke – more than anything else. Besides him actually being president, of course.
daves09
@Mnemosyne: US politics have always been rough but this is the first time since the Reagan years that I’ve had moments of despair.
In 2012 my best friend, who is AA, was convinced that Obama would lose, I was sure he would win. This time I’m not sure, and considering what Trump is, it’s almost making me despair of America.
Corner Stone
@hovercraft:
I’ll have you know, that roasted garlic was delicious.
JPL
This is on the NYTImes..
Donald Trump says Hillary’s bodyguards should disarm and see what happens. .
Corner Stone
@BR: OH is not key. It would be nice, but it’s not key.
WaterGirl
@sigaba: I’ll piggyback on what Shana said. Food. Real home-cooked food. Not pizza, not junk food. That will be appreciated beyond what you can imagine if you haven’t eaten crap for 2 or 3 or 4 weeks on end.
JPL
Thanks to all who canceled their NYTimes subscriptions, because suddenly they have a voice.
Corner Stone
@JPL: That article uses the words “false” and “falsely” in it. Amazeballs.
KlareCole
@Kay Eye: the Cheeto-love it.
gogol's wife
@Corner Stone:
WOWOWOW!!!!! Have they finally found their shame, at long last?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Watching Tweety for the first time in a while. He seems more caffeinated and less coherent than usual
WaterGirl
@JPL: @Corner Stone: That is kind of shocking. Hope it lasts for more than a day.
Trump is truly despicable – he and those who support him are bringing great shame on our country.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I haven’t watched Tweety since 2008, but my first thought was “how can you tell?”
KlareCole
@BR: Thanks BR, I thought maybe the Southern OH area would be too far to the right to benefit. But then as FLOTUS said, a few per precinct can carry the state. Will follow up on it.
hovercraft
@RaflW:
He is a republican tool, and pretty much everything is too complex for his beltway republican brain. While he’s hoping Trump will win, he has a contingency plan, Paul Ryan is the real prize. He will be this generations Ronald Reagan, younger and vigorous, the man to bring the youth back to the republican party and secure their rule for the next 40 years.
Corner Stone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The birther shit really grinds his gears. I am not sure why but he has ridden this racist bullshit non-stop for years now. He hates this birther shit and gives no quarter on it.
Not sure why he’s such a shit otherwise but this one topic puts him on full Tweety bird attack mode.
KlareCole
@Mnemosyne: How totally cool for the kids.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
@gogol’s wife:
I know. Something is going on behind the scenes at the NYT. I nearly fell over when I read this:
hovercraft
@JPL:
And GOP shill Matt Schlapp is agreeing with Trump, Hillary and gun control democrats should not have armed protection, Trump is just pointing out their hypocrisy.
Dog Dawg Damn
This press coverage is ‘Good news for John McCain’.
Media has turned on Donald, and an important lesson here — you have to break through to get him on the ropes. He doesn’t do contrite, magnanimous, or nuanced, so put him in places where he has to do those things to escape, and he’ll choke.
I’m hoping this is yet another turning point that sustains a constant, secure lead for rest of campaign, because I need to sleep and get back to normal levels of anxiety. ;-)
Chyron HR
@hovercraft:
I assume his friends call him “Dick”.
JPL
@hovercraft: A good friend who is republican, but going to vote for Hillary, is appalled that Trump doesn’t know what gun control is. She took his statement as one of ignorance.
I hope it gains traction, because some of us, understand gun control
Villago Delenda Est
@Turgidson: Bernie was this year’s “anti-establishment” candidate, and Fuckhead Paul wasn’t doing it for them, so they became Berniacs. They’re basically all Paulista slime who were looking for a home, so naturally they’re headed back to the stream that spawned them.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
I got my copy of the new In Style magazine today with Mrs. Obama on the cover in a lovely green dress. The security host brought it directly to me rather than putting in my mailbox because he knows I’m a fan.
EllenH
@Dog Dawg Damn: For those of us who qualify as “bedwetters” the Keeping it 1600 Podcast yesterday had David Plouffe on to calm our fears. It helped, some…I’m thinking I might listen to it again tonight! Also, later in the podcast Favs and Pfeiffer were talking about how bad the media polls are–the campaigns use models based on a lot more data and have a much better read on the situation. I have been reminding myself of that all day today.
KlareCole
@West of the Cascades: It is so about time. I have been raving the word all day.
Villago Delenda Est
@Jeffro:
I’m glad you were just joking, because I’m not: the GOP needs to go the way of the NSDAP and the CPSU. Oblivion.
Villago Delenda Est
@Calouste: BUUUUUURRRRRRNNN!
Matt McIrvin
@daves09: For the first time since I was a kid, politics is making me think I may die soon.
Even though I know I’m way down the list.
gwangung
@EllenH: Knew that….but that makes me wonder if Dems have a much better polling team…we know they have great data crunchers for GOTV….but, if I suspect, it extends to polling, then net wonder Rove and Romney were caught flat footed in 2012.
weaselone
@Corner Stone:
If we can get Ohio or Florida back solidly in the D column, it’s game set match. We can’t play defense too much, because if we spend all our efforts holding the bare minimum 270, we lose if we get unexpectedly pantsed in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and in some scenarios New Hampshire.
Corner Stone
@weaselone:
Come the F on, friend.
Dog Dawg Damn
@EllenH: Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll listen to it after I change my next diaper.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
I bought it too, when I was at B&N, but haven’t opened it yet.
hovercraft
EllenH
@gwangung: Once again Keepin’ it 1600 to the rescue. A few episodes ago their guest was Clinton’s head pollster, who was Obama’s pollster as well. I forget his name but they teased him about the New Hampshire primary that he missed in a big way. I also recently read an article about Clinton team’s head of analytics and how good he is, as is Robby Mook. They’ve got a great team and we all need to remember that!
Eljai
@laura:
@EllenH:
I really appreciate hearing about your experiences! I remember reading somewhere about how Obama outperformed the polls in a few states and it was attributed to his ground game. I’ve also read that face-to-face interaction increases the likelihood that someone will follow through and actually vote.
Felonius Monk
Not for the faint of heart.
debbie
@Corner Stone:
Maybe not for Clinton, but it could help with House and Senate races.
Omnes Omnibus
@Felonius Monk: Fuck you forever!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@EllenH: the 1600 podcast is great
Chris Hayes, on the other hand, has me wanting to throw a shoe at my TV. He has on, to discuss Trump and birtherism, a former Trump aide and Nina Fucking Turner, this in between endless clips of Trump, and an interview with St Bernard.
Matt McIrvin
@hovercraft: “Should panic”? What would be the most strategically productive thing for us to do, shoot ourselves or just run around in circles screaming?
I think Nate Silver is deteriorating before our eyes.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@debbie: internet rumor I saw today is the DSCC is giving up on OH and FL to focus on MO and NC. I saw an article the other day, can’t remember where, marveling at the fact that Rob Portman, a charisma black hole, an establishmentarian’s establishmentarian, an ardent free trader with fifteen different ties to the Bush family, is winning so easily in the time of Trump. I’m still trying to figure out how and why the Ohio Teamsters endorsed him
EllenH
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah I feel your pain. I’ve steered clear of cable news for weeks now, although it sounds like Joy Reid is consistently excellent. I follow her and several others on twitter, which for some reason is a bit less stressful for me.
Major Major Major Major
@gwangung: you didn’t need a good polling team to see the state of the race in 2012, reading the actual public polls was plenty. Republicans are just stupid.
JMG
@Matt McIrvin: Didn’t write the headline. An ESPN editor skilled in drawing clicks did that. Real headline “What if Clinton’s Bad Week Becomes Two?” didn’t make the cut. Know why? Because fucking Democrats always panic, that’s why. It was preaching to the panic chair.
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: CNN and CBS carried Trump’s statement tonight. Someone said maybe the statement would take away from the birther issue. Another commenter said, maybe calling for an assassination, is not the best way.
EllenH
@Matt McIrvin: Agreed. I think that Hillary has a lot of quiet support, especially among women. And the health scare probably didn’t change minds so much as maybe made people less inclined to talk to pollsters.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Portman’s a lying bag of crap. Pretending like he cares about the little guy in trade policies. He’s the one who screwed them with China in the first place!
I heard a report about the teamsters’ support of Portman. Supposedly it’s because he promised to save their disappearing pensions. Another lie!
ETA: Dems pulled their money out of Ohio a couple of weeks ago. Strickland’s a total screw up.
Omnes Omnibus
@Matt McIrvin:
geg6
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Hayes and Turner nailed Nunberg to the mother fucking wall. It was amazing to watch.
SiubhanDuinne
W. P. Kinsella has died, age 81. On the off-chance you don’t recognize his name, he wrote the book that inspired the movie Field of Dreams. Just a wonderful writer, mostly with baseball as his subject, but also First Nations. I spent a day with him, many years ago, when he did a brief residency at Macon State. Two of his short stories about baseball, “The Last Pennant Before Armageddon” (very timely now that the Cubs’ magic number is zero) and “The Thrill of the Grass,” are some of my favourite reads ever. I’ll probably haul them out tonight and reread them in Bill’s memory. This news makes me really sad.
Cacti
@danielx:
Sure, he may be small minded and small souled…
But he has a yuge gut.
weaselone
@Corner Stone:
I find it doubtful as well, but there are polls showing her up as little as 3 pts over Trump in Michigan. If you told me that Bernie would have pulled out a win over Clinton there during the primaries when polls showed her with a larger lead, I would have called you crazy, but it happened.
KlareCole
Thanks to everyone for info about campaign volunteering.
Matt McIrvin
@weaselone: Michigan was a very special case, because the strange events of 2008 meant there was actually no recent turnout model for a contested Democratic primary there. But there had been contested general elections.
Major Major Major Major
@weaselone: the Michigan polling failure has been dissected so much that it’s dead again. It was because the pollsters made a dumb mistake due to a lack of recent data on democratic primaries in Michigan. The same is not true for the general.
Edit: damn it
JMG
Here’s an example of why poll obsession is as bad for you as other obsessions. Poll came out today showing Clinton and Trump tied in Ohio. It’s her best poll there this week. Sponsor of poll? Breitbart News. Look it up on political wire.com. I forgot the link because I’ve been drinking.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Trump says Clinton should have all her Secret Service give up their weapons. “Let’s see what happens to her.” I keep wondering whether he can get any more vile. And each time he makes me wonder why I even ask that.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: The best part of an infuriatingly mediocre movie.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
Apparently Jimmy Fallon has Hillary on tonight. Here’s a picture.
EllenH
@weaselone: Don’t focus on individual polls. Look at the average. Huffpost pollster shows Michigan’s average as 41.6 to 36.2.
weaselone
@Matt McIrvin:
I understand that, but there are other uncertainties in the general that make 3% a little too close for comfort.
Turgidson
@Gelfling 545:
I enjoy Taibbi’s wit and style and certainly view him as more of an ally than not ideologically, but I’ve learned to take his assertions with a truckload of salt. He went on and on and on about how TARP secretly cost the taxpayers eleventy trillion dollars or something preposterous. He is more comfortable as a provocateur gadfly type than as a “just the facts” investigative journalist. I did love his write-up of the time he spent interviewing Teabaggers early on in their “movement,” documenting the unfathomable amount of cognitive dissonance and outright detachment from reality on display.
Trentrunner
@JMG:
My nominee for Best Comment of the 2016 Campaign.
Turgidson
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
He’s said so much shit like this that the media will barely bother to note it. It could distract from valuable Hillz-bashing derp time, after all.
weaselone
@EllenH:
I’m not worried yet. I’m just saying having Florida, Ohio, or NC firmly back in the D column would be good things. We don’t know what the impact of Trump will be on the turnout of the Deplorables in this country and we have no guarantee that male (and female) discomfort with voting for an ambitious woman for a role that has always been occupied by men is accurately baked into the polling.
Turgidson
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The Ohio Senate race is just painful. I thought Strickland had a good reputation there and was only voted out because he was up for reelection in 2010, and he still barely lost to Kasich – I’m not an enormous fan, but he seemed like as good a Dem as any to try to take that seat. I thought he would be even-money to favored against Portman with Trump at the top of the ticket, but it isn’t turning out that way at all. And Little Marco seems to be in pretty good shape too, even after admitting he fucking hated the job and getting pantsed repeatedly by Trump and Big Chicken Christie. Dammit.
gogol's wife
@EllenH:
My friend whose daughter is working for Hillary in Pennsylvania says her daughter has been keeping calm and carrying on without a tremble. I take heart from that. Her mother and I are doing all the trembling for her.
Mnemosyne
@weaselone:
I’m not panicking about polls until after the debate. If Trump pulls a Rick Lazio, he may end up in trouble with the very people who are a little uncomfortable with a woman candidate.
shomi
Yea but…Al Gore. So I’m panicking about polls. All the presidential campaign experts here say Clinton is dropping the ball.
Dog Dawg Damn
Why hasn’t press asked him how he intends to deport 11 million people, and pressed him for a real answer (rather than applauding him for saying ‘it’ll be really really hard’.)
Why hasn’t press asked him how he intends to make Mexico pay for the Wall?
The signature issue of his campaign is so patently ridiculous people laugh at it, and yet the press won’t hold his feet to the fire?
Imagine if Bernie Sanders were the nominee–what do you think the press would do with his unfunded, expensive social promises? Why not the same credulity for Donald?
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
And on the heels of that news comes word that Edward Albee has also died, age 88.
A sad day for North American literature.
tybee
@Enhanced Voting Techinques:
you need to start a hash tag with that.
Schlemazel
@shomi:
You should stop by the store & pick up a bag of salted dicks. You could spend your time more usefully eating said product.
Major Major Major Major
@shomi: in a new poll of Balloon-Juice commenters, shut the fuck up, you mewling waste-of-bandwidth pissant.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
@debbie: I was wondering how in hell the Ohio Teamsters went off the rails.
weaselone
@shomi:
Seriously. I’m not panicking and I think Clinton’s team has run a nearly perfect campaign.
shomi
@EllenH: Not as great as the presdential campaign advisors who frequent Ball Juice comments saying the Clinton campaign is doing this or that wrong blah blah.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: I want to see the cross tabs.
Frankensteinbeck
@Villago Delenda Est:
I don’t think they would have voted for him in the general. The core libertarian practice is to loudly declare how unbigoted and nonpartisan they are before voting their bigotries (straight Republican). If they can slap a woman while they’re at it, major bonus points. They’re all about ethics in ga- uh, limited government and personal liberty.
Major Major Major Major
@shomi: shut the fuck up, you mewling waste-of-bandwidth pissant.
EllenH
@gogol’s wife: Good to hear! @weaselone: I understand your concerns, but another thing that comforts me are responses to polls that show more than 50% of respondents say that they would never vote for Trump or where over 60% say Clinton is qualified, and less than 30% say Trump is. I think she has room to grow and in the debates will likely impress people like she did at the 11 hour Trey Gowdy inquisition. After the convention her favorability numbers improved a lot. Sometimes I feel like the negative reaction is habit more than anything else. It’s discouraging how many people are reflexively negative, even Dems. I’m old enough to know how unfairly she’s been maligned, but every once and a while I find myself falling into that trap.
Turgidson
@weaselone:
Yeah. They have raised a lot of money, spent it wisely (and didn’t freak out and overspend when Bernie was nipping her heels), and built up an Obamaesque ground game. They’ve been virtually leak and dissent-free, which is amazing given what a shitshow her 08 campaign was. They’ve stayed focused on the big picture even when it could have been easy to panic about news cycles.
They get a bad rap for a couple of “optics” moves that didn’t work out. The pneumonia thing is purely that sort of thing. Most candidates would not be expected to immediately announce that they have pneumonia, but HRC is, because NARRATIVE that she’s SECRETIVE. And if she’d been able to ride out that weekend without needing to go to the 9/11 memorial, it probably would have never come up. I don’t blame the campaign for that kind of thing. OK, they should have announced the pneumonia diagnosis faster. Is that really going to be a make-or-break thing in this campaign? God I hope not. And people ding them for not squashing the email story. Well, how the hell were they supposed to do that? Every time Hillary explained how she remembered things in the first few months, that just set off new “her responses raise more questions than they answer” chin-stroking and follow-up articles. And then the emails got released in bunches every few weeks, giving the idiot media another chance to have a big circle jerk about it. I don’t think there’s any obvious steps they could have taken to strangle that story in the crib, frankly. And if it wasn’t that, it would have been BENGHAAAZI or the Foundation anyway. They were going to have their fucking Clinton scandal, no matter what happened.
We’ll see in November if all the painstaking work this campaign has done over the past year and a half pay off. I still think it will.
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Kinsella took his own life under the protection of doctor-assisted suicide legislation.
Canada is a civilised and advanced country.
Jeffro
OT until a new thread pops up: Luke(!) Russert(!!) of all people just went on a Tweet-storm that lays. it. OUT re: the GOP and birtherism. Totally on point and they totally own it, all of them.
redshirt
@Jeffro: I don’t believe it.
CaseyL
@SiubhanDuinne: Sad news; I love his work. Have you read The Iowa Baseball Confederacy? It’s a crazy, crazy book, full of magic realism, alt.history, and just plain surrealism, and I adore it.
jl
@redshirt: I just looked. My God. Russert let out a blast.
Hate to make any critical comment at all. Good that Russert is stating the historical record accurately. But not really in a journalist mode. More like something made him snap and Russert is just venting. But as best I can recall, Russert told the truth, so good on him.
Edit: but I don’t follow twitter enough to know hoe Russert has pitched his twitter feed. Is it a professional outlet for him, or is it a personal thoughts type account. But, whatever, reporters have gotten in trouble for being so blunt in the past, so good on Russert.
SiubhanDuinne
@CaseyL:
Of course I have, many times. Love his writing.
J R in WV
@JPL:
I suspect it is another big lie to say that Hillary is against guns. She is certainly in favor of more effective and comprehensive background checks, and probably against high-capacity magazines.
That isn’t the same as being against guns. I suspect she believes guns have their place, which isn’t in schools, etc.
Jeffro
@redshirt: @jl:
He laid not just Trump but the whole go-along-to-get-the-racist-vote-GOP OUT
jl
@redshirt: Russert’s conclusion:
6. Lastly, think of discipline Obama has had for 8 years to not just say publicly, “You race baiting motherf….” Looking forward to memoir
https://twitter.com/LukeRussert/status/776787812255432708
Jeffro
Wrap up money Tweet from ol’ Luke R:
Jeffro
@jl: Oh too funny, you just beat me to it!
Nuts, isn’t it? Of all people, LUKE RUSSERT brings it!
jl
@Jeffro: People who have any decency at all will realize sooner or later that politics and news commentary are not just games, and if they get pushed too far, will react. Russert is one of them dang kids (relatively speaking). They tend far less tolerant of racism and hypocrisy than us older folk.
Something pushed him too far and looks like he just said to himself ‘enough with the BS’.Be interesting to see what he does gong forward.
Villago Delenda Est
Once again, I’m getting tossed to the Yahoo Error handler often when I seek to refresh Balloon Juice. Alain, please find out what this is and fix it, along with the format changes which are happening more frequently.
Steeplejack (phone)
@jl:
Russert is out of the business, at least temporarily. He left NBC News in July.
jl
@Steeplejack (phone): Yes. Thanks. After your comment I checked the wiki. But he is still at MSNBC? or not?
dww44
@Aunt Kathy:Late, but I too watched that Brian Lamb interview with David Cay Johnston. My take is that the latter was trying to bolster his “I’m fair and objective” bona fides by saying there’s a lot to investigate HRC for as well. I thought that was his version of “both sides do it” and to me it came across as a cop-out.
Just a couple of days later he was on one of the nightly MSNBC shows, either Hayes or O’Donnell, and he was speaking positively about some aspect of the Clinton campaign. I’ve long believed that Brian Lamb is a conservative business type Republican and has a hard time squelching that tendency in his interviews. He’s a good interviewer but his biases do show and Johnston, after all, was trying to gin up book sales.
Steeplejack (phone)
@jl:
MSNBC is a subsidiary of, or a sister company to, NBC News. Russert is out—o-u-t out. Home. Alco-pop. PJs and velveteen smoking jacket.
He could get back into the journopundit game tomorrow, but when he got out in July he said he needed to get off the hectic merry-go-round and take some personal time after being drained by the rigors of his nepotism gig.
There could be some editor or producer somewhere who is thinking right now, “I don’t like Russert’s tone; I won’t be hiring him in the future,” but right now li’l Luke is risking exactly nothing on the professional level.
KS in MA
@daves09: Yeah, OK, but lots of other countries have elected women heads of state … Germany, the UK, Chile, Brazil, India, etc. Do we want the Greatest Nation in the World (TM) to take a back seat to these countries??!? (Just trying to think of random talking points.)
rikyrah
@Felonius Monk:
You are wrong for that ???
Matt McIrvin
@KS in MA: One problem with that line of argument is that the person you’re talking to might not particularly like the specific women they elected (some of them were definitely not anyone you’d want running your country), and unpleasant associations would come up. Trump is already getting mileage out of calling Clinton “America’s Merkel” because Islamophobes/xenophobes associate Merkel with handing your country over to evil foreigners. Lefties would get upset about the cases of the UK and India.
Matt McIrvin
(Not that most Americans have clue one about who any other country elects as head of government.)
Uncle Cosmo
@West of the Cascades: Late to the party (the morning after!) but I wanted to note that your comment hit on something that’s been bothering the hell out of me for years:
It certainly seems that there has been a covert attempt by the GOP to insinuate their apparatchiks into positions at “news” sources where they write the headlines. Since most eyeballs-on-page never bother to read the articles themselves, one bastard churning out headers blatantly biased toward the Thuglican POV essentially co-opts & corrupts the entire operation.
Good on the Times if they’ve ID’d their mole-in-residence & shitcanned him/her. I eagerly anticipate other “news” organizations following suit. (Don’t hold your breath.)