Is it Me or is LITERALLY EVERYTHING Kamala Harris does is Awesome, Amazing, and Totally  Based?

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32 Is it Me or is LITERALLY EVERYTHING Kamala Harris does is Awesome, Amazing, and Totally Based?

I will admit-I was one of many Democrats on social media greatly concerned about dumping Joe Biden this late in the game. But that seems an awfully long time ago-even though it was just a week ago, indeed it was 6 days since Joe stepped out of the race.

Last Sunday afternoon soon after the news that Biden had stepped out of the race, I’d done a poll on my Twitter feed-as like me many of my friends and followers were Ride or Die with Biden.

What will be unburdened by what has been on X: “My fellow Democrats hope you’re trying to hold up. They got what they wanted now it better be Kamala they better not lose. What’s your predominant mood at this moment?” / X

These numbers pretty much summed up my own feelings-part of me was joyous, but also fious, and a large part of me was ambivalent and bittersweet. Many Democrats felt the same, notably, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett:

Jasmine Crockett on X: “Well I hope the geniuses that pushed the most consequential President of our lifetime out, have a plan. WHO in the hell couldn’t sell the MF Accomplishments & win over a 34 time convicted Felon who isn’t even allowed to operate businesses in the state of NY (and therefore should” / X

Senator John Fetterman also put out a barnburner in the immediate aftermath though he appears to have deleted it in the next few hours and put up a full throated endorsement of Kamala Harris. Whatever else you want to say about Fetterman-and there’s a lot-one very attractive character trait of his is his loyalty, indeed his party loyalty. So he may have terrible Israel takes but he is overall a good Democrat-whatever personal mental issues he may be dealing with-which is good as no matter how some folks hate him for his Israel takes he’s going nowhere until 2028 at the earliest.

Many Dems were upset and disappointed.

Google “Project 2025” on X: “My heart is broken over how Joe Biden was treated—not just in the last 3 weeks, his entire presidency was maligned. Poll numbers were driven down by the constant bashing in the press. They never gave this man a fighting chance and that hurts. The backstabbing, ageism—too much!” / X

The ageism was certainly notable-apparently with all the talk of cancel culture, the one allegedly politically correct line you can engage in with impunity apparently is blatantly crude ageism.

FN:

Conversations about Biden’s age have lacked nuance, says expert — Harvard Gazette

Lacked nuance to say the least. For a contrast for someone who engaged in a far more nuanced conversation, see Lawerence O’Donnell. Find link.

End FN

Still as it turned out there was very little time to wallow. Biden endorsed Kamala in his announcement, then immediately the endorsements from the Democratic party bigshots started raining down-the same ones who’d drummed Joe Biden out of the nomination. By the next day pretty much all the alternative candidates who’d been discussed the last three weeks had endorsed Kamala Harris-whose campaign raised $81 million from SMALL DONORS the first day-then there were over $150 million on other donations in that first day.

A major part of the concern of many Democrats-like Jim Clyburn who’d warned just the day before Biden stepped down, on Saturday 7/20 that if the Democrats engaged in the kind of fantasy football open primary cum brokered convention fan fiction fiasco that many of the alleged smartest people in the room were proposing-everyone from Nate Silver, to Ezra Klein, to Shadi Hamid-not that this should be a surprise as coming up with the absolutely worst take in every situation is his super power, Ryan Grim, Cenk Uygur etc-as there are too many to list here-the Democrats were going down to defeat.

Unlike alleged election geniuses like Nate Silver, Clyburn actually remembers history-as he was there-and evoked the dumpster fire that was the Democratic convention in 1968. You had folks like Uygur urging Biden to do a LBJ failing to realize evidently that the Democrats LOST in 1968 and the GOP would go on to hold the WH 20 of the next 24 years.

FN: One of Nixon’s first acts after he stole that election a la Vietnam Collusion-see Chapter Nixon-was to blackmail Abe Fortas off the Supreme Court and since then the Democrats have never had the majority on the SJC again the last 56 years.

End FN.

And so let’s go forward with these improvements that we have been making in this party, opening this party up to everybody, and keep it open to everybody. So the process is there. And I think we ought to utilize that process and go to Chicago and, when we open on the 19th of August, do so on one accord.

So, whatever is going to happen, all these people who are interested in getting into the process, the process is open. Get into it. Look at the rules. It’s there. And I have said, you could use this process to effectively have a mini-primary, if that’s what you are interested in having.

But if you go to the convention, have an open process in the convention, it will come out the same way it came out in 1968, 1972, and 1980, when we had contested processes on the floor of the convention. And, in 1980, we lost an incumbent president. And, in 1972, we carried one state, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia, and all of us know what happened in 1968, when we took — we ran Lyndon Johnson out of the race.

What a great record Lyndon Johnson had. We got rid of him over one issue, the Vietnam War. Here we are now using one issue to get rid of a president. The result would be the same.

Clyburn: If Democrats Have A Contested Convention, We Will Like Like 1968, 1972, 1980 | Video | RealClearPolitics

FN: Regarding Vietnam, Kudos to Vaush who pointed out just yesterday that the Vietnam protests DIDN’T WORK.

I mean they worked-for Nixon and the Far Right they did NOT work despite the mythology of much of the Left in terms of achieving their stated objective of ending the Vietnam war. See 7/26 full stream

End FN

An interesting divide during the previous toxic three weeks for the Democrats where the Dem leaders were running not against Donald Trump but Joe Biden had been that the folks engaging in the primary fan fiction stuff were mostly White pundits who even if they personally opposed Trump and see him as a threat to democracy they didn’t necessarily see him as a threat to themselves personally.

It was notable that it was the progressive and Black caucuses who remained loyal to President Biden until the end-and it’s the Black, brown, progressive folks, LGBT, certainly women-who post Dobbs in many parts of the country who if they are raped have less rights than their rapist-who can indeed sue if not prosecute them for “killing their baby.”

Those who actually have something to fear personally from a second Trump term tended to be those most skeptical and distrustful of the effort to take down Biden.

After Biden did go down, not surprisingly Nate Silver has been taking a lot of victory laps.

What happened to Nate Silver or was he always like this?

Nate Silver on X: “For the record, it’s worth noting nearly all of the clout-seeking Can’t-Dump-Biden stans seamlessly transitioned to being extremely enthusiastic for Kamala Harris but whatever, I’m already well past my quota of fights picked for the year.” / X

Well speaking as someone who was certainly a charter member of the Can’t-Dump-Biden stans this is not surprising. The issue was never a metaphysical opposition to Kamala Harris per se-quite the contrary for most I’d presume certainly for myself

FN: We can be fairly certain this was not the case for many as many of the biggest skeptics of dropping Biden were African American Dems.

as Kamala was actually my first choice in 2020 and I’ve basically dreamed of the day she became President since that first Senate Judiciary hearing in 2017 when she raked Jeff Sessions over the coals for trying to conceal his Russian ties during the 2016 campaign. I suspect this is when Hillary Clinton first became interested in Kamala as a future Presidential candidate too.

Opinion | Hillary Clinton: How Kamala Harris Can Win and Make History – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

But this hits on a major issue with Nate Silver-in general in recent years perhaps, but particularly during this entire escapade over Biden’s age-his inability to make even the slightest attempt to do any kind of justice to the arguments of his opponents during that extremely tedious, dismal, toxic debate.

But of course there was no way he ever could do this when he simply presumed that there were literally NO good reasons to stay with Biden a position which doesn’t pass the laugh test.

Find tweet by Silver on no good arguments.

‘Terrible boss’ Nate Silver blasted by ex-employee (nypost.com)

Farai Chideya: I Was Called Anti-Semite For Calling Out Nate Silver’s Management Practices (moguldom.com)

[Farai Chideya] “I had some wonderful friends and allies at @FiveThirtyEight . But Nate Silver was a terrible boss, especially to women and people of color. Someone should do a bit of data journalism on how long women lasted on average there. And that made the journalism worse.” (1/8) : r/fivethirtyeight (reddit.com)

Find tweet of Nate Silver dismissing concerns over will of voters as “dumbest takes of the dumbest dead enders”

What will be unburdened by what has been on X: “Calling Trump and JD Vance is a brilliant master stroke-because they are not only forced birthers, insurrectionists, Putin apologists who oppose abortion in any circumstance but because t ARE weird these R very weird beliefs. That @NateSilver538 hates it is just icing on cake” / X

More Thoughts on the Debate and Its Aftermath – TPM – Talking Points Memo

Darryn M. Briggs on X: “Ignore the will of your own primary voters if you want to. Run away from the successful record of YOUR President and VP if you want to. Roll those dice. When you crap out, you’ll have no one but yourselves to blame. But I won’t be surprised. (end)” / X

@taylorlorenz • Nate Silver is now boosting the conspiracy theorist who continues to push the conspiracy that my … • Threads

Sort of reminds you of Yglesias’ absurd take

Elie Mystal on X: “@mattyglesias My dude… you said something would be “UNIVERSALLY HAILED” with literally no evidence that you’ve spoken to any Black person who would agree with you, much less the *universe* of Black voters. I’m not being mean, I’m honestly asking if you even THINK of us before talking.” / X

But the main reason all the Keep Biden stans transitioned so seamlessly to enthusiastic support for Kamala is the process was seamless-she was effectively the presumed nominee in 33 hours after Biden stepped down. Now if they’d taken Silver’s really bad suggestions and had this fan fiction Dem primary reality show in three weeks monstrosity it’d be pretty different.

Like Silver ,Ezra Klein gets it more or less gets it backwards

Ezra Klein: Why the Democratic elites kept supporting Joe Biden when everyday Democrats didn’t (msn.com)

Ezra Klein: Why the Democratic elites kept supporting Joe Biden when everyday Democrats didn’t (msn.com)ffr

(2) Christopher Bouzy (spoutible.com/cbouzy) on X: “People on the ground: We don’t want Biden to step aside. People on social media: We don’t want Biden to step aside. Polls: The majority of people want Biden to step aside. These are the same polls that have been consistently wrong since 2016,” / X

Pam Keith, Esq. on X: “Elite Donors: Joe, we have the money, we can make you do what WE want. Biden: uh…no. I have the VOTERS. And I am the GDMFPOTUS! We will be doing what I want. Remember that @POTUS. Do NOT ever cede the advantage of incumbency.” / X

Armand Domalewski on X: “Nate Silver is not a pollster and he never predicted a “red wave.” The amount of bullshit believed by the top leaders of the Democratic Party is just WILD” / X

Matthew Dowd on X: “one thing analysts haven’t understood right now is that Harris is coming across to voters as the challenger. Trump is coming across as the incumbent. Because Harris is “new” to most people and Trump was President before and constantly in media, she has the challenger energy.” / X

(2) Bad Faith ✝️🐴🇺🇲🌻🇺🇦 on X: “So we are going to keep pretending like we didn’t just have an actual primary?” / X

Kamala is kind of the best of both worlds

Matthew Dowd on X: “one thing analysts haven’t understood right now is that Harris is coming across to voters as the challenger. Trump is coming across as the incumbent. Because Harris is “new” to most people and Trump was President before and constantly in media, she has the challenger energy.” / X

Maybe not explicitly but he did use people who did predict it to inform his Deluxe model

Quote Silver from “Dems make rational choice.”

And for this a great deal of credit goes to Joe Biden as Lawrence O’Donnell persuasively argued last night after Biden’s historical speech discussing his decision to step down. Link above. A crucial part of his stepping down was explicitly endorsing Harris. According to some reporting, notably Mark Halperin, it was claimed Biden was going to step down without endorsing her. By endorsing contrary to this reporting, Biden gave the impetus for the party to very quickly unify behind VP Harris seamlessly. Ie thankfully the Dems didn’t follow the path Cenk-Silver and Friends but Biden’s.

scary lawyerguy on X: “Not that Biden ever gets credit for anything, but we (the U.S.) nabbed the Mexican drug cartel equivalent of Osama Bin Laden yesterday and it barely made a ripple in the news cycle.” / X

Trump struggles to find line of attack against Harris: “They are literally grasping at straws” – POLITICO

koofal on X: “republicans whenever they try to cancel kamala harris https://t.co/S91BlwvrNq” / X

‘Kamala-mania’ also catching on in Europe (msn.com)

Racquel Gates on X: “I rather enjoy that the Dems have finally abandoned that whole “when they go low, we go high” thing and are now just like “you’re weird and your hair is ugly.”” / X

Ezra Klein on X: “One reason I doubt there’ll be a “mini primary” now is that I don’t think the other major candidates would run. There’s not enough time for them to win support. The process would be too unclear. Party is too exhausted. Harris looks too strong. (People shouldn’t underestimate how” / X

Lawrence O’Donnell on X: “Joe Biden” / X

Opinion: Don’t bet on those Trump ‘landslide’ predictions just yet (msn.com)

Also striking how seldom if ever the little 5 letter word Dobbs appears in Silver’s 2024 analysis-you’d be forgiven for inferring that he thinks it’s importance as an election factor is little to none judging by his nonexistent focus on what has arguably been THE single most important issue for Demo voters the since June, 2022

(15) The Dobbs Backlash is Real – by Charlie Sykes – The Bulwark

Certain issues in Silver’s mind matter-high gas prices, inflation, gaffes-at least Biden’s gaffes, much less Trump’s, Biden being 81-which is all the difference in the world from Trump being three years younger AND a fascist who literally wants to end democracy-though Silver also doesn’t think voters care about democracy

Aaron Rupar on X: “”his odds of victory are very, very slim.” https://t.co/7eqkaoi2OF” / X

(2) Tom Morris on X: “@joshtpm I agree. He wanted to go out on his terms, wanted it to be Kamala, and wanted to limit debate + guarantee fast transfer of money and rally voters around her. Surely Obama didn’t demand a thunderdome deal so hard that Biden was forced to be so spiteful over something so serious.” / X

(4) Mikel Jollett on X: “Yeah, I guess we have no way of knowing if Biden would be a good president. I mean, other than: – economic performance (best in world) – crime data (down 26%) – jobs (most new jobs EVER by ANY president) – dragging the country out of Covid and – saving the world economy” / X

What will be unburdened by what has been on X: “He’s had such a hard life too-the personal and professional adversity he’s been through. As President he did all these things-end Afghanistan, great economy, pro Ukraine alliance with Nato, he even figured a way to bring down gas prices-no credit for anything” / X

What will be unburdened by what has been on X: “Really great show by @Lawrence last night pointing out that it’s thanks to Biden that the transition from himself to Kamala Harris has been so seamless” / X

(1) What will be unburdened by what has been on X: “Actually a very good segment about the divide between substance and “optics”-would FDR be electable today? Certainly not in 1944 where he literally WAS dying (181) ‘Approaching panic’: Joy Reid reports on Democratic response to Biden debate performance – YouTube” / X

(1) Josh Marshall on X: “4/ the dream. Let it go. It was always a fantasy. The most Joe did was get us here a bit quicker. But this was the destination regardless. Fate leads the willing, drags the unwilling and podsters.” / X

What will be unburdened by what has been on X: “Why are you still spiking the ball, Nate? Arguably this has turned out optimally-Dems swap to a younger, more energetic candidate while retaining many of the advantages of incumbency. As for “real primary” it’s not normal for incumbent parties to have a competitive primary” / X

Shadi Hamid on X: “The time for debate is apparently now over. Right-thinking people across the country are now expected to toe the party line, now that we know what it is.” / X

What will be unburdened by what has been on X: “Basically we might have the best of both worlds with Kamala: a younger and more energetic candidate while retaining many of the advantages of incumbency-she’s literally kept on the entire Biden campaign team” / X

Opinion: Don’t bet on those Trump ‘landslide’ predictions just yet (msn.com)

There had been some worrisome polls in places like VA, NM, NH, and Maine though as Kornacki points out not enough to be definitive and some of those polls weren’t necessarily high quality polls

What will be unburdened by what has been on X: “Just saw @SteveKornacki on Maddow Sunday arguing the idea that “the path was gone” for Biden will always be an unprovable assertion. Indeed-no public polling ever showed this” / X

Steve Kornacki on X: “”A lesson from 2016 is that, if antipathy toward the alternative is intense enough, voters will stretch the limits of what they are ultimately willing to accept far beyond anything previously understood to be the case” My why-Biden-could-still-win case… https://t.co/WIy48a94nx” / X

Let’s start the Bad Take Express:

‘No President Has Won With 37% Approval’: Dem Rep Joins Growing Calls For Biden To Withdraw, Fears Loss To Trump (msn.com)

Another blooper:

Aaron Regunberg on X: “Biden mentioned last night that other presidents have had lower numbers than him at this point in the campaign. To the extent that is true, they all lost. Seems relevant. https://t.co/GCpGxosyQZ” / X

Aaron Rupar on X: “”his odds of victory are very, very slim.” https://t.co/7eqkaoi2OF” / X

Democrats could suffer a ‘landslide’ defeat, sweeping them out of office everywhere, former Obama advisor says (msn.com)

Bad take express:

Landon Mascareñaz on X: “Important piece for right now” / X

Kamala Harris, History and Russia. | by Nadin Brzezinski | Jul, 2024 | Medium

Landon Mascareñaz on X: “Important piece for right now” / X

Brian Beutler on X: “A look back at the 2008 McCain campaign as an object lesson (and cautionary tale) about doing something drastic to turn around a losing strategy. https://t.co/NeElg3s6SG” / X

Brian Beutler on X: “Map on to today: Is Biden’s predicament in July 2024 as bad as McCain’s was in August 2008? Probably not quite, but close. Would swapping him out for any of the leading alternates be irresponsible by dint of inexperience and charlatanism. Not at all. https://t.co/NeElg3s6SG” / X

Opinion | Trump’s unfitness for office should be the leading headline – The Washington Post

It’s the Polls, Stupid. Democrats Must Dump Joe Biden or Lose | Opinion (msn.com)

Axelrod

Tim Alberta

CNN analyst says Dems likely to lose both White House and Congress if Biden stays in race (msn.com)

Harry Enten delivered that spellbindingly brilliant prognosis on the same day three different polls showed Biden winning

Seth Abramson on X: “CNN polling “expert” Harry Enten, on the *same damn day* not just one or two but *three polls* showed President Joe Biden with an average approval rating of 44%: “[Biden] has an approval rating south of 40%.” America media does not do journalism anymore. https://t.co/8Ofb7ycBOS” / X

Yes what matters are not individual polls but on the same day the 538 prediction model had Biden AHEAD again two weeks after allegedly the worst debate in human history that ended Biden’s campaign that night.

Trump Is Planning for a Landslide Win – The Atlantic

If Biden Stays: A Glimpse into a Grim Electoral Future for Democrats – Sabato’s Crystal Ball (centerforpolitics.org)

Are the polls even reliable? Experts examine election polling predictions from 1980 to 2024 (msn.com)

Hi, I recently submitted my application. Please let me know if you need anything else from me at this point. Thank you!r

Riding With Biden 2024 on X: “Let’s be clear-the NYT-is the worst. But WaPo is getting pretty bad in its own right-current front page as of 8:49 7/13/2024 https://t.co/iweDh05YNG” / X

❤️ Umair on X: “This is probably gonna be an inflection point for Biden’s campaign, he’s managing now to do something that hasn’t been done in ages, which is beat pundits and the media in their manufacturing of fake controversy. That in itself is hugely good for America, these dudes are morons” / X

Despite headlines like this across legacy media for two straight weeks:

Are the polls even reliable? Experts examine election polling predictions from 1980 to 2024 (msn.com)

What will be unburdened by what has been on X: “Exactly it’s weird to be so misogynistic that’s the whole point @NateSilver538” / X

What will be unburdened by what has been on X: “Yes-that is pretty weird…” / X

(3) MaryanneChisholm.eth ᴺᶠᵀ (🌸, 🌿) on X: “@donkoclock @monicasloves @dee_denem @JtRuss21 @DLDARKWITCH68 @Spockout1 @LadyReineDK @unkJonDoe @ProChoiceMike @MarieHegeman @JBK11 @MairiLicious7 @inah_miss @Len_Future @WillFred329621 @DyanSohn @BeckSedabs @EddieTeach2 @MargaretLubash @LinosVersion #WeirdoDonald – and they wonder why we don’t believe a thing he says. https://t.co/Emc9rcDlyy” / X

What will be unburdened by what has been on X: “Anyone who still pretends Trump won 2020 is weird. anyone who thinks a rape victim should be forced to have rapist’s baby is weird. Project 2025 very weird. Absolute Immunity: the weirdest” / X