Now that she's the official nominee, is anyone else excited about Kamala Harris's chances?

Thank you for this informative post.

Even though I din’t want to be critical of a woman Dem, TG always seemed a bit weird to me. I wasn’t surprised by the news that she is helping Trump with debate prep

Yes. Ultimately the only question that matters is which of these two would be the better president. It is quite clear to me -team KH here

That's not true.

The clip you posted is from the second Dem debate, at the end of July 2019.

Harris did not drop out the next day - she remained in the race until December, attending 3 more debates.

Gabbard's criticisms of Harris are not entirely baseless, but are heavily spun (and many have been addressed already in the thread).

Gabbard also spent much of Obama's tenure criticizing him on Fox News and was buddying up with Trump and Bannon even before running for the Dem nomination, then promptly left the Democratic Party. She's now helping Trump prep for the upcoming debate. She's an odd case...

@CheerfulYank Great posts.

Here it is, it's specific, not vague

I'm not. There's a video of her at the hustings the night before she withdrew from the race to be Presidential candidate the last time, one of her competitors quoted a list of very unpleasant things she did as attorney general in California, I think, and that ended her campaign. If all that was true, which her withdrawal would suggest, she's not the nice person the fawning media make her out to be.

And the thing is he never said he used IVF as far as I can tell! he just said fertility treatments and people drew their own conclusions. I know quite a bit about infertility so I wouldn't mix them up, but people often just say "we did treatment" without being specific as it's quite a personal thing.

they're also making a fuss because he wasn't head coach, but if you know about high school football, you know that they need multiple coaches, and that the defensive coordinator (which he was) is not a nothing position at all.

I know! Plus he’s a kind, present father who makes dad jokes and loves his cat and rescue dog. He also makes a mean tater tot hotdish and loves sharing the recipes when asked.

He’s Satan in a plaid shirt, I tell you! 😫

(He also legalized recreational marijuana, which is set to make us small cities, who can open city dispensaries, a MINT)

Yeah, free menstrual supplies and free lunches even when school's not in session. How terrible can one person be? 😅

I thought it was lovely too…of course today the red are speaking out against it and calling him a liar, saying what his wife used was IUI and not IVF.

I honestly do not know anyone, bar a professional in that specialty, who would not use those terms interchangeably. It’s just another ridiculous tactic on the part of the right, just like calling him “Tampon Tim” and saying he’s “forcing tampons into the hands of 8 year old boys” when that’s just absurd.

That bill (or part of the bill, or whatever…I’m very tired today and trying to take a nap but my children just burst into my room fighting over a pack of GAS STATION SUSHI, of all things 🙄) is actually a very short and simple thing which just says that public schools in Minnesota must have menstruation supplies available in bathrooms used by students between the 4th (roughly 9-10 year old) and 12th (usually 17-18 year olds) grades.

That’s it. That’s IT.

It’s up to the school systems how they do that. Many schools, my children’s included, have chosen to put dispensers in all girl’s bathrooms and all “all gender” bathrooms, which are just small single toilet bathrooms that anyone can use. I have not yet heard of a school that has put tampons in the dispensers of the bathrooms used by the younger children; as far as I know the schools with children under 12 have pads only. There are tampons at the high school. I know of some schools who have put dispensers in the boys’ sport locker rooms, but this is not the trans issue the right is making it out to be, it’s just that those locker rooms are often used by girls from visiting sports teams.

It all makes perfect sense to me, but of course people have to grab onto the most extreme possible example and act like that is happening everywhere.

@CheerfulYank well here's hoping that most of the rest of your fellow Americans agree with you. For all our sakes! 💙💙💙

His speech last night was so good, too. My friends who have been through infertility said they were crying.

Great post, @CheerfulYank

I never thought Tim Walz would steal valor. That comma is a very interesting possibility that makes sense to me

Yes, as a Minnesotan this is absolutely true. 🤣 I saw a quote recently that said “you have to understand that a Minnesotan calling you weird is on par with anyone else saying ‘now what in the Kentucky fried fuck are you thinking?!’” and I can confirm that is the case.

I can also confirm that Walz has done right by us, and I’m very proud of him. His making breakfasts and lunches free for school kids, even in the summer when there is no school, has been incredible. He also put a lot of money into nursing homes, so when I wanted to retrain to work in one, I could train and test for my certification for free, and now that I work in a nursing home, I’ve gotten generous quarterly bonuses.

The things people level at him are ridiculous. He did not steal valor and he never would. What he said can be attributed to something as simple as where you put a freaking comma: he said “weapons of war that I carried in war,…the only place they should be used” but did he actually say “weapons of war that I carried, in war is the only place they should be used”? Because he did carry those weapons and he did deploy, even though he didn’t see combat. Many in the Guard do not. That doesn’t change the fact that he carried those weapons and is remarkably (in fact, award winningly) proficient with them.

Guns are actually a big reason why I’m voting blue. Some years (depending on the data parameters) firearms are the leading cause of death for children in this country, and if that doesn’t scare my fellow Americans it damn well should. There is only one party that even wants to talk about common sense restrictions on firearms, and it sure ain’t the one in the red hats.

So, yeah. If the worst they can say is she “cackles”, have at it. Trump never laughs and that’s worse. He never laughs, he never owns pets, he can’t handle the slightest criticism, and to quote Varys from Game of Thrones “he would see this country burn if it meant he could be king of the ashes.”

I trust Kamala more than Trump and I definitely trust Walz more than any other politician at that level, so blue it is. 💙

Yes “the view from nowhere” and the cult of the savvy.

Yes, the double standard is shocking.

Greg Sargent, Brian Beutler, Mark Jacob (not to be confused with Mark Jacobs) and Jay Rosen all write very perceptively on how inadequately mainstream media covers politics and how the fabled 'balance' model serves us poorly.

Totally agree.

Look at the furore when HRC was exhausted and ill after a gruelling schedule and stumbled getting out of a car. The media were awful and carried on targeting her on this in all sorts of ways.

Let alone the live debate where Trump was like a predator pacing up and down around her as she was answering questions. His behaviour was intimidating yet he can't answer a question coherently

I have seen clips of some nonsense from him at a car dealership or something today. He is rambling absolute nonsense and to be honest sounds drugged up. Even Fox are cutting him off because it's embarrassing.

Yes. Clinton had detailed policies for everything and it all became about nasty women and emails. I know so many Democrats who are very disillusioned by media outlets, including me. They whipped up a fury about whether or not Biden has dementia but wave off Trump's complete incoherence and lies. The press should take a long look and ask why Harris doesn't want to talk to them. It's not like she's not answering questions from anyone.

Yes—HRC had policies available on everything and she was dinged by the press corps for being “if anything, too prepared.” The point is that the stakeholders in the election are the voters, not the press or their corporate owners.

Scraping the barrel still for inaccurate things to be outraged about I see

Yeah. Getting a little sick of the 'but what about policy' handwringing from the media. The Republican ticket's only policy is Project 2025 which they're trying to disavow as fast as they can scurry. I'll weep and wail about Harris's lack of interviews/specific policy platforms when Trump et al are held to the same standard.

I read somewhere today that Harris and Hilary Clinton have become very close and that Clinton's become a very trusted advisor and confidante. I recall seeing HRC interviewed after 2016 and her saying something like, I kept waiting for the moment the election was going to become about policy, and that moment never came. Maybe Harris and her team are smart enough to have taken a lesson from that.

She did d approach the press on the tarmac of one of her flights but they failed to ask her anything substantive and just asked her about Trump and his assertions.

The idea that the candidate must hold a press conference while they are barnstorming the country and meeting with voters and local press is just odd. Obviously as a former prosecutor and Senator she can hold a press conference and answer questions. But is it to her advantage to answer lickspittle/horserace questions like “when did you first become black?” Or whatever else the washington press corps decides to ask?

The press corps has not coveted itself in glory for the past twenty years with respect to coverage of democratic candidates. Both Obama and Biden had to go around a hostile press corps to local and non traditional media to get their message out. You might not like it but its a shrewd snd calculated move.

It was announced 12 days ago that the debate originally planned between Trump and Biden on 10 September on ABC would take place between Trump and Harris.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/when-is-second-presidential-debate-2024/

There are two other debates planned after that: another one between Trump and Harris on NBC and one between Walz and Vance, can't remember dates (if indeed they've been confirmed)

I know Trump has said he wants a debate on 4 September on Fox, without decent moderation. Harris would be a fool to change her mind and do the Fox one, as Trump would abuse the lack of moderation and then cancel the subsequent (properly moderated) debates

I would be extremely interested in a well-presented argument explaining the damage inflicted by Chesa Boudin - actual damage, with supporting statistics. Thanks!