US Politics, August 2024 -- "Unburdened By a Has-Been"

The delicious part about Biden's purported hate of the Beltway media is how this fucking guy lived on Sunday morning and daily talk shows for thirty years; it's how I learned about him. He would not shut up. They must've had sofa beds in those green rooms.

i dont love the dc press corps but i do think she should talk to them if she doesnt like the questions then set em straight who wouldnt like to see that

earned media coverage of Harris/Walz couldn't be much bigger or better than it is right now, so there's no immediate incentive for the campaign to generate more coverage through interviews ... we'll get interviews before the convention, but it's not bad strategy for the campaign to give them on its own schedule

there's also a new Biden interview this week, there's no benefit to the Harris campaign in reducing attention to that

that politico piece says she is negotiating a joint tv interview with walz, and to be fair she has been pretty busy since Biden quit.

she's doing a lot of off the record stuff apparently, which makes the refusal to go on the record even sillier.

I think she's probably still spooked by the disastrous interview she did with Lester Holt in 2021. She avoided the spotlight for a long time after that.

can understand wanting to get yr ducks in a row but the ducks should be arowed soon

yup

but it's silly to pretend that it's not still the most important and prestigious news publication in the country. Part of why it gets so much heat is *because* of its popularity and reputation. And despite certain regrettable tendencies, 90% of the stories it publishes (which go well beyond coverage of presidential politics) are solid, well-reported journalism.

notions like this only live on because people decide to bury their heads in the sand rather than face the truth. you are clearly smart enough to see what's going on, so much better imo to acknowledge that it's trash and to say so plainly and stridently.

also, who gives a shit about respectability? fuck these people

trump campaign and now trump becoming polling unskwers and rally truthers is extremely bullish

Trump falling for this years old hoax pic.twitter.com/uKRNx9o46Z

— Drew Savicki (@DrewSav) August 8, 2024

walz quite the dab hand at arowing wildfowl iirc

organizing my conspiracies through craigslist as per

this is a surprisingly deranged conversation. Harris is giving speeches and putting out advertisements -- that's all the public accountability of her positions and intentions that you want?

exactly. the urgency is manufactured by ... you guessed it!

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/08/us/politics/trump-harris-campaign.html

increasingly isolated

so much better imo to acknowledge that it's trash and to say so plainly and stridently.

lol

the song that keeps popping into my head when i see shit like "her rallies are a hoax" from the gop is "my kink is karma" by chappell roan. harris should license that one for an ad.

guys the press convo is zzz. she's gonna do all the stuff. she's been busy.

exactly. the urgency is manufactured by ... you guessed it!

― budo jeru, Thursday, August 8, 2024 12:48 PM (twenty-one seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

and in that you seen the practical foolishness of not speaking to the media

and in that you seen the practical foolishness of not speaking to the media

Not really, no. "It's really important that you talk to us! Otherwise we'll write two dozen stories a day about how you're not talking to us!"

"Um...okay." (hosts rally for 15,000 people that gets tons of coverage on local and national news)

I dont understand what he means by that, if Trump loses it would be Biden transferring power to Harris, who cares what Trump thinks?

― frogbs, Thursday, August 8, 2024 10:58 AM (fifty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i do, but i say that understanding that the vast majority of people disagree with me. i think that it's very, very likely that if harris wins there will be a peaceful transition of power, trump will raise a fuss but his followers will be demoralized, and there won't be widespread violence.

however, i was very humbled by what happened in 2016 and 2020, and i try to avoid 100%/0%/dogmatic thinking and predictions about the future. even though i think it's very likely that things will be fine, i heed warnings that it will not be fine, even though i read the discussion upthread and elsewhere on the internet that since trump and his fascist enablers aren't in power, they will have a much more difficult time inciting violence.

again, i think you're probably right, but i don't like to just dismiss things

here's a gift link: https://wapo.st/3WWqBle

The GOP polling vet:

If the election were held today, I actually believe Kamala Harris would beat Donald Trump.

That's how much things have changed over the past two weeks. https://t.co/OS7WyweVcX

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) August 8, 2024

worth noting re the prominence of the nytimes a lot of it has to do with the fact that its just one of the last full service news orgs left standing, prob the only one that can be said to be thriving, which isnt great, government standing around shrugging while the industry burned to the ground prob wasnt the best

Not really, no. "It's really important that you talk to us! Otherwise we'll write two dozen stories a day about how you're not talking to us!"

"Um...okay." (hosts rally for 15,000 people that gets tons of coverage on local and national news)

― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Thursday, August 8, 2024 12:53 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

to be clear they absolutely will hurt you if you dont play ball, see how well it worked out for biden

The NYT is still doing great work

We spoke to John Mayer about about his creative relationship with the Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet, how it felt when his design debuted and a prediction on the next big thing on everyone’s wrists. https://t.co/kfRSYWiyMu pic.twitter.com/rYPRrhsgZi

— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 8, 2024

Biden was a much weaker candidate than I was willing to admit. (I didn't watch the debate, because I think presidential debates in their current TV-news/game-show format are pointless, so I missed how badly he was stumbling.) But I would submit that the Harris campaign has been successful so far because they've done exactly the opposite of everything the NY/DC media establishment wanted:

- no "open convention", direct endorsement of VP by outgoing president
- pick a VP candidate with appeal to normal humans
- no interviews, just rallies and advertising

-not being 100 years old

you could maybe argue that NYT/WaPo axis will go nuclear on Harris if she freezes them out because her winning the election while ignoring them would be a real blow to their continued existence

- no interviews, just rallies and advertising

yeah but the other side of this is, the mainstream press is going to start to shit their pants* if she doesn't do a press conference/availaiblity soon

*meaning start to trash her campaign, like they did with biden

xpost to f hazel exactly

but that would make them assholes if they did that, not journalists (xpost)

lol

its not mutually exclusive maybe mutually reenforcing even

but i suspect what will happen is she will just talk to them

she just needs to do it or it will get worse

is it fair? no not really. does she need to stfu and do it? yep

it's fine to approach the situation strategically and to throw some crumbs to nyt/wapo to put out fires etc etc, but the idea that this is about democracy dies in darkness without our journalists reporting the truth uphill both ways in the snow -- frankly ridiculous

Outlets Harris should talk to ASAP, and no I'm not joking:

- Rolling Stone
- Teen Vogue
- Hot Ones (OK, send Walz to do this one)
- IG live on AOC's account

you guys being ultra critical of the media while riding for an infinitely more corrupt and destructive institution, and doing it with only the sassiest prose, well it is something to see

Hence unperson's problem with it

― There’s a Monster in my Vance (President Keyes), Thursday, August 8, 2024 11:29 AM (thirty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

not to speak for unperson (who seems pretty reasonable to me!) but is there a single person (outside of Republicans) who think Biden actually should've stayed in at this point? I can understand not wanting it to be Harris but does anyone know someone who thinks Biden shouldn't have dropped out?

as far as what Harris should or shouldn't do re: the press...keep in mind she's only been the official nominee for like a week, she's been doing tons of stuff (including vetting and picking a VP), I think its reasonable to give them some time to figure shit out. legacy media like the NYT has been overly centrist and really eager to boost Trump as of late so I can understand why she's not making talking to them a priority, though she should (and almost certainly will) at some point

while riding for an infinitely more corrupt and destructive institution

honestly ilx has its problems but it's not that bad

its all jokes now

what institution am i meant to be riding for?

^^^ and yes I agree with that, if she's gonna do media it should be with outlets willing to ask her more interesting questions rather than the centrist shit the MSM will give her. like you know the first question she'll get is "do you agree with Republicans who say you were installed in a coup?". one of the reasons the Walz pick has gone over so well is that he seems like a very normal person with normal interests, I think Kamala could benefit from that sort of coverage herself, especially in contrast to how they're portraying the Republicans (or more accurately, how they're portraying themselves) at this point

i'm fine with her waiting until after the convention and she is the legit candidate to do a big interview.

i can't believe i'm saying this............but i did like when vance was taking questions outside and he would only take questions from local wisconsin media before the national media. everyone should do that.

take questions from someone anyone (influencers dont count)

Citizen Trump is giving a 'press conference from South Florida' this morning

call it 'quiet campaigning', you come to me

press conference from his bedroom. trump bed-in.

Only take questions from credentialed reporters imo

https://www.prwatch.org/files/images/jeff_gannon.jpg

File me in the group that thinks there's no real need for an interview until after the convention.

More rallies, please!

I believe that is what is known as a front-porch campaign:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_porch_campaign