Interested to see if polls move at all bc of SCOTUS. What people forget is that Trump had a ton of slack with GOP voters in 2018 - he gained in final weeks bc loyal Republicans came home, partly bc of SCOTUS. His problem now: he's fully consolidated that base and it's not enough.
Without third parties (Greens aren't even on MI/PA ballot) and an unpopular opponent, getting every Republican vote in the Midwest still leaves Trump short. Stuff could happen in the fight that moves votes, but there wasn't a pro-Trump majority waiting around for a court fight.
I emphasize this because both liberals and conservatives tend to over-rate how conservative the electorate is; Trump won, ipso facto Republicans win when there's a vacancy. Trump had a very specific problem with reliable GOP voters that he's fixed for this year.
2016 not 2018. People make typos and Twitter doesn't allow them to be edited, life goes on.
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“Someone asked if they should introduce me as the former next president of the United States.”
Biden is “failing the George Washington statesmanship test,” says Yang, by not recognizing that it’s time to go. “Given that Joe Biden is such a depleted, vulnerable candidate, why is he not getting more competition?”
Very funny moment just now. Yang says he’s endorsing Phillips. Music blasts and Phillips walks out. Yang says he’s still got more time and the Phillips campaign played him on too quickly: “They have the text of my speech!” So Phillips walks back to holding room.
The Biden "no comment" saga is a great little study in choose-your-own media. I've seen multiple pieces claim that Biden literally did not comment on the Maui fires until he headed there, like this day-of-the-rope-ish piece in American Greatness. amgreatness.com/2023/08/22/a-l…
The wildfires started on August 8. The WH approved relief on August 10. The same day, Biden commented on the fires/recovery during an event in Utah. whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
Three days later, coming back from beach, Bloomberg asked for a comment on the wildfires' rising death toll. and Biden said no. It's fair to call that a mistake; it would have been easy to say something brief.
Matt Gaetz warming up crowd for Trump, saying they grilled burgers rare, medium rare, and well done but “the most done you can be is Ron DeSantis.”
Matt Whitaker introduces himself as “Donald Trump’s favorite attorney general” — definitely true, the only one he hasn’t feuded with
Trump arrives and invites more Florida Rs to speak. Donalds asks Iowans to help him “three-peat,” Gus Bilrakis asks “why risk it?” with another Republican.
New frontiers in “super PACs aren’t allowed to coordinate with the campaign.” (DeSantis is the “special guest” on the Never Back Down super PAC tour.)
DeSantis rolled up with three Chevy Suburbans of reporters and cameras; flanked by four security guys, local police, state senate president Amy Sinclair. Some hand-shaking and convos, some waving as he walks by.