DRW50

That looks good. (I could do without the floating Bob though). Imagine being in a world of Twin Peaks - you'd never leave.

More of the Nikki Haley pandering tour. Please share this with people the next time the media gushes over their darling Nikki and tells us that she is one of the saviors of the GOP.

I hope so. I'm so wary of people now, on all sides. I see so many people on the left frothing with rage about Biden, Buttigieg, and increasingly, Warren, and some are already saying they will vote for Trump over one or all of them or stay home. I just feel like there's so much inability to focus while the right, even with the conflicts seeping in in recent years, is better at focusing when it counts. I'm hoping whoever gets the nomination can scrape together a coalition to beat Trump.

I think they should try to cobble together a solid, coherent message on health care and the economy, find as many charismatic surrogates as they can (ideally, members of Congress or local elected officials or state legislators or council members, not Tom Hanks or Barbra Streisand), don't take states for granted the way they did in 2016, and fight like they will have to grind out a win, instead of the "this state is in our reach" fool's gold of so many years (not that this only applies to Democrats, as Karl Rove thought W would win California in 2000). I'm not saying ignore Trump - when he attacks, answer, and of course his failings will be at the heart of a Democratic campaign - but don't make him the focus, the way he was in 2016. Don't run a lot of generic "Trump bad" ads, or ads with Soccer Mom Susan looking into the camera from her highback chair as she tells us how concerned she is. Don't talk about how other countries feel, because many voters just don't want to hear it. I would say talk more about the courts, but sadly, a lot of voters outside of the right don't seem to care, so what can you do? Still, I'd like to see somebody try to make this an issue, especially since RBG has been to the hospital this year more times than I can even remember anymore. Don't make social media too key a part of your campaign. Use it for its benefits in organizing but never assume social media speaks for anyone in the real world. Don't twist yourself into knots because outspoken attention-seekers on Twitter need to know every last detail or they will try to drown you in lazy memes. Don't try to pander too hard on social issues, leading you to say unintelligible garble (which has ended up happening repeatedly with trans issues in the primary already). Don't focus so exclusively on Putin and Russia, because this attack or concern has reached everyone it's going to reach. And, nothing against them, because I voted for people like John Kerry and I still wish he'd been elected, but please stop trotting out the same old people to say the same old things.

I think the main mistake Hillary made was in taking for granted she would have more support because of how awful Trump was. People heard all about how terrible Trump was for a year or more, in ads from her, super PACs from the Democrats and from Republicans during the primaries, etc. Ultimately enough of them still went with Trump because they became numb to the attacks and because they decided it was still worth the risk to have a loudmouth and a piece of trash they could say at least was out there in the open and wouldn't be more of the same. Unfortunately, unless the economy crashes between now and November, I think a lot of them may make the same mistake again. I didn't even feel like Hillary was that passive. She didn't go as far in the gutter as he did, but no one could have done that. The problem with going after Trump is it doesn't matter what you say or what you do - his supporters don't care, and the media will just go "both sides both sides." I don't think anything she could have said about Trump would have made a difference. She lost the election more on her own mistakes, her bad campaign teams, and the general longstanding media hostility toward her.

Billy Graham's con artist son and the others have already papered over this by saying no one is perfect and what matters is the results (the bigot judges). Most of the people voting for him don't care that he isn't a real Christian.

The election is about Trump, I agree, but I think there is almost no way to actually focus on Trump himself because he is such a sinkhole. I am aware that I'm not the intended audience, and that there it's aimed for the suburbs and independents, but I keep having flashbacks to 2016 when I felt like talk about how horrible Trump was dominated so much of the campaign plans over letting voters know more about plans for Hillary or getting to know Tim Kaine, etc. I feel like any time the focus is on Trump, he either wins, or everyone loses. I feel like if people don't have their minds made up about Trump already, then that's a very bad sign. I didn't mean to suggest Biden doesn't motivate people. I just don't feel like this ad ends up being about Biden, and instead comes across to me as reactionary, which unfortunately so much of this primary has been in my opinion.

I'm not opposed because I think it's taking the low road - I just don't think most people care about how the world sees America or that Trump is an embarrassment. I think the people who do are already voting against him anyway and ads like this are preaching to the choir.

Joe Biden has put a new ad out about the recent Trump NATO drama. I appreciate the idea, but I had hoped after 2016 we were not going to have another campaign based on "Trump is bad the world doesn't like bad Trump." To me that doesn't motivate anybody, it just states the obvious. If the election is about Trump, he wins.

I agree overall, but I'm not sure about this particular case. In this particular case a black woman was aggressively confronted by someone who is (presumably) not black and who made the whole thing all about himself, which is pretty much the essence of much of the "woke" activism these days. Some of the replies suggest he is a Bernie bro, but there's no proof as of yet. I hate these type of stunts, I really do. I saw someone in the comments there saying the black woman who was trying to deal with him should be arrested. To the surprise of no one, this person was white. Bernie Bros are just scumbags. They ruin everything they touch. I really do not want to vote for him. He makes me feel sick.

I think one reason may be because her sister was also tied up in all the negative media coverage. When your family is being attacked and on top of that you're boxed in as a candidate, you're more likely to just want everything to end. I could see her being either a VP or an AG for Biden, definitely.

I've seen Warren heavily criticized for flip-flopping and she has suffered poll losses in part due to those attacks, but I do agree that Bernie has gotten a free pass (so has Pete Buttigieg, although I think that's partly down to him clearly having no chance - he is a vanity story the press can run with for a month or two before they dump him around February). I think the media, some of them anyway, did genuinely like Kamala. Her announcement got a lot of buzz, as did her takedown of Biden at the debate. She also got her share of criticism, but I think the more recent coverage was part sexism and racism and part sharks circling the water. Her campaign problems detailed in those articles were so detailed and so systemic that I couldn't help thinking of Hillary's campaigns, especially her 2008 campaign, which was full of bitterly divided camps who stepped over any message she should have had. One of the other ugly elements of this primary, as @marceline is how much the hectoring of people on social media has dominated coverage and skewed perceptions. I've lost count of how many times I've seen black voters belittled on social media if they, say, support Biden. It's especially offputting to me when I see white people on Twitter who are going on about "white supremacy on the debate stage" to get likes and retweets, when there is an actual white supremacist in office and white supremacists run our Senate and are packing the courts. It's not fair that Tom Steyer could just throw money and get on the stage, but Booker and Castro have made appearances on the debate stage, with Booker in particular getting effusive media praise and the media asking why this hasn't increased his polling numbers. The conversation has tilted more and more toward telling voters they are racists or secret Republicans or what have you if they don't support Twitter's favorite candidate, and less and less about Trump. I would have voted for Kamala in the primary (the only other person I would have wanted to vote for is Warren), but even if Booker and Castro make it to the voting stage, I just don't know, especially about Booker, who decided dating a movie star was more important than running a coherent campaign. Castro I might have voted for, but I think he has run a bad campaign too focused on telling people how wrong they are than on much else. I feel like no one left can beat Trump, and I feel like deep down more and more people feel this way so the blame game has already started and people are already coming up with the reasons why they will stay home or vote third party. It's disheartening.

After many many years of trying, Erica has probably hit her peak of cultural relevance - inspiring a line in my imaginary husband (well one of them, anyway) John Mulaney's upcoming Netflix special.

Thanks. I didn't know about Jontz. I guess he was the Ken Kenitzer of his day. It's a shame they didn't try harder with Tony.

I saw that St. Bernie was on Jimmy Fallon. That's fine, it's what politicians do, but the silence of his cult speaks volumes. I do hope they will be smart enough to avoid opportunists like Peter Daou, who has started 'feeling the Bern' just in time to try to rake in book sales and after 'the establishment' he now hates so much lost. https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/02/peter-daou-clinton-aide-sanders-2020-074723

He was the third, right? And I guess the last. Was Pat's only story after his death the rivalry with Dorian?

I kept seeing people say Mohammed just did that to avoid paying to have his mansion torn down.

An in-hospital bingo game from 1978...check that dig on game shows and soap operas a while in. If only we still had that type of low quality programming now.

AM Joy piece today about the unfair coverage of non-white male candidates and the obsession with letting polling drive the narrative. https://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/harris-warren-castro-campaigns-hastily-portrayed-as-faltering-74320453887

I know so little about the later Tony Lords that I didn't even know who Viki was talking with (I thought it was Brad Vernon). At least it's a rare nice family moment.

ATWT was in a bit of a slog in the late '80s, so I'm not sure that's the hill to die on for Marland's writing, but I think the main point was that Marland probably wouldn't have been a good fit for AW, which I would agree with. While I would say Marland's ATWT was better than AW for much of his run as headwriter, ratings don't really equal quality, even if I wish they did.

@I Am A Swede I thought you might be interested in this. It's the Emmerdale episode which was never in any of the old episode packages that were available in past years. It's the episode right before the plane crash. ITV3 repeated it a few days ago and someone put it on Youtube.

Paul lost most of his edge when they paired him with Christine. This even led to that strange period in the mid-90s where Danny was the bad boy obstacle to their relationship. I think Paul lost most of that saintly vibe after he got involved with Isabella and the "rough sex" story with Christine, but he also lost most purpose as a character.

Oh so Jack left? I saw his story with Lincoln and I thought it was just awful. Shortland Street seems to have no real idea what to do with gay characters.

I remember when the late 1979 clips were uploaded on Youtube and I was disappointed that Thanksgiving was only mentioned. I'm not sure if it was offcamera or the episodes just weren't available.