Vee

I'm familiar with Swann Marcus. I can't say whether he's right or wrong. I'm not going to go Emerson poll truthing because I just don't know enough about them. Regardless, I think the Republicans are typically overconfident and Democrats typically dooming and neurotic, all of which I find tiresome. I think the media is capitalizing on this because they want a horserace and because some of them fundamentally disdain Democrats/want Trump back. But I do suspect we may be in for a 2022 situation overall, and I think it's gonna be a very long 12 days for everyone - not just Democrats, either. I think we may see a few more fortunes turn and twist over the next week and a half, and I think it befits all of us to get away from it for a bit and breathe as much as we can, while staying informed.

Anyone who thinks this won't be a part of the show in 2025 is out of touch. And any soap too scared to deal with it is already dying. Namely, all of them.

No, I think he may be right.

More LA Times blowback: More here.

Credit to Charlamagne: He makes Anderson Cooper lose his cool here and puts him and CNN on the spot. Even better:

Tacky. Who put them onto her? It's not like pap sites would go looking for an old soap star. I haven't expected her back for some time so I am just glad she seems to be happy and living life under the circumstances.

You're getting rolled by the same psy-op they ran in 2022. Junk polls and media overload to try to create artificial momentum and make people assume they are inevitably going to win. Nothing will move the needle against Trump more than it has until we see actual election results. If you're relying on a silver bullet of some magical oppo drop or Florida going blue as a sign of hope, don't bother.

I don't see being in TX or Beyonce is any desperation ploy (if it were, Dems in the Harris campaign would be leaking like a sieve because our party stupidly treats talking to reporters like therapy). They have other reasons to be there, not that I think the state is flipping. I think people are just getting overly amped two weeks before the election over what is semi-cannibalized EV and need to unplug. As for Nevada, I think the heavy "Other"/NP vote is going to be quite blue.

I think Luntz just badly wants it to be 2016. He needs Trump to find a comeback arc, and a lot of media is eagerly trying to help. The CNN anchors may have tried to pick it apart, but the voters felt differently:

I don't think most voters cared about or disliked those two appearances - nitpicking them was a media obsession but that's spin that I do not see evidence of having translated at all to the public, and I don't consider naturally tightening polls a part of that. It's only the media fawning over the McDonald's op. Meanwhile:

I think the town hall was pretty solid in terms of the Q&A from the actual voters. Anderson OTOH kept interjecting desperately trying to prosecute her on gotcha questions. But right wingers spamming the Twitter threads or YT links to crow about her 'flopping' (which they do on every single appearance she makes) is not an accurate metric of general viewer/voter response, nor do I think we can determine if this town hall hurt her momentum in any way in the first 4-6 hours afterwards based on that kind of spam. Everything else is just individual personal vibes.

I think they have to go back there with the Hitler thing. It's wise to end on a pointed reminder of January 6 IMO. I don't think ending on economic policy is going to move anyone. Like other analysts (or randos) I trust I am still getting strong 2022 vibes. But you can tell the media badly wants this to be as tight as possible because the always predictable Dana Bash flat-out said Harris is held to a different standard tonight than Trump while they tried to pick apart her (pretty good, IMO) town hall, 'but that's the world she lives in.' Wonder who made it that way, Dana.

It was before she went psycho, though. Early Laura Allen as Laura (Kirk) was very queer-coded; athletic, masculine energy and very into Bianca. It was not subtle. They ruined her by not going for it and putting her with Leo as a weak spoiler for him and Greenlee. Frankly I think Laura and Bianca was Bianca's best pairing.

I say this a lot, but I really do not think it is some masterful ploy lol. This is just the same thing they always do whenever they know a bad piece of Trump oppo is coming out: Claim it's lies or AI ahead of time and deny, deny, deny. It is not some sort of bait game, because it never has been any of the other times. The Trump-era GOP is not and has never been some brilliant operating system; they are not doing triple headfakes to game the election. The only saving grace of the country is that they have been congenitally inept.

There was a dog cage, I think a horse and carriage got bombed in the backstory, he spent years being called 'Dogboy" - it's a lot. I don't think he lasted six months. I actually have long felt he is a prime character to bring on since he is younger than Robin, and you could get a hot Black British guy (Gabriel inexplicably had no accent back then but nobody will remember or care). But you'd have to scrub most of his ridiculous origin story.

Anna's long-lost mixed race younger brother. Beyond that do not ask.

I wouldn't have a problem bringing on Gabriel, but the fact is so many characters and couple options are lame as hell.

I don't think Khan is saying it's definitely happening. He just gets the mindset. I get it, but I also don't think Trump's picked up substantially damaging Black support. In other news, Jonathan Weisman has blamed the Times' handling of the John Kelly story re: its front page on... the printing press. Meanwhile: The LAT owner (Soon-Shiong) has taken to Twitter(!) to lament that the editorial board would not simply post 'explainers' of each candidate's positions instead of an endorsement, so you can tell this is going well for him.

Cuomo is just another fever swamp reject at this point. As for Michigan, I have seen just as much good data on it and PA in the last week/few days so I'm not particularly concerned about either of them atm. And if you're talking about the story I think of it does not say Michigan is 'going or gone', it just has random off the record background about some nameless people expressing 'deep concern' re: the state. If anything did drop against Trump it is not about moving his hardcore, who can't be reached no matter virtually what he does. It's just about peeling away more of the less hardcore disgusted voters, which he's been doing since '16. This had better have very, very good protection on the ground.

Harris doing this also forced CNN to pick it up as a major headline, among others: There is another rumor bubbling atm but I am not gonna talk about it unless something real emerges.

Wise for her to force them to cover this.

I would do it for real. It's been too long since there was a good May/December pairing in soaps and when it's done right people are here for it. But with this team I assume Tracy would be made the fool eventually.