Vee

I love the dialogue that keeps insisting she is in fact Taylor Hayes - 'it's me, your mother! I love you, my daughter! Mama's comin' home.' Like they don't even believe it!

You gotta be fuckin' with me.

I'm pleased both Spencer kids are likely back, but l'll believe the new creatives are anything worth getting invested in when I hear names not involving the current team.

I mean, marceline would say encroaching dementia and I am more and more inclined to agree. It can't just be about the usual catastrophe he brings on himself, he's always done that.

I do find this strange as well, and hadn't realized the pattern. They appear to have Vance following Harris from state to state, obviously exciting the country wherever he goes, while Trump seems to stick to an event a week. Is he even more lazy than usual or are they (as was alleged by the GOP about Biden) trying to contain him from the public for other reasons?

Another important issue we haven't reckoned with, @Khan is that one of Walz's cats is named Afton. I am struggling to comprehend that this dude is so much a Midwest dad that he might have named a cat for Afton from Dallas.

Yes, they are actually using this line in their email blast: Strange bedfellows: From '18:

He's also basically the inadvertent architect of the entire current messaging strategy as of (only!) two weeks ago. And he sells it well on TV. IIRC I believe CNN's coverage this morning indicated the Harris team found any choice had negligible impact on polling, so they opted for the one who she had the most personal chemistry with. Biden and Pelosi both loving him probably didn't hurt. (Nancy remains the power behind the entire party atm - it's pretty remarkable.)

I mean, Havins isn't the worst name I've ever heard. But I really am up for anyone.

Amazed they formatted their layoff notice with 'why it matters' bullet points/framing like one of their tacky access articles.

Sarah has had public ups and downs but still maintains friendly relationships at GH, particularly with Maurice recently. I don't think she is radioactive to that show or they'd not have had her back on-air in character. Anyway, this isn't about that and I do agree they'd both do well here.

The Bulwark/podcast bro gang are sure to be mad, but over half of them are Republicans or never-Trump GOP leaning, plus there's the Beltway media who just get annoyed when someone 'too liberal' gets glory. Yet they can hardly claim Tim Walz is some elitist progressive. I see an argument for Shapiro but I can easily see it for Walz. And I don't think it far from possibility to take and keep PA without Shapiro anyway. Walz ended up inadvertently being the argument of the current winning messaging strategy of 'weird', so it makes some wacky sense. And he was apparently the first choice of not only Biden but Pelosi. I heard him tell this story on a podcast last week. Very touching.

I think Walz is a perfectly fine choice, though I'm not sure about what he delivers materially beyond even more enthusiasm from the base and probably very good Midwest/Rust Belt outreach (which is a material deliverable in and of itself, I guess). He was also allegedly Joe's first choice, as they hit it off recently at some bar or barbecue joint (oh, to be a fly on the wall). Walz is a strong surrogate and very good in media. He is not a sonorous cadaver like Pence or a genial silhouette like Tim Kaine, he's got fire and delivers Beltway media's beloved have-a-beer-with vibes. My concern about losing Shapiro was he's younger, more photogenic and can likely lock PA. But we can get PA anyway IMO, and the issues with Shapiro may well have been seen as too much to overcome. This way, nothing (nothing known, anyway) stops the bullet train of hype we've been riding since July 21st.

You can click through and read the rest I think, but yes, it's "Every time you write "barbecued goat'" that just sends me.

Confirmed (probably):

Oh dear God. Uh, meanwhile - heads up @DRW50 I'm trying to confirm this, as it seems like CNN may be ahead of their skis and going by sources.

This show never needed another baby/surrogate storyline in the first place. It should've died months ago.

An interesting VF piece (excerpted from an embedded Politico reporter's upcoming book, naturally) on Susie Wiles, one of the current key advisors to Trump who also did a stint with DeSantis. As always, consider the source and tone. Non-paywalled.

Long overdue, but I wish a new creative team would come with her.

IMO Rowell has the same ability Sarah Brown could if brought back at GH - like @ReddFoxx mentions for VR, clips of SJB's Carly at GH still do numbers on social media 25+ years later because of her raw power and how contemporary she was. But the comparison ends there because while I love Sarah, Victoria Rowell's cachet is at least ten times stronger and more impactful for the audience at CBS. She was a household name for the network and Y&R, both in daytime and primetime, and viewers have never forgotten her or forgiven, and clips of her (like Sarah) still draw in new people. Using her if a deal can be struck is a no-brainer IMO.