Vee

There are also not one but two editorials in the WaPo this morning led off by Ashley Parker and another writer, both of whom are clearly pissed that the public and media takeaway (in many outlets, print and TV) from yesterday's press conference is that Biden owned them and the press on-site looked like unserious goofballs. So now her angle is: "No, Biden is obsessed with Trump, not us!" It cracks me up. More trouble for Politico, which has been stepping in it with a speed generally reserved for the NYT in recent months:

Spooked: Meanwhile, 45 engages in pathetic Apprentice cosplay to relive the glory days:

One of the greats. I too thought she'd never die.

Most media critique of the Biden presser is in the Politics Thread atm, but I wanted to add this.

The story of the moment - even in media - is: Biden did fine/great, but the central point I'm seeing now is, why did the media completely ignore COVID in favor of a Republican talking point (immigration) which Biden firmly rejected and tossed out? When you have even other Beltway journos and Haberman asking this and saying it's astonishing no one asked about the pandemic, that's bad news for the reporters on-site. You're going to see a lot of spin about that trying to make themselves look better.

Biden smashes the final question - scoffs at the idea that migrants are dying to sell everything they own to coyotes and risk it all to come here, rejecting the GOP framing again. He playfully dismisses GOP as 'posturing'. Which is wise and will infuriate the Beltway. This will become the dominant Beltway takeaway, which is why I post it, not because I love Joe, Tumulty or Max Boot:

And a fundamental point from earlier: Joe is doing very well. I thought he'd do decent if a bit sleepy but this is once again everyone underestimating him.

Biden turned Vega's child migration question to his advantage, so she kept going and going trying to turn it into a gotcha. Didn't work. Meanwhile, this nothing question re: parliamentary rule went nowhere - Kristin Welker tries to get tough GOP-style on Biden rolling back Trump immigration policies. He says "I make no apology for that." Joe is getting loud on this: Says their efforts "make Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle." Biden says he intends to run for reelection. On bipartisanship: "I would like Republican support, but what I know I have now is electoral support from Republican voters." He's having a good time up there. Doing well. Giving great soundbites. Re: four years from now - "I have no idea if there'll be a Republican Party. Do you?" He's turned this into a campaign stop. Woo!

This is all typical Manchin kabuki to me until we get to the vote. Talk is cheap and performative til we see what he actually does. Meanwhile: Joe is keeping it slow and steady so far, but you can just tell the Beltway is already bored to death and depressed that the Trump show is outta town. Tackling the immigration crisis in depth. A sober and measured tone is what the country wants, but not the media. He's being very detailed. I think he's looking to rope a dope these guys. Filibuster and wear them out, give them nothing else to work with.

Good old Thaao.

I think it worked with Angie and Jacob, Buck, Tess and Ally, Alex and Jocelyn, etc. I believed in those relationships coming out of Loving and in the early weeks of TC, even if I don't think Jocelyn - and I loved Lisa Lo Cicero, both then and now - could hold a candle to Ava and Alex, and I think that relationship with Alex should've been taken much slower; I don't know when they officially became involved on TC because we don't have enough episodes, but they weren't at the outset, they were still just friends with the possibility of more when Loving ended and Alex left town to try to save his marriage to Ava. I think the introduction of Nick Rivers and Lorraine into the mix worked. But I don't think the plot or writing was always there. And I just don't think viewers used to a certain type of soap opera were prepared to see that kind of setup in daytime period.

I don't think the cast was that whitebread. Debbi and Darnell led it; Maggie Rush followed close behind. Early on they had Frankie, Azure and Bernardo. And Lisa Lo Cicero, Ted King and George Palermo were, for better or worse, typed as 'ethnic' at the time. Roscoe Born was rough and tumble. Could there have been more, of course, but they had a good mix. One thing I recall the production saying to soap press before it was cancelled was that they'd misjudged the audience's appetite for 'found families', as in the characters from Corinth and NYC bonding together as close friends in a shared group, vs. actual family blood ties like a traditional soap opera, and to that end they would be dealing with Ava and Alex's kids or others in the future (which did not come to pass). I understood that impulse to return to norms but I think it was a mistake. The less conventional found family canvas was ahead of its time for daytime, even though it had been seen before on soaps (like OLTL) and would be again - but it never caught on like it did in primetime or cable.

You missed out on our Loving Murders journey in this thread last spring and summer that got me through the first lap of the pandemic! I hadn't seen that story since it first aired. We were all gassing on about it in here and other threads last year. Brown and Esensten did that story and the final year of Loving as well as most/all? of The City, but the foundation was largely built in the early 90s years of LOV by Agnes and others where so many of these characters came from. Loving in 92-94 is worth a watch. And I know opinions on B&E's work in '95 and '96 understandably vary, but I think the frontburner quad material with Angie, Jacob, Charles and Lorraine on LOV is still way ahead of where we are now sadly. And I think the murder mystery holds up. I also think much of the look and style of TC holds up today, but the stories weren't always there.

I haven't seen link etiquette this bad since John.

One ratio to rule them all: Politico's Rachel Bade gets pilloried for their attempt to quote Stephen Miller as an impartial voice on Biden's "border crisis". I shall not link to the glorious ratio, it is visible in the original tweet.

And in considerably less relevant news: