Ketchup. Ketchup sticks.
I thonk this bears repeating. No one expected Harris to be so shockingly competent. Honestly, even when she showed it, I missed it (and I think a lot of us did). When Biden dropped out and the Democrats coalesced around Harris in about 15 minutes instead of the circular firing squad we expected, the narrative was “wow, a miracle!”, not “wow, she’s good!”. Every pundit (and doper) had her short list for VP all figured out for her, and she ignored all the conventional wisdom . . . And rather than picking any of them, she went in a different direction and it turned out to be perfect. But even then, the story wasn’t “wow, she’s good”, exactly.
But after the convention, I think its settling in that she’s really, really good at this.
She ended up picking the overall favorite that the SDMB thought she should pick. Pretty much the opposite of what you said.
The prediction was that it wouldn’t be Walz because so many of us were saying he’d be perfect and what are the odds that she’d actually pick him? (Then she did.)
For me, that was the point where I thought she was really good.
It feels like she has been ascending in a mirror image of Trump descending.
That’s not the way I remember it:
That was just an early snapshot poll. For the real discussion try this thread.
170+ posts before Walz is even mentioned. Walz didn’t get traction on the board until Harris narrowed the field for us. Kelly was our fave for most of time between Biden dropping out and Harris making her decision.
He really loves coloring the puzzle pieces.
Moderating:
Let’s drop the hijack about Harris and her VP pick. Again, please be mindful of the subject of this thread. I realize that Harris was the game changer and her pick of VP is also part of the changes in Trump, but let’s not go down the VP pick rabbit hole any further. Thanks.
Most obvious to me is the physical; ill fitting suit is looser but still horrendous so it’s sort of a difference without distinction. Seems
someone(s) has finally acknowledged and/ or found the nerve to address the tender subject of dt’s ridiculous appearance. I could go on but my point is that to me, he speaks and presents himself as the obnoxious gas bag that he’s always been. I don’t detect the decline because he sounds just like the delusional fool I’ve been familiar with since his first appearance after slithering out of the loch so many years ago. Maybe he has measurably worsened but how could I tell? My opinion already couldn’t be lower.
Oooh…there’s more:
Donald Trump’s campaign team apparently does not want his microphone on when it isn’t his turn to speak in the next presidential debate.
Brian Fallon, a senior adviser to the Kamala Harris campaign, posted on X Thursday afternoon that Trump’s staff asked ABC News, which will be hosting the first presidential debate on September 10, to ignore Trump’s comments and keep the microphones off when it’s not his turn to speak. If ABC doesn’t enforce muted mics as a debate rule, the Trump team will reportedly pull out of the debate, Fallon said.
Premature EnTrumpulation will not be a good look. But it’ll be funny!
I’m thinking that’s not a change in Trump as much as it’s a change in the attitude of his team.
Long before this year’s DNC, it was hard to tell that Trump had any sort of team. He must have had one, but it was likely full of sycophants and yes-men and -women, because Trump obviously listened to nobody and made his own rules. We never heard, or at least rarely did, about anybody behind him.
But now, according to the linked item, he’s getting pushback from his team. In this case, it’s about muted microphones at the debate, but I’m thinking there must be other issues on which Trump and his team disagree.
At any rate, Trump’s team seems to have grown a backbone, and that will necessarily change Trump. If he can’t snap his fingers and say, “Make it so” and a bunch of toadies jump to do his bidding, then maybe he’s not as powerful as he thinks he is. Maybe that’s why he’s toned things down since the DNC—because he’s starting to doubt himself.
Overall I agree with you but one would assume Trump is the captain of the Trump re-election ship and if his team is overruling him I’d say Trump has changed. I do not think that is how things worked before Biden stepped down. Now, Trump is struggling and he has no plan so his team has to take the lead as best they can. (So it seems to me.)
Now maybe it’s because I didn’t really see many pictures of him before, but in the recent pics, he looks significantly older. I think maybe he isn’t getting as much makeup.
This seems to be a consequence of falling attendance at said rallies, and the way that his opponents have loudly and gleefully pointed out the empty seats, the crowds leaving early, and the overall lack of enthusiasm of attendants. He’s an act. An entertainer. A clown. His fans want the theatrical bombast, but his advisors are trying to make it about more than preaching to the choir. The sad (?) result is boring rallies that disappoint the faithful, enrage the headliner, and provide fodder for pointing out trump’s shrinkng crowd sizes. He simply can’t fill stadiums any more.
Are his crowds smaller because he’s old news, giving the same tired performance they’ve been watching for the past 10 years? Or are they less engaged because his advisors are desperately trying to get him to say something new and actually relevant to the campaign when they came to see his greatest hits? Is trump’s low energy delivery because he’s petulant about having to stick to a boring script about policy when he’d rather riff on the evil commies, or is he just a tired old man who can’t put his energy behind stuff he neither knows or cares about, especially when the crowd is bored by it? (I think it’s both, because the difference between trump listlessly reciting the teleprompter in a monotone to a restless crowd and trump’s bombastic grandstanding about sharks and communists to a cheering mob is stark.)
One of the best analogies I’ve seen is that he’s entered the “Fat Elvis” phase of his political career.
He’s just mumbling his way through his old hits, playing to a nostalgic (and mostly elderly) audience that fondly remembers and is trying to relive “the glory days”.
< snerk >
There’s also a decreasing number of potential venues - his campaign owes money to several of them across the country with no intention of paying, which is one reason so many of them are outdoors these days and/or in random small towns well away from convenient travel options.
On Facebook today I saw a picture of a man in a camo outfit holding up a sign that said something like: I have never stood in front of a grave smiling and giving a thumbs up. But if I live longer than him, I might get to do that.
I love it!!!