Puritans you say.

Trump’s magic cancer cure promise last night is a reminder that, to most of the public, curing cancer sounds like generic “big empty politician promise.” It’s also 100% Joe Biden’s brand. In a general election, Trump would be bandying this about and Joe is definitely foolish enough to take the bait and turn it into “nuh uh, I would.”

I gotta stay on message.

I know she's half crazy but I do think she's got a point here. Trump is vulnerable, of course, and I don't dismiss the data that shows he's in trouble. But I do think Dems have a better chance running on vision/charisma, than they do wonkishness and "return to normal" attitudes.

Here’s what happens:

Joe Biden becomes the nominee, and conservative media immediately begins throwing any and every “is he well? He seemed a bit confused/tired/old tonight,” line they can at him until they land one that serious-minded media outlets can talk themselves into elevating (see also: Hillary Clinton). Wellness becomes a Trump talking point and SNL does a skit about two geezers trying to outmacho the other. Cos, like, they’re both so old lol.

Meanwhile, Trump pushes the cancer cure talk he debuted last night, because curing cancer is Joe Biden’s moon shot thing. All Joe Biden has to do is not rise to this bait, because it turns it into a “nuh uh, I will” back and forth that legitimizes Trump’s promise and looks to low information voters like there’s not really that much difference between the parties anymore. They both make big sweeping promises they obviously can’t keep, like curing cancer, and then scoff when the other side says they can do it. What’s the difference really?

So naturally Joe Biden falls for it. He can’t not fall for it. He’s Joe Biden. Anderson Cooper turns to his guest that night and asks, “it just seems like both men are making this grand, sweeping promise, but is it really realistic for anybody to say they’re going to cure cancer?” “Of course not,” his guest says, “but keep in mind that Joe Biden isn’t saying...” By this point the audience has mostly tuned out and accepted the equivocation.

Cancer is a sensitive issue for Joe, who after 10,000 miles and 20 interviews about this back and forth gets frustrated and talks about punching Donald Trump on a playground or some such bullshit. To suburban women, Biden headlines don’t really “feel” all that different from Trump headlines anymore.

While all of this is happening, Joe is trying to play both sides by poopoo-ing some key Democratic proposals in public (baffled as to why new polling shows he’s turning off the base), while trying to support some other, safer proposals he clearly DOESN'T UNDERSTAND AT ALL....meaning his defenses of them are tepid and include some wrong or misinterpreted information. Republicans leap on these notorious Joe Biden gaffes, painting the proposals with the inaccuracies HE just validated, and driving their popularity down with independent voters. This leads to endless “is the Democratic Party out of touch” headlines, inspired by raw polling data showing their proposals are losing popularity.

North Korea, Russia, and Saudi Arabia keep making headlines using language that stops short of equating electing Joe Biden with an act of war. All this calm will be undone, they say. The special relationship is with the dealmaker himself. Meanwhile, bot and troll accounts keep bringing Joe’s most conservative or anti-progressive historical markers up in the places where they will be seen by the communities (LBGTQ, POC, women) he was openly dismissing or most failing to serve.

In the end, it doesn’t matter because neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump is remotely capable of handling the extremity of the climate crisis, and the whole world order is rewritten by the stunning mass migration away from the equator that overwhelms destination populations and probably starts a nuclear war I don’t know.

It is at this point that Pearl Jam forum legend Burt Reynolds, who always thought he’d own in a post-apocalypse but is now suffering a severe and sudden stroke-like mental decline due to nuclear fallout and a poisoned atmosphere, looks around at the wholesale carnage he always dreamed of seeing and attempts a final thought. His verbal language center, rotting with radiation, does its best.

“Better Nate than lever.” And he smiles.

Your commitment to being a colossal moron is staggeringly impressive

It’s not the vetting process of a nomination that worries me. It’s the amount of vitriol and ink the Democrats will inevitably invest in the general election that feels ominous to me. I suppose that’s the only way it can be with Trump as the incumbent, but I genuinely fear that this election, along with the Kavanaugh hearing and the Mueller ordeal will combine to make the dems look bad to everyone in the country but the far left. It will be very good if the dems can focus on policy, but I just don’t see that happening.

I think this fear is, as McP pointed out, quite unfounded, in that it overlooks just how bad of a candidate Hillary was and how much Trump's base has shrunk. That said, I do think there's a danger in repeating some of the failures of the HRC campaign, namely how it was more or less completely an aesthetic appeal devoid of substantive plans (Trump is gross! Vote for me!). I think candidates like Booker are dangerous not only because they're empty neoliberal shills who will only deeper the contradictions of our economic moment while covering them with a veneer of progressive representation, laying the groundwork for an even more violent right-wing nationalism, but also because they engage in the exact same "Donald Trump is the problem!" rhetoric that really doomed Hillary. This is why I think the path forward for the Dems, both short and long term, is someone like Warren. She has both a coherent vision/worldview/narrative--which Hillary never did, outside of "it's my turn"--and that plan just happens to be one that can address the causes of our current moment's instability.

In other words I think you're right that narratives win elections, not lesser-evil or Doomsday appeals.

It's entirely possible that I need to diversify beyond RM N&D threads and National Public Radio when it comes to 2020 election banter.

I don't doubt that policy issues are essential, but I don't find it to be a coincidence that we saw the highest turnout in a midterm election in more than 100 years last year, particularly after a 2016 election that had high, but not record-breaking, turnout. I wouldn't doubt for a second the partisan divide has gotten worse, and that seems unlikely to abate soon, if ever.

I think we automatically assume that this helps Trump (and it may). But the media, by and large, is so cowed by accusations that it missed the great uprising of Trump supporters in 2016 now spend so much time fixated on them now that they risk missing the flip side of the story behind Trump's unmoving poll numbers; there are a lot of people in this country (stretching far beyond the "far left") that REALLY do not like this guy. While speaking about issues, I think Democrats have to capitalize on the fact that this President is extremely disliked by a large contingent of people who have their mind made up on him, just as his supporters will never waver no matter what they do.

Let's hope the democrat dogs know what to do with the car if they catch it on the chase.

WTF is with the location on that video. You're singing a song about Hawaii, and you're shooting it in a horror movie basement?

OK, OK, calm down B.

I'm glad I didn't abandon Warren during her Indian debabcle like the rest of the RM turds.

*bros

Tulsi hangs out with Assad. I don't buy her act at all.

Careful. Chud loves Liz