Onward Thru The Fog

One off night doesn't change the fact that @JoeBiden is the most legislatively successful @POTUS in our lifetime. One off night also doesn't change the fact that the former guy is a convicted felon, serial liar & adjudicated rapist who is unfit for ANY office. Period.

— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) June 28, 2024

What the now famous Univision focus group heard was Trump returning again and again, unbidden, to his talking point that immigrants are invading the country and taking “our” Social Security and Medicare. Do they all turn 65 when they cross the border? Is there a vast conspiracy to give them SS numbers in violation of the law? A conspiracy that involves hundreds, if not thousands, of government employees?

The people who believe that bullshit aren’t going to care about Biden’s failure to launch. 

What most people would have heard is Trump failing to answer questions and retreating to his talking points. All pundits and political reporters believe in the sanctity of talking points; but they don’t expect people to actually listen to them.

But what if the people do? Whither our political punditry then?

I’m reminded of a critique of the White House Press Corps from decades back; people who sit around the press room waiting for the schedule announcements from the Press Secretary. The critique was these reporters didn’t report real news. There are people from all over the country, hell, the world, wandering past the White House every day. Why didn’t those reporters go out and interview those people, question them, find out what real people were actually concerned about? Why sit in a room waiting to be fed regurgitated pap like baby birds? Go out and actually talk to people? And lose my spot in the Press Room?

Arguably, that’s how the political press missed Trump in ‘16; a miss they first attributed to “economic anxiety,” although a long Trump supporters seemed to be able to afford boats by 2020. They were very slow to see it as support for xenophobia and racism and authoritarianism. Even now the last one is the only one publicly acknowledged by a few outlets. Most pundits just focus on Biden’s age.

I’m wondering how many people watched all 90 minutes of that show last night. It really didn’t take Daniel Dale and Politifact to know Trump was making shit up and retreating to his talking points whenever he didn’t have an answer. He did it so many times you could set your watch by it.

And when was the last time a political debate actually and inarguably won a political campaign? Nixon v Kennedy? And even then, the people listening on the radio said Nixon won.