VP Choice Usually Shouldn't Matter

[Kathianne]

The stolen valor bit was more than some think-not as much because of lack of service, rather the outright lying and political payoffs off of it.

Now this, this on corruption involving some of whom that would harm the country and its inhabitants, that is of utmost import:

Highly recommend visiting the site and links

https://hotair.com/david-strom/2024/08/16/more-walz-ties-to-islamism-n3793225


More Walz Ties to Islamist TerroristsDavid Strom 10:30 AM | August 16, 2024



AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
People don't think of Minnesota as a destination spot for Muslim immigrants--and with good reason. Why would any sane person from an equatorial/desert region, as most Minnesota Muslims are, come to a region known for its Siberia-like climate?


There is a reason: money. And lots of it. Minnesota has long prided itself as a haven for refugees, and the largest population of Somalis outside of Somalia lives in Minnesota.


There is a part of Minneapolis we call "Little Mogadishu" both because of the large concentration of Somali refugees and because it is about as lawless as Mogadishu. It is not quite the "no-go" zone you find in European cities, but it is a good place to avoid if you don't belong there.


Somalis and Muslims, in general, have become a significant political force in Minnesota, which explains why Ilhan Omar can easily walk away with her primary and general elections. As the Somali population exploded, they started displacing long-term incumbents. In one of the great ironies of Minnesota politics, Phyllis Kahn, a Jewish legislator of longstanding, was kicked out by a coalition of Somalis, leading her to complain about noncitizen voting.


Since Minnesota makes voter fraud impossible to discover--intentionally--she was hoisted by her own petard. Her Somali opponent urged people to "vote the old Jewish lady out." And they did.


The Democrat-Farmer-Labor Party--our version of the Democrat Party--has long accommodated itself to the political power of Somalis and Muslims in general and has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into the community both legally and illegally. The largest COVID fraud case in the country is here in Minnesota, in which the Minnesota Department of Education handed $250 million in school lunch aid money to fraudulent Somali charities to feed school children during the pandemic.


The irony? The organization that Walz funneled all this money to is called "Feeding our Future." Perfect Walz, using lunch money for kids to scam the taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars. When you see that photo of Walz hugged by children just know that the money went to fraudsters, not kids.


It was a scam, and everybody knew it, including the Minnesota Department of Education. The FBI eventually closed it down because the DFL wasn't going to interrupt the flow of taxpayer money to the scammers who were Democrats. Some of that money would flow back into the coffers of the party and the Democrat candidates, after all. A quarter of a billion dollars is a small price to pay for owning a state.


It is in that context that you have to understand Governor Tim Walz's close ties to the Islamists who support Hitler and al Qaeda--he has funneled money to supporters of both and highly praised them.




We've already covered Walz's promotion of a Hitler-promoting Imam as a "Master Teacher" in an earlier post, so let's look at another case. As with the earlier story, this one was dug up by Gabe Kaminsky of The Washington Examiner.




Politics often comes down to throwing money at people from whom you want support, and this case is no different.


As the Muslim community gained numbers and, hence, power, the DFL/Democrats started tossing cash at them in huge quantities and cozying up to them as a particularly useful demographic. Somalis, as has been shown by the sheer scale of multiple 9-figure fraud cases, are very comfortable with a particularly lawless form of politics, and the DFL has used their willingness to shamelessly and illegally steal money and toss it around to get more of it.




Walz understands this very well and has enthusiastically played the money-for-power game. And while no doubt Tim Walz is not himself a supporter of the Nazis or al Qaeda, he seems perfectly willing to play ball with those who do. You scratch my back and I will scratch yours.


EXCLUSIVE — Under Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), the state of Minnesota awarded over $2 million to an Islamic group that fundraises for a charity linked to an al Qaeda affiliate, according to funding records reviewed by the Washington Examiner.


The Islamic Association of North America, the recipient of the state grants from 2019 to 2024, is fundraising after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel last year for Rahma Worldwide, a Michigan-based charity that says it is shipping humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to flyers. In a since-deleted Facebook post in October 2023, Rahma Worldwide President Shadi Zaza revealed his charity was collaborating on an aid initiative with the Islamic Heritage Revival Society of Kuwait, a terrorist group sanctioned by the U.S. government for funding al Qaeda.


News of the Walz administration’s grants to the IANA comes as the Democratic vice presidential candidate faces backlash after a series of Washington Examiner reports revealed his ties to Muslim cleric Asad Zaman. As Minnesota’s governor, Walz has repeatedly hosted Zaman, who shared a pro-Adolf Hitler movie on social media and defended the Oct. 7 attack. Moreover, according to unearthed footage, Walz referred to Zaman as a “master teacher” at a 2018 event held by the Zaman-led Muslim American Society of Minnesota, which partners with the IANA.


Nobody in Minnesota politics would be shocked by any of this, not that our local news media has had any interest in it. When the school lunch program scandal hit, the local newspaper, the Star Tribune, hardly covered it. Bill Glahn, at our local conservative think tank, American Experiment, did extensive work on it, which the Star Tribune refused to do. They, too, are part of the Democrat fraud complex--the paper's CEO is a former Commissioner of Employment and Economic Development, which explains why the paper is so kind to him.


The corruption runs deep in this state.


Walz's deep ties to the antisemitic and anti-American Islamists has little to do with any ideological love of their politics. At least, I hope not. He seems to prefer the Chinese communists to the Islamist terrorists.


But like any good leftist he is willing to ally with anyone as long as he can reap the benefits. Nazis, Islamists, fraudsters...who cares?


Not Tim Walz. He is in it for the power.

[Kathianne]

Related. The Mid-East IS A Problem, is a return to pro-Islam the right approach, including buying them off and vice versa?

https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2024/08/16/kamalas-radical-jewish-community-liaison-sets-off-alarms-in-israel-n3793224


Kamala's Radical 'Jewish Community Liaison' Sets Off Alarms in IsraelEd Morrissey 9:40 AM | August 16, 2024



AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
An old Washington DC saying warns: Personnel is policy. And if so, we now have a very good insight into what direction Kamala Harris will take American policy on Israel and Iran. So do the Israelis -- and they are not happy about it.


Harris has chosen Ilan Goldenberg as her "Jewish community liaison," a move covered by Israeli media but barely mentioned in the US. The Atlantic offered it as a nugget in a broader look at a potential Harris presidency foreign-policy plan. They pointed out that Phil Gordon's presence already points to a more Iran-oriented policy in the Middle East, and Goldenberg fits neatly into that paradigm, having helped construct Barack Obama's policies as well:


Of course, a President Harris would have not one foreign-policy adviser but a full array of them, spanning the military, diplomatic, and intelligence communities. And one more name has emerged in the past week: Ilan Goldenberg, an Israeli American Middle East hand who has advised Harris on the region throughout her vice presidency. Harris has appointed him her liaison to the Jewish community and tasked him with advising her campaign on Israel, the war in Gaza, and the broader Middle East.


Goldenberg’s profile is similar to Gordon’s, in that he is not an ideologue so much as a policy professional who served the Obama administration in top Middle East–related positions in the Pentagon and State Department. He has long advocated for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He supported the Obama administration’s Iran policy, but after the nuclear deal was signed, Goldenberg also called for smoothing relations with Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states that had been unnerved by the administration’s focus on Iran. This concern wasn’t shared by many Democrats at the time.


It's safe to say that the Israelis have paid a lot more attention to Goldenberg's appointment, and that they do not see it as some sort of moderating influence on Gordon. In fact, they see it more as a hardening of an approach hostile to Israel and aimed at currying favor with the Iranians. The Jerusalem Post's analysis walks through Goldenberg's lengthy career and positions, and they wonder whether American Jews want that kind of approach too:


Vice President and presumed Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s Jewish community liaison is a fierce advocate of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Iran nuclear deal, a harsh critic of Israeli settlement activity and the US Jerusalem embassy move, and a defender of the Palestinian Authority against efforts to defund it over financial support for terrorism. ...


As American Jews have expressed concern about the Democratic Party’s commitments to the Jewish community’s concerns in the wake of the October 7 Massacre, it remains to be seen if Goldenberg’s positions and policies will align with their temperament and guide Harris to restore diplomatic channels to American Jewry. •


A couple of these points should be noted in specifics. Goldenberg publicly opposed Donald Trump's move of the US embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights, saying that they would interfere with efforts to build an Arab-Israel peace:


As a member of a peace negotiation team during Obama’s tenure, Goldenberg’s focus has often been the objective of a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. Goldenberg’s vision of a two-state solution would be based on pre-1967 lines with mutually agreed-upon land swaps, both nations’ capitals in Jerusalem, and a demilitarized Palestinian state. ...


Goldenberg, in a 2019 Politico article, called Trump’s recognition of Israeli control of the Golan a “fiasco” that would undermine Arab-Israeli rapprochement efforts and the regional view of the US. Goldenberg also opposed Trump’s move of the US embassy to Jerusalem. While it would reassure Israelis about their place in the world and dismiss the idea that Jerusalem was not and would not be the capital of Israel, Goldenberg said in Politico in 2017 it threatened to stir the pot by not acknowledging Palestinian claims and inciting religious tensions. Goldenberg called to match the move by opening a Palestinian embassy in Jerusalem and recognizing a Palestinian state.


So what actually happened after those Trump moves? His team created the Abraham Accords, in which a number of Sunni Arab states normalized relations with Israel. That would have been completed under Joe Biden with Saudi Arabia, in fact, had Hamas not launched the October 7 atrocities and started a war. That was likely the reason that Hamas attacked at that time in such a barbaric fashion as to force Israel into an all-out war. Even so, the Saudis are still on board to normalize relations with Israel as soon as the war ends.


It turned out that the Arab nations didn't care as much as Palestinian feelings as they did about Iranian attempts to dominate the region, something that would have been readily discernible for anyone not caught up in ideological fervor.


It's not just that Goldenberg is wrong, Jerusalem Post editor Zvika Klein argues in a separate essay. It's that he and his clique are openly hostile to Israel. And his appointment "should alarm every friend of Israel," Klein warns:


Goldenberg’s career has been built on a specific ideological foundation: a deep, almost dogmatic, belief in the power of diplomacy, even with the most duplicitous of regimes, and a marked skepticism toward any show of strength by Israel. He’s the kind of man who, when faced with a roaring fire, would argue for a drop of water rather than a fire hose, fearing that the latter might cause too much of a splash. ...


For Israel, surrounded by enemies who dream of its destruction, such half-measures are not just inadequate – they’re dangerous. The October 7 massacre occurred as a result of Iran becoming almost untouchable by the West, and the country’s support of its proxies on all fronts. Let’s face it: the JCPOA failed.


Goldenberg’s ideology doesn’t stop at his misguided approach to Iran. Starr also highlighted how he has been a relentless critic of Israeli settlement activity, viewing this as the primary obstacle to peace in the region. In Goldenberg’s world, the construction of homes in Judea and Samaria is a sin so grave that it warrants “strong measures” from the United States to deter Israel from continuing.


The danger of Goldenberg's approach extends to the whole region, including the Sunni Arab nations that aligned with Israel against Iran in the Abraham Accords:


Goldenberg’s broader vision for the Middle East is no less flawed. Starr quoted his views, which called for a decreased American footprint in the region and which argued that the US can achieve its goals without relying on military force. This might sound appealing to those weary of endless wars, but it’s dangerously naive. The Middle East is not a region where power vacuums remain empty for long. If the US steps back, Iran, Russia, and extremist groups will rush in with catastrophic consequences for Israel and American interests alike.


That is the hallmark of Barack Obama's foreign policy in the Middle East, too. His fecklessness allowed Russia to fill some of the vacuum left when Obama pulled out of Iraq in a strategy almost identical to Biden's policy in Afghanistan, only better managed. In both Iraq and Afghanistan, the vacuum was also filled by radical Islamist terror armies, and the JCPOA allowed billions of dollars to flow into Iran and then out to its terror-army proxies.


Kamala Harris will bring us a continuation of Obamaism in the Middle East. Its third term in control of US policy has proven a disaster to Israel, and a fourth term under the incompetent leadership of Harris would be even worse. Small wonder Israelis are sending up alarms over the Obama clique's co-opting of Harris' nascent foreign-policy team ... and small wonder American media aren't talking about it at all.

[Kathianne]

Related. Seems the MN official government info center is now doing some scrubbing. Governor Stolen Valor/Lying About DUI/ is now adding Gov Cuomo MN on Covid:

https://www.foxnews.com/media/tim-walz-doubled-down-allowing-covid-patients-into-nursing-homes-despite-80-death-stat

So why did Kamala choose him? Expertise of lying? Supporter of lockdowns and snitch lines and killing off the infirm/elderly?


Tim Walz doubled down on allowing COVID patients into nursing homes despite 80% death stat'This was not a mistake,' Walz said about the nursing home policy
By Hannah Grossman Fox News
Published August 16, 2024 5:00am EDT


Gov. Tim Walz ‘ruined businesses and families’: Joe Teirab
Joe Teirab, a former federal prosecutor and GOP nominee for Congress, joins 'Fox News @ Night' to discuss Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s record.


Under Democratic Gov. Tim Walz's watch during the COVID-19 pandemic, Minnesota experienced a devastating impact among its most vulnerable, as 80% of COVID-related deaths in the state occurred among residents of long-term care facilities, including nursing homes and assisted living centers.


Critics have taken aim at a policy, also practiced in other states during the pandemic, to allow patients with COVID into nursing homes after they were discharged from hospitals.


The policy in place is no longer available on the public-facing Minnesota government website and had to be acquired by the Wayback Machine.


"Patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 who still require transmission-based precautions for COVID-19 can be transferred to congregate living facilities," the policy, acquired by the Wayback Machine, said.


BIDEN ADMINISTRATION WILL BAN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT USING PLASTIC CUTLERY TO COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE


Tim Walz
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a campaign rally with Vice President Kamala Harris. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)


"It is the recommendation of MDH that patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 can be discharged when clinically indicated and neither discontinuation of transmission-based precautions nor the establishment of two negative COVID-19 tests is required prior to hospital discharge," it continued.


At one point, around May 2020, over 80% of the state's COVID-19 deaths were among residents of long-term care facilities.


Despite this data, Walz doubled down on the policy after the fact.


NEW STATE DEPARTMENT DIVERSITY CHIEF BELIEVES US IS A ‘FAILED HISTORIC MODEL’ WITH A ‘COLONIZING PAST’


"This was what everyone was doing. This was not a mistake. It wasn't like no one thought about this. There was complexity in how you deal with this," the Democratic governor said in May 2020 while the devastation was ongoing.




According to a report from the Star Tribune, nursing homes perceived they were deprioritized in terms of being provided with personal protective equipment (PPE), which was critical to protecting both staff and patients from getting infected.


COVID variant
Nursing homes believed they were deprioritized during the COVID pandemic, leading to difficulty controlling the spread of infections. (iStock)


The state's Department of Health "informed providers in April that its emergency stockpile of N95 masks was reserved for ‘hospital settings only’ and that they should wait until their supplies had dwindled to ‘zero to three days’ before requesting more gear," the report said.


"As an alternative, the state encouraged nursing homes to consider using nonmedical cloth masks and to ‘connect with local communities for donations,’' it continued.


The issue was widespread during the early stages of the COVID pandemic.


WHITE DUDES FOR HARRIS BRINGS OUT CELEBS; MYTH IN US THAT MEN ARE EXPECTED TO BE 'PROTECTORS AND PROVIDERS'


"Nursing home residents aren’t getting half of our resources or half of our attention, yet they account for roughly half the deaths," David Grabowski, a health care policy professor at Harvard Medical School, told The Atlantic in April 2020. "We don’t value their lives as much as other people’s."


Many families complained to local media that they weren't notified about COVID-positive cases in nursing homes and never got to say their goodbyes. Walz's administration discouraged families from taking their loved ones out of nursing homes and bringing them home for visits.




"MDH strongly recommends against families bringing residents of long-term care facilities to their homes during this time. This recommendation applies whether residents have previously been diagnosed with COVID-19 or have recently tested negative for COVID-19," Minnesota's Department of Health's executive order 20-99 said.

[Kathianne]

Honestly, this stuff is just coming up on my newsfeeds. Related:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/presidential/3122450/walz-administration-awarded-2-million-muslim-group-fundraising-al-qaeda-linked/#google_vignette


Walz administration awarded $2 million to Muslim group fundraising for al Qaeda-linked charityBy
Gabe Kaminsky
August 16, 2024 7:00 am
.
EXCLUSIVE — Under Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), the state of Minnesota awarded over $2 million to an Islamic group that fundraises for a charity linked to an al Qaeda affiliate, according to funding records reviewed by the Washington Examiner.


The Islamic Association of North America, the recipient of the state grants from 2019 to 2024, is fundraising after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel last year for Rahma Worldwide, a Michigan-based charity that says it is shipping humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to flyers. In a since-deleted Facebook post in October 2023, Rahma Worldwide President Shadi Zaza revealed his charity was collaborating on an aid initiative with the Islamic Heritage Revival Society of Kuwait, a terrorist group sanctioned by the U.S. government for funding al Qaeda.

News of the Walz administration’s grants to the IANA comes as the Democratic vice presidential candidate faces backlash after a series of Washington Examiner reports revealed his ties to Muslim cleric Asad Zaman. As Minnesota’s governor, Walz has repeatedly hosted Zaman, who shared a pro-Adolf Hitler movie on social media and defended the Oct. 7 attack. Moreover, according to unearthed footage, Walz referred to Zaman as a “master teacher” at a 2018 event held by the Zaman-led Muslim American Society of Minnesota, which partners with the IANA.


The presidential campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris has continued to claim Walz has no personal relationship with Zaman. Harris and Walz officials did not respond to requests for comment from the Washington Examiner on Thursday.


“Embracing and funding an imam that sympathizes with neo-Nazis was apparently only the start,” said Sam Westrop, a terrorism analyst at the Middle East Forum think tank.




Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), Democratic vice presidential nominee, arrives to speak at a campaign rally, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
Formed in 2001, the same year the Treasury Department’s terrorist designation of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation sent shockwaves throughout the philanthropy world, the IANA is “a nationwide umbrella organization with over 35 centers” and offshoots — over a dozen of which are in Minnesota. The IANA is representing “Muslim communities on national levels and speaking on behalf of member organizations on all matters concerning Muslims,” according to its website, which notes that members, including mosques, pay membership dues.


Minnesota’s Health Department awarded over $238,600 to the IANA in 2024, according to state records. In 2023, the agency gave $191,900 to the IANA, which received over a million dollars from the agency in 2022 and over $612,200 from 2019 to 2021. The funding appears to have been for public health-related initiatives, including community vaccinations and outreach to the Somali community.


Yusuf Abdi Abdulle, IANA’s director, said on Oct. 7, “Palestine has the right to defend itself,” which prompted Zaman to reply to the director on Facebook with an image of a Palestinian flag. On Oct. 7, the Walz administration-backed IANA affirmed a statement by its partner group that said Israel was engaged in “unprovoked” attacks in Gaza after Hamas killed 1,200 people in the Jewish state.


The IANA is part of a coalition supporting imam Jamil al Amin, a convicted murderer, according to a letter. The IANA shares an office building in Minneapolis with the Humanitarian African Relief Organization, which Abdulle used to lead, according to tax forms. In 2012, HARO saw one of its volunteers sentenced to eight years in prison for providing material support to an al Qaeda affiliate called al Shabaab.


Rahma Worldwide, the charity that receives fundraising help from the Walz administration-backed IANA, has touted its participation on social media in a pro-Palestinian aid campaign with Kuwait’s Islamic Heritage Revival Society.


That same Kuwait-based group faced Treasury Department sanctions in 2008 for backing al Qaeda and, according to a January Washington Post report citing U.S. officials, is part of a Hamas fundraising operation.


Just last year, Rahma Worldwide organized an event with Mohamad Rateb al Nabulsi, a Syrian cleric who has appeared on al Aqsa TV, the official network of Hamas, to call for the killing of gay people, the New York Post reported. In October 2021, Rahma Worldwide shared a post on Facebook depicting Rahma Worldwide’s Shadi Zaza signing an agreement with officials at the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.


In December of last year, Zaza and Abdulle were listed on a flyer together as speakers for a fundraiser benefiting Rahma Worldwide. And on Jan. 1 of this year, Abdulle posted a separate flyer on Facebook promoting a Gaza fundraising event in Minneapolis for Rahma Worldwide featuring Zaza as a speaker.


Meanwhile, the IANA’s former director, Sheikh Hassan Dhooye, congratulated Walz in an X post on Aug. 6 that included an image of him with Walz.


Dhooye recently congratulated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a Hamas ally, for his reelection. In 2020, Dhooye was part of a delegation of Muslim leaders who met with Erdogan in Ankara, Turkey, according to a press release.


Dhooye, who also goes by the name Hassan Mohamed Jama, came into the spotlight in 2011 after CBC News reported that the Somali community believed he was connected to a terrorism financing and recruitment operation.




Dhooye was a key activist who pressured President Joe Biden not to run for reelection and also appeared in 2017 with then-congressman Walz and Zaman in Washington, D.C., according to a Facebook post.

Dhooye appears to be still involved with the Walz administration-backed group.

In April, he attended a meeting with the IANA’s Abdulle and other Somali leaders, according to a Facebook post. Dhooye spoke at the IANA’s annual convention last September, footage shows.

And last May, Dhooye offered a prayer on behalf of the IANA before Minnesota’s legislature, according to state records.


“Determined to choose the worst possible partners at every turn, we now know that Walz oversaw $2.1 million of grants to yet another terror-aligned organization, with whose officials the governor seems to have close relations,” Westrop, the terrorism analyst, told the Washington Examiner.


CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER


“It’s not just a reprehensible use of Minnesota taxpayers’ money,” Westrop said. “It’s also a complete betrayal of all those moderate Muslim and Somali activists working to fight this extremism in their communities every day.”


Minnesota’s Health Department did not return a request for comment, nor did the IANA.

[fj1200]

I'm guessing that Vance would be eloquent enough to point all of this out in a VP debate. I don't have the same confidence in trump's debate with the empty pant suit.

[fj1200]

I wish I were an artist who could draw this \/

[orange hair vs the empty pant-suit]

That debate is gonna suck.

[Gunny]

The Dem ticket is looking better and better :rolleyes:

Seriously, he needs to get worse. So bad the MSM can't ignore. He's already unacceptable to me, but he needs to be unacceptable to moderate Dems and rain on their current high of having a commie candidate.

Let's face it, they need to lose. I have not much faith in Trump doing what he needs to in order to win. It was his to lose and he lost it alright. The second he started using vitriol to combat the commie's climb in the ratings.

[Black Diamond]

The Dem ticket is looking better and better :rolleyes:

Seriously, he needs to get worse. So bad the MSM can't ignore. He's already unacceptable to me, but he needs to be unacceptable to moderate Dems and rain on their current high of having a commie candidate.

Let's face it, they need to lose. I have not much faith in Trump doing what he needs to in order to win. It was his to lose and he lost it alright. The second he started using vitriol to combat the commie's climb in the ratings.

Another major event....

[Kathianne]

The Dem ticket is looking better and better :rolleyes:

Seriously, he needs to get worse. So bad the MSM can't ignore. He's already unacceptable to me, but he needs to be unacceptable to moderate Dems and rain on their current high of having a commie candidate.

Let's face it, they need to lose. I have not much faith in Trump doing what he needs to in order to win. It was his to lose and he lost it alright. The second he started using vitriol to combat the commie's climb in the ratings.


I was going to start a new thread, but this is a good segway. Vance is looking better to others than myself:

https://hotair.com/david-strom/2024/08/16/dont-buy-the-propaganda-n3793239


Don't Buy the PropagandaDavid Strom 2:40 PM | August 16, 2024



AP Photo/Ben Gray
Two things can be true: Kamala Harris can be in a far better position to win the race AND the supposed collapse of Trump and failure of the J.D. Vance pick is false.


First, let's get real: Biden was not doing as well as he needed to in order to win in November, and one of his key problems was that his popularity with women was too low. Harris has been able to shore up her support with women and that has allowed her to gain ground against Trump and be tied or a bit ahead at this point in the race.


Harry Enten at CNN (yes, I know, but he is very good) breaks it down:




This is what is called a reversion to the mean. Democrats usually do much better with women than with men, and this election is the estrogen vs testosterone race so that tendency is being emphasized.


Hence the "vibes" campaign, where Kamala Harris is running as a female icon girl boss Mary Sue and will try to run as that right through the end of the campaign. Throw in some ridiculous race-baiting, massive propaganda against Trump and especially J.D, Vance because he is not defined clearly for most people, and you can explain the current state of the race.


Conservatives shouldn't get too wrapped up in the criticisms of Trump's campaign at this point, since the narrative is driven mainly by the massive brainwashing campaign going on regarding both Trump's failures and Kamala's success. I think it is true that Trump's momentum was thrown off by the switcheroo and he was so focused on destroying Biden that the pivot was a bit slow, but not fatally so.


Similarly, the polls are actually all over the map, and they are not nearly as bad for Trump as people seem to think. Despite a relentless effort by the mainstream media and the Harris campaign to create a sense of momentum, the polls show Trump doing reasonably well and better than in his previous campaigns.




In addition to that, the issue terrain still favors Trump, and the race is still fairly easy for him to win or lose. We are looking at the current state of play with some disquiet because we were all destined to win against Biden and now have to fight like hell to win, not because the race is out of reach.


This was never going to be easy.


Vance could turn out to be the secret weapon of the Trump campaign, not the negative that the media is trying to convince us he is. Vance is the smartest person on either ticket, is articulate, persuasive, and the negative sense a lot of people have is entirely a media creation.




The media would have done the same thing to ANY Trump choice for Vice President. They consider it their job to dirty up every candidate, and with a Trump Republican of any stripe, especially so. We could be talking about what a bad choice Rubio or Youngkin was right now because the media would have worked day and night to destroy them too. The line of attack wouldn't have been "weird," but it would have been SOMETHING.




The polls are telling us that Florida is in play? That should tell you a lot about some of these polls. Not remotely possible.


Pennsylvania is still the key to this race, and the issue terrain there is particularly good for Trump and Vance. Kamala Harris is a San Francisco radical and on many issues, Walz is even worse and more vulnerable. They are riding the "vibes" right now, but their support is wider than it is deep.




If Trump were more disciplined, he would be running away with this election, and as is so often the case he is his worst enemy. But even that variable can be overplayed since voters are used to Trump being Trump and filter out most of the attacks on him and even his own verbal flubs. Trump is a known quantity and all the attacks on him make little difference anymore.


Either candidate could win or could lose. Kamala's sugar high will likely not last, and this race will be a slugfest. Don't get too distracted by ephemera.


As we have seen in this campaign more than any other, events can change the trajectory very fast.

[Black Diamond]

I was going to start a new thread, but this is a good segway. Vance is looking better to others than myself:

https://hotair.com/david-strom/2024/08/16/dont-buy-the-propaganda-n3793239

So. The devil you know?

[Kathianne]

So. The devil you know?

Not understanding your point there.