Michael Tae Sweeney: They're hanging a news cycle today on Adam Schiff being like "it's up to Biden I guess" as being a call to drop out bsky.app/profile/josh...

bad luck for biden to run in an electoral cycle where "are you old" is the most important issue instead of in one of the cycles where email security procedures or accuracy of vietnam war medal citations was the most important issue in the country.

They're hanging a news cycle today on Adam Schiff being like "it's up to Biden I guess" as being a call to drop out bsky.app/profile/josh...

It’s not a media narrative, it’s party insiders being genuinely alarmed by a media narrative, you see

I'm not resigned about Trump winning but I'm definitely resigned about Biden or Harris getting anything like a fair shake from the New York Times politics desk! bsky.app/profile/mayo...

at this point most of my “idk maybe we should try Harris” is that while I don’t know if the coverage she’ll get from the media is any better it is really clear Biden’s won’t if they run this on her too, welp

I cannot imagine the levels of bad faith from an NYT that's simultaneously congratulating itself on forcing out a president (excuse me, calling attention to the vital political issue of the passage of time) and denying that it plays any role in events. Harris absolutely dies in that crossfire.

it's, like, slow dances at the church retreat levels of self-deception.

Any candidate. Assume that much at this point.

I fully expect "we all agree 81 is too old for the Presidency, but is 60? I say yes " by pick-a-columnist

Micah, the goal of the New York Times is a Trump victory. If that weren’t the case they would at the very least be covering Trump with the same fervor. Biden dropping out of the race would lead to weeks of drip drip “look at this new thing that we found out about Kamala Harris”.

(they would either be false, or not new, or just outright "DEI vice president")

This psy op would set Harris up for the very same thing. Investigations hearings and manufactured scandals. It won’t stop with Biden.

optimistically, the biden age thing can almost become a kind of foxed point as soon as he is no longer the nominee, and harris will be a more effective campaigner on roe than him.

My working assumption is that Harris gets equally poor treatment (remember the NYT definition of "newsworthy" means as soon as she takes over, she's suddenly what every story is about), but also has to contend with ballot access ratfucking in red states.

But what do you run on Harris? Like they could go with DEI replacement but its not 1992 anymore and i think that pisses the base off rather than concerns them.

they've already teased that they'll just extend the biden story into grilling harris on "what did you know about biden's senility and when did you know it"

the optimistic case is that this is less damaging than “Biden literally cannot do the job” which is what we’re getting right now but as always, none of the options are good anymore

Media bad faith is what it is, but we cannot dismiss swing voter concerns about age. Many have witnessed elderly relatives' decline between 80-85, making the age based attack particularly potent.

For what it's worth... dallas-taylor.com/2024/07/05/s...

So You’re Worried About Joe Biden Running For President After That Debate Performancedallas-taylor.com It's not unreasonable. He did poorly. Really poorly. He looked like the tired old man we've all been told he is. It's entirely reasonable to entertain doubts as to his fitness to run and, by extension...

Harris-Whitmer actually gives me a little hope. But I think you're spot on, unfortunately.

Today is a bad brain day - I’ve been seriously wondering if some Democrats in charge are doing a bad job campaigning because they secretly want The Former Guy to win.

Isn’t the lesson from Obama and Bill Clinton that it’s less about whether they launch insane attacks at you (they will) than the candidate’s ability to overcome it with charisma? We forget but all the focus on Rev. Wright stuff at the time seemed *really* bad but Obama did a big speech & moved on.

Between the two of them, Harris seems better equipped to do an inspiring stagecraft speech - but also there’s nothing stopping the campaign from having her give those speeches NOW as the VP candidate. And the press will eat it up like jingling keys in front of a baby.

Hes not senile, he's passing the torch. So now do you want to talk about something people care about. I think the bigger thing fueling this is the sheer amount of panicking activists, staffers, and donors deciding to treat reporters as there defacto therapists. Theoretically that would stop.

I don’t think the panic stops until Trump is dead & I don’t trust any of these people to treat the Dem nominee in any normal fashion

Theres no way that this would be framed as "passing the torch". It'd be "Biden Concedes to Trump."

"Biden stepped down so late. Does that indicate a lack of confidence in your ability to lead, or even win this election?" And, anytime they run out of questions, it'll be: "Do you think Biden should have stepped down sooner?"

I’m def on the camp of “the media effects matter the most, and they’ll treat her as bad/worse.” Most compelling case (tho not sure still personally) is that Harris would be much more adept in pushing back. slightly dubious given some of her press events but compared to Biden I get the argument.

I doubt that would be especially effective. Lots of folks know an older person who was "sharp as a tack" and at some point hit a wall and declined very quickly.

There is always going from both sides, on the one time calling attention to when she was CA AG and go with Kamila the Cop www.npr.org/2020/10/13/9...

Let's Talk About Kamala Harris : Code Switchwww.npr.org The VP candidate's biography and heritage allow people to project all kinds of ideas onto her, and to see what they want to see. But Kamala Harris's identity is a very important lens into not just her...

Then from the other side they go with the DEI attack and lots of pictures of a very diverse family and Kamila being awkward at events. She has done a lot of events and there is plenty of video to edit.

They absolutely will run with DEI until the heat death of the universe. It’s dumb and their base will devour it because of course they will.

The Angry Black Woman (tm) is angry. And black. And a woman. And did you know she's married to open-paren open-paren open-paren DOUGLAS EMHOFF close-paren close-paren close-paren? I hope it wouldn't work, but if swiftboating worked, who knows anything?

Last I saw, the New York Post is literally using the “DEI” attack already, out loud, in bold type 🙃

Its the new york post. They were lucky to spell it correctly.

Harris is the *only* one available who could, maybe, unify enough of the party; inherit the fundraising/organizational apparatus; plausibly claim to be adhering to the primary results. And the media will immediately pivot to calling her a "radical feminist trying to abort every baby on Earth."

Rude

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Is that what I said?

They are going to run this on her, they will run it on anyone, the media wants Trump to win and if they're shown they can influence campaign decisions they will use it to destroy anyone running against Trump

One can't fight Trump effectively by ignoring the realities of the media landscape shaping the current narratives.

The media landscape in question is a mugs game. They’ll go to war against Harris the same way they’re going to war against Biden and went to war against Clinton Kerry and gore.

Mike isn’t ignoring that reality: you are

I was agreeing with him.

Oh. I’m sorry.

They are deliberately negging. There really isn’t anything you can do to make someone stop negging you if they’re doing it on purpose, they’ll put a negative spin on EVERYTHING you do or say. And it gets worse if you try to please or appease them. The only option is to avoid or ignore them TBH

The Gray Lady has turned into Trump's Whore.

That's also not how anxiety works... Being cool as a cucumber because you're sure something bad is going to happen would actually be a weird response!