Trump gritting through the pussy tape is illustrative here. He refused to drop out & a few weeks later his polls rebounded & the press just dropped it. Obviously the fact that the press likes fascism & wants it to win is a factor but the fact it didn't change anything was EMBARRASSING for them.
I wrote yesterday that the way through on this might be to make the NYT's obsession with it a joke but I didn't know how. I'm starting to wonder if the right play is to let them keep barfing this garbage out & have it continuously not move the needle. Eventually it's just embarrassing.
One way to understand AG Sulzberger’s obsession over this is it’s maybe his last chance to prove that NYT has the juice to make some kind of dent with its reporting. Otherwise he’s the inheritor of a low-status crosswords-and-cooking empire, like some common Newhouse
It's not the front line journalists who will suffer who name the decisions for big media. It's their CEOs who see $$$$ and power from the new fascist govt they will use to replace said journalists with propagandists. After the CEOs take their heavy skim off the top first.
And yes, one was a candidate confessing to sexual assault; the other is a guy who stuttered.
Also: “if I drop out, we’ll have LBJ-68, but with an openly fascist authoritarian. What do you think I shall do?” Sounds perfectly plausible
How he responds makes all the difference. Trump gritting it out worked because he sat there like an amphibian. Biden needs to come out every day and say "look at this old bastard, come at me!" If he tries to triangulate, he will lose.
