And it’s 50-50?
Steven L. Taylor
·
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
·
27 comments
This is is gibberish.
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
Follow Steven on
Twitter and/or
BlueSky.
Also when the Bloomberg guy asked him if Google should be broken up, and he answered by whining about something that had happened in Virginia, completely unrelated to the question.
@TheRyGuy: I think you are in the wrong thread.
Senile Don is getting more and more unstable.
@Steven L. Taylor: Presumably, he’s referring to Harris’ penchant for speaking in word salad, a favorite topic of Fox and others. My sense is that she keeps talking rather than pausing while she thinks through answers, while theirs is that she’s a moron. Given considerable evidence to the contrary on their conclusion, mine seems like the more reasonable one.
@James Joyner: Any Trump supporter’s accusation Harris speaks in word salad is the absolute zenith of both irony and projection.
@Mikey: I’ve seen it even from people who are definitely voting for Harris. It’s a phenomenon I’ve remarked on quite a bit: we scrutinize Trump’s opponents as normal politicians and dismiss Trump’s nonsense as “Well, that’s just Trump being Trump.” Harris and Walz are comparative unknowns, so they’re getting a double dose.
@James Joyner: the U.S. deserves everything that will happen to it, given that the US populace is walking straight into this disaster.
Stupidity should hurt. As Benjamin Franklin said: “a republic, if you can keep it.”
@Grumpy realist: Given that a majority of the US will almost certainly be voting for Harris, I disagree.
@Grumpy realist:
As may be, do you think the rest of the world deserves it too?
I still blame Jeremiah Wright. He prayed that God damn America, and He did.
@James Joyner:
To this point, let’s not forget how these commenters promised that Trump would DESTROY her in a debate and then disappeared for weeks after the debate happened and Trump decided never to debate her again?
Also, I’m beginning to think they might not have been serious in their concerns about Biden and the potential of having an elderly president who is easily confused and showing signs of cognitive decline.
Motivated reasoning for the win.
@James Joyner:
My simple take is that:
(1) Donald Trump is held to no standard as he’s been effectively normalized. The excuses and rationales are endless: well that’s Trump, well the media distorts what he says, well that’s not what he meant, or well he was joking, or … well whatever.
While (2) Kamala Harris is held to the standard that people imagine existed before Trump. One where a candidate spoke to the issues without nuance, instead with perfect articulation and absolute clarity when speaking on those issues.
Trump is the absurd result when you run out those old lines, ‘he’s a guy I could sit down and have a beer with’ or ‘he speaks his mind.’ Never mind that he’s an idiot or that I can listen to his bullsh*t while we drink beer. America has reached a point where we want to listen to Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene for an hour as they talk about Arnold Palmer and Hunter Biden’s ‘presence’ in the locker room.
Trump is an idiot who speaks gibberish constantly. Any supporter of his suggesting that a former prosecutor is speaking in word salad is projecting.
Well, when I try to imagine how someone who likes Trump might view this, I come up with something like this:
All politicians duck questions they don’t want to answer. Trump may be more obvious that he’s ducking questions, but he’s also more entertaining.
To me, this is small potatoes next to my primary issue with Trump: He tried to overthrow the government. He attempted to create fraudulent slates of electors. He encouraged the mob on 1/6. He said, when told that Mike Pence was in danger, “so what?”.
The rest of this is distraction. He tried to overthrow the government.
Harris sounds educated, strong, and thoughtful. Walz sounds like a happy warrior.
Trump spews confusing gobbledygook like a deteriorating geezer soon headed to elder care. Vance just sounds like an awkward creep.
These are among the reasons their favorability looks like this, per yesterday’s AP-NORC poll:
Kamala Harris (+5%)
51% favorable
46% unfavorable
Tim Walz (+4%)
41% favorable
37% unfavorable
JD Vance (-15%)
33% favorable
48% unfavorable
Donald Trump (-18%)
40% favorable
58% unfavorable
Dementia Donald and his running mate are both unlikeable weirdos. They can’t escape that.
I finished my ballot and dropped it off last week. I got email yesterday telling me it had been received, verified, and counted. For the next two weeks I plan to practice being calm in the face of potential disaster. Sort of like the heroine in my granddaughters’ fairy tale, when she’s having tea with the wyrm.
http://www.mcain6925.com/little_monsters/little-monsters-tea-color.pdf
@James Joyner: You are likely correct, now that I reread his comment.
It is interesting that he (and Jack , JKB, etc) never actually defend Trump or offer any positive argument to vote for him.
@TheRyGuy: So, does that mean you support putting JFK, Jr. in charge of the FDA?
Do you think his knowledge about “health food and women things” means he should have a position in the Trump administration?
@James Joyner: Anyone who claims Trump is coherent has no ground from which to criticize anyone’s communication skills.
@Matt Bernius: I was genuinely worried about Biden’s cognitive decline and worried about Trump’s. It’s just that, with Trump, it doesn’t move the needle since he was already disqualified.
@al Ameda: Lots of Presidents in my lifetime—with Reagan, Clinton, and Obama as exemplars—were articulate and fast on their feet. But many have been mediocre—even demonstrably smart and competent ones like HW Bush.
@Grumpy realist: My grandkids don’t deserve Trump/Vance. The oldest gets to vote in next presidential election. If there is one.
@James Joyner:
I completely agree James. And that comment wasn’t directed at you. It was focused at folks like TheRyGuy and Jack who repeatedly commented about that.
I love the sound of desperation……………
@Jack:
So that’s why you never shut up.
@Jack: Again: never a positive defense.
@Jack: I love it when “Jack” and “The RyGuy” show up in the same thread. It’s like having Charlie McCarthy AND Mortimer Snerd.
Although I guess it’s really like having Mortimer Snerd and Mortimer Snerd.
Everything I’ve heard Kamala Harris say makes perfect sense. I’ve never heard “word salad” from her. Her statement to her latest interviewer on women’s rights to healthcare was as clear as anyone could make it.
I’m wondering if those accusing her of word salad are simply unable to hear what she is saying on some subjects.
@Cheryl Rofer: I think in many cases it is possible that their ears are clogged with partisanship and more than a little misogyny.