This was also my takeaway from the debate. Trump looked weak from the jump when he let Harris take the lead in shaking his hand. He was on the defensive all night. All this capped off by a cringe-inducing “I saw people on television talking about it” when fact-checked on the immigrants eating cats and dogs comment (which was also batshit insane enough to lose some of the 67 million watching). Truly an “okay, let’s get you to bed, grandpa” moment.

The substance behind his words has never mattered to his supporters, no matter how vile or dissembling, but the vibe absolutely does. They won’t turn around and vote for a Black woman, but there has to be a loss of enthusiasm that comes about from this, if not breaking the spell entirely for a few people. He looked old, small, and weird.

Yes, it happens, but the majority of American workers still had Labor Day off this year.

It would have a measurable impact on voter turnout.

Jon Stewart’s appearance on Crossfire was also 20 years ago now.

I’m subjected to a few hours of Fox News/right-wing YouTube a week, and it’s certainly felt like the vibe has shifted. Reading between the lines with some of the talking heads, it sounds like they’d rather Trump lost and the GOP made gains in both the House and the Senate.

They can still run the party status quo ante that way for at least a little while. If Democrats get through voting rights legislation, the GOP will be forced to come up with an actual party platform beyond “loot the treasury.”

And it’s bound to come up at the debate (if the debate happens). Some of his low-info voters will hear about it for the first time that night, and it being a simple thing is important in that scenario.

I do the same, but it has to be on my phone, and last I checked that wasn’t an option with the screen off even with Premium. So I used Vanced (and now Revanced). I have moderate-to-severe tinnitus and this setup might have saved my life once or twice.

I’m not sure what made me feel older, how rough he sounded, or him dropping a self-deprecating McDonald’s joke. Talk about a throwback.

I’m also already seeing that “two-bit union buster” line a lot.

Kinzinger, too. Plus with Bernie, Jayapal, and others attending a progressive side show I’m getting the sense progressives (or anyone staunchly anti-corporate) aren’t going to get much time on the podium.

If they don’t have significant local progressives like Chuy Garcia or Delia Ramirez up there, and their “local” speaker is Pritzker, I’m going to have a real hard time buying this campaign promise.

This was also left out of the discussion with Palestinian voters in Michigan at the peak of the blowback for Biden’s support of Israel a few months ago.