Would Michael Jordan move the needle as a surprise guest in Chicago?

No, he doesn't have a big one, but he's easily the biggest-name Republican who has refused to endorse Trump when asked directly about it, and there definitely is an opportunity for Dems with the Haley voters, and Pence would be the most likely person left to sway them. I just quickly checked Georgia, Pennsylvania, and NC. In the 2024 *primaries* (i.e. lower turnout that the general,) in all three of those states, Haley got 2-6 times the margin of victory in said state for 2020. in other words...


Biden won Georgia by ~12k votes in 2020. Haley got ~78K votes in the 2024 primaries.
Biden won PA by ~80k votes in 2020. Haley got ~160K votes in the 2024 primaries.
Trump won NC by ~75K votes in 2020. Haley got ~250K votes in the 2024 primaries.

Haley primary voters are likely to vote in the general, likely to be at least somewhat anti-Trump, and I'd think the most likely person to be able to reach them at this point would be...Mike Pence.

For the freakin' love. After spending the time to look up those stats manually, after typing that post, I Googled the Haley voters for Harris web site, and this was on top of it. COULD HAVE SAVED MYSELF SOME WORK!

Anyone speculating a politician I think is missing the point and if it is one it is a swing and miss for the dems. It’s about creating a viral moment and upping the cool factor. That’s when think it’s swift or Beyoncé. Contrast that to kid rock or Ted nugent and it’s laughable. Everyone wants to be part of the in crowd. The dems trotting out one of the biggest stars in the world telegraphs they are the cool kids. Maybe Jordan.

Hopefully he'll have died a miserable, agonizingly painful death by then.

Here's your surprise for Chicago

It'll be the epic comeback of Tupac. No one will see it coming.

I'm sorry, what thread did I just click on?

i don't think it's going to be a politician. I'm just saying that given that lane and "blow people away," Pence and Dubya would be the only ones to fit that bill, and Pence would seem to be a better choice in terms of influencing the actual vote count.

On musicians, if the goal is to electrify the attending crowd and/or get a great viral clip, is this really a Taylor Swift group??? It seems like the sort of thing that would get the crowd cheering...but not screaming its collective head off like you'd see at one of her concerts. Would an excited-but-not-electric response make for good clips? I'm not sure. Beyonce seems like the better choice there. I would expect her to "pop" this crowd a bit better than Taylor.


Jordan feels like it would do next to nothing in terms of votes and just be "kinda cool."

It was probably an "Oh, forgot someone here" and it's actually not a huge deal and it'll be a quiet disappointment.

There is NO WAY Pence would show up at the DNC. Not a chance.

Probably another "celebrity" "rapper"

I think it's just gonna be Clinton playing his sax again

Not many celebrities that I would be surprised with, though. Maybe a huge country star? Jordan has been historically apolitical due to not wanting to turn off any fans. Dolly is sort of the same.

If it is a Republican, I’m going with Romney. Former GOP presidential nominee would be a bit of a surprise.

Of course, I may be misreading how they are using the word surprise. I was taking it as an appearance by an unexpected person, but it may very well be an unexpected performance by a not very surprising person (if that makes sense).

I can't see Pence doing that, and quite frankly, even if he did it would have a minimal impact IMO. Maybe prevent Harris/Walz from getting blown out in Indiana. I just don't think he has any influence over most Republicans, and he is probably the least charismatic VP in modern history (even more so than Al Gore). Plus, he narrowly escaped the mob who wanted to assassinate him on Jan. 6, so I doubt he wants to put himself and his family in harm's way again from those nutjobs.

Its Duke Silver

One of my friends suggested wheeling out Jimmy Carter.

Fun discussion, but probably not going to be too exciting. I guess people are talking about it and that says a lot.

I can’t imagine any GOPer that is strongly pro life would consider an appearance.

What about Laura Bush? She’d be an interesting endorsement that speaks to older, more conservative women.

This can't be real ... can it?

Trump Will Host January 6th "Awards Gala" in September

This is all the proof you need his handlers have zero control over him.

Lol...

https://x.com/MittRomney/status/1826...SaFeOCi1Q&s=19

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

That you don't know ;)

TMZ is reporting it is Beyonce

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

So the sexy special guest is Al Sharpton?

Didn’t Beyoncé and Jay-Z try and fail to get Hillary elected?

Just saw a Taylor Swift meme on facebook saying "My plane just arrived in Chicago. Wanna guess why?"

This is seriously exhausting to watch. Kind of a preaching to the choir night

Yes, it was totally their fault.

They say the crowd is so big they have stopped letting people on the floor. Even the people that just spoke aren't being allowed back into the seats.

I wonder if it is really possible to flip Texas. Granted I have doubts that guy can beat Cruz. No matter how worthless Cruz is, it's still texas

“I’m JD Vance, I’m running for Vice President.”

“Okay.”

These moms.....oof...

I'm not sure he could possibly be any more awkward.

Sounds like tonight is kind of a dud so far. Who let Leon Pancetta have a prime spot?

These morons are going to bring her out at 11:30

I love this Kinzinger speech.

I bet SNL writers are licking their chops. They need to bring back Taran Killam to play him.

Yeah. It is really good. I heard FOX News cut away. What a bunch of cowards.

Not sure why you'd load up your convention with Republican speakers but Dems gonna Dem.

Did I miss Beyoncé

What a weird final day and weird speech. They were doing so well too.

She did what she needed to. She has some quality mic skills. She's far better than either Biden or Clinton. Wasn't weird at all, but I do see what you're doing there.

What are they supposed to do after the left said they'd never vote for them?

Dems forced to cater to Republicans. Weird how that keeps happening despite so many popular issues they could run on.

It was strange to tease a special guest all day and then just have speeches and speakers like it's the 2004 Republican National Convention.

I think they should just run on abortion, increasing wages, family medical leave, and worker's rights. All are extremely popular positions in the states she needs to win. This shouldn't be complicated.

It was deliberate, and very smart to bring him out just before she spoke. He gave her additional credence as a serious, qualified candidate.

Then, it was also very smart not to bring out a celebrity at the end (e.g. Beyoncé). Kamala was the surprise star that they were talking about.

eeeek her husband Doug looks like Bill O Reilly

I am not impressed by all the USA chants and the camera hanging on kids

You know as much as Trump talks about how great he is, I've never heard him talk about his parents or his upbringing or accomplishments he did growing up.

wow Kamala is quite a kickass speaker. Razersharp mind.

I can tell she's been talking for the past week.

So like in 2016, this is what I kept wanting from Hillary. This is what I wanted Hillary to do. And she never did it. She never gave great speeches and had actual ideas laid out. Only Sanders did. But Sanders was just pushed aside. There is a clean slate here and Harris being an unknown is great because there is none of that stigma of "we are forced to vote for her" crap. She's an actual fantastic candidate who is going out to get our votes.

Reddit thread about a photo of trump

this thread is hilarious. especially the stephen colbert quotes

He looks a little like Robert Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder.

Hid Dad was literally a Klan member so there's a reason for that.

With all the talk about Harris potentially struggling in Michigan, I'll follow up on the Haley voter numbers above: "uncommited" got ~100K votes in the Michigan D primaries. Haley got ~300K. (Adding in other candidates, in a state where the 2020 margin of victory in the general was 150K, roughly 150K Ds and 350K Rs showed up at a primary to have their vote counted against the obviousnominee for their party) And I'll add this anecdotally, from my feeds, which definitely have a disproportionate number of Haley primary voters: I saw far more people in my feeds sharing clips from Geoff Duncan's speech than even that of Walz. If you didn't see it, Duncan made it clear that he was talking right past the convention crowd when he said something along the lines of "I don't have to convince y'all; I'm talking to my fellow Republicans watching right now who are fed up with Trump." Unquestionably some were listening. It remains to be seen what impact it has, but going after a large block of people who vote and are probably on the fence certainly makes sense to me.


That said, I'm curious about the breakdowns of the Uncommitteds on the D side and the Haley primary voters. Some Haley voters were gonna vote for the R no matter what, wanted someone other than Trump, but had already decided to vote for him in the general. Same with some of the D uncommitteds. Their primary was just a minor protest. Other Haley voters, (I'm in this group,) voted for her in the primary to lodge their protest against Trumpism, but had already decided that if Trump's the nominee, they were voting for Biden and will now transfer that to Harris. I doubt many of the D uncommitteds were/are in this category for Trump, so I'd think Harris has more to lose if she alienates this group. Just not sure how large it is, but I think the biggest group would be the Haley voters who are still reachable, but haven't decided.--the ones probably leaning third party right now, but haven't ruled out Harris or Trump. I've seen a number of pundits lately talking about folks like Duncan and Kinzinger "giving them permission" to vote Harris. I get that sounds weird to Dems, but as I believe I said earlier in this thread, though I'm committed to voting to keep Trump out, I will likely continue to have intermittent minor twinges of guilt about it up to and beyond Election Day. For those that would potentially waffle much more than that, it certainly would help to assure them that they're doing the right thing, and seeing a Republican stand up among Democrats and get cheers probably speaks to those folks a good bit. (Side note: which is why I find it unfathomably stupid and short-sighted when the far left and far right attack the undecideds rather than, you know, try to persuade them....)

This is fantastic. He did hit Biden pretty hard, though.

Agree with this. As a former R, I follow a good deal of anti-Trumpers/former Republicans (Kinzinger, Cheney, Walsh, Filipkowski, Riggleman, Kristol and his folks...gave up on S.E. Cupp after she kept linking things from the NY Post). I don't agree with everything they say, and I don't think the Ds should cater to them necessarily, but I want to see what they're thinking (and sometimes, how their thinking is broadening). I certainly don't think it's wise to antagonize them.

(Not that any of them are undecided, but they represent and can speak to a good chunk of people who may still be.)

I've seen it said here and many times online. "No one is really undecided." But there are. There are people who a) don't pay attention to politics. Don't care about political parties. Many of them will vote only in Presidential election years because they feel they must or are peer pressured in to it. Lots of people in this group will basically vote on "vibes." And then there are b) People who are politically engaged, have or had party affiliation but for one reason or another have reached a breaking point with that party. Whether it is something like a never-Trump thing, or the Dems are too lenient on the border, there is some issues or individual that has separated them from their party.

People in that latter group can either break toward one of the major candidates (I must stop Trump, so I will hold my nose and vote Kamala), vote third party as a protest vote, or not vote at all. I agree that having like minded people giving them permission to vote for someone who they normally wouldn't vote for is a good way to keep them from going the third party or no vote route. And counter, proposing something on the extreme side politically does the opposite.

I wonder if we'll ever find out what Trump got to suddenly be pro-Maduro.

I was looking at the same thing this morning. I am sure that Maduro tightening bonds with Russia after the invasion of Ukraine has nothing to do with it.

He stole his election like Trump wanted to, I think that is a large reason. And his general love for dictators.

I think the real barometer for success at the DNC is if the Grinder app crashed...

Re: Undecided voters

I think about my across-the-street neighbor. A very nice awesome person who does not care about politics at all. She goes to work. She tends her garden. She visits with her adult kids.

And back in the 2000s, she made a point of mentioning how much she loved Obama and Palin, and she really wished that they would run together.

For a politics-obsessed weirdo like me, that was a very strange comment. But I can see it. It's vibes. She catches a little of the Hope and Change message, and that seems nice. And she hears about this plain-spoken Alaskan Mama Bear, and that seems pretty nice, too.

Because every election comes down to that low-information, low-propensity voting 5%, vibes matter.

dola: And I bring her up b/c she also counters my view of the low information voter as uneducated. This woman worked 30 years at IBM. She's super duper educated and smart. She just has better things to do than obsessively track how many roll call votes it took to elect the Speaker of the House.

I didn't watch any of last night. So was the big surprise Kinzinger? I guess I'm still not clear on that.

Also, I heard on NPR that Lisa Madigan spoke. That seems like an odd choice.

People have traced the "surprise guest" rumor back, and it looks like it was just some high-follower accounts speculating and all re-tweeting each other and it eventually took on enough life that everyone just assumed it was true even as there was never any official annoucement.

At least they didn't bring out Rahm. The Madigan thing was funny considering they're attacking Trump for corruption.

Right. I don't remember enough to know if she was involved in any corruption, but she certainly benefited from her father's corruption. Which, uh, sounds familiar...

Heh. Part of me is horrified at this, and part of me loves it. :lol:

Kinzinger was a known speaker ahead of time.

Honestly if I'm Iran I'm willing to pay whatever Trump's ransom might be to suddenly get the GOP on my side.

Thank you to @BrianKempGA for all of your help and support in Georgia, where a win is so important to the success of our Party and, most importantly, our Country.

I look forward to working with you, your team, and all of my friends in Georgia to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2024

Presented without comment.

The plot, she thickens.

pic.twitter.com/HtrF9aYR6j

— Ben Lewis (@benelou) August 23, 2024

Someone got some really bad Georgia polls.

The ask is to stop committing genocide. Something that any non-sociopath or person without a cult-like adherence to a politician or party should support.

That's all they have to do and they win the election comfortably. You all will pretend you didn't support the genocide in 5 years anyway, so why not start now?

Everyone you were pushing instead of Harris is much more pro-Israel.

How does Kamala stop the Gaza war?

She could call for an embargo or more serious sanctions, but she doesn't have the power to stop the war.

And because of that nothing else will be good enough. She could call for an immediate end to diplomatic relations and the far-eft would say that isn't stopping a genocide so not good enough. That's what they've done with Biden and ending Afghanistan and greatly restricting drone warfare.

So she moved to an area where there are persuadable voters.

And you're nuts if you think months of Kamala/Hamas ads won't hurt her, especially with Hamas refusing to make any concessions to get to a peace deal.

For anyone that wasn't following Trump's meltdown last night, he averaged a tweet (in all caps) every 45 seconds during Kamala's speech. Then after the speech he called into Fox and got so worked up they cut him off, he then called into Newsmax and did the same, then after they cut him off there he went back to Fox and called in again.

Stable genius

lol

According to Trump, the GOP is apparently no longer pro-life.

If only there were some sort of a book evangelicals could have read that warned about the dangers of following false prophets in order to obtain worldly power.

Oh well. No way they could have seen this coming.

All from the toilet, no doubt.

He 100% has a tv in front of his shitter.

His golden throne.

Let's not pretend 90% of FOFC isn't posted one-handed mid-log.

This kid that Mike Lindell came after was the wrong dude.

This guy @KnowaWasTaken is too damn smart for a 12-year-old. pic.twitter.com/rUOQrKOX39

— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) August 23, 2024

You stop sending weapons to the country committing genocide and it ends. Israel cannot support itself. Reagan literally did this when he was President. And even if the far-left doesn't approve, YOU STILL ENDED A GENOCIDE. Good fucking lord.

If the only way you can win over voters is by supporting a genocide, your party sucks and has no moral standing. Not to mention the polls show that Democratic voters do not support this. So drop the nonsense about how this is an electoral strategy and not to appease one of the biggest lobbying arms in Washington.

He was also hitting buttons on his phone the whole time. He's really panicking.

Well, here is the confirmation.






"Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign said in a Pennsylvania court filing Friday that he’s endorsing Donald Trump for president.
The campaign also requested that he be removed from the Pennsylvania ballot, though it wasn’t immediately clear that he was officially dropping out of the race. It came a day after he sought to be removed from Arizona’s ballot. He is running as an independent.
Kennedy is set to speak in Arizona shortly “about the present historical moment and his path forward,” according to his campaign. Hours later, Trump will hold a rally in neighboring Glendale. Trump’s campaign has teased that he’ll be joined by “a special guest,” though neither campaign responded to messages about whether Kennedy would be that guest."



Page unavailable | AP News

a solid GOLD TV

Trump's Abandonment of Pro-Lifers Is Complete | National Review


You hate to see it.....but more than that, you love to see it.

LOL. Shanahan like 2 hours ago said they wouldn't endorse until Trump admitted that Operation Warp Speed was a failure.

The last sentence in that piece was pretty much my exact initial reaction, and it hasn't changed.Yeah, this just seems.... really dumb.

Indeed. I have to imagine it was entirely off the cuff too.

Can you imagine being a part of the Trump campaign and waking up every morning to a mountain of overnight horse manure that you have to massage into shape?

Eh... I'm of a mind that (a) he's lying, and he doesn't much care if pro-lifers think he's not lying because they got what they wanted, or (b) he using terms that the left take to mean one thing but on the right, not necessarily. In other words, he's either expressly lying to try to pull a few cheap votes from gullible low-info voters who take him at his word, or "reproductive rights" has nothing to do with abortion access as pro-choice people would use the term. It's all a ploy to try to dampen Dems' stronghold on the issue in the minds of voters.

Of course he's lying. He's hoping there will be enough of, I dunno albion's neighbor lady, who hears that and thinks "oh look see Trump says he's FOR women he can't be lying!"

And perhaps an outside (well, maybe not all that outside) shot that media picks up and says "hrm, maybe Trump is reconsidering HRM."

Probably fools Van Jones at the least.

Good gracious. Watched a few clips from this RFK dropout/endorsement speech. I don't know if there's ever been a case where the top third-party candidate dropping out and endorsing Candidate A serves to help Candidate B, but it seems possible in this case. Wow. Doubling down on being weird people, I guess.

More weirdos for the weird party.

If the DNC doesn't run a bunch of commercials with people in bear costumes they aren't doing it right

Dola- from what I heard he came across as super bitter at the democratic party for rejecting him because he was weird. There is a reason his whole family came out and said not to vote for him.

Let's say it's that simple. When does Israel end the war? Tomorrow? October? 2025? It seems very unlikely that it would end immediately, so the left will just say not good enough and continue to complain.

Politically it's clear why Harris is reaching out to voters that show a willingness to cast votes for them.