F**king Mondays: Flawless Kamala, RFK Jr. the Fraud, Poll Watch, and Pesky Young People

It's that time of the week again!

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of “F**king Mondays!”, your favorite round up on the interwebs! To get your week started:

The Obama level speech

I think it is safe to say that almost everyone has underestimated Kamala Harris. The former Senator and prosecutor from California apparently had no charisma, laughed to much, wasn’t serious, only got the VP job because of her skin color etc, etc. It turns out Kamala Harris does have charisma, her laugh is actually quite endearing, she is very serious, and her skin color is the least interesting thing about her.

If you don’t believe me, just watch her speech from the Democratic National Convention last week.

I confess to being completely in the bag for Kamala Harris given her opponent is Donald Trump, so it could be that I’m not hard to impress. But the reaction from pretty much everyone has been the same. Harris absolutely nailed her speech on Thursday night, and in ways I could never had imagined.

The thing that stood out to me most was how genuinely moved she seems to be that this enormous responsibility has been placed on her shoulders. Notably, she does not appear to be overwhelmed by being the only thing standing in the way of a fascist takeover of the United States. She is honored, and ready for the fight of her life.

Kamala Harris has come out as a new force in American politics, and no one saw it coming. The somewhat awkward 2020 version of the current Vice President is gone, and a seasoned, naturally exuberant candidate with a deep sense of purpose has emerged — and just in the nick of time.

Harris’s speech at the DNC was the proof of all of this. She told us her story, spoke movingly about her immigrant parents, savaged Donald Trump, and laid out the stark choice voters face in November. Harris told the audience that she became a prosecutor because she had a friend who was a victim of sexual assault, reminding them of the sexual predator she is running against. She told Americans that it was time to move on from the toxic culture wars and presented herself as a candidate for change. She signaled to the left that it was time to put the politics of oppression behind (“never complain about injustice but do something about it”), told the right they didn’t own nationalism, accused Trump of hating on America, and warned them that he is a dictator in waiting.

“I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim-Jong-Un, who are rooting for Trump,” she said forcefully. “Because they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors. They know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable—because he wants to be an autocrat.”

Harris also sent a warning to Vladimir Putin and laid out a muscular approach to foreign policy that would reassert America’s role in the world and push back against fascism. She expressed support for Israel, spoke emotionally about the suffering in Gaza, and pledged to work towards a two state solution.

Harris also made real overtures to conservatives, promising to govern for all Americans, and staying well away from the identity politics that sank her bid in 2020.

It was an Obama level speech that I did not think Harris capable of. She didn’t just deliver, she knocked it out of the park.

RFK Jr drops out, backs Trump

In the least surprising news ever, anti-vaxx candidate RFK Jr. has “suspended his campaign” and endorsed Donald Trump for president. Reported the NYTimes:

After toiling for months as an electoral afterthought, Mr. Kennedy suspended his long-shot campaign on Friday and endorsed former President Donald J. Trump in a speech in Phoenix carried live by television networks. Then, he traveled across town to speak in front of the largest rally audience since he began his third-party run last year: an audience of 17,000 at a Trump event at an arena in Glendale, Ariz.

As he shook hands with Mr. Trump amid bursts of fireworks, Mr. Kennedy was, briefly, the star of the show, a new attraction for the Trump campaign.

Kennedy is no doubt angling for a prominent position in a Trump administration, something Trump has dangled in front of him for several months. According to Kennedy, Trump has actually offered him a role in “health care and food and drug policy,” but the details are vague. The Times report continued:

In Glendale, Mr. Trump said that, if elected to a second term, a panel of experts “working with Bobby” would investigate obesity rates and other chronic health issues in the United States.

In other words, Trump gets Kennedy’s voters while Kennedy will get nothing. While the anti-vaxx crowd is extremely loud, most Americans believe in vaccination and regard Kennedy as a genuine threat to public health. Trump knows this too, but he’s a shameless liar and won’t ever make good on his promise.

There is no conclusive data as to whether A Kennedy endorsement will do anything to the race, so this isn’t the big deal many in the MAGA movement think it is. RFK Jr.’s poll numbers dropped catastrophically after Joe Biden dropped out of the race, indicating many of his supporters will gladly vote for Kamala Harris.

Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump is further proof that he is a deeply unserious charlatan who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office. No genuine liberal would ever support someone like Donald Trump, so now we get to see who RFK Jr. really is — an attention seeking narcissist whose vanity project is finally over.

Polls, polls, polls

More good news for Kamala Harris and the Democrats:

Harris now leads Trump nationally by 4% (48.8% to Trump’s 44.8%), and this hasn’t taken into account the inevitable bump from the Convention. Perhaps most importantly, Harris is now pulling in independents, a crucial demographic Biden was losing that will make or break the election for Democrats:

As Politico notes:

The numbers suggest that the Harris swap has largely repaired a fraying Democratic coalition, has repaired the party’s image presidentially among independents, and has dragged the election back to a tossup, at the minimum. In short, she has managed to do something that every candidate can only dream of: appeal to her base without turning off swing voters.

The race is still tight, but the trend is clearer than ever. Harris is taking over, and Trump will need to do something drastic to turn it around.

Picky young people

Speaking of voters coming back to Kamala Harris, this article in the Times simultaneously delighted and infuriated me:

Constance Lancelle, 22, of Milwaukee, was “definitely not interested in voting for Biden,” she said. But with Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential candidate, she said, “I feel like politics have been a dream.”

Sierra Sanson, 23, of Medford, N.J., planned to vote for Jill Stein of the Green Party, or not at all. Now she’s thrilled to support Ms. Harris: “She’s a badass woman who I want to see succeed.”

Emily Baumel, 27, of Madison, Wis., hadn’t planned to vote for president, but will now vote for Ms. Harris: “I have a lot less dread; I like how much hope she’s giving people.”

I still find it astonishing that someone could vote for Kamala Harris but not Joe Biden given their politics are almost identical, and they were part of the same flipping administration. Furthermore, not wanting to vote for Biden because he was “old” or “just the same” as Donald Trump is insane. Before Biden dropped out of the race there were two options for President: a decent, highly experienced elderly statesman with one of the best legislative records in American history, or a convicted criminal who ended abortion rights and tried to overthrow the US government after he lost the election.

I do recognize a lot of myself in the young people featured in the Times article, and put their pickiness down to youth and immaturity. As you get older you learn quickly that you rarely get what you want in life, and often have to make compromises to avoid worst case scenarios. It was totally understandable to have deep concerns about a second Biden term given his age, but given the alternative, it really was a simple choice.

Hope you all have a great week!

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