Open Thread for Sunday, September 18, 2016

Filed in National by on September 18, 2016

PRESIDENT
PENNSYVLANIA–Muhlenberg–Clinton 47, Trump 38
MINNESOTA–Muhlenberg–Clinton 44, Trump 38
OHIO–OnMessage–Clinton 42, Trump 42
FLORIDA–Global Strategy Group–Clinton 46, Trump 43

After announcing to a rally in Colorado tonight (before there had been any reports on what had actually happened in New York) that a “bomb” had gone off in New York City, Trump said this on how he’ll defeat terror and ISIS: “I will give you good results. Don’t worry how I get there, okay? Please.”

After Donald Trump said Mark Cuban “is not smart enough to understand what we are doing,” Cuban challenged Trump to a four-hour interview concerning the candidate’s “policies and their substance,” offering to donate $10 million to a charity of Trump’s choosing if he accepted, the Huffington Post reports.

Cuban even said that Trump could keep the money: “If you need it, I’ll write you the check and you can keep the money rather than give it to charity.”

Hillary Clinton answered her opponent’s admission that Barack Obama was born in the United States with an ardent tribute to the president as a leader and a man of “class, grace, and integrity,” BuzzFeed reports.

Clinton did not refer to Donald Trump by name, but addressed Obama directly before an audience of thousands here in the Washington Convention Center, calling him “one of the best presidents our country has ever had,” even in the face of what she described as “hateful nonsense.”

She added: “I know I speak for not just everyone in this room, but so many tens of millions of Americans: Mr. President, not only do we know you are an America, you’re a great American. And you make us all proud to be Americans, too.”

Donald Trump launched a series of fierce attacks against former Defense Secretary Robert Gates after the former defense secretary wrote an op-ed critical of him, the Washington Post reports. Said Trump: “He’s a nasty guy. Probably has a problem that we don’t know about.”

Josh Marshall on the Fever Inside:

We’ve now seen one of those days which has become darkly familiar in the year of Trump. Trump is dominated, put on the receiving end of various perceived insults and assaults. In this case, it was being coerced by campaign aides into finally giving up the birther lie – which had to be addressed after the Washington Post interview and which I suspect they feared might blow up one of the debates. That was followed by a series of attacks from Hillary Clinton, a for once emboldened press corps roundly attacking Trump for the content and manner of his “major announcement”, a furious attack from members of the Congressional Black Caucus and a mix of outrage and mockery from everyone from Barack to Michelle.

The response was predictable and rapid.

Trump lives in a psychic economy of aggression and domination. There are dominators and the dominated. No in between. Every attack he receives, every ego injury must be answered, rebalanced with some new aggression to reassert dominance. These efforts are often wildly self-destructive. We’ve seen the pattern again and again. The Khans, Judge Curiel, Ted Cruz, virtually every Republican presidential candidate at one point or another, half the reporters who’ve covered Trump. We can’t know a man’s inner thoughts. But we’ve seen action and reaction more than enough times to infer, or rather deduce, his instincts and needs with some precision.

Eugene Robinson on post-freakout democracy.

If Democrats want to beat Donald Trump, they need to get past the freakout stage and get to work.

In a sane and just world, this presidential race would be a walkover. Commentators would already be sketching out their postmortem analyses of an all-but-certain Hillary Clinton victory. Pare the contest down to its essentials: A former senator and secretary of state, eminently qualified to be president, is running against a dangerous demagogue who has never held public office and should not be allowed anywhere near the White House. Ought to be case closed.

Brian Beutler says It’s Not Too Late for the Media to Fix Its Election Coverage

Most prominent political reporters have covered more than one election. This is my third election as a professional political writer; James Fallows has been doing this since the 1970s. Whether you have a short or long view, you’ve seen enough to say authoritatively that Trump is different from all major party nominees in living memory. It is not normal in modern times for a major party nominee to be an erratic, racist demagogue; and it is almost definitionally abnormal for a major party nominee to be described as such by leading members of his own party.

These are the cardinal facts of this election. They should be the dominant upshot of any significant increment of news coverage and analysis—the thing that reaches and sticks with casual news consumers, in the same way that even musical dilettantes can hum the leitmotif of Beethoven’s fifth symphony.

That is a journalistic judgment, just as sending hundreds of reporters to Louisiana to cover Hurricane Katrina was a journalistic judgment. It is not a Democratic or liberal judgment. It is not the equivalent of saying that unflattering revelations about Clinton should be suppressed or that any particular new revelation about Trump should be overhyped. It’s simply to say, through the many means we have to indicate what is important, what is breaking news, what is worthy of discussion, “we have seen this, it is ongoing, and it is extraordinary.” And then let the chips fall where they may.

For several weeks now—including since Labor Day, when most Americans truly began paying attention to the campaigns—these truths, which we all took for granted six months ago, have not been communicated to glancing news consumers. They’ve receded from most article leads, headlines, front pages, and A-block TV segments.

That development is the product of many collective choices and thousands of individual ones. It is an institutional failure, and as such, a major and abrupt course correction seems highly unlikely. But that doesn’t absolve reporters, editors, producers or anyone else who is part of the system. There’s still time to alter our focus, however incrementally, so that it better captures what’s new and alarming, and all journalists have some degree of power to nudge it in that direction. The goal is not to swing an election, or call Trump mean names, or render partisan judgment about whether electing him would be a world-historical mistake. It’s simply so that after this is all over, however it shakes out, we can say we bore witness faithfully.

It did get better Friday and yesterday. Maybe Trump’s birther stunt was the straw that broke the camel’s back.


Margaret Sullivan says it’s time for TV news to stop playing the stooge for Donald Trump

Donald Trump said “Jump,” and TV news said “How high?”

It happened again on Friday morning when the Republican presidential candidate held the media hostage for nearly an hour after promising a major news announcement.

“Breaking News: Trump To Make ‘Big Announcement’ on Birther Issue,” said the banner on MSNBC.

“Soon: Trump To Address Birther Issue,” said CNN’s banner. Fox News was, of course, along for the ride.
While they waited, and waited, Trump provided what amounted to a campaign infomercial and shamelessly promoted his new Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington.

When it was over, and he had said the absurdly obvious — that he now accepts that President Obama was born in the United States — there was, at least, some long overdue indignation.

“We got played again,” CNN’s John King said on the air. And that was as obvious as the announcement itself.

About the Author ()

Comments (3)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. cassandra m says:
    September 18, 2016 at 11:58 am

    Kevin Drum weighs in on the Birther coverage to also show how Hillary takes some hits, largely because of the “he say she say” media model:

    So this is the new version of the Stahl parable: Words matter, but all that matters is that there are two sides yelling at each other. Casual viewers will come away from this thinking not that Donald Trump is a liar, but just vaguely remembering that there was some kind of controversy about whether Hillary Clinton started the birther rumors. What did they ever find out about that, anyway?

    And all the people who hazily think Clinton is corrupt, but can’t quite tell you why, will have one more hazy indictment bouncing around their brain. And with that, Trump wins the news cycle again. All it took was six words and an army of supporters willing to defend anything he says no matter how scurrilous. Welcome to 2016.

  2. anonymous says:
    September 18, 2016 at 7:21 pm

    That Josh Marshall piece, which traces the latest Trump outbreak to Wednesday in Flint:

    “Trump was rebuked to his face with cameras rolling by an African-American woman. It may have been the boldest rebuke Trump has received from a ‘civilian’ (not another candidate in a debate, or a journalist in an interview) in this entire campaign cycle. She even placed her hand on him in calling him to account.”

    Marshall has the best read on Trump of anybody covering this election. Or rather, tied for the best with Jane Goodall.

  3. pandora says:
    September 18, 2016 at 9:28 pm

    This tweet sums it up:

    Scott Slemmons @SSlemmons

    Trump: “Someone please kill my opponent!”
    Clinton: “What the hell!”
    Media: “Hillary, stop swearing!”

«
»