• WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Donald Trump is not a smart man. He didn’t become the threat that he is due to his own skilful manoeuvring. He became a threat because the institutions that are supposed to oppose people like him have failed.

    Now that, for the first time in his political career, he’s up against an opponent with basic competence he can’t do anything other than flail impotently.

    • paddirn@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I didn’t care for her, but Clinton I would say had more than basic competence, though she didn’t really have much charisma, is pretty unlikable, forced out Bernie Sanders, chose a completely forgettable running mate, was running as an establishment candidate in a “change” election, and has a blatant desire for power. It all worked against her, though she did still win the popular vote. Still fairly competent though.

      I would argue Harris is in a similar situation as Clinton, though she apparently had the sense to at least pick someone more likable than herself and her almost invisible tenure as VP actually may work to her advantage. Otherwise, she’s not incredibly charismatic on her own and could be in trouble at the debate with Trump, though his elderly, stroke-addled brain may help her out.

      But if it gets into the same sort of thing like in his debate with Biden, where Trump is just throwing out BS bombs left and right, and all Kamala does is just uselessly flail around trying to address his BS points one by one, I think she’ll be in trouble. She needs to cut through the BS and present herself as the adult in the room, and make Trump seem infantile and ridiculous.

          • paddirn@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            He was ok, seems like a nice guy, but just not much of a presence, it seemed obvious that Clinton didn’t want anybody that was going to overshadow her, just kind of lukewarm, which seems completely opposite to what Harris did bringing Walz on board. I think alot of people are wishing Walz was the presidential candidate instead, but it is what it is and he seems like a decent enough guy that it’ll good just to have him in the Oval Office in any capacity.

        • DasAlbatross@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I had the exact same reaction and had to look it up. Hard to argue with the completely forgettable tag.

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        All agreed. The Clinton’s are political animals, best of the best at the game, but Hilary doesn’t share her husband’s over-the-top charisma. She works best behind the scenes, not on camera kissing babies.

        And this hilarious meme hit far too close to home.

        • TrueStoryBob@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Literally been screaming this since her time as SoS… Hill-Dawg should have run in NY’s bluest blueberry of a US House district and then taken the reigns from Pelosi in 2022. She’s masterful at running the inner party show… she got that “do it or I’ll burn your house down” energy so few people have (liken to LBJ, Pelosi, Cave Johnson, etc).

        • vividspecter@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          Reminds me of this Simpsons bit. But yeah, a lot of well off people (even those that are well meaning) are just completely out of touch on how many people actually live.

      • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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        2 months ago

        I was expecting a major crisis when Harris took over since she did abysmally in the 2020 primary. She was one of the first “serious” candidate to drop out, not even making it to 2020. Shes essentially just cruising on “not an old white guy”

        • 5C5C5C@programming.dev
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          2 months ago

          I actually remember her being a standout at the debates until Tulsi Gabbard managed to latch onto a line of attack that hurt her credibility as the progressive candidate that she was presenting herself as. Shortly after that traction was lost I think she saw the writing on the wall and exited gracefully, which obviously worked in her favor because it made it easy for Biden to tap her for VP.

          • aStonedSanta@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            Yup. I recall a lot of anti Kamala propaganda around marijuana and some law she passed where parents get fined money if their kids don’t go to school. And then she poofed.

            • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              She largely bowed out because she ran out of money, and unlike others in the campaign she didn’t have pocket cash to fund her campaign herself nor rich backers clamoring for her to get in there.

            • Crismus@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              No, the parents were arrested for children being truant. One had too many unexcused absences because the child had sickle-cell anemia and the single mom had to spend a lot of time dealing with the court process.

              It wasn’t fines it was threatening jail and arrest. She kept people in overcrowded jails against the orders of the Supreme Court, because the county needed slaves for fire-fighting because prison firefighters cannot become wildfire firefighters when they are out of prison. She also has never pushed back against abusive police.

              Her past as a tough on crime Attorney General has been recently glossed over and she won’t speak on it or admit she made mistakes.

          • paddirn@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            That’s what I had always remembered. She was one of the top candidates in 2020 up until that debate, then that one little exchange seemed to kill any traction she had. And it’s weird, because I just watched that clip from that debate again the other day, and it didn’t seem as bad as I remembered it. For some reason I remember her being deer in the headlights in her response, but it was more just not answering the charges, which is just what politicians do alot anyways.

            Part of me is glad that she’s gotten as much traction as she has after Biden dropped out, I would’ve never guessed she’d do as good as she’s been doing, though another part of me is annoyed at the all the people who were perfectly willing to let the fascists take over just because they weren’t excited enough to vote for an old white guy. There’s not going to be any serious change in policy with Harris becoming the candidate, it’s not like the Democratic party has changed overnight, it’s still the same policies, just a new face. I guess it’s cool if she wins, regardless of why people vote for her, but if the only reason Democrats win is just because they changed their mascot out, people are stupid.

        • Hazzia@infosec.pub
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          2 months ago

          Not much of a platform for sure but she’s absolutely humiliating Trump which seems to be working to put down the facists, so hey I’ll take it.

          • shalafi@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            A candidate would be unwise to talk too much policy this late in the game. You gotta get in end zone before you can go home and fuck the prom queen.

      • ansiz@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Clinton’s fatal flaw was picking about the worst campaign manager of all time, who did things like relying almost exclusively on software based calculations and stopped polling voters in early September.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      Fucking thank you. I’m tired of people saying he’s not stupid… This man is a fucking moron. Low cunning is not the same thing as intelligence.