"We do not need 4 more years of bluster and bumbling, and chaos. We've seen that movie before, and we all know the sequel is usually worse" - President Obama at the DNC.
"In her acceptance speech, Harris recalled her own mother telling her, “Never do anything half-assed!” Pretty much every DNC speaker this week used this same plainspoken all-American vernacular, scrubbed of anything that could be mistaken for “woke” or elite language. The language at the DNC was pitched at the same kind of level as the World Series or America’s Got Talent, meeting all kinds of Americans where they are. The DNC’s TV ratings are actually higher than both, with an average of 20 million people watching each night so far this week. The convention was a political reality show positing a new, inclusive monoculture and implicitly framing MAGA as an extreme counterculture, out of step with broadly shared values of most Americans."
- Joy Press, Vanity Fair
"Emhoff’s potential to be a quietly transformative figure in American politics: Female ambition is now the stuff of a million power breakfasts and lapel badges, but if Kamala Harris becomes America’s first female president, her husband will break the real “hardest glass ceiling” in American politics. Behold, a man who is content to be the supporting actor in someone else’s drama."
- Helen Lewis, The Atlantic
"There are folk on social media already saying, 'go back to your TV show!', 'shut up and act!'. But I am not here tonight as an actor. I am here as a mother, a daughter, as a proud union member. I am here as the granddaughter of immigrants, as a Black woman who descended from enslaved people. I am here tonight because I am an American and because I am a voter!... I know I am the one standing this stage. But I am not the lead character in the story - you are. All of you. You are the messengers, you are the fixers... Dare I say it, you are the Olivia Popes! You are the superheroes saving this democracy"
- Kerry Washington, aka Olivia Pope.
"When Washington was cast as a political fixer in the Shondaland series Scandal, she became the first Black woman in 38 years to star in a network TV drama. Her character, Olivia Pope, was the fictional West Wing’s most potent secret weapon, but Washington has kept a hand in real-life politics for a long time. She spoke at the 2012 and 2020 Democratic conventions, appeared at the 2017 L.A. Women’s March and did her part for Stacey Abrams’s 2022 gubernatorial campaign, on top of her Vision Into Power Cohort, which provides resources to grassroots organizations. She’s also a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. (Oh, and did I mention her performance as Anita Hill in the HBO movie Confirmation?)
"But forget her serious credentials. What fans really wanted to see was a reunion between Olivia and her Scandal lover President Fitz Grant, played by Tony Goldwyn, who hosted night 1 of the DNC. The two (known by the ship name “Olitz”) took selfies on the convention floor last night.. As Washington posted, “Giving the people what they want.” And they made it even more official by taking a selfie tonight on live television."
- Joy Press, Vanity Fair.
"Trump is a weak man pretending to be strong. A small man pretending to be big. A faithless man pretending to be righteous. A perpetrator who can't stop playing the victim. He puts on quite a show. But there's no real strength there."
- former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger at the DNC
The Democrats’ Spectacular Show
This must be one of the most successful political
conventions in my lifetime, marrying political messaging with showmanship,
emotion and momentum. DNC started out on night one feeling like a conventional
convention, but the Dems continued to rev up the intensity so successfully that
it feels more like a music festival, where you might’ve come to see the
familiar faces (Michelle Obama! Oprah!) but you’ll pick up
new favorites every night (Jasmine Crockett! Hakeem Jeffries!).
I worried after night two—with its dynamic rollcall, dueling
Obama speeches, and sweet Emhoff-athon—that it would be hard to keep the
enthusiasm aloft. Yet night three ratcheted up the rizz. It’s the most artfully
paced set of climaxes I’ve seen this side of Love Island. And for
this final night, the social media hive is wildly abuzz over tonight’s
“surprise guest.” The emphasis all week has been positivity, leavened with
precision targeted putdowns. (Insert Barack Obama’s re-roasting
Trump or Elizabeth Warren’s couch joke here). Last night Kenan
Thompson offered a perfect dose of edutainment while explaining how
Project 2025 will affect Americans rights, while John Legend and Sheila
E offered the sheer party uplift of Prince’s “Let’s Go
Crazy.”
The Dems are using laughter to explain the stakes and music
to mobilize. Given the Dems’ lock on the entertainment industry and pop
culture, it’s not that surprising they’re putting on a spectacular show. Maybe
their new slogan should be: When we entertain, we win?
- Joy Press, Vanity Fair
On Trump's Gala for Jan. 6 "patriots" award ceremony
Rep. Jamie Raskin:
Key awards: “Bravest Assault on an Officer with a Trump Flag and Bear Mace,” “Best Use of Ram’s Horns to Express MAGA Weirdness,” “Seditionist Alum with Highest Yale Law GPA,” “Incite-and-Flight Josh Hawley Award for Speedy Exits.”
"The “ESPYs for Insurrectionists” is truly one of the most politically stupid things anyone has ever done - Dan Pfeiffer
Hopium Coda
Franklin Foer on how it's "Sorkin Again in America" (for the Atlantic)
"Instead of scrapping the traditions of the convention—which every pundit acknowledges to be a kludgy vestige of a bygone era—the Democrats have chosen to honor the old norms. That’s what made the DJ-led roll call of the states so endearing. Democrats were playfully adhering to an old ritual with genuine feeling, a loving nod to tradition. That approach extended to the speakers’ list. Whereas Republicans sought to erase the fact that their party has a heritage—with no history predating Trump’s descent down the escalator—the Democrats have honored their elders with prime-time slots.
On Wednesday, Pete Buttigieg, as normie an institutionalist as they come, gave a speech encapsulating the revived faith. He urged Democrats to choose “a better politics.” He was implying that Democrats no longer need to feel compelled to mimic the brutal power-hungry tactics of their opponents—that they can reclaim the old habits of persuasion and consensus building, become avatars of political virtue. After sitting in the darkness, stuck in a mode of outrage and desperate defense, this was the moment to mount an affirmative, celebratory case for institutions.
Of course, at some level, the Democrats were just trading excessive cynicism for overwrought optimism. But many of them seized the chance to switch from an episode of House of Cards and bathe, once more, in the strings of the West Wing theme. It’s Sorkin again in America."
Joy Press, Vanity Fair:
"Democratic Conventions have traditionally added razzle dazzle to keep TV audiences glued to the screen: superstar hosts, pop singers, even cringe-inducing musical routines like the notorious 1996 Macarena dance-along. Amidst the wild speculation about potential performances later in the week by Taylor Swift or Beyonce, the Dems kept things pretty low-key for this first night, with country singers Jason Isbell and Mickey Guyton appealing to enlightened Red State voters. Overall, it was a sensible, substance-oriented convention, in contrast to the RNC’s hypermacho Wrestlemania vibe, complete with Hulk Hogan shirt-shredding.
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