That title sounds like a Aesop's fable, doesn't it? Sour grapes might apply to the media. Hmm. Well, here are my observations on the whole Biden/Convention thing.
It was a failure.
Why would I say that? How about this:
1. tryanmax sent me two comments the next day that were very insightful. First, he noticed that none of the headlines about how successful the convention was included any lines from Biden's speech. That means that nothing resonated. I think he's right and I agree.
I responded that I'd seen articles talking about how strangely indifferent the audience had been to the whole convention and asking rhetorically if a convention was even possible in these trying times -- always a bad sign when the left speculates that NO ONE COULD DO IT! tryanmax later replied that things were worse than he thought as the best he saw throughout the day were articles talking about how Biden didn't blow it. With the media being nothing but a PR machine for the Democrats, that's a huge sign that they had nothing to work with and they were playing with "managed expectations." All very bad signs.
2. Still, the media tried to sell him: "Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! there were a MASSIVE number of people who watched, something like 21.6 million! That's huge." So said many articles. "Sure, this was down 18% from Hillary who lost, but it's still a big number, amiright?" Is that a big number? This means that two in ten people who watched annoying Hillary cackle her way through the nomination didn't bother watching this time despite four years of hate-stoking by the left. That screams a lack of voter enthusiasm. The left should have been dying to watch this moment... but they didn't turn out.
A lot of excuses were given for this including a worse television landscape to attract viewers and people not being sure what to expect from a virtual convention, but those things normally raise interest, not lower interest. Also, they don't at all explain where all this supposedly unfettered enthusiasm went to. Aren't people dying to dump Trump? Eventually, the leftist media was happy to console themselves that Fox had the worst ratings and MSNBC beat everyone without even realizing this pathic vindicitive victory actually means few independents or Republicans cared.
3. The left was not tamed either. In fact, the left continues to snipe. The BLM white kids continue to riot. A few celebs came over for the sake of winning, but they did so reluctantly (and always planned to). Most on the left continued to act insulted. Rose "I was raped by everyone" McGowan attacked fellow #metoo founder Alissa Milano as a "f**ing fraud" for supporting Biden. Yikes.
4. But he did win over the public, right? Uh, no. According to polls, Biden got a 5% bounce. That's within the margin of error and most successful conventions (especially for Democrats) have given a 15-18% bounce. This was 5%. Pathetic. This could mean that opinions are hardened so there's little to change, but I don't think so. I think this means they just didn't win anyone over. Moreover, a CNN poll taken afterward shows Biden trailing in the battleground states and only leading nationally by 8%. Those are all terrible numbers for a Democrat. Even worse, Trump leads Biden by 8% on the economy, which is usually the issue that settles it.
5. Then there's this. While many tried to claim Biden's speech was nice, there was trouble brewing in Canada. You might recall that, in his 1980's run for President, Biden famously plagiarized his background from Neil Kinnock, British Labor Party Leader. He'd also been caught plagiarizing from Kennedy and some others. This was such a problem that his campaign even said they would run every speech through a plagiarism checker. Yet, as he spoke his best lines, a group of Canadians suddenly realized that his speech sounded a lot like one given by Canadian New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton. Biden is a fool.
6. Finally, Biden apparently announced shortly afterwards that if he gets elected, he's going to shut the country down to fight Covid. Uh, that's blowing up on Democrats.
Thoughts? Observations?
It was a failure.
Why would I say that? How about this:
1. tryanmax sent me two comments the next day that were very insightful. First, he noticed that none of the headlines about how successful the convention was included any lines from Biden's speech. That means that nothing resonated. I think he's right and I agree.
I responded that I'd seen articles talking about how strangely indifferent the audience had been to the whole convention and asking rhetorically if a convention was even possible in these trying times -- always a bad sign when the left speculates that NO ONE COULD DO IT! tryanmax later replied that things were worse than he thought as the best he saw throughout the day were articles talking about how Biden didn't blow it. With the media being nothing but a PR machine for the Democrats, that's a huge sign that they had nothing to work with and they were playing with "managed expectations." All very bad signs.
2. Still, the media tried to sell him: "Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! there were a MASSIVE number of people who watched, something like 21.6 million! That's huge." So said many articles. "Sure, this was down 18% from Hillary who lost, but it's still a big number, amiright?" Is that a big number? This means that two in ten people who watched annoying Hillary cackle her way through the nomination didn't bother watching this time despite four years of hate-stoking by the left. That screams a lack of voter enthusiasm. The left should have been dying to watch this moment... but they didn't turn out.
A lot of excuses were given for this including a worse television landscape to attract viewers and people not being sure what to expect from a virtual convention, but those things normally raise interest, not lower interest. Also, they don't at all explain where all this supposedly unfettered enthusiasm went to. Aren't people dying to dump Trump? Eventually, the leftist media was happy to console themselves that Fox had the worst ratings and MSNBC beat everyone without even realizing this pathic vindicitive victory actually means few independents or Republicans cared.
3. The left was not tamed either. In fact, the left continues to snipe. The BLM white kids continue to riot. A few celebs came over for the sake of winning, but they did so reluctantly (and always planned to). Most on the left continued to act insulted. Rose "I was raped by everyone" McGowan attacked fellow #metoo founder Alissa Milano as a "f**ing fraud" for supporting Biden. Yikes.
4. But he did win over the public, right? Uh, no. According to polls, Biden got a 5% bounce. That's within the margin of error and most successful conventions (especially for Democrats) have given a 15-18% bounce. This was 5%. Pathetic. This could mean that opinions are hardened so there's little to change, but I don't think so. I think this means they just didn't win anyone over. Moreover, a CNN poll taken afterward shows Biden trailing in the battleground states and only leading nationally by 8%. Those are all terrible numbers for a Democrat. Even worse, Trump leads Biden by 8% on the economy, which is usually the issue that settles it.
5. Then there's this. While many tried to claim Biden's speech was nice, there was trouble brewing in Canada. You might recall that, in his 1980's run for President, Biden famously plagiarized his background from Neil Kinnock, British Labor Party Leader. He'd also been caught plagiarizing from Kennedy and some others. This was such a problem that his campaign even said they would run every speech through a plagiarism checker. Yet, as he spoke his best lines, a group of Canadians suddenly realized that his speech sounded a lot like one given by Canadian New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton. Biden is a fool.
6. Finally, Biden apparently announced shortly afterwards that if he gets elected, he's going to shut the country down to fight Covid. Uh, that's blowing up on Democrats.
Thoughts? Observations?
Fascinating...no, predictable. Yeah, predictable.
ReplyDeleteI also saw that, according to Rasmussen, Trump's approval rating started last week at 47% and ended the week at 51%.
Adding that to everything you've noted above, Andrew, is it too early to call this the most ineffective convention since the 1992 GOP convention? Or of all time?
Also, I understand that retailers need to plan ahead, but when I went to Party City today to check out end-of-the-season summer stuff, I couldn't help but notice that they had already set their stuff and displays for...wait for it...Thanksgiving. Is it just me, or has this finally gone too far?
Rustbelt, This was probably the most boring, pointless convention ever. Biden is uninspired. Harris is an uninspired checklist. The Democrats have burned through their energy with repeated outrage "highs." BLM and cancel culture has demoralized them. And covid has worn people out.
ReplyDeleteI think the democrats are just happy its over.
the point of the convention was to persuade the "Trump is unfit".
ReplyDeleteWho in the undecided public needs the opponents thoughts on that?
If they aren't winning indeps, then how does ORANGE MAN BAD increase the turnout of their base?
1. One of the most baffling commentaries on Biden's speech I encountered was one that claimed he "acquitted himself." Of what, exactly? The notion that his lucid periods last less than 20 minutes? Overall, the commentators struggled to find positive things to say.
ReplyDelete2. Another thought on viewership: With little else to do and watch, thanks to perpetual lockdown, this should've been the biggest ratings for a political convention to-date. As someone on Twitter joked, "I finished Netflix. What should I watch next?"
3. For some reason, Team Biden decided to tweet out Billie Eilish's endorsement. It made me think of a lamer version of MTV's Rock the Vote.
4. Biden is a throwaway candidate and it's only a virus that made Democrats ever think he had a chance. Putting Kamala on the ticket only shows that party Dems have come back to earth from that fantasy.
5. Plagiarism was supposed to have killed Biden's career in '88.
6. Maybe COVID will kill Biden's political career.
An additional thought, Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams is stirring up his following against Biden for perpetuating what Adams has dubbed the "fine people hoax." For the uninitiated, the fine people hoax stems from the selective editing of Trump's comments regarding protests cum riots in Charlottesville in 2017. The President was made to seem to be calling neo-nazis "fine people" by the removal of an unprompted clarification that directly condemned neo-nazis and excluded them from his general remarks. Adams got fired up again about this hoax when Biden incorporated it into his campaign and into his acceptance speech. Adams played a non-trivial role in the outcome of the 2016 election and, unlike many surprise commentators, has maintained prominence in the political arena for four years.
Unknown, I have no idea, to tell the truth.
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, there was nothing to stir up the progressive base. No big leftist attack speeches. They cut the time allowed people like AOC. The attacks they made were generic rhetoric -- "he's dangerous." Wah.
On the other hand, how do you stir up moderates? There were no proposals, no promises, no stances. There were no stirring speeches. It all seemed pretty lifeless.
Even funnier, the guy who got the most coverage out of the convention was Trump with his tweets.
Aside from him, the traitor Republicans got all the press, which is not a good look for a party. When all you have to offer is the usual RINOs giving speeches, that's hardly inspirational. (Lots of Dems complained about them getting all the coverage.)
Sounds like it was a total waste.
tryamax,
ReplyDelete"Overall, the commentators struggled to find positive things to say." I saw this too. It reminds me of the Bob Dole coverage. "Well, it is his turn and he was in World War II" was about as strong as the support got.
2. The rating should have been HUGE! No competition. No sports, no new sitcoms. No other news these days. The left sells him as Satan himself with a bloodcurdling need to get him out of office. They've rioted against him from day one and haven't stopped -- women, blacks, Hispanics, women again, covid, women... The energy from that, if it was true, should have doubled the turnout. Yet, it fell.
3. Biden is desperately trying to connect with younger voters who will never turn out for him. Agreed it makes him look lame.
4. I don't think they get that Kamala is not inspirational. She's being smeared on the left as a prosecutor and a sell out. In the middle, she looks like a pander check list who never inspired anyone.
They've even been pushing to make her the first "Indian" candidate, which strikes me as really desperate pandering.
Honestly, the most interesting thing about Biden is the speculation if he'll make it even one full term. That's bad.
I watched none of the convention. Most of what I read were snatched of on-line comments such as “zero bounce” Biden looked good due to how low a bar had been set. Questions arose about when the “acceptance” speech was made. was it live or taped with multiple opportunities to fix gaffes?
ReplyDeleteI think Obama’s warning about Democrats not under-estimating Joe’s ability to screw things up speaks volumes. The fact they and their media, celeb, internet cronies are pushing so hard to mail in vote early shows that fear.
In the end, it comes down to a few battleground states. I cannot believe independent voters are buying into this perpetual riot, defund the police bullshit. Guys like me will never vote for a Democrat today because while I think Trump is an ego-maniac, I see his as a better option than team reparations, open borders, green new deal no law and order, national healthcare Medicare for all, guaranteed livable income for all.” The only thing they ask in return is give up all your freedom and move to a one party system that will squash all opposition.
That said, if Republicans are not able to quell cheat by mail in the swing states, we could lose. It is not so much The dead voters that worry me as this. I disagree that having every voter vote is a good thing. We have far to many mentally ill homeless, crackheads, alcoholic bums who ARE eligible voters, but do not know or care who is the president or who is running. But if their bright eyed little snowflake handler gives them a bottle of Johnny walker red to help mail in the ballot.... well you get the idea. If the election is that close in a state, it could tip it. Cheating has been around since Mayor Daley delivered Cook County to Joe Kennedy. Check out how Al Frankenstein became senator as well
Jed, I think the key fact to focus on is that Trump is ahead with voters on the economy. That suggests that the public is not insanely antiTrump on all fronts as the left hopes. It also suggests that the Dems have lost the most key issue upon which voters usually decide the election. We'll have to see, but that should trouble the Dems, especially as I can't imagine that their anti-cop stuff is playing well with anyone outside of the angry part of the black community.
ReplyDeleteI saw my first Biden sign today..it's a homemade plywood affair, about 2 ft. by 2 ft., painted dark blue with yellow lettering and it just says BIDEN...that's all. It was put up by the loan Dimocrat running for anything in our office,,,and it lasted about 2 hours before someone from the city took it down,,it was erected on city property...
ReplyDeleteCritch, I saw my first Biden sticker about 3 weeks ago. It was a rear window sticker (like the OBX ones). Only, it said "JO" with "2020" underneath. No "E." My family concluded it's a combination of attempted hipness (think Beto), and Dem nostalgia (the "O" was Obama's "O" logo).
ReplyDeleteBefore that, the only other Dem sticker I saw was a bumper variety at the start of July that read, "Vote Blue, No Matter Who." That low number is almost unheard-of for Allegheny County (Pittsburgh).
Here, the Biden crowd seems to be about as enthusiastic as Century III Mall is alive. (There's a yinzer moment fer allayinz.)
As for the other side, I stopped counting the Trump signs. They're popping up everywhere. So, instead, on my walks, I've counted an ever-growing number of Trump flags- not signs- FLAGS! And these are traditional dyed-in-the-wool areas (children and grandchildren of union steelworkers), that have been blue for as long as I can remember.
One more more note- I was at Myrtle Beach 2 weeks ago. I must have seen about a dozen Trump flags on the beach, along with "Trump" and "MAGA" written numerous times in the sand. Nothing for Biden. Sure, many were SC locals. But, given the (largely Steeler) attire, a lot were PA/OH/MD/WV/etc. tourists. I think that's saying something.)