We'd signed up for Fubo — to watch football — and it turns out there's no CNN on Fubo. But there was Fox News. And so, our interest in the Packers (and Michigan) has skewed the politics of our news-watching. Because we'd prioritized sports in selecting a TV service, we've ended up in a more right-wing news environment.
I was puzzled, but I found this Cord Cutters News article from 2020:
“Sometimes to help us bring you new channels at the best value, and to deliver premium features like live sports in 4K, we need to remove other channels and adjust subscription prices,” fubo said in an email to subscribers. “Turner networks will be leaving fuboTV as of July 1, 2020, and subscription prices will be changing.”
As of early Wednesday morning, fuboTV is no longer carrying TNT, TBS, CNN, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, truTV, HLN, TCM, CNN Español and CNN International....
If both shows had been on Fubo last night, we would have recorded them both, so the head-to-head conflict in real time wasn't an issue for us, other than that we'd see something about ourselves in what we chose to watch first. But, of course, we'd have prioritized Trump. It's been a long time since we've seen Trump subjected to serious/"serious" questioning, and there have been many debates. The idea of Haley and DeSantis alone together at last was not that thrilling. It's not a duel. It's not as though when 2 candidates go out to debate each other, only one returns.
I can read the morning print media to see what happened in that debate. Did anyone "win"? I expect the commentators to quip: Trump. Hasn't that been the conventional wisdom all along? Trump wins every Trumpless debate. How does he do it? That man. His own town hall was very good, I thought. He was calm and upbeat and there was a bizarre amount of love streaming from the faces of the Iowans in the audience. Those people were shockingly aglow. It was like a movie about a charismatic politician. The man is loved. Hated too. Hated with bizarre intensity. He exists in a different dimension from all the other politicians, and that reinforces my recommendation that he fought as if he were a normal candidate. Deprive him of his magic!
But, no, his haters won't, and his lovers sure won't.
Side note: He's lost a lot of weight!
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42 comments:
We watched neither. I have no interest in the children's table debate. It's surreal to think of those two going hammer and tongs as if they have a chance to be the nominee.
If you want to see aglow, look at the press look at Joe Biden, or Hillary Clinton, or Barrack Obama.
Trump, like Sarah Palin, is an outsider representing the people who are the targets of elite policies, and so must be destroyed.
It's not as though when 2 candidates go out to debate each other, only one returns.
Under 60: Two men enter, one man leaves.
Side note: He's lost a lot of weight!
That’s really going to rile his detractors.
What truly astonishes me is how many commenters argue that Trump supporters are a cult; have you heard anyone in the Trump camp call him a "light-bringer"? I vacillate daily between the judgment that those accusing us of being cult members are either too stupid to realize, or too dishonest to admit, that we support Trump not because we are on his side, but because he's on ours. That glow you speak of is not adoration for the candidate, but celebration of fellow supporters. We have been sneered at for years by people with loads of credentials but few discernable competencies, and we are now reacting in kind.
I have Fubo to get the Boston Bruins games. It really ticks me off when the NHL puts them on TBS or TNT.
No CNN is a bonus, I guess--but I wouldn't watch anyway. I see CNN on the silent screen at the gym--pure,constant and blatant DNC propaganda, as far as I can tell.
I have Fubo to get the Boston Bruins games. It really ticks me off when the NHL puts them on TBS or TNT.
Me, too, though I'm fortunate I have a nephew with a Max subscription...
OK...I watched both of them. I don't spend a lot of time watching these people talk anymore. I'm pretty tired of the foreplay and ready to get to the main bout- be it Trump and Biden, or Trump and Some Progressive who can pass as only Liberal.
But I'll say this. I've been a DeSantis person since he jumped in. He's been a great Governor here. And while I know he's not great at connecting with crowds, and is a very serious person who finds it hard to smile naturally, I viewed him as the right person to lead this country out of it's fumbling state we're in now, because he gets shit done.
But on the campaign trail he's been turned into something he wasn't running this state. It's as if his political experts, who seem to always be the same people around every politician every election, offer the same direction and advice. And they've taken what he does best and pared it down to him reciting little trite 'gotchas' about Nikki Haley or Donald Trump. And when he does talk about what he can do, it's constantly in the phrasing of "Well...in Florida we did this, or we did that." And he did! And we love that he did, but...addressing the nation at large he needs to simply talk about what he can get done for the nation, how he can move us forward. No one cares about his digs on Nikki Haley.
He's made himself smaller as he's gone on and I hate that he's done this but...he's done.
Nikki Haley is lost on me. And yes, she spent last night referring to a website devoted to 'Ron DeSantis lies'. Well...that's charming. And snarky, and 'gotcha'. Except that it's small and annoying. I find her unbelievable. I find her to be a typical GOP Establishment stand-in. Like I said yesterday- she reminds me of the Bush bros., but with a dress on. I don't think I could watch another four years of GOP Establishment. Sure it'd be better than four years of Progressives Run Wild, but only by degrees.
Then I turned onto Trump (which I had recorded but am pretty sure it'll be all over X and You Tube today). Trump was solid. He was Trump. Everyone else takes their cues from the same batch of political experts. Trump is just himself. He goes with his gut and says whatever he wants, some of it crazy shit, some of it right on target. I've pretty much avoided listening to him for months now, but after watching DeSantis and Haley act out what their political operatives think they should be, I found Trump to be more real, engaging, and clearly comfortable and confident with his positioning.
If they don't assassinate him, and if they don't put him in jail, he'll be the next President. And, barring any of that he'll get my vote. I just won't be able to listen to him for four years. And I'll hope he keeps at least some of his promises and that Democrats don't handcuff him again for four years.
"...we support Trump not because we are on his side, but because he's on ours."
knuckledraggertech at 6:28 AM
What will some of the high-forehead peanut gallery have to resort to, now that Trump has turned himself into a 'slender tube of goo' for all the MAGAts and tRUMP Swabs? Curiosity abounds, [yawn].
I don't particularly like listening to Trump speak publicly. I listened as my wife watched the town hall and mentally keyed on Trump's typical self-aggrandizing and truth bending. And yet I remember Trump standing right next to Fauci each and every day, during the rise of COVID. He's distancing himself from all that, now. It would be better if he just spoke plainly by saying 'We did the best that we could with what we had at the time. We got a vaccine out, pronto, but it is clear now that other, departmental agendas were also being massaged. Here's what I think I would do differently next time, if there is one.'
He realizes he's playing to an adversary, in Fox. They didn't jam him too much last night, because Fox has their audience to consider, too. But I still remember Brett Bair, and astoundingly early Arizona declarations. Yes, I do.
Didn’t watch either. I went to our little village info meeting on the state road and utility work that started a week ago - the state highway is the road that goes through the village. Mostly small-business owners expressing support yet confusion along with frustration and anger at the communication, which, if it isn’t improved, will hurt businesses more than necessary. It being WI, the anger was polite yet still made some uncomfortable. In-person politics where you’re all neighbors.
I should watch more of Haley and DeSantis. Trump I already know. Quite honestly, I just want whomever can win the general. I don’t need perfection.
Bummer about Turner channels and Fubo. I was considering a switch but I need my TCM.
#NeverTrump & #OnlyTrump are both afflicted with TDS now
Say that on X & watch your T/L blow up
“Because we'd prioritized sports in selecting a TV service, we've ended up in a more right-wing news environment.”
Your search for The Truth should be commended.
Re: The Trump Townhall. With only one candidate, it's not a 'town hall', it's a rally.
Those that are adored will usually be intensely hated by those who don't adore. That is basic human nature.
"Side note: he's lost a lot of weight"
Oh boy.........that is Chuck bait if I ever saw some.
And, yes, he definitely has lost some weight in the last year- probably not being President is good for your health.
Martha MacCallum probably needed to make use of a spit cup during the breaks because of the tongue biting she had to do not to push back when Trump would, with a slight smile, say that Fox was writing the questions to make him look bad. Brett Baier was better at keeping his face bland when Trump indulged in those snarks.
My daughter has been almost pathological in her loathing of Trump through the years of his presidency and beyond. However, she watched a little of Trump last night and said she will vote for him enthusiastically over the mumbling carcass that is Biden.
All in all, a tad bit (or a lot) farcical! Two lagging GOP candidates lashing each other in the second place playoff, while Yellow Gambino, streaks ahead in the madhatters tea party, continues his cowardice and attends only the events where he can act out the 'emperor's new clothes', surround himself with lackeys, sycophants, and all those who tell him what he wants to hear.
Children, listen carefully if you lie, cheat, steal, defraud and commit felonies, you too can be president of the United States.
Termujin - I agree. I am troubled by the GOP experts and campaign handlers. They really have no idea how to reach people and win.
Trump is the only candidate who looks and sounds like a real, natural person on the presidential primary trail. The clips of Haley and Desantis look like a bad SNL skit (is there any other kind?) with them trying to claim the other is the biggest liar on stage. Christie even in departing makes more news with his hot mic honesty. Where was that genuineness when he was on stage? Back to Trump. Taking voters questions spontaneously and giving calm reasoned, often with funny asides, answers. He is so different from the media (including Fox) caricature! I loved that he took gentle shots at the Fox hosts (and former Fox hosts) while engaging with an audience that clearly favored him.
Why is every Republican Primary a fight to the death, but Democratic Primaries are always "I disagree with so and so, but we have to unite against the Republican"? Imagine a Democrat talking about "Kamala lies" or something. Or that mess in Alaska between Palin and the sore loser guy.
Rich is not a happy camper this morning!
In response to Temujin's comment above, I will repost a comment Prof. M. Drout left on one of yesterday's threads about the DeSantis campaign:
Prof. M. Drout said...
"I think DeSantis' campaign is being run by a Democrat mole. He had an easy and obvious path: praise Trump's actual accomplishments, argue that he'd been successful following Trump's path but actual improving on some of the ideas, that he was younger and more energetic than Trump, and that he'd be able to accomplish more because the media hadn't yet spent 7 years trying to make everyone hate him.
Most importantly, he needed to refuse to rise to the bait of Trump's provocations, just saying "Pres. Trump says these exaggerated things all the time--he does it to see if he can get under your skin, and it doesn't bother me." And then spend his time criticizing Biden.
If he had done that, he'd be polling at 35% in most places and perfectly positioned both for VP and for taking the nomination after a major Trump mis-step, health issue, or overwhelming Deep State attack.
Instead, he followed the (idiotic) conventional wisdom, tried to beat Trump at the insult game that Trump invented, and has made himself look like a twerp. He now can't win the nomination and couldn't win the general if he did: Yes, he doesn't yet scare the wine-Moms and Karens (though he would have once the media was done with him), but he's alienated even reluctant Trump voters by hiring the most annoying, self-righteous, and moronic online troll army since the miserable Hilary Clinton bitter-enders of 2008.
Seriously, sometime in early 2025 DeSantis' campaign manager, or his media strategist, will come out as a Democrat and much will suddenly make sense."
Me again- I have been thinking the same thing- someone/s key in DeSantis campaign was/were deliberately sabotaging the campaign.
Two observations. Temujin gave a nice comparison of the current state of the race. Rich, clueless as always, shows all he has no idea what a town hall is. Hint: sometimes one is held to debate issues, at which no candidate would be present. Town Hall describes the forum irrespective of the subject of the meeting.
I watched the Haley-DeSantis one-on-one. It was terrible, like watching a bitterly-divorced couple go over and over why the other person was responsible for the marriage ending.
Two successful Republican governors talking about how the other person ruined (or nearly ruined) his or her home state.
This must be what political consultants refer to as a "strategy."
... because of the disgusting things he does ...
Look into YouTubeTV.
"...there was a bizarre amount of love streaming from the faces of the Iowans in the audience. Those people were shockingly aglow."
Track down video of some of the Obama rallies in 2008. For example, the adoration of the crowd in Grant Park at his election night victory speech is some of the creepiest political footage I've ever seen. Riefenstahl would have been proud.
Do you think it's just that all the people in the political consulting industry live in the same bubble so that they just don't comprehend why Trump was successful in 2016, or is it just Republicans being true to their cultural DNA and hiring the same old firms that the previous failed candidates hired because, well, that's who we hire?
Every one of the candidates except Vivek seemed like they believed that Trump won because he was "mean" and insulted people. Actually, that's not quite accurate, because none of them seem like they BELIEVE anything: they were just robotically recited pre-scripted lines.
I've been writing and saying this since 2016, but nobody listens: the key to Trump's success is AUTHENTICITY. He does not speak as if he is reading from a script or, somewhat worse, that he is is just looking for a chance to insert a pre-scripted one-liner into the conversation. His digressive, rambling, hyperbolic, disorganized speeches communicate very clearly to the audience that what he says is what he thinks. They therefore assign a higher truth-value to his words even when at some objective level those words aren't true.*
The other candidates were/are all very obviously scripted. Ted Cruz, whatever you think of him, is an intelligent guy who can speak extemporaneously, but in those debates he came off looking like he was reciting a script, so "Lyin' Ted" stuck, not because of any lie (for all I know he never told one), but because he communicated fakeness, which people read as "lying."
The only times that Republican candidates EVER connect with audiences is when they go off script: George Bush's moment with the bullhorn at the World Trade Center; Rudy Giuliani at the 2004 Convention are the only instances I can think of between Reagan and Trump.
And yet the political consultant class absolutely did not learn the lesson and, in the case of DeSantis, seems to have taking a very able executive with detailed knowledge of how to run a government and converted him into a reciter of dumb one-liners and talking points (Nikki Healey has ALWAYS been a recited of dumb one-liners and talking points).
Vivek is the only current candidate who speaks like a normal person and so appears somewhat authentic. Because he's young and inexperienced he, like a lot of progressives, is a true believer in abstract ideas that in practice are impossible to implement, but he doesn't know that, so everything that comes out of his mouth doesn't sound like it's the product of 12 guys in suits sitting around a table with a bunch of focus-group data. The problem for Vivek is that although he comes across as authentic, he also comes across as a dork, and an authentic dork is still a dork.
*So when Trump said that the crowds at his inauguration were larger than those at Obama's, his supporters take this as a superficial untruth/exaggeration that communicates a deeper truth: that more Americans throughout the country joyfully celebrated Trump's election than did Obama's. (Which might be true, though I'm guessing many of us were not so much celebrating Trump as giving thanksgiving for having unexpectedly dodged the bullet of Hilary Clinton).
"My daughter has been almost pathological in her loathing of Trump through the years of his presidency and beyond. However, she watched a little of Trump last night and said she will vote for him enthusiastically over the mumbling carcass that is Biden."
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That may be the most unbelievable thing I've ever read on this site.
And I agree with this Prof. M. Drout. The DeSantis campaign may become a case study in how to underperform in a Presidential primary race.
The eyes of Althouse are upon him. That is all Mr Trump needs. He is basically a good man who learned how to fight and win Manhattan style. And he wants to see the American citizens to win too. Compared to the enemy of those American citizens he looks pretty good.
Me again- I have been thinking the same thing- someone/s key in DeSantis campaign was/were deliberately sabotaging the campaign.
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I think that the DeSantis campaign strategy was originally to avoid declaring until after Trump was forced to withdraw from the race. Until that point, Never Back Down would run a "stealth" campaign by I voting not-a-candidate DeSantis to various rallies and town halls, while online influences whipped up Ronmentum so that he was the front runner once Trump stepped aside.
The problem was that Trump didn't step aside, and in fact attacked DeSantis, forcing the latter to jump into the race where he was completely unprepared. It then turned out that all those consultants he hired were, in fact, I competent grifters who have very clearly squandered the millions of dollars raised.
Trump is the only candidate who looks and sounds like a real, natural person on the presidential primary trail.
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A friend and I were discussing this last night, and she called DeSantis a "Grey man." His resume reads like the ideal Generic Republican Candidate resume. It's the life path of someone flowing a checklist to run for higher office. Overall, he comes across as a bit fake.
Funny how the Left took the rapturous expressions on the faces of Obama supporters as a sign that "He is The One", while they see Trump supporters similarly transported as engaging in 21st Century Hitler worship.
Aggie,
It would be better if he just spoke plainly by saying 'We did the best that we could with what we had at the time...
Better for whom or what? It certainly wouldn't be more accurate or honest: they did just about the worst they could possibly do with what they had at the time.
Sorry for the "this" Prof. M. Drout - I didn't recognize you as an Althouse commenter.
A very good comment at 10:21.
Children, listen carefully if you lie, cheat, steal, defraud and commit felonies, you too can be president of the United States.
1/11/24, 8:43 AM
We know. Biden and Obama did all of that and more...
Breaking News: the wife saw a replay of Trump’s performance last and she says he did well and communicated with emotional intelligence. She has disliked his style for the last 7 years.
What could have happened? She guesses the death of Melania’s mother healed Trump’s soul. Women!
"...we support Trump not because we are on his side, but because he's on ours."
MAGA wants a candidate who will work for them, the progressive left wants a candidate who will lead them.
Simple as that.
'Because we'd prioritized sports in selecting a TV service, we've ended up in a more right-wing news environment.'
Libs are notoriously low-T, so there's that...
'Martha MacCallum probably needed to make use of a spit cup during the breaks because of the tongue biting she had to do...'
Martha is hotter than hell and gets hotter every year so she kind of gets a pass...
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