Tonight is the Vice Presidential Debate. I’m not looking forward to it because CBS has already said they won’t fact-check. JD Vance is a sleazy creep who lies like a rug and flip-flops constantly. I’ve also gotten the feeling that a lot of the “political intelligentsia” is mad because Kamala Harris did so well in the presidential debate AND because Tim Walz has the highest favorability rating out of any candidate. Basically, a lot of people are setting the stage to declare Vance the winner no matter what.

Meanwhile, two pieces of okay news… in recent days, both the New York Times and the New Yorker have endorsed the Harris-Walz ticket. The New Yorker put VP Harris on their cover, or rather, an artsy rendering of her in profile. From the New Yorker’s endorsement:

The 2024 election also comes at a moment of national crisis. This time, however, the threat to the country’s future—to its rule of law and its democratic institutions, its security and its character—resides not in a foreign capital but at a twenty-acre Xanadu on the Florida coast.

For nine years, Donald Trump has represented an ongoing assault on the stability, the nerves, and the nature of the United States. As President, he amplified some of the ugliest currents in our political culture: nativism, racism, misogyny, indifference to the disadvantaged, amoral isolationism. His narcissism and casual cruelty, his contempt for the truth, have contaminated public life. As Commander-in-Chief, he ridiculed the valor of fallen soldiers, he threatened to unravel the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and he emboldened autocrats everywhere, including Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Viktor Orbán. When Trump lost to Joe Biden, in 2020, he tried every means possible to deny the will of the electorate and helped incite a violent insurrection on Capitol Hill.

In contrast, the Democratic Party’s nominee, Vice-President Kamala Harris, has displayed the basic values and political skills that would enable her to build on the successes of the Biden Administration and to help end, once and for all, a poisonous era defined by Trump. Few, if any, of our readers will be surprised that we endorse Harris in this election—but many would have been surprised, earlier this year, that the choice would end up being between Trump and the Vice-President. The change in the Democratic candidate is the result, of course, of a debate of the sort that F.D.R. sidestepped.

[From The New Yorker]

“The change in the Democratic candidate is the result, of course, of a debate of the sort that F.D.R. sidestepped.” The New Yorker, like many outlets, is still so mad that they haven’t had more time to destroy Kamala Harris’s candidacy. She’s done a lot more than “displayed the basic values and political skills.” She might even be a generational political talent. Meanwhile, the NYT’s endorsement is called “The Only Patriotic Choice for President.”

It is hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States than Donald Trump. He has proved himself morally unfit for an office that asks its occupant to put the good of the nation above self-interest. He has proved himself temperamentally unfit for a role that requires the very qualities — wisdom, honesty, empathy, courage, restraint, humility, discipline — that he most lacks.

Those disqualifying characteristics are compounded by everything else that limits his ability to fulfill the duties of the president: his many criminal charges, his advancing age, his fundamental lack of interest in policy and his increasingly bizarre cast of associates.

This unequivocal, dispiriting truth — Donald Trump is not fit to be president — should be enough for any voter who cares about the health of our country and the stability of our democracy to deny him re-election.

For this reason, regardless of any political disagreements voters might have with her, Kamala Harris is the only patriotic choice for president.

…As a dedicated public servant who has demonstrated care, competence and an unwavering commitment to the Constitution, Ms. Harris stands alone in this race. She may not be the perfect candidate for every voter, especially those who are frustrated and angry about our government’s failures to fix what’s broken — from our immigration system to public schools to housing costs to gun violence. Yet we urge Americans to contrast Ms. Harris’s record with her opponent’s.

Ms. Harris is more than a necessary alternative. There is also an optimistic case for elevating her, one that is rooted in her policies and borne out by her experience as vice president, a senator and a state attorney general.

[From The NY Times]

I wrote on Monday that I don’t think Trump is getting the same endorphin rush from his poorly-attended hate rallies, but there’s something else happening in recent weeks too. Even Trump’s base – including the media which has fed this beast for a decade – has grown tired of it. Outlets like the NYT still doing half-assed “both sides” coverage look out of touch and compromised. The Times regularly gets called out for holding the candidates to wildly different standards. It’s “give up the ghost” time – they look like morons if they continue to dither while Trump sets fire to the country.

Cover courtesy of the New Yorker, photos courtesy of Cover Images.