The Last Day

I figured I'd end the presidential race with a few, short final day stories on the campaign trail.  Short, but telling about the the two campaigns.

The first is that in her last rallies -- the final two days, in fact -- it was interesting and notable that Kamala Harris didn't mention Trump at all.  She just made it all positive, all about the American public and what she hoped for them for the future.  A choice made meaningful when considering what former Senator Claire McCaskill (I believe...) said on MSNBC about how undecided voters decide in the end, how it's about "feel," how they feel about the candidates.

Related to that is a very nice, but also interesting tweet from from Dan Pfeiffer, former adviser to Barack Obama.  In it, he acknowledges that the story is just anecdotal, so it means nothing.  But being from Dan Pfeiffer who is very respectable, it’s not without some meaning.  And if there’s any weight behind it, more than just people he personally has run into, then it’s problematic for Trump.

It’s a very lovely, moving story.  But also, as I said, if it’s more than just anecdotal to Dan Pfeiffer and is a real phenomenon, since he notes it's happened to him many times, then it’s horrible news for Trump with all these women who we’ve been thinking were voting early haven’t even voted yet.  And it could explain lower Democratic mail-in voting in some areas.

Then, there's Trump, who held held a last-day rally and gathered his family. 

Well…some of his family.  Melania and Ivanka were not there.​

The absences raise an additional question.  Not just why they didn't show up, but is it possible that in the privacy of the voting booth, one or both of them might do what the Harris campaign has been promoting -- wives voting for Harris and not telling their Trump-supporting husbands.  Mind you, I'm not saying that they will (or might), just that the photo itself raises the question.  (After all, we haven't seen Ivanka on the campaign trail at all, and Melania almost never.)  Which in some ways is damning enough.

​But also, more than who isn't there, I love this quote that Trump made at the rally, talking about his children.

"They're really good kids. They're really good. That's not to say that I didn't have a little difficulty with them on occasion, especially Don. But no, I'm only kidding."

On the one hand, it's sort of a funny line.  On the other hand, considering that Trump isn't known for such quips and with his penchant for projecting where "I'm just kidding" tends to be his tell for stating the truth and also (far more to the point) given what we know about Trump’s dysfunctional relationship with his children -- especially Don Jr. (notably one story posted on Facebook by a dorm mate of Junior's when his father stopped by his room at the University of Pennsylvania: "Don Jr. opened the door, wearing a Yankee jersey. Without saying a word, his father slapped him across the face, knocking him to the floor in front of all of his classmates. He simply said 'put on a suit and meet me outside,' and closed the door.") -- can you imagine the psychodrama angst inside Don Jr. as he hears this "joke" from his dad??!  No matter how much he says, "Only kidding."

Speaking of which, that leads directly into another gem from yesterday.  It's a video of Trump at a Monday rally saying, “Now that Michelle Obama hit me, am I allowed to hit her now?”  Now, yes, clearly, by "hit" he meant "slam her."  But when you've been found liable for rape and take full credit for ending Roe v. Wade, having a history promoting violence (and smacking your son, knocking him to the ground), have a history of insulting Black women who ask hard questions and oppose you as 'nasty,' and have a massive gender gap with women you're trying to close -- this is a really horrific part of his Closing Argument to win women and undecided voters!!  No matter how you insist you meant it.

But topping everything was Nicolle Wallace on her MSNBC show. 

After playing a clip of "JDVance" today pathetic calling Kamala Harris "trash,” she just stared into the camera for a few seconds – and then said to the control booth, "Can we play that again?"  They did repeat the clip -- and then, she said to the booth one more time, "Can we play that again?"  Yes, they played it three times!  And then she ripped into "Vance."  She shredded him on calling the first Black woman Vice President of the United States "trash," and then went into a controlled rant, saying among other things that women take a lot "during our careers, but when you call us 'trash'"??  It was blunt, extremely low-key, yet you could sense her fury.  But then, for me, best of all, she closed with a devastating topper line -- "That's the most f'd-up thing I've seen in my career. And I worked with Sarah Palin".

Magnificent!

And that's how the campaigns made their Closing Arguments.

And now, American finishes voting.