Kamala-Walz news du jour
Now Chris Rufo picks up on allegations that there was quite a bit of plagiarism in a book written by Kamala Harris with a co-author:
At the beginning of Harris’s political career, in the run-up to her campaign to serve as California’s attorney general, she and co-author Joan O’C Hamilton published a small volume, entitled Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer. The book helped to establish her credibility on criminal-justice issues.
However, according to Stefan Weber, a famed Austrian “plagiarism hunter” who has taken down politicians in the German-speaking world, Harris’s book contains more than a dozen “vicious plagiarism fragments.” Some of the passages he highlighted appear to contain minor transgressions—reproducing small sections of text; insufficient paraphrasing—but others seem to reflect more serious infractions, similar in severity to those found in Harvard president Claudine Gay’s doctoral thesis. (Harris did not respond to a request for comment.)
I doubt this will hurt her with anyone already planning to vote for her. And the fact that there is already a co-author dilutes the charges, as well.
There’s so much news on Harris and Walz every day that there’s no way I can cover it adequately, but suffice to say that the gist of it is that it’s going poorly for them. Just to take one example: Walz’s efforts to come across as a macho hunter (see this) – an effort that, to coin a phrase, has backfired. It puzzles me that anyone would think it a good approach in the first place, though. Do people really look at a photo of a person pheasant hunting and think, “wow, I hunt pheasants too, I think I’ll vote for this guy!”?
Along those lines we have this ridiculous ad. Was it meant to be funny, or what? I vote for “what”:
I’ve seen some very funny takedowns of it, and they’re all maximally unwoke. The ad strikes me as being tongue-in-cheek, but even if that’s true it falls incredibly flat. The tone is so off-putting and strange that it’s in the uncanny valley. Who on earth is this ad appealing to?
Nevertheless I counsel against false confidence. I have no idea who will win this election; about half of America would vote for a piece of seaweed if it was running against Donald Trump. Plus, there’s “rigging” and vulnerable voting security. But I must say that I’ve never seen a worse election campaign than that of Harris/Walz.
Those are all actors in that ad. The audience of “undecided Latino voters” at Harris’s Univision “town hall” came half from the Harris campaign and half from a “rent-an-audience” agency. There was some controversy about whether Harris used a teleprompter during the event. The “rent-an-received much less attention.
My husband, who is a very masculine “real man,” watched that “real men” ad and said, “Are they kidding?” Actually, he said something more unprintable. Add this to the video of Walz being unable to load the $2000 shotgun he allegedly hunts or shoots trap with. These efforts are not going to convince anyone not already in their camp.
The ad is only tongue-in-cheek if the ad-maker is anti-Harris- doesn’t have to be pro-Trump just anti-Harris.
With only three weeks to go, the race is settling in on the fundamentals that have been apparent for a long time.
A large portion of the electorate dislikes Trump, and a significant portion of that group will vote against him. Who that opposing choice is, hardly matters to that crowd. The remainder of the dislikes are subject to discouragement and disinclination to cast a ballot at all, or could be reluctantly persuaded to vote Trump depending on circumstances occurring throughout the campaign. That could be dismay at the opposing nominee, or outlying events such as the assassination attempts, a foreign crisis, or appalling events domestically.
A year ago the consensus was that Harris would be a non-starter as a Biden replacement, and after July the party and media furiously tried to reset her image. The course of the campaign has revealed the hollowness of that image reset, so we are back to the earlier view that Harris would be an awful candidate.
That awareness of her weakness is settling in, so the basic trend that the electorate desired a change in direction is reasserting itself. The incongruity of VP Harris being change from our current course despite the misdirection of her image cheerleaders makes it unlikely that voters can swallow that dog’s breakfast.
So it boils down to the simple numbers, how many people hate Trump’s guts to the point that they would go to the polls or mail in a ballot to keep him out of office? My sense is that there are not enough in that category, dispersed appropriately across the contestable states, to ensure a Harris victory. We are running out of time for an October surprise sufficient to change that reality, and I think Trump wins.
You can spank me on November 8 if I’m proven wrong, ha ha.
Harris and Walz are truly the bottom of the Democratic bucket, already near-full of foul arrogant losers. Hillary and Gore come to mind.
I do not see how anyone of conscience could vote for this ticket. But, as has been said, never underestimate the stupidity of the American voter.
For you fellow shotgunners out there, Walz was shooting a Beretta A400. Probably took all 3 shots at the same pheasant. For you who know little about shotguns, this shotgun holds 3 shells max. One shot on target should do it for decent shooters.
But it’s great to be in a harvested cornfield with dog and gun this time of year in the Dakotas.
Dan D. The bile with which the TDS folks describe DJT is such that I don’t think anything even remotely conceivable in any dreams, even those fueled by cheap port, could be bad enough in his enemies to get the TDS types not to vote for his enemies.
Somewhere out there may be a few more reasonable folks but….never met one. TDS is a horrible thing to see in a reasoning entity. Facts simply don’t matter. It’s not like some lefties for whom facts are cooties. No, they’re waved off with an angry air as if they don’t actually count, even if true, against the TDS.
Actually my Other Brother, who voted for Trump twice and vowed never again after Jan 6, told me that he might be forced to vote for him again. He really really hates Harris and the others. I have been working on him since Trump started his new campaign.
Cicero,
I prefer my Bennelli Montefeltro, and my wife has one also only in 20 gauge to my 12.
New trouble for Walz. A now adult is accusing him of molesting him at age 14. The accuser will have to go public to get credibility but it is all over X today.
First, what kind of name is O’C Hamilton? I’ve never seen a name that. Just curious.
I think Trump will lose. I think the Dems have worked too long and hard to let something like the vote count stop them. I’m with Elon Musk in thinking that if Trump loses a conservative will never become president again.
My hobbyhorse: since Democrats used the COVID pandemic as an excuse to change the electoral system, Trump is now running against both Harris and the system. To win, he needs a landslide of “real” ballots. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t see that happening.
The new post-pandemic rules, as well as strategic illegal ballot harvesting in swing states, have made polls even more misleading. In fact, if the last presidential election is any measure, a good part of the election will be over before November 5th rolls around.
In 2020, about 69% of ballots were cast as early election votes and mail-in ballots. This included over 101 million votes that were submitted before election day. 65.6 million mail-in ballots were returned, and 35.8 million in-person early votes were cast (https://electproject.github.io/Early-Vote-2020G/index.html).
I am surrounded by Harris voters! On the few occasions when I was stupid enough to ask why they hated Trump, they thoughtfully replied “Ick!!”
Ray+Van+Dune
I am surrounded by Harris voters! On the few occasions when I was stupid enough to ask why they hated Trump, they thoughtfully replied “Ick!!”
There was an interesting comment @ Neo four years ago.
Neo: I am Spartacus comment on talking to Trump haters.
In short, talk policy to Trump haters- if they will listen.
I have not tried this out, though.
The Kamala “bro” Obama is doing what he does best, playing the race card. His recent appeal to Black men to put aside their machismo and vote for the “sista” was a desperate ploy that backfired.
Marc Elias, the election “fixer”, is doing a last minute legal barrage to undo election legislation.
Kamala myth making by the Democrat run media complex is in 4th gear.
Trump held a rally near Palm Springs, a majority Hispanic area, and Democrats were gobsmaked that he ventured into that Blue zone.
The internal polling for Kamala must be troubling to her campaign and Democrats.
Everything about Walz, from picking him in the first place to that ridiculous pheasant hunting video exemplifies a long stated argument on the right: conservatives know and understand the liberal worldview (we’re inundated with it daily); most liberals do NOT know or understand the conservative worldview.
Walz almost perfectly embodies the candidate upscale urban progressives *think* will appeal to centrist and conservative leaning undecided voters. He’s from flyover country, served in the military, is (supposedly) a hunter, and a coach and…you know…he’s an older straight white guy. That should make those ‘deplorables’ happy, right?
It’s all more than bit cartoonish. Anyone who followed Minnesota politics for the last decade (having graduated college in Minnesota, as an active DFLer, 25 years ago, I’ve continued to follow the politics passively) or who regularly reads Powerline (as I do) could have predicted this absurd man would flail and sputter into absurd comments and ridiculous behavior. And…here we are
But hey, Jimmy Kimmel loves him! And so does everyone who takes Jimmy Kimmel seriously.
The deplorables…not so much.
“And the fact that there is already a co-author dilutes the charges, as well.”
No it doesn’t. Not at all. They’re both fully responsible.
On the subject of plagiarism, Kamala’s 2019 autobiography, The Truths We Hold, attempts to show that she has authentic roots in a black community in Berkeley. Among other things, Kamala claims that her mother took her and her sister every week to a black cultural venue called The Rainbow Sign. Yet nearly every detail that Kamala includes in her book about the venue comes from a website researched and created by UC Berkeley undergrads for a class. It’s possible that Kamala actually went once or twice to The Rainbow Sign, but if she went weekly, why can’t she offer her own memories? Why is she cribbing from undergrad researchers? The website page is: https://revolution.berkeley.edu/projects/rainbow-sign/
@cornflour .. FWIW, Rick Moran at PJ Media (data from a NY Post story) reports early voting is down 45% from 2020 …
“Early indications are that early voting is way down from 2020. At this point in 2020, 45% more voters had already cast their ballots. Some of that is due to changes in the start dates from early voting.
Perhaps more significantly requests for mail-in ballots are down a whopping 58% from this point in 2020 in states that don’t send mail ballots to all voters.”
More data at the link below including indications that, in a reversal of the 2020 and 2022 trends, areas of GOP strength are more likely to be voting early this year.
https://pjmedia.com/rick-moran/2024/10/13/early-voting-down-45-thats-bad-news-for-democrats-n4933288
Nevertheless I counsel against false confidence.
neo:
Not to argue with you personally, but do you also counsel against lack of confidence? When is true confidence an option?
I’ve said so before, but to put it in the words of Uncle Aldous in his final novel, “Island,” conservatives often strike me as those “who won’t take yes for answer.”
It seems to me there has been much good news for conservatives in the past few years.
I share your concerns, Neo, I am definitely picking up a “What a bunch of Losers, No need to vote, then” vibe from the way things are trending. I remember people predicting a ‘Red Wave’, which had dismal results. Vote, People ! and encourage others to, also.
The Uncanny Valley aspect of that Kamala ad is there because they’re all actors, and all leftists. Vox Popoli had their summaries up a few days ago:
Wayland McQueen is a far-left, pro-Antifa comedian and actor who has, until now, found limited success. He does improv gigs at the Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles. In a Twitter post from 2022, he explains what white privilege is and tells you why you need to acknowledge your white privilege. As of 2024 he is single.
Lanre Idewu is an immigrant from Nigeria. He is also an actor who works at the D.C.-based OCTET Productions. He has many intimate pictures with the Obamas and the Bidens. Idewu, who is bisexual, has done gay-for-pay movies and nude solo shoots. In the Men for Kamala ad, he says he is “man enough to braid his daughter’s hair,” but the only problem is that he doesn’t have a daughter. Idewu isn’t braiding anyone’s hair.
Mike Leffingwell, a gay man, also works at the Upright Citizens Brigade, where McQueen works. He is an acting coach, cartoon writer for Netflix and DreamWorks, and an actor in TV commercials. On his public Instagram page, he showcases his participation in his latest project—the Men for Kamala ad.
Winston Carter, the heavyset fellow in the ad who claims to be a mechanic and rancher, lives in Los Angeles signed with Taft Broadcasting Company. He has found limited success in the acting world, mainly as an extra in films and as a character in the low-budget superhero film Spaghettiman.
Tony Ketcham, the tough, rugged, bearded grandpa in his garage in the Men for Kamala ad, is also an actor. He now mainly does low-budget independent films like Car Botz, where he played the role of PePaw. Tony is unmarried in real life. In 2001, he played the extra role of “alcoholic consumer” in the movie Ghost World.
I guess we can all see, from the ad’s convincing message, why these are ‘aspiring’ actors.