Hot and getting hotter just pass the noon hour Tuesday here in California’s Central Valley — we’re in the mid-90s right now on our way to a forecast high of 110 later this afternoon. A cooling down spell is scheduled to start tomorrow with temps expected under triple digits for a few days.
Summer sizzles onward.
However, the sizzle has left America’s political scene — a quick turn-around this past Sunday with Joe Biden stepping down and endorsing Kamala Harris, which in turn has shifted the bad vibe to a glow of maybe optimism for once. Harris had since picked up a shitload of endorsements from Nancy Pelosi on down (even George Clooney), and has secured enough delegates to take the DNC nomination next month.
And for me, there’s a sense of hope for the first time in a long, long time.
Comedy writer Jill Twiss at The Daily Beast this morning expressed it notably: ‘I feel hope right now and it’s so embarrassing. I’m a comedian. I spent years writing for late night TV shows, making fun of the news. We don’t like things. We mock them! We roll our eyes. We hate-watch and doom-scroll. But you know what? Just for kicks, this election season I’m going try hoping for something again.‘
And to anchor that hope:
https://t.co/gGcRLRZX1G pic.twitter.com/8z04WNCvHr
— Tom Wright (@Tom_Wright12) July 23, 2024
Details on the poll via Reuters earlier this morning:
The poll, conducted on Monday and Tuesday, followed both the Republican National Convention where Trump on Thursday formally accepted his party’s nomination and the Biden announcement on Sunday he was leaving the race and endorsing Harris.
Harris, whose campaign says she has secured the Democratic nomination, led Trump 44% to 42% in the national poll, a difference within the 3-percentage-point margin of error.
Harris and Trump were tied at 44% in a July 15-16 poll, and Trump led by one percentage point in a July 1-2 poll, both within the same margin of error.
While nationwide surveys give important signals of American support for political candidates, just a handful of competitive states typically tilt the balance in the U.S. Electoral College, which ultimately decides who wins a presidential election.
The most recent poll showed 56% of registered voters agreed with a statement that Harris, 59, was “mentally sharp and able to deal with challenges,” compared to 49% who said the same of Trump, 78.
Only 22% of voters assessed Biden that way.
Beyond the polling, it just feels good to laugh again, which adds insult to snicker (h/t Tom Sullivan at Digby’s):
Make America Laugh Again pic.twitter.com/OslgHwlfeg
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) July 22, 2024
Hope springs eternal, even with un-funny climate change — environmentalists are ardently tickled.
Leah Stokes, an associate professor of climate and energy policy at UC Santa Barbara (LA Times, also this morning): ‘“I’m ecstatic — I couldn’t be more thrilled … Kamala Harris is a climate and environmental justice champion, and she has been for over two decades … We have a real shot to not just win the White House and have a climate president again, but also to secure strong majorities in the House and the Senate and have an opportunity to pass more climate legislation — which is what we need to do if we want to be on track to meet the targets that scientists say are necessary.”‘
Let’s close out with some good Kamala vibes:
Blue wave ahead, yet once again here we are…
(Illustration out front: Salvador Dalí’s ‘Galatea of the Spheres,’ found here.)