The Economy Is Strong, Republicans Are in Trouble, August Events

Can you make some calls in Ohio?

Happy Monday all. Got a few things for you today……

August Events - Just posted RSVP links to three new events:

• Tuesday, August 15th, 7pm EST - Hopium Paid Subscriber Political Briefing and Hangout

• Friday, August 18th, 1pm EST - With Democrats Things Get Better

• Tuesday, August 22nd, 7pm EST - Monthly Hopium Political Briefing and Discussion

Looking forward to seeing everyone! Lots to talk about!

New Posts/Commentary - Lots of new full of Hopium stuff to chew on:

• The Economy Is In The Midst of Something Wonderful (and Unexpected)

• August Jobs Report - Steady Growth, Strong Earnings, Unemployment Down to 3.5%

• Notes on Trump’s Insurrection Indictment

• Yes, The NYTimes Has Biden-Trump Tied. Many Others Have Biden Ahead.

I was a guest on C-Span’s Washington Journal yesterday. It was a pretty comprehensive discussion about the current political moment. And yes we got some crazy calls. Check it out here.

From The Guardian:

“Republican talking points are having a really bad summer,” said Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic strategist. “The core attacks against Biden are evaporating. The economy is strong. Inflation’s down. The deficit’s down. The Washington Post called the border ‘eerily quiet’. We’ve seen murder rates have come down dramatically this year. He’s been competently managing foreign policy.”

….Rosenberg added: “His argument for re-election has gotten much stronger over the last few months. It’s getting very unclear how the Republicans are going to go after his record as president and what it means is that you’re probably going to see in the short term a much more significant ratcheting up of attacks on him as a person or father and not as a president.”

From Time Magazine today:

Rosenberg notes that Republicans have already gone to the polls defending Donald Trump’s election lies and performed poorly. Every Republican candidate for secretary of state who denied the legitimate 2020 election results lost their races, he says.

“These issues were heavily litigated in the battleground in 2022 and it didn’t go well for Republicans and it’s not going to go well for them again in 2024 because Trump represents a far more clear and present danger to our democracy than he did even in the last election,” says Rosenberg.

Final Day of Voting in Ohio Is Tomorrow! - Thanks to everyone who has worked so hard on this critical election. Please try to get in a last shift of calls today or tomorrow, and for background on the election watch my recent interview with David Pepper.

DeSantis’ Ridiculous Economic Plan - Our good friend Rob Shapiro has a terrific new piece up in the Washington Monthly looking at DeSantis’ new economic plan. Rob writes:

Most everything the Florida governor promises in his new plan—higher growth, more energy production, easing inequality—is already happening under the Democratic president.

Trump is Getting An Unacceptable Level of Special Treatment - Former prosecutor Karen Agnifilo has a great new article up on the Meidas Touch site:

As a three-decade former state prosecutor in New York, I have never seen a defendant treated as leniently as defendant Trump. He has a rap sheet with 3 open felony indictments, 78-charges, in 3 separate jurisdictions. He has repeatedly threatened prosecutors, judges, and potential witnesses and has his own 757 jumbo jet at the ready to fly anywhere in the world and can abscond at any time. And the nature of his charges are among the most serious there are — he is accused of stealing our nation’s most sensitive secrets, trying to destroy evidence of his crimes, committing fraud in the oval office, and causing a violent insurrection in order to attempt to steal an election he lost, and our democracy. Imagine if he were Black or Muslim. There is no doubt he would be incarcerated pending trial.

Keep working hard everyone - Simon