Or, it was must-see TV, if that is clear.
At least the part I saw.
Norah O'Donnell had him on the defensive on the domestic issues, the ones that matter for the election this week. OK, he could look haggard, black-circled eyes and bad makeup and hair, but his face looked Trumpian. That's just jet lag, basically.
The side view, though, that CBS went back to show time and again, showed a sodden, pyramidal Jabba-the-Hut-ish pile, sitting oddly on a high-backed chair with he fully six inches in front of it, spouting nonsense.
I saw her hammer him on his violations of law and order, ICE, the tariffs, and especially the shutdown. He got aggressive, threw out the usual bullshit, and showed himself extreme and unwilling to compromise. So, he didn't come back any wiser than when he left.
He may have compensated in the last part, with the more softball questions that he could answer by throwing in his foreign affairs successes, his great relationship with Benyamin Netanhahu, how he could destroy this and that if he wanted to. He got a chance to brag about Iran and look Presidential. He looked brutal and scary. But that was too late to save his numbers.
He got a few digs at the Democrats, staying with the tired line about how "all they have to do is vote" for his bullshit, no changes, he won't be coerced. As for the Senate Republicans, he both threw them a bone ("nuke" that filibuster) and threw a bone at them, depending on your point of view.
This was his last-minute shot at the elections this week: pump the base's turnout. The limitations of this approach show it to be very much short-term, basically a bet that 2026 will be OK, or a war.
2028: The Final Question
Trump's blowing his cool was evident, particularly in the first part of the interview, as what was shown (edited; this time with his permission, I'm afraid) more than sufficed. It will definitely hurt the Repubicans' cause, if not in 2025, in the larger, later contests. I give CBS a little credit for asking some of the tough questions, a situation he rarely faces in a public setting. His answers were definitive, defining insanity itself. He took great pains to saw his lines, pains to all, in fact.
I had to go out for a minute, so I missed the part about destroying the environment, or about the Epstein File. Maybe that's when they happened.
But I did come back when we saw that we can finally stop worrying about 2028. He basically admitted he won't do it, so why talk about it?
Anyway, if he did find some underhanded way to do it and run, then Obama could counter it and do the same, even starting after the convention if necessary. I know just how he could do it, too--it would be to use the Electoral College for the Democrats cause, for once.* I think the White House's team of soulless skunks** realized that Obama could kick any of the Trump clan, or any other of the other guys in a fair fight. They're pretty much all the same, now.
The 2025 Preview, and to 2026
The Democratic response to the inputs that suggest the Republicans are making general-election level effort in Virginia and New Jersey, instead of off-year election level, then, is President Obama's appearance on the scene there. Let's just make sure we get that extra 2-3% that didn't show up for Kamala.
It's a very basic, sticking-with-fundamental strategy, ifAbigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill represent the national Democrats' bid to regain the center in swing states, ones of the type that will absolutely be needed in 2028. It's a serious approach, with good, well-known candidates--a true test.
There's a lot of talk of Mamdani, and the future he represents, and Gavin Newsom is the leading candidates for the states' resistance through the gerrymandering vote, which he seems sure to win. Those last two weren't the target of the GOP's guns, though. They are of relatively limited importance nationwide, unless Newsom fails somehow to deliver the numbers on the referendum, which would be career-ending and a significant handicap in Democrats' ability to counter the Republicans' power play for the House next year. Finally, Andrew Cuomo looks ready to take the dive into the Hudson.
I'm looking at two states in particular next year, beyond individual congressional races in a few states and an interesting shot at picking up a state Senate seat in Alaska. They are Texas and Ohio, two states given up as hopeless after the 2024 voters there gave Kamala/Biden's administration the heave-ho by ten percent or more. James Talarico (or Colin Allred or Beto, if they surprise me) in the Lone Star State represents a more convincing case to get that extra 5% or more the Democrats have been seeking in statewide elections since the turn of the century, and Sherrod Brown in Ohio is looking to reverse his 2024 Senate loss by tackling the appointee (elected whatever) Governor Dewine picked to fill J.D. Vance's hole. So to speak. We're going to need wins there; if we get them, we can take back control of the Senate, filibuster or no.
*You know, the states' Electors--they can be pledged to vote for Obama or the Nominee of the Democratic...)
** What's left of the White House, that is, the dank dungeon parts. The soulless skunks, they remain a-plenty.
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