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“Harris picks Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate” (AP)
I don’t know how many times I’ve almost written a post comparing this year’s election cycle to 1968 but didn’t, until today. Perhaps I’ve finally figured out what I want to say.
That (1968) was the year I turned 21, and therefore for the first time was eligible to vote.
The incumbent, Lyndon Johnson, withdrew from the race in March, throwing his Democratic Party into chaos. One-by-one, three anti-war candidates in the Senate, Eugene McCarthy, Robert F. Kennedy and George McGovern, emerged over time, but Vice-President Hubert Humphrey got the nomination instead.
The main thing about 1968 that all of us who lived through it remember is the horrible sequence of events — the assassinations of MLK and RFK, the riots in cities across the land, the police riot at the Democratic convention in Chicago — that made many of us feel angry, depressed and cynical about the electoral process.
Fast forward to this year. The recent assassination attempt on Donald Trump brought back some of that anguish. And then Joe Biden’s withdrawal, a la LBJ’s, raised the specter of another chaotic Democratic nomination fight (again Chicago!) just like in 1968.
But a battle over the nomination will not happen this year, thanks to Kamala Harris’s well-developed plan to step into the void.
Cut to the end game: After blowing a huge lead, the Republican in 1968, Richard Nixon just squeaked by Humphrey by 0.7% in the popular vote on Election Day and received 31 electoral votes over the minimum of 270 for victory. A third-party candidate, George Wallace also was a factor, winning 46 electoral votes from southern states.
It’s going to be another close election this time but perhaps it will be the outcome that sets the two momentous elections apart? That, and the weird fact that the third-party candidate left a dead baby bear in Central Park.
HEADLINES:
Polls are showing an undeniable shift toward Kamala Harris (The Hill)
Harris vs. Trump: Latest polling numbers show major change in race (AL.com)
Is FL in Play for 2024? ‘People Don't Want Project 2025, They're Tired of the Chaos’ (MSNBC)
What’s Rattling Trump: The Size of Harris’s Crowds (NYT)
Kamala Harris’ campaign launches “Republicans for Harris” (AP)
Dow plunges more than 1,000 points in global market selloff (WP)
Warning signs of US recession may be bad news for Kamala Harris (Guardian)
Ex-Trump attorney Jenna Ellis to cooperate in Arizona fake electors case, charges to be dropped (AP)
How JD Vance Thinks About Power (NYT)
JD Vance's wife defends his 'quip' about 'childless cat ladies' (NBC)
Bangladesh’s dictator flees—leaving behind a dangerous vacuum (Economist)
Debby’s Moisture Surges Northward. Flooding Likely (Weather Channel)
Iran and Hezbollah attack on Israel imminent, Blinken tells G7 (Al Jazeera)
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will hold an emergency meeting with police chiefs after days of violent anti-immigration protests intensified. (Reuters)
The woman who left Britain to parachute into Nazi-occupied Poland (BBC)
Apple Stock Leads Big Tech Drop. Worries About an AI Bubble Are Back. (Barron’s)
Secretaries of state urge Musk to fix AI chatbot spreading false election info (WP)
Takeaways From Our Investigation Into Banned A.I. Chips in China (NYT)
There’s no way for humanity to win an AI arms race (WP)
Stocks Plunge As Traders Realize It’s Monday And They Have To Go To Work (The Onion)
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