Wednesday, October 02, 2024

Making Nice

As much as television reporters tried to build up anticipation for last night’s vice-presidential debate, predicting an old-fashioned brawl, they knew it was doubtful it would matter in November. Voters focus on the top race on the ballot, not the second one.

That said, since this has been a very strange political year, who knows.

The polls seem to be stuck in molasses. Harris maintains somewhere around a 2.5 points nationally and the races are even closer in the critical seven swing states. Harris maintains slender leads in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada, whereas Trump is slightly ahead in Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina.

Therefore, if those numbers persist through Election Day, Harris will win. But that is a big if.

Back to the debate between the V-P candidates. Those predicting a brawl were wrong; it was more like a polite conversation over coffee in the local diner. Vance clearly was smoother and more in control than Walz, who appeared nervous and muffed several lines. But Walz cornered Vance on whether Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and Vance dodged the question.

That may be the only enduring takeaway from the debate.

Bottom line? This debate seems unlikely to affect the outcome in November.

HEADLINES:

  • Microsoft: 'ever present' AI assistants are coming (BBC)

  • MIT spinoff Liquid debuts non-transformer AI models and they’re already state-of-the-art (Venture Beat)

  • Tim Walz Stays Up All Night Making Shoe-Box Diorama Of Washington Crossing The Delaware (The Onion)

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