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Viewership down for this year’s Democratic Convention — 33 Comments

1. I don’t know how you begin to collect ratings information on this. With the number of cord-cutters, the number of people who access everything on their phones, the number of people who will view it online later, how do you collect the numbers? The younger the group watching, the less accurate will be an assessment based on networks and cable news channels.

2. Ann in L.A.:

   Of course, it doesn’t tell you actual viewership. But it works at least somewhat as comparative viewership, if the same methods for getting ratings are used for different shows and for the 2016 convention. It’s just approximate.

3. Most people have made up their minds. The choice is between Seatle, etc or what plays in Peoria. Normal versus crazies.

4. And, anyone with half a brain know they are not voting for Biden, but Harris for president. I think that’s why I saw so much hoopla over her being picked from the left FB posts. What’s amazing is that they had no enthusiasm for her as president a year ago during the primaries. I suspect what has changed is that they know she will follow the progressive agenda as president which is really all they care about…..and of course getting Trump out.

   I think Neo is right…the election has already been decided as very few people are going to change their votes.

5. Is it possible there is some difference of interpretation of the word ‘enthusiastic’ in the questions on the part of those being interviewed? Say you have some really, really left person, for example. Such a person might conceivably say no if asked whether he’s “enthusiastic” about voting for Biden, but that doesn’t mean he won’t crawl over broken glass to get it done. I just wonder if ‘enthusiastic’ as a vocabulary choice is quite on point when the pollsters write the questions. Well, you know how I am; I’m a data guy.

6. Curious thing about negative enthusiasm: it doesn’t translate into winning campaigns.

   Remember how motivated Republicans were to keep Barack Obama out of the White House? They failed, largely at the ground game.

   Positive leadership is required to move volunteers (the blood of every campaign) off their sofas. Without someone to rally behind, people tend to sit home and grumble.

   That’s where Democrats are today.

7. “Positive leadership is required to move volunteers (the blood of every campaign) off their sofas. Without someone to rally behind, people tend to sit home and grumble.

   That’s where Democrats are today.”

   I disagree. From what I see from numerous left people is extreme enthusiasm to vote against Trump. They don’t need to be motivated to move off their couch. If the polling numbers (questionable) are correct, then the basement strategy of the Harris/Biden team makes perfect sense. Why give any possibility that people may lose that enthusiasm by some serious blunder. Keep ’em under wraps. They base is highly motivated as is, why risk it with a faux pas?

   The Durham probe is the only wild card, but I don’t see anything coming from that so it’s a non-starter.

8. The “vote by mail for everyone”, ballot harvesting and not requiring signatures on the mailed-in votes will probably amount to at least 5% fraudulent balloting.

   Trump had better win by a landslide, otherwise this will be a stolen election.
   In any event, the democrat strategy is to make this election “questionable” and hope that it gets thrown into the House (or worse).

   After all, they are now shouting “remove the president” with only 100 days left before the election.

9. I’m astounded it’s 18.7 million! I have no desire to watch either. As Ann wrote of, I’ll probably watch both candidates’ acceptance speeches at some, later date, but sitting and watching a virtual convention does not sound appealing.

10. They’ve recruited a quartet of ‘Republicans’ to offer speeches endorsing Sundown Joe. These include Colin Powell (who last voted for a Republican presidential candidate in 2004), Cindy McCain (last seen making use of her husband’s demise to lob catty cuts at Sarah Palin), CNN employee John Kasich (last seen offering the view that a Biden family scandal was a reason to impeach Trump), and a ‘top official’ named ‘Miles Taylor’ (who was on the office staff of one of Trump’s cabinet secretaries – at least that’s what the media says).

11. One underreported fact is how many GOP voters showed up at their primary to ratify Trump as the only candidate. Top of my head, it was triple the number of Dems who voted for Obama in 2012.

    In Colorado, Trump-supporter Lauren Boebert unseated an incumbent GOP congressman, turning out 100,000 votes in the process. Normal turnout for that district is 40,000.

12. Z Man’s article on the Democrat Convention says that it’s a BoomerTech BoomerCon with all the charm and creativity of a corporate video. Like most things on BoomerVision it’s for people who are really too old to be in touch with realities in the Current Year. In this case the format was also designed from the ground up by people who are out of touch.

    “That tells us the people running the DNC and the Biden campaign are just as old in their thinking as the people running the party. Joe Biden (77), Nancy Pelosi (80) and Chuck Schumer (69) hit middle age before the typical voter was born. They were set in their ways before the first ISP came into operation. These are analog people living in a digital age, by avoiding anything new and different. This virtual convention was made for people who put their face right up to the screen in a Zoom session.”

    https://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=21115

13. Speaking of the election, pay attention to the fact that Trump is outworking Biden by a hefty margin. This was also the case in 2016 with Hillary. It’s less noticeable this time around without the big rallies but it’s absolutely the case.

    Mike

14. @Parker, on “Most people have made up their minds.”
    I’ll bet that many Moderate Liberals (like my daughter) haven’t.
    I was rather struck, when she volunteered how unimpressed she was, by the Dems’ harping on the “historic” aspect of the choice of Harris for Veep, and by how lacking it was about anything substantive.

    I’ve long viewed Moderate Liberals as a key swing constituency
    in this volatile environment, even aside from the chances that they’d be much moved, if Durham makes big waves.
    This election is, in effect, an Identity Election like no other, and will also be a Fear Election like no other.
    If, say, the Harper’s letter about Cancel Culture gets better known, that could make big dents in Moderate Liberals’ habits of voting Dem.

    While I doubt that many would go for DJT, many could easily vote 3rd party, or skip voting for a POTUS.

15. Joe Biden (77), Nancy Pelosi (80) and Chuck Schumer (69) hit middle age before the typical voter was born

    The median age of the voting population is 47. Unless you fancy people hit middle age at 22, no they didn’t.

16. The biggest wild cards in this election are, the likely drastic (high-risk?) moves by the Deep State/ Sil. Valley, e.g. shutting down the Web.

17. @Art Deco Prince of Almanacs:

    Median age(47 according to your Grimoire) members of the voting population are at the least semi-digital and switched on. Or they’ve been sleeping under a rock for the last two decades.

    The people who ran Democrat media strategy for the Convention were middle aged before Internet and especially streaming contenting social media became mass phenomena.

    Don’t be like Zaphod when he’s not taking his medication and doing his meditation. Don’t dig up chewy irrelevant bones and drop them on the carpet. Also, Parked Cars do not make good hunting.

18. @aNannyMouse:

    Yep… These scumbags would love to shut down the web and put the USPS into manic overdrive until the ‘votes’ are ‘counted’.

19. Expose, counter-punch and win! Do not overlook this 20 minute interview with viral Twitter star, 8 million views of her powerful Republican campaign video. Extremely powerful – compellingly succinct – a devastating riposte to BLM:
    https://kimkforcongress.com/

    She’s also newly invited to speak at the coming RNC convention.

    Kim’s work founding a non-profit in Baltimore, and discovering Democrat grifting and widespread corruption was eye-peeling. And revolting.

    https://www.sebgorka.com/video/theyre-rightly-afraid-of-me-kim-klacik-with-sebastian-gorka-on-america-first/

    Aid goes into government to better urban problems and then disappears.
    Gorka tells her that it’s the “ethno-hustle,” as Al Sharpton has done for 40 years. “I’m done! I’ve had it!” she says.

20. Somewhat on topic from the “conservative” German Bild Newspaper in-house columnist:

    August 18, 2020 – 10:05 pm
    The man who wants to defeat Trump is a long-suffering man. His wife and daughter died in a car accident.

    His two sons survived seriously injured. He was a single father. His son Beau developed a brain tumor and died in his arms.

    Joe Biden is known to have his bereaved phone numbers given to him to comfort them.

    He’s the other American, the vulnerable, the vulnerable.

    What will America choose? A Comforter or a Conqueror?

    Trump has just allowed the oil drilling in Alaska. In a nature reserve where polar bears and reindeer are now threatened.

    This Trump is terrible. The world doesn’t need a conqueror. The world needs a comforter.

    sincerely

    Yours Franz Josef Wagner

    Perhaps he will be invited to represent Germany on the closing night of the digital convention. What are the chances of this, Expat?

21. Jeez…just came across this:

    Archbishop Elpidophoros of America delivered a benediction on the third day of the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, urging listeners to “fight against injustice, inequality and hatred.”

    “We pray for the sake for our nation and its future. We pray that you will shine the light of your countenance upon the delegates of this convention and upon Vice President Joe Biden for the highest office in the land,” Elpidophoros said in a video shown to delegates.

    “As we face the future as one American nation, bring us to our best selves and inspire our better angels in peace, in fairness and in generosity, that we may fight against injustice, inequality and hatred. That we may achieve a common good, a greater good, in the name of the Holy Trinity we pray, amen.”

    His benediction closed the third night of the convention.

    Not an easy task to convince my Greek and German friends the benefits of a continued Trump presidency. It is lonely out here!

22. “…a long-suffering man…”

    And Americans CAN and SHOULD vote to suffer along with him. Maybe even voluntarily embrace dementia—in solidarity, compassion and caritas with the poor, vulnerable, comforter (“Duvet Dude”?) from Dover….

    OTOH I can’t help but feel that it oft seems that huge swaths of voters have already embraced it….

    Anyway, here’s the “son-of-a-gun” kid, the “no-malarkey” marvel “[inspiring] our better angels in peace, in fairness and in generosity…”
    https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=797504800724150

23. The people who ran Democrat media strategy for the Convention were middle aged before Internet and especially streaming contenting social media became mass phenomena.

    The press secretary to the Democratic National Committee is one Brandon Gassaway. He is 32 years old.

24. Among those who’ve not made up their minds may be Taibbi, whose long recent interview with B. Weinstein is quite worth a look, see https://bernays.substack.com/p/cancel-culture .

25. @Zaphod:
    And, the Dems may strive to physically prevent DJT voters from being able to get to the polls (e.g. via antiFa blocking doors), or to stop their votes from being included in the official count (until it’s too late).

26. Xylourgos:
    Somewhat on topic from the “conservative” German Bild Newspaper in-house columnist….

    German media has the aroma of a month-old dead fish. Here are 2 examples of lying, shoddy German media reports on the United States, one from 2007 and the other from several years ago.

    Markus Günther @ David’s Medienktitik. The detail is there IF you are interested in learning it.It’s old hat for me.

    Der Spiegel reporter fired for false Fergus Falls reporting.

    BTW, my late brother-in-law, who emigrated as a child with his family from Germany after WW2, had a similar opinion of German media.

27. Xylourgos:
    Not an easy task to convince my Greek and German friends the benefits of a continued Trump presidency. It is lonely out here!

    German friends like Herta Däubler-Gmelin? Recall that Herta Däubler-Gmelin had her 15 minutes of fame in 2002 for comparing George Bush to Hitler, and for calling the US justice system “lousy.” All too often German criticism of the US is a cover-up for an underlying German misdeed- and so it is with Herta Däubler-Gmelin, whose father’s signature facilitated transport of Jews to the death camps.

    Herta Däubler-Gmelin was born in 1943 in Slovakia/Slovak Republic, where Hans Gmelin, her jurist father, helped dispense Nazi justice as the principal deputy to Hanns Ludin. Ludin was in charge of the Nazi satellite state of the Slovak Republic. After the war, Ludin was executed for war crimes.

    Documentary evidence discussed in an April 25, 2005 article in the Schwäbische Tagblatt indicates that Hans Gmelin was directly involved in the deportation of Slovakian Jews to the Nazi death camps. As author Hans-Joachim Lang notes:
    Whether Eichmann was announcing his arrival [in Bratislava] or railway officials came by to discuss “questions relating to the shipment of Jews” or the Reich Central Security Office was welcoming the Slovak government’s “making available of railway equipment,” initials on the documents always confirmed who had been informed: for example, “Gm” for Gmelin.

    An estimated 70,000 Slovakian Jews, representing over three-fourths of the pre-War Jewish population, died in the Nazi camps.

    Hans Gmelin spent three years in prison after the war. He later spent 20 years as Mayor of Tübingen.

    Herta Däubler-Gmelin ‘s English language Wikipedia page mentions that she was born in the Slovak Republic in 1943, but doesn’t inform us why her father was in Slovakia during WW2. Its only mention of her father is that he was mayor of Tübingen from 1954-1974. German language Wikipedia page on Hans Gmelin is comprehensive, though.

    I suspect that Herta Däubler-Gmelin’s condemnation of George W. Bush, and her “lousy” characterization of American justice, were attempts to show that her Daddy and Germany weren’t the only guilty parties. Herta Däubler-Gmelin is not responsible for her father’s actions during World War II, but from her criticisms of the US, it appears that she feels some responsibility for her father’s actions during WW2, or that she resents the punishment meted out to her father. As such, we should dismiss her criticisms of the US.

    .Do You Remember Herta Däubler-Gmelin? – World Politics Review

28. Xylourgos:
    Not an easy task to convince my Greek and German friends the benefits of a continued Trump presidency. It is lonely out here!

    It is especially difficult given the tendency to herd instinct in Germany. I recall reading in my Alumni magazine about one of our students on a junior year abroad in Germany around the time of Iraq War 2. He pointed out that opinion in Germany was close to unanimous against the war. By contrast, the US had a lively discussion about Iraq War 2.

29. “ He pointed out that opinion in Germany was close to unanimous against the war. By contrast, the US had a lively discussion about Iraq War 2.”

    Funny though, the Reichs oil supply lines were protected by American soldiers and taxpayers in Iraq
    The US Army should have stopped at the Rhine.
    Since Nazism began in western Germany, that region should have suffered the same Soviet retribution as Mittel and Eastern Germany

30. Maybe the missing viewers went here.
    https://babylonbee.com/news/poll-finds-most-americans-would-rather-jump-into-volcano-of-angry-geese-than-watch-democratic-convention

    The media certainly went here.
    https://babylonbee.com/news/media-criticizes-trump-for-making-them-tear-the-country-apart

    And the Democrats went, not surprisingly, here.
    https://babylonbee.com/news/man-who-has-been-in-government-for-48-years-promises-to-fix-government

31. @Parker, on “Most people have made up their minds.”

    In case anyone knows someone who hasn’t yet decided who NOT to vote for (because they aren’t the ones who are already enthused about voting FOR one of the parties), send them this post by Doc Zero.

    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1296055068928737280.html

    What a contrast to see the Dems march out their hideous foreign policy failures – never forget the path to 9/11 ran under Bill Clinton’s desk and he helped China declare war on the free world – at the moment Trump is bringing an “impossible” realignment to the Middle East.

    And for an added bonus, the Dems have recruited the GOP’s worst foreign policy failures to endorse their joke candidate! No one pushing Biden is capable of even UNDERSTANDING what Trump is achieving in foreign policy, let alone duplicating it.

    Bill Clinton and his ilk sold the free world out to China for campaign cash and big money for their rich globalist friends. They never even understood what game they were playing, and they didn’t WANT to understand. They, and the neocons, get us into wars by throwing tantrums.

    Foreign policy might not be a big mover in most presidential elections, but it really should be in this one. It’s tied inextricably to how the candidates view the American people and our place in the world. It tells you that a candidate understands the game and plays to win.

    For FAR too many years, we’ve been tricked into ignoring Democrats – and too many Republicans – as they actively played for other teams, driven by blind greed, absolute folly, and an ideology that tells them America and its people are the source of all evil in the world.

    You can tell how bad it had gotten because when Donald Trump said “America First,” it was treated as heresy, blasphemy, bigotry, nativism, blah blah blah. The notion of acting in America’s interests was considered radicalism by the Beltway establishment.

    Look at the abject failures Democrats are parading around at their convention and understand: if they don’t play 100 percent on Team America in foreign policy, why on Earth would you think they really give a damn about you when it comes to domestic policy?

    These are people who think American strategic, technological, economic, and cultural influence is evil. OF COURSE they acted to take all of that away, lining their own pockets in the process. Their foreign policy is all about submission, payoffs, promises to weaken America.

    Why would anyone think Democrats would suddenly start loving the American people, valuing our strength, or feeling some sense of duty and loyalty to us during the walk from the State Dept. to the White House? They bring the same ideology and assumptions with them.

    Democrats, and the absurd GOP leftovers endorsing them, show you who they really are when they handle foreign policy, because they think you aren’t looking. They’re among their friends, the globalist elite. They love playing Citizen of the World. Their tongues loosen up.

    Meanwhile, Trump the buffoonish outsider is delivering foreign policy miracles the Dems and RINOs said were impossible, just like he delivered an economy they said was impossible until the coronavirus struck. He knows what team he’s on and he plays to win. That’s his big secret.

    Trump doesn’t play flawlessly, but at least he grasps the rules and objectives better than anyone bloviating at the Dem convention. It would be nice if he had more help from the Seasoned Old Hands instead of having to fend off constant mutinies from them. /end

32. Convention news from Just the News.
    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/polling/nearly-70-voters-say-democratic-convention-wont-impact-their-choice

    “Conventions are still a big deal to political activists, but they are little noticed by – and have little impact on – the public at large,” Rasmussen said.

    He also argued that the last “meaningful” convention occurred in 1980, when Ted Kennedy attempted to change the delegate rules to challenge Jimmy Carter.

    “Another factor is television,” Rasmussen also said. “In the 1960s and ’70s, there were only three television networks, and they all covered the conventions as a big deal. Anybody turning on the TV would have noticed. In today’s world, consumers have a virtually unlimited supply of more appealing options on their screens and phones.”

    Conventions today are just preaching to the choir.
    (As if we were able to go to church and sing these days!)

    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/army-investigating-after-uniformed-reservists-appeared-during-democratic

    …the reservists were “part of a brief presentation by delegates from American Samoa during the convention’s roll call of states.”

    The Army has reportedly indicated that it is checking into the matter.

    “Wearing a uniform to a partisan political event like this is prohibited,” Army officials said in a Wednesday statement, according to the outlet. “The Army follows the Department of Defense’s longstanding and well-defined policy regarding political campaigns and elections to avoid the perception of DoD sponsorship, approval or endorsement of any political candidate, campaign or cause.”

    Democratic officials on Tuesday said that the intention was to “celebrate American Samoa’s legacy of military service,” according to the Military Times, though the officials did not answer questions about if having the reservists appear broke military rules.

    The outlet said that party spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa on Wednesday described the military members’ appearance as “an oversight.”

    I would believe that the reservists didn’t actually know there was a rule against what they did, considering how many high-ranking officers of the regular services don’t seem to consider it a speed-bump on their way to dump Trump.

    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/biden-theres-never-been-anything-weve-been-able-accomplish-when-weve-done

    “There’s never been anything we’ve been able to accomplish when we’ve done it together,” Biden said during his address at the Democratic National Convention.

    According to the official transcript that the Democratic National Committee sent out after his speech concluded, Biden was supposed to say, “And there has never been anything we’ve been unable to accomplish when we’ve done it together.”

    I think that was just a normal mis-speak that anyone could have made, even without senile dementia. (“One small step for (a) man…”)*
    But it isn’t helping his case.

    A lot of information here that DeMedia isn’t telling viewers.
    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/illegal-immigrant-dnc-video-was-deported-under-clinton-and-re-arrested
    “..under Obama” is added in the headline.
    And then there was that thing again about children in cages … without the admission that Obama built that.

    https://justthenews.com/nation/culture/watch-under-god-skipped-pledge-allegiance-least-two-democratic-convention-meetings
    Once was by a Muslim, which I can understand, since the Eisenhower-era addition** was clearly meant to reference the Judeo-Christian deity (although IIRC Islam supporters in the West make a big deal about how Allah is just another name for the same entity); and once in the DNC LGBTQ Caucus Meeting.

    Which I can understand.

    I’m somewhat surprised they are saying the Pledge at all.

33. * https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/07/13/armstrongs-famous-one-small-step-quote-explained/
    “The ‘a’ was intended,” Armstrong said. “I thought I said it. I can’t hear it when I listen on the radio reception here on Earth, so I’ll be happy if you just put it in parentheses.”

    ** https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-man-who-wrote-the-pledge-of-allegiance-93907224/
    A good, straight-forward history with only a little bit of snark at the end.
    “But it’s ironic that the debate centers on a reference to God that [the author] an ordained minister left out.” — He probably didn’t think it needed emphasizing in 1892, but then maybe it was deliberate – apparently, nobody asked him.

    This post adds some nuance, although I think most of it was cribbed from Wikipedia.
    https://www.businessinsider.com/under-god-added-to-pledge-of-allegiance-2014-6?op=1
    “Some consider Bellamy a socialist and his creation a criticism of rampant greed and hyper-individuality. ”
    — So maybe his socialism outvoted his clerical training. (See the Wikipedia.)

    Then, an attorney from Illinois, Louis Bowman, shook the wording up a bit. At a meeting of the Sons of the American Revolution in 1948, he added “under God,” claiming Abraham Lincoln used the same phrase in his Gettysburg Address. Almost all reported transcripts from the speech do include “that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom.”
    …
    Finally, the government became involved. In 1953, Louis Rabaut, a democrat from Michigan sponsored a resolution to add the words “under God” to the Pledge. It failed. But by then, the decision was up to President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

    It succeeded on the second try, sponsored by a Republican, and has been upheld by the Supreme Court.

    Curious trivia: God was in another popular Pledge before he wasn’t.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_Allegiance

    There did exist a previous pledge created by Captain George T. Balch, a veteran of the Civil War, who later became auditor of the New York Board of Education. Balch’s pledge, which was recited contemporaneously with Bellamy’s until the 1923 National Flag Conference, read:

    We give our heads and hearts to God and our country; one country, one language, one flag!

    There are some disputes about how and when “God” was admitted into the Balch pledge, which circulated in several versions.
    And that “one language” thing is definitely obsolete.

    As for the new one — it was written “to order” for a big celebration.

    The Pledge was supposed to be quick and to the point. Bellamy designed it to be recited in 15 seconds. As a socialist, he had initially also considered using the words equality and fraternity[18] but decided against it, knowing that the state superintendents of education on his committee were against equality for women and African Americans.[21]

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