(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Out of the far turn... [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-09-01 We begin today with Eric Bradner of CNN describing the “stretch run” of the 2024 presidential race with the upcoming Sept. 10 debate between Trump and Harris and some ballots ready to go out as early as this week. As the calendar turns to September, both campaigns are narrowing their focus on key battleground states — with Harris eyeing an expanded map and Trump digging in across the Upper Midwest states that delivered him the presidency in 2016 and ousted him from office in 2020. It all comes as voting is set to begin this week. The first ballots of the 2024 election will go out Friday in North Carolina, one of a handful of potentially critical Sun Belt states. Then, two weeks later, early in-person voting starts in Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia. Harris last week focused on the Sun Belt, with a bus tour in Georgia and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, also visiting North Carolina. [...] Harris’ campaign is pouring money into advertising in the Savannah media market as it seeks to broaden its appeal outside Atlanta. According to AdImpact data, Harris’ campaign has spent a total of about $1.7 million in advertising there over the last three weeks. Shelby Talcott of Semafor explains why Florida is (probably) not one of the states that Vice President Harris will spend extensive campaign resources. An enthusiastic [Debbie] Mucarsel-Powell told Semafor during a brief phone interview that Florida remains a swing state. She described an “energy” shift on the ground, both in her race and the presidential election, and urged Democrats to “come to Florida” if they are trying to make inroads with Latinos or emphasizing things like environmental protection and the economy. [...] But the optimism coming from some inside the state isn’t necessarily translating into the Harris campaign. This week they bought ad time in the state — but only in the Mar-a-Lago area, which was less an indicator that the campaign really believes the state is worth investing in, and more an example of the campaign trolling Trump — an opportunity, as The Bulwark’s Marc Caputo put it, to target the “precious real estate between Trump’s ears.” [...] Democrats have reason to hesitate, too. It’s an expensive state to play in and they’ve been burned repeatedly by recent campaigns. Scott’s prior governor and senate races have all been close, but he can self-fund and managed to defeat Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in 2018, an otherwise great year for Democrats. President Biden was able to make a late play for the state in 2020, when polling showed him in the lead, thanks in part because megadonor Michael Bloomberg funded a nine-figure push that included Florida, Texas, and Ohio. Trump comfortably won the state anyway. Democrats all but surrendered the state in 2022 as DeSantis raised huge sums of cash ahead of his presidential run and put up blowout margins in his re-election. Colbert I King of The Washington Post lauds special counsel Jack Smith for continuing to prosecute the case of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Trump is being covered by the press as if Jan. 6 were old news. Here we are, back to horse-race journalism and breathless pursuit of polls and other campaign nuggets designed to keep audiences glued to our websites, networks and newspapers — with little attention paid to the character, records of service and moral fitness of candidates who seek the highest offices in the land. To wit: Republicans Trump and JD Vance, and Democrats Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Fortunately, and for the sake of our democracy and Constitution, special counsel Jack Smith is not going to let Trump slide away from his attempt to overturn Biden’s 2020 election victory. Yes, the ultraconservative Supreme Court majority (cobbled together by Trump himself during his time in office) gave Trump a get-out-of-jail-free card with its ruling granting presidents broad immunity for official acts — a contrived loophole that carefully safeguards several of his actions to overturn the will of the voters. [...] The new indictment, redesigned to fit under the umbrella of the court’s suspect ruling, still contains enough facts to show that Trump was determined to hold on to the reins of power. Namely, evidence revealing that Trump spread lies about fraud in the election, that he sowed distrust of the results and that he targeted a bedrock U.S. government function: collecting, counting and certifying the votes of the electoral college. The two presidential campaigns exchanged X posts over the Trump stunt in Arlington National Cemetery reports Alexandra Marquez of NBC News. Harris accused Trump of "disrespect[ing] sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt." "If there is one thing on which we as Americans can all agree, it is that our veterans, military families, and service members should be honored, never disparaged, and treated with nothing less than our highest respect and gratitude," she added. [...] In a post on X responding to Harris, Trump's running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance said, "President trump was there at the invitation of families whose loved ones died because of your incompetence. Why don’t you get off social media and go launch an investigation into their unnecessary deaths?" [...] Hours after Harris' post, Trump posted a series of videos to X depicting eight family members of seven of the killed service members criticizing Harris' comments about the military and vigorously defending Trump as supportive. Several of the families emphasized that they invited Trump to the cemetery, and multiple people laid the blame for their loved ones' deaths at President Joe Biden's and Harris' feet. Vivek Shankar and Gabby Sobelman of The New York Times report on the finding of the dead bodies of six of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. Israeli military officials had announced the finding of the bodies a day earlier. On Sunday, they identified them as Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino. [...] The victims’ ages ranged from 23 to 40, according to an umbrella group of families of hostages. Five of those captured had been at a dance music festival in southern Israel. The sixth, Ms. Gat, was taken from the nearby village of Be’eri. On Saturday, the Israeli military said that it had found a number of bodies during a military operation. It did not say if they were hostages, but the announcement immediately led to speculation in Israel that more Israeli hostages had died in captivity. It also amplified calls for an immediate cease-fire so that the remaining 100 or so hostages in Gaza, both dead and alive, could be returned. On Sunday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the umbrella group, called for mass protests in Israel to demand the release of those still being held in Gaza. They also criticized Israel’s government for the “ongoing neglect of the hostages,” an implicit call for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to soften his position in cease-fire talks over the war. Finally today, Yasmeen Abutaleb of The Washington Post reports about key Harris foreign policy advisor Phil Gordon and some possible anticipated changes in U.S, policy toward Israel should Harris win the presidency. It is widely expected that Gordon would be the national security adviser in a Harris White House, should she win, and his personal views, which have not been previously reported, have largely aligned with Harris’s as the Israel-Gaza war has unfolded, according to several people familiar the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private relationship. The two have worked hand-in-hand to formulate Harris’s remarks at numerous inflection points in the war, providing clues as to how she could reshape U.S.-Israel policy if she wins the presidency. Harris would probably conduct a full analysis of U.S.-Israel policy to determine what is working and what is not, according to several people familiar with her thinking, with Gordon leading the effort. It is unclear what would come of that process, but those familiar with conversations between Harris and Gordon say she could be open to imposing conditions on some aid to Israel, a policy that President Joe Biden has largely rejected. [...] Since becoming the Democratic nominee, Harris has faced pressure from activists to break from Biden’s Israel policy — but she has declined, not least because she is still his vice president. But if she wins the Oval Office, she could set her own course. And as she formulates her foreign policy, Gordon has become one of her closest and most trusted advisers, helping to guide her through issues from the Middle East to the war in Ukraine. Everyone have the best possible day! 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