How did a debate that hasn't happened yet become the biggest story of the month?

Is it too early to call Kamala Harris’s debate performance a disappointing failure?

— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) September 9, 2024

 

News, analysis, and speculation about a debate that hasn't happened yet has become THE political story of the past few days despite there being nothing interesting or informative to say before the actual event. At best we get some indirect relevance like the NYT article above that hits on Trump's misogyny. Mostly though we get trivia...

And in some cases, misreported trivia.

BOMBSHELL: The Telegraph reports that Kamala Harris is preparing for Tuesday night's debate with a stand-in Trump played by Lee Strasberg*, the famed method acting coach.

*Strasberg died 42 years ago. pic.twitter.com/EYYUsrJqVs

— David Gilbert (@daithaigilbert) September 9, 2024

While the press wasted countless hours on this, here are political stories which are receiving little oxygen despite being far more consequential.

1. Russia -- Some of the most important pundits and social media figures in the conservative movement were revealed to be on the Russian payroll, part of a massive effort to influence the 2024 election in favor of Trump. Much of the press, particularly the NYT, treated this as a 24-hour story. Briefly of interest then quickly dropped. 

2. Egypt/Trump bribery investigation.

3. Surprise gender reassignment surgeries -- Trump has not added these pizzagate-level crazy accusations to his stump speech, combining QAnon style conspiracy theories with raging transphobia.

4. "Bloody" mass deportations -- Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric and imagery is far more extreme, violent, and overtly racist that it was in 2016.

Trump yesterday in Wisconsin on his promised mass deportation: "Getting them out will be a bloody story." pic.twitter.com/JlcpdWkUG4

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 8, 2024

 5. Trump's cognitive decline. 

6.  Increasingly outrageous maneuvers to keep abortion off the ballot.

It’s a bleak story that only gets worse from here: Local news outlets report that the officers who have been conducting the questioning of individual voters are members of the DeSantis administration’s election police force. https://t.co/NPE43lYKXi

— Nicole LaFond (@Nicole_Lafond) September 9, 2024

 

BREAKING: Missouri Secretary of State @JayAshcroftMO has decertified #Amendment3, the ballot initative that could lift the state's ban on abortions.

This comes as the Missouri Supreme Court is set to hear the case for the ballot initative Tuesday morning. pic.twitter.com/cJS4uchZCe

— Alexis Zotos (@alexiszotos) September 9, 2024

 

7. This

Orlando Sentinel front page today pic.twitter.com/qpbascVQdF

— Steven Lemongello (@SteveLemongello) September 9, 2024

and if we have to play the what's-really-going-on-in-the-campaign game...

8. Quiet quitting -- in a tight race, one of the candidates has scaled back rallies and swing state appearances and when questioned about this has either avoided the question or given completely nonsensical answers.