Musk may elect Trump

Obama may have done in Kamala

Bridget Phetasy tweeted, “What Democrats are realizing far too late is that they’ve Bud Lighted their whole brand.”

Add Dylan Mulvaney to the nicknames for Tampon Tim, aka Elmer Fudd and Richard Simmons. Kamala is even worse. Theirs is a Dead Campaign Cackling.

The media are clueless.

On September 1, David Ingram of CNBC wrote, “How Elon Musk’s endorsement of Trump may have backfired.”

This was 6 weeks after Musk came out of the glass closet as a Trump supporter. It defies logic to argue that supporters of a billionaire who personifies the America dream somehow will be turned off by the endorsement of another billionaire who personifies the America dream.

Ingram was wise enough to avoid that trap, but that would be the only way it would backfire — if it turned Trump supporters into lumps of coal or Kamala klansmen, which are the same thing.

Indeed, while NBC reported that his approval among Democrats to 6% in September. Not mentioned was only 10% of Democrats approved of him in April.

Also not mentioned was among Republicans he gained 12 points in that time, surging to 62% and among independents he rose 8 points to 23%. You had to look at the chart to discover that.

Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who conducted the poll, declared, “It’s a damaged brand.”

Really? Overall Musk went from 30% approval to 34% from April to October. His goal is not to sway Democrats but to drive up enthusiasm among Trump supporters.

Ingram argued that after the endorsement, there were huge, major and overwhelming problems:

But the weeks since have been defined by stumbles and missed opportunities. The two men publicly disagreed about how much money Musk would chip in. Musk’s super PAC went through a major staff shake-up soon after it launched. And many other Big Tech donors have declined to follow Musk’s lead, choosing instead to sign onto the Harris campaign.

Well, the tech tycoons also signed on to Biden’s campaign and Hillary’s. To quote the title of the latter’s latest tome on how the Grinch stole HER election — Something’s Lost, Something’s Gained. Unlike Joni Mitchell who popularized the phrase in her ode to clouds, Hillary has never looked at anything from both sides.

The endorsement won’t change many votes because celebrity endorsements sell only laundry detergent, tennis shoes and snacks.

But the point of the Musk vote is not to change minds.

The point is to get people to bother with voting.

America is divided between those who put America First and those who put Government First. Call the latter socialists, fascists, communists or Satanists if you wish but they want the government to run everything because they are the government. Facebook showed its true colors when it spiked the stories about Hunter’s laptop four years ago.

Moving from 2016 to 2024, Trump’s base has expanded for two reasons: 1. He got the job done right for three years. 2. Biden sucks.

His problem is turnout this time. He’s older and not as fresh as he was in 2016. Oh we like him, but we know he will be replaced in 2028.

Enter JD Vance, whose nomination as vice president immediately gave us a vision of the future. I really do have glasses older than him. They still work. My birth control glasses from my Army days almost work and they are 51 years old. My dreams have changed as little as my eyesight. Trump nominating Vance rejuvenated my optimism that That Someday will occur.

Musk’s endorsement doubled-down that feeling.

WIRED sent reporter Victoria Elliott to Butler, Pennsylvania, for Trump’s triumphant As I Was Saying rally.

She said, “There were people who had picnic blankets, there were hot dogs for sale, and people came there from other places. There was one person who spoke to me who had driven there from Eastern Pennsylvania, which is about a five-hour drive. There were people there who had come from Ohio, the way that you would travel to go to a concert of someone you were really excited to see. And the reason I say it feels church-like.

“And I’m not the first person to say this, NPR earlier this week made that analogy as well, particularly with the idea that Trump was saved from assassination by the hand of God, was this feeling where you go in where everyone knows the lyrics to the song, everyone knows the call and response. And I think the thing that really hammered that home for me was there was a moment when Trump was speaking and somebody passed out in the stands, seemingly because they were maybe dehydrated. People started passing their water bottles forward to that person, and while they were waiting for a medic everyone spontaneously started singing the national anthem.”

Musk later came hopping on stage.

The reporter said, “He was there to whip up the troops, to really speak to the true believers, to push, push, push for voter turnout, because I think my sense with the way that the MAGA movement is right now is that they understand what the Biden team understood in 2020 where it’s not about converting new people, it’s about getting the people that are already on your team mobilized.

“He said, ‘This election is the most important election of our lifetime.’ Quite normal. I think I've heard every politician say that for the last 20 years, but then he says: ‘You have to bring everyone you know to vote. If they don’t, this will be the last election. That's my prediction. Nothing’s more important, nothing’s more important.’ ”

By publicly and enthusiastically endorsing Trump, Musk has made it easier for other celebrities to do so. That helps to get out the vote.

This is a turnout election. Again. Every election since 1992 has. In that election, Bush lost the Reagan mandate to H. Ross Perot and Clinton swooped in to take the Oval Office.

Musk is doing more than giving speeches and jumping on stage like David Lee Roth singing Jump.

NYT reported, “Elon Musk is planting himself in Pennsylvania, has brought his brain trust to help and may even knock on doors himself.”

Scott Presler, who signs people up to vote, has also cemented himself into Pennsylvania. Both men see the Keystone State and its 19 votes in the Electoral College as the key to victory.

For Presler, a dog walker by trade, it is a quest for relevancy. He wants to change the world for the better. Win, lose or draw, he has by engaging the disinterested majority in politics again.

For Musk, it is another engineering problem. How do you get an electric vehicle to recharge quickly? How do you get around LA traffic in tunnels? How do put a man on Mars?

The question before us now is how do we return America’s last best hope to the White House?

I don’t know the answer, but if anyone does — or will discover how — it is Elon Musk.

* * *

If anyone’s endorsement backfired, it was Obama’s. AP reported:

Barack Obama had frank words for black men who may be considering sitting out the election.

“Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that,” he said Thursday to Harris-Walz campaign volunteers and officials at a field office in Pittsburgh.

America’s first black president touched a nerve among Democrats worried about Vice President Kamala Harris’ chances of becoming the second.

Oh it touched a nerve all right. As one fella said, “I Got A Dad, And He Ain't You.”

8 years of being the first black president got Obama three more mansions to go with the one he already had in Chicago for being a senator, but his presidency did not do much for other black people. They fared far better when Donald Trump was president.

When it comes to the black vote, I always remind readers there are three ways to vote: Democrat, Republican, and stay home. Obama may have moved a chunk of the stay home voters to the Republican column.