By Dave Andrusko

DNC works to stoke abortion anger, inspire women to back Harris.

DNC 2024 live: Kamala Harris to close out convention after ‘coach’ Tim Walz gives powerful ‘pep talk’

 Oprah, ‘Coach Walz,’ and Freedom are the stars of  the Democratic Convention

“We’re Probably Approaching Peak Kamala-Mania”

It would seem highly unlikely that the media’s swoon could be any more gushing than that of last night’s coverage of the third night of the Democratic National Convention. Celebrities (think Oprah), the Clintons (both Hillary and Bill), powerhouses (Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi), and good old “Coach Walz.”

My personal favorite was a gigantic photo of Oprah, her hands raised as if giving a benediction, surrounded by a rapt audience at the United Center in Chicago [].

But, of course, this idolatrous coverage will pale in comparison to the coronation of Kamala Harris.

To be fair, I’ll examine the fact-checking of several outlets which tackled some of the grossest distortions at last night’s gathering. I’ll begin with National Review’s Jim Geraghty.

After describing Harris’s one month of uninterrupted laudatory praise, Geraghty notes

So for the Trump campaign, the good news is that Harris has enjoyed one solid month of just about the gushing, cheerleading mainstream media coverage you’ll find this side of Barack Obama or Beto O’Rourke… and the race is pretty much a tie. …

 

Add it up, and we’re probably at or nearing the high water mark for Harris. At the convention, you’ve heard a lot about how smart, tough, accomplished and determined Harris is. And yet, she’s still the woman who flamed out in the 2020 Democratic primary, and who had an approval rating in the upper thirties for most of her time as vice president. That number has rebounded… to 41 percent. Her lone policy proposal has been labeled “full of gimmicks” by the Washington Post editorial board; Post economics columnist Catherine Rampell concluded, “it’s hard to exaggerate how bad this policy is,” and Obama economic advisor Jason Furman concluded, “this is not sensible policy, and I think the biggest hope is that it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and no reality. There’s no upside here, and there is some downside.” Harris’ instincts have not changed.

Let’s move next to Factcheck.org

Abortion, Social Security and Medicare, and tax claims are outdated or inaccurate

They check off ten different examples of rhetorical overdrive gently described as “unsupported claims” or “misleadingly claimed.” Naturally, some assertions were simply made up. Attributing bogus statements to Trump has become a cottage industry for Democrats and their allies in the press.

How about the New York Times? One of their stories was headlined “‘O-prah! O-prah! Damn, She’s Good’: The Best and Worst Moments From Night 3 of the Democratic Convention.”

Under worse moments

Kristen Soltis Anderson:

I applaud Walz for speaking about his family’s infertility journey, and I am even willing to grant some latitude about being imprecise on the specifics of your own treatment. But since Walz did not use I.V.F. but a different fertility treatment, I.U.I., it hits a sour note with me to falsely imply many Republicans want to ban something they very much do not want to ban.

David Brooks:

The Democrats are not making a mistake by talking about abortion, obviously, but Democrats are making a big mistake by not talking more about how to create a growing economy, which is the No. 1 issue on voters’ minds. This was another night when they seemed to have nothing to say about it.

Liam Donovan: 

An uneven night where Democrats tried some ambitious things that didn’t always land, which doubles as a good descriptor of Bill Clinton’s speech. He may still be (barely) younger than Trump, but his garrulous style hits differently now that the oratory fastball is long gone.

And finally, CNN which closely scrutinized many comments made last night. Most of them needed “context” or were “misleading claims” or were simply “false claims.”

More tomorrow when we will go through pro-abortion Vice President Harris’s acceptance speech. My guess? It will require even more attention than today’s analysis because she will be applauded all the louder the further from the truth the words coming from her mouth stray.