Welcome to The Lid, your afternoon dose of the 2016 ethos… President Barack Obama told NBC News that, despite a New York Times report to the contrary, he does not insist on eating exactly seven almonds each night. We would like to imagine that’s because sometimes Joe Biden loses count.
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‘16 from 30,000
Barring some sort of calamity tonight – and we know in this election cycle anything can happen -- Democrats will leave Philadelphia feeling good about a convention that avoided most of the pitfalls we saw from Republicans last week. Certainly, there has been some disunity from some Bernie Sanders supporters who probably would never embrace Clinton. But the Vermont senator’s symbolic gesture asking delegates to accept Clinton’s nomination, plus a speech reinforcing his endorsement, did a lot to help put the Clinton v. Sanders narrative to bed. (Plus, from anecdotal reporting on the ground, the never-Hillary Bernie Sanders supporters are likely gravitating towards Jill Stein rather than Donald Trump.) So, the bar for Clinton going into tonight is much lower than it was for Trump seven days ago. That’s especially true when you consider the unforced errors Trump made while attempting to cut into DNC coverage by suggesting Russians find Clinton’s “missing” emails. We’ll know next week how each party fared as far as the much-hyped “convention bounce” goes, but Democrats are probably feeling pretty good about coming out of Philly with momentum.
POPPING ON NBC POLITICS
Donald Trump Jr. suggested Thursday that Barack Obama's speech in Philadelphia Wednesday night lifted a line from his Republican National Convention remarks.
NBC’s Alex Seitz-Wald highlights 6 takeaways from the convention Wednesday night.
National security experts called Trump’s Russia comments troubling.
Did Trump commit treason?
Obama’s speech played well with the #NeverTrump Republican crowd.
And from First Read: Democrats seized on the momentum the GOP could not.
FOR THE RECORD…
“Hey look, the guy’s new to this, 50 states and New Jersey is different than Virginia, and that a Governor of one state can’t raise the taxes of’ – I mean look, he’s new to this. You got to give him some time to figure out what he’s up to.”
Tim Kaine, responding to Donald Trump incorrectly identifying him as the former governor of New Jersey
TOMORROW’S SKED
Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine hold a joint rally in Philadelphia before heading on a bus tour of Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Donald Trump campaigns in Colorado.
Mike Pence campaigns in Ohio.
