George Clooney narrates ad for Harris - months after writing damning op-ed calling for Biden to quit race

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Independent

Wednesday 30 October 2024 21:15 GMT


George Clooney provided his voice to a new ad for Kamala Harris months after calling on President Joe Biden to exit the race.

The 30-second ad spot, paid for by evangelical progressive group Vote Common Good, begins with three men walking into a polling center as one says: “Come on boys. Let’s make America great again.”

“Before you cast your vote in this election, think about how it’ll impact the people you care about most,” the Oscar-winning actor narrates as one of them pulls out his phone and eyes a family photo.

Then, the ad cuts to one of the voters bubbling in his ballot for Harris as Clooney says: “Remember: you can vote any way you want, and no one will ever know.” “What happens in the booth stays in the booth,” he says. “Vote Harris-Walz.”

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/george-clooney-kamala-harris-ad-biden-b2638587.html

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Link to tweet

Vote Common Good
@VoteCommon
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It’s time to put your love of your family over your love of Trump. No one has to know what you do in the voting booth.

#liberal #progressive #progessivechristianity #voteblue #HarrisForPotus2024
10:07 AM · Oct 30, 2024
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[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Actually aimed at women dominated by overbearing partners. . . . . . nt

[BumRushDaShow]

3. In this case no - this is aimed at men because there is ALREADY a similar set of ads aimed at women

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143330414

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Even better ! Thanks. . . . . nt

[BumRushDaShow]

9. I was actually surprised to see it

and what strategy could be used - especially when these folks live in such a severe "peer pressure" environment.

It was a clever way to suggest simply using "The little white lie".

[live love laugh]

2. Fuck Clooney.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. I agree

and unfortunately, no one else seems to be reporting on the ad, but it is newsworthy.

With a tsunami of RW-owned corporate media against us, we are at the point of the old adage - "Leave everything on the field".

[GoneOffShore]

5. Well, if that's your jawn, as is said in Philadelphia. The perfect is the enemy of the good.

[live love laugh]

6. If "the good" means embracing someone who betrayed

the POTUS we’re not having the same conversation.

[GoneOffShore]

7. Never saw what he did as 'betrayal'. But you do you.

[live love laugh]

21. Why the chiding remarks? People have differing views here all the time.

Why can’t you accept that?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. Eyes on the prize. Settle that score later. Right now he's an ally. . . . . nt

[BumRushDaShow]

11. "Well, if that's your jawn, as is said in Philadelphia. The perfect is the enemy of the good."

I am in Philly.

My issue was how he and so many others, threw Biden under the bus.

Yes "the perfect is the enemy of the good" (which is why I still posted this with that awful headline) but many of us will have long memories. This is why "politics" sucks.

[Bengus81]

20. The thing about Clooney and Riner is where was their HUGE support for Harris when Biden did drop out?

I don't ever remember seeing it,I would have thought it would be big time news. But NOW...of course they want her elected.

[NoRethugFriends]

26. Well, I guess then you hate Peolosi too. She just did it more quietly pulling strings.

Do you hate Biden for what he did at Clarence Thomas confirmation?

[Polly Hennessey]

28. Agree. Clooney, who?

[Novara]

10. Why is this controversial?

The headline wants you to believe this is controversial. It is not. As if Clooney wouldn't support Harris?

Would people rather have Biden losing in big numbers to the convicted felon? Now we have a good chance to beat that motherfucker but good.

But that's fine. Let's rekindle all the arguments we had right after the debate and it was clear that Biden wasn't up to running successfully. That's helpful days before the election.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. Agree

No one else is reporting thid as they are stuck on the "45 in a garbage truck" story, but I thought the ad was good.

But disagree that Biden "would be losing in big numbers" because there is a narrative out there, full of RW-commissioned polls, that has promoted that, and the 3 week, 24/7 beat-down of Biden was a fucking disgrace.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

14. Historical. Focus on present; debate history later. I want President Kamala Harris. . . . nt

[BumRushDaShow]

15. VP Harris is my soror as an AKA

so no reminders are needed. Her sisters have her back (as hard as it can be for me to do here on DU).

[Novara]

16. Gotta disagree

about Biden and polling. At the time of the debate he was down in the polls and the trend was showing that his numbers were getting worse. He could have reversed that trend if he had a great debate performance but we all saw what happened.

This should be a non-story. What it's done is to re-kindle the argument that poor Biden got shoved aside. Let's not give them what they want. We don't need infighting five days before the election. We need all focus to be on electing Kamala Harris and especially Senate Dems, many of whom are fighting really tough races. We may lose the Senate, and that scares he hell out of me. Even if we retake the House and we keep the presidency, we will literally get nothing done if we lose the Senate. And just imagine the fucking hearings and investigations an R-dominated Senate will open up against Harris.

[BumRushDaShow]

17. Like 2022, the "polls" are completely screwed up

They literally have no idea who a "likely voter" will be. They have "assumptions", but their complete SCREW-UP with the "Red Tsunami of 2022" and insistence that "the little woman" doesn't give a shit about her own body, is a case in point.

I understand your concern about the manufacturing and magnification of "intra-party squabbling and divisiveness", and that is why I also objected to the headline. But as I noted earlier, it doesn't seem like anyone else is mentioning this ad and when I find them, I try to post them - especially if they are youtube ones because many people on DU don't "do twitter/X", where many ads are running and posted about, so those folks miss them. But I also wanted to put out there that I'm not going to throw Biden under the bus.

[Novara]

23. Polling is completely fucked.

And it has been since 2016. They overcorrected in 2020 from 2016, and it appears they are again overcorrecting in 2024, but in the opposite direction.

I believe Harris will win. And I suspect it will not be close in most states.

The polls that show it tied? Not credible. Look at the ground game, look at the yard signs, look at the crowds filling huge venues for the Dem candidate. Look at your local events for each candidate. Look at the money raised by each campain. What you actually see with your own eyes doesn't look like a statistical tie. Right?

Polls are inexact at best, and completely false at worst. Most pollsters have a lean or bias, and most have an agenda. Polling is a science and an art, and what questions they ask, the sample size, the demographics, the confidence level, and most of all, the weighting can skew a poll from favorable to one candidate and unfavorable to the other. And then the next one will report something opposite. They tweak their weighting and they are still getting it wrong. I am anticipating the sturm and drang of pollsters crying about how they could be so wrong after this election too. Then they will overcorrect for 2028.

I look at trends. Are most of them going in one direction? That's maybe a general guidepost, but again, that isn't definitive. I look at VoteHub, which aggregates polls that are rated A+ to B- only. And even most of their results are well within the margin of error, and some experts believe that margin of error should actually be doubled. I'm not sure how they rate pollsters so I even take that with a grain of salt.

Best advice? Don't rely on individual polls. Look around you to see what's happening.

[BumRushDaShow]

25. I don't "do polls"

You might have noticed the graphic in my sigline (if you have that option turned on) -



You can't even go by the "trends" anymore. The issue is that the GOP and their conservative boot-lickers, have commissioned dozens and dozens of skewed individual "polls" that get fed into the aggregators. The aggregators arrogantly proclaim that "they correct for that".

No they don't.

In general, there are more "national polls" than "state polls" so when you suddenly get some "extra" state polls from fly-by-night, just-got-started pollsters, they are all over those, and throw them into the pile.

The aggregators end up with garbage and that feeds "the narrative" for the gasbags on teevee. I.e., they use the Nate Silver credos -

Link to tweet

Nate Silver
@NateSilver538
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I'd rather gouge my eyes out than debate the merits of individual election polls or pollsters. Take the average and trust the process.
2:21 PM · Sep 10, 2022

Meanwhile -

Link to tweet

David Brauer
·
Dec 31, 2022
@dbrauer
·
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“The skewed red-wave surveys polluted polling averages, which are relied upon by campaigns, donors, voters & the news media. It fed the home-team boosterism of right-wing media outlets … And it spilled over into coverage by mainstream news organizations, including The Times …”
jimrutenberg
@jimrutenberg
About That Red Wave
W/⁦@kenbensinger⁩ ⁦@SteveEder⁩ https://nytimes.com/2022/12/31/us/politics/polling-election-2022-red-wave.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
David Brauer
@dbrauer
·
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“Other pollsters lacked experience, like two high-school juniors in Pennsylvania who started Patriot Polling and quickly found their surveys included on the statistical analysis website 538 — as did another high school concern based at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass.”
9:34 AM · Dec 31, 2022

They are trying to do a repeat because it worked so well in 2022 to help divert money from those who could use the boost, to those that are "safe seats" -

The ‘Red Wave’ Washout: How Skewed Polls Fed a False Election Narrative

By Jim Rutenberg, Ken Bensinger and Steve Eder
Dec. 31, 2022

Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat, had consistently won re-election by healthy margins in her three decades representing Washington State. This year seemed no different: By midsummer, polls showed her cruising to victory over a Republican newcomer, Tiffany Smiley, by as much as 20 percentage points.

So when a survey in late September by the Republican-leaning Trafalgar Group showed Ms. Murray clinging to a lead of just two points, it seemed like an aberration. But in October, two more Republican-leaning polls put Ms. Murray barely ahead, and a third said the race was a dead heat.

(snip)

Ms. Murray’s own polling showed her with a comfortable lead, and a nonprofit regional news site, using an established local pollster, had her up by 13. Unwilling to take chances, however, she went on the defensive, scuttling her practice of lavishing some of her war chest — she amassed $20 million — on more vulnerable Democratic candidates elsewhere. Instead, she reaped financial help from the party’s national Senate committee and supportive super PACs — resources that would, as a result, be unavailable to other Democrats.

A similar sequence of events played out in battlegrounds nationwide. Surveys showing strength for Republicans, often from the same partisan pollsters, set Democratic klaxons blaring in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Colorado. Coupled with the political factors already favoring Republicans — including inflation and President Biden’s unpopularity — the skewed polls helped feed what quickly became an inescapable political narrative: A Republican wave election was about to hit the country with hurricane force. Democrats in each of those states went on to win their Senate races. Ms. Murray clobbered Ms. Smiley by nearly 15 points.

(snip)

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/31/us/politics/polling-election-2022-red-wave.html

What is THANKFULLY different this year is that so much money was raised by Democrats and in such a short time, that $$$ could be spread around much better.

Have you noticed some terminology that is usually "standard" in the narrative, have barely appeared in print or on air? Like "enthusiasm gap" or "red wave" or "blue wave"?

It's a shame that we will have to go by "anecdotal" information, although many of us are in "bubble" areas where we WILL either see "more blue" or "more red". But I would think the delta (change) from election season to election season, of those anecdotes, would have some kind of useful meaning.

[Novara]

33. It comes down to critical thinking skills, which too many people lack

As I said, polls are garbage and have been since they got it horribly wrong in 2016. Yet people still pay attention like they are gospel. Most people have no clue about the importance of sample size, weighting, the bias of the pollster, the way the questions are phrased, etc.

Polls are speculative, period.

[BumRushDaShow]

37. One thing that I have noticed at some of the news sites

is that they are shifting, just a tiny bit with weaselly headlines, the unusual instance of almost "exact tie" (aggregate) polls week after week. I forgot which site had the analysis (may have been The Independent) but they suggested, what many of us already figure is happening - that the poll "weighting" and what I call their black box nonsensical statistical manipulation as "corrections", are masking what is really going on, and this was being done because the pollsters were wrong the last couple Presidential elections (2016, 2020), where they claim those 2 were due to "underestimating" 45 voters. I would add 2012 in there where they were predicting that Rmoney would win and they were obviously underestimating the Obama voters.

IMHO, they have ZERO clue (or refuse to even entertain it) of who the "likely voter" is. But right now, with the level of early voting, they should have have an idea.

[live love laugh]

29. It was only crystal "clear" if you didn't support President Biden.

“ …. would people rather have Biden losing in big numbers to the convicted felon? …

Clooney seemed to want that after jumping on the Stephanoipulos/media feeding frenzy bandwagon.

“… right after the debate and it was clear that Biden wasn't up to running successfully.”

The media did everything to try to make that “clear” but it is a damned lie.

[Novara]

34. You're pushing the GOP narrative.

"Oh, poor Biden was pushed out by all these mean people."

Remember when Biden said he wouldn't run for a second term, that he'd pass the torch?

[live love laugh]

35. Every accusation is a confession seems an appropriate response for you.

[cadoman]

18. I call him George Swooney

Great spot that appeals to whatever goodness may exist in the typical patriarchal white male. The problem is that for the majority of them, it's not just love of TFG, but blind adulation and idol worship.

[hamsterjill]

19. I like the Sam Elliott ad best of all.

Clooney has lost credibility with me. Just sayin’…

[maxsolomon]

39. As did every Dem who thought Biden should step aside?

He stuck his neck out with that OpEd, but it wasn't just Clooney - by a long shot.

MUTLIPLE Dem Congresspeople - including Pelosi.

[HereForTheParty]

22. Joe saved democracy in 2020 and again in 2024

I will always be grateful.

[Silent Type]

27. We now have a real shot at winning on Nov 5th, thanks to Clooney, Pelosi, and many more and Joe Biden.

[SharonClark]

32. Thank you George Clooney

For saying out loud, what many good and loyal Democrats could see with their own eyes - President Biden was not capable of running an aggressive and effective campaign.

Thank you to President Biden for putting country over ego and not gaslighting us like many of his staff were doing.

[FakeNoose]

30. BumRush, thank you for posting this!

This is an excellent ad and it addresses a very real problem. There are lots of men in this country that seem to think it diminishes their "manhood" if they vote for a woman.

How does Kamala address this? Well she can't ... it has to be a guy that does it.

Somebody who garners respect from other American men, and whose "manhood" has never been questioned. Somebody like George Clooney. Also I would put Arnold Schwarzenegger in that category.

[BumRushDaShow]

31. I thought it was fascinating how they did that ad

because that is a real issue for those in 45-herd-mentality communities.

[ecstatic]

36. Lol. Didn't recognize Clooney's voice

I wonder if Charlie Kirk and his incel army will freak out about bros lying to bros.

[BumRushDaShow]

38. It's all in the type of microphone one uses

And nah... In their world, men are "allowed to do what they want". It's women who are too (fill in the blank - "emotional", "inexperienced", "disorganized", "needy", "inept", "simple-minded", etc.) to think for herself.

But we know better.