SERIES 3 EPISODE 12: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump has doubled down on his smearing of military heroes, of Medal of Honor recipients, by comparing them to the likes of Miriam Adelson and her late husband Sheldon. To a local news reporter in Pennsylvania, he insisted veterans are not enraged, that he has not done untold damage to his supposedly-ultra-patriotic base, and naturally he made it worse because now he had to clarify that what he meant was that Miriam Adelson LOOKS better than Medal of Honor winners because the Medal of Honor winners are often horribly wounded or dead and who wants to look horribly wounded or dead.

The polls continue to be so good, so uniformly, that it’s now hard to keep up with them and probably not worth doing so. As you already know, Sunday CBS News polling put her up THREE but ABC and the Washington Post pegged it at SIX. Morning Consult not only saying its tracking poll has her now up 48-44. It was THREE points last week. She’s also above water on favorability, 50 to 45… so plus-five-favorable, her high water mark and something Trump has never approached

J.V. VANCE, MEANWHILE figuratively stumbled over the ordering of a cheese steak in Philadelphia. And if he brings "his" new dog Atlas back on th campaign trail, dog-walking experts predict he literally stumble over him.

OH THE CONVENTION? 

From deep in their souls you can hear the disappointment forcing its way out like a primal scream: the primal scream of reporters who were promised tear gas and got only their own tears, the reporters – nationwide on Fox, internationally on BBC – heart-broken, stunned, disbelieving: There were no riots at the Opening Day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Not one goddamned canister of tear gas. And the number of protesters turned out to be overestimated by perhaps 90%. And yes I'll be damned if I know why they still hold conventions.

Your time is much better spent listening to a guy from NewsMax explain that Trump is in a slump and needs to reintroduce himself to the electorate by going retail. Drop the hour-long speeches. Give golf tips. Bring his grandchildren to supermarket parking lots. No, I'm not kidding, and no, I cannot sufficiently convey how hilarious it is.

B-Block (23:50) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Laura Ingraham - who once turned the Republican National Convention into a Hitler Salute To Trump - complains there's too much "show" at the DNC. Sure Nancy Mace is an idiot, but if Abby Phillip and CNN wouldn't platform her, we wouldn't have to listen to the idiocy. And Marcel Teloma has a foolproof plan for Trump Victory but I have a better one: why settle for JUST the Republican nomination?

C-Block (32:59) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The television world - and the liberal world - rightly mourn Phil Donahue, who died Sunday. But it must be said and it must be said now: the final act of the Donahue TV story, in which he claimed MSNBC fired him for opposing the Iraq War even though he had the network's highest ratings. Almost none of the story is true, and I know this not merely because I was there as it happened as what was an initially disinterested uninvolved bystander, but more importantly, why would they have fired him for opposing Bush and Iraq when the show that replaced him was called "Countdown With Keith Olbermann"?