SERIES 2 EPISODE 191: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: The polls continue to underscore it. Trump's conviction, just twelve days ago, is already half as important in voters' decision-making process as where the candidates stand on immigration. 28% tell CBS the convictions are a "major factor" for them, yet this number is dismissed because it isn't by itself decisive. A separate Morning Consult poll says Trump's net favorability is now four points below that of Biden's - because of the trial. 

And yet the President, and his advisors, and the old men of the Democratic Party continue to contrive to keep Joe Biden from saying the truth in public. He says the impact of the convictions is for the public to decide. No! That’s for the public to decide? This isn’t an American Idol vote. This isn’t Coke versus Pepsi. This is democracy or dictatorship and most people don’t know and YOU, Mr. President, have to make the case. You don’t have to sink to Trump’s brain-damaged rhetorical level but “that’s for the public to decide?” HELP THEM DECIDE. TELL THEM THE TRUTH.

Part of the problem is: the campaign seems to be incapable of realizing it can do multiple attacks on Trump - from criminality to dictatorship to the price of orange juice. I'll give some examples of the variety of ads they could run.

MEANWHILE: KNOTTED BY WINDSOR. Justice Alito makes a fool of himself as my friend the investigative journalist Lauren Windsor records him agreeing that either the right or left will "win" - and he had a much better visit with her than did his wife. Martha-Ann Alito promises to get revenge against everybody, fly an anti-LGBTQ flag, and sue the bunch of them. It turns out everything we thought about them was comparatively positive.

AND JUST FOR LAUGHS: Jonathan Turley has declared Trump "elderly."

B-Block (34:44) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Alleged Democratic governor Hochul of New York, after freezing NYC congestion prices, apparently bails out on fundraiser hosted by auto dealers. Marge Barney Rubble Greene thinks electric cars run on gasoline. Politico with the typo of the year, about a fabulous "head of head."

C-Block (40:21) FROM THE SPORTS CENTRAL CENTER NEWSDESK TONIGHT: I moved this last in case you are NOT a baseball fan of 57 seasons' duration whom the game is losing. The Athletic publishes its survey of current players and guess what! Turns out they all invented the game, and anybody who played before about 2010 was incompetent and irrelevant. Worse yet, somebody grabs my personal third rail, insulting Babe Ruth. Which means I have to go through mediocre reliever Adam Ottavino's 2018 contention that he would strike Babe Ruth out every time he faced him. If you brought Babe Ruth into baseball 2024 and gave him its tiny ballparks and elaborate video scouting and training regimens, he would hit 255 homers.