The Harris/Walz bus tour is now in Florida, after putzing around southeast Georgia a couple days, but before they took off, they got to hang in a Savannah cafe for a bit to go two-on-one with CNN'S Dana Bash for the VP and her running mate's first interview atop the Democratic ticket.

I likened it to a (painful, for this Falcons' fan) football game - it's "must win" and you have the lead and the ball and instead of keeping your foot on the gas and going for more scores, I felt like they opted for "do no harm." Okay, is it a 28-3 lead? No, but momentum's clearly on Kamala and Tim Walz' side, but either their plan was to not go on the offensive or they were just "tight."

In any event, hear the Q&A and my thoughts (and suggested responses they opted not to use that would've disarmed many right wing lines of attack).

PS, voter registration among core Democratic part constituencies is ahead of 2020 in Georgia. Look at THIS data.

Atlanta Voice editor-in-chief Donnell Suggs spent a few minutes today giving me some sense what it's like to be working media on a Presidential campaign bus caravan. Plus, we get to go inside that packed, festive band room at Liberty High School to hear VP Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz addressing current and future voters (and leaders).

The fallout from the Arlington National Cemetery campaign photo-op gets worse. First, the Trump campaign had been briefed days prior that they were not to take photos or videos; then some campaign goons roughed up a female Army individual who was charged with enforcing the photography ban. Also, a fallen hero's family is upset their family member's grave marker appeared in Trump's "two thumbs up" photo. Egads.

Lastly, we have a Democrat announcing his gubernatorial run; so who is Olu Brown?

It takes a big person to stop, collaborate and listen (sorry; had to) and thanks to frequent show guest Marilyn Marks, executive director at the Coalition for Good Governance, that's not all I've done when it comes to the Georgia Elections Board's antics of late; it's made me come to realize the "MAGA 3" are actually trying enact some policies and procedures to make election tabulating/canvassing more transparent and accurate.

Now look; I'm not saying their motives aren't to aid Donald Trump's 2024 goals (likely so) or that they're not trying to placate his ego by re-litigating 2020 in Fulton County (they are), but what if all this leads to Georgia and it's 159 counties getting their Election Day/night processes cleaned up, aren't we all better for it?

Marilyn provides a great example - Coffee County (yeah, that one) mishandled its May 2024 elections tabulating and - even with a MAGA majority, the Coalition for Good Governance got their elections board to see the errors in their system.

Why are Democrats and progressive groups defending the state's awful system just six years after berating it in the aftermath of Stacy Abrams' defeat? Hard to explain, but I've a theory I shared with Marilyn. Why is Brad Raffensperger derelict in his duties as Secretary of State (and as a non-voting elections board member until July)? Marilyn spells that out, too.

Got to check in with my buddy Keith McCants, Bryan County Democratic Party chair, to see how excited folks in South Georgia are that VP Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz will be doing a two-day barnstorming bus tour. We discussed Walz' appeal to rural voters and what "black jobs" appear to be to Donald Trump and more.

Speaking of Cadet Bone Spurs, reaction was salty, swift and angry from many, upon seeing him commemorate the three-year mark of the Abbey Gate suicide bombing ... at Arlington National Cemetery at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Gross enough the man sought to politicize the tragedy (why else would he be there on that day?), add to it his culpability that not enough folks are pointing to. His former national security advisor HR McMaster, however, did connect the dots on CNN last night.

Not short on reasons to be repulsed by "the Don," the Seneca Project released a new ad rallying female voters with a long list of reasons to rebuke a second Trump term.

Lastly, VP Harris' campaign dropped a new ad, themselves, outlining her housing initiatives. Long overdue - and I've some ideas how she can make them come to fruition.

The Harris/Walz South Georgia bus tour is on (where yet, is unknown) is on ... and the back & forth bickering between their camp and the Trump team about muted mics (it's wild who's for and against 'em) in the upcoming ABC-hosted debate is, too.

Former Trump national security advisor General H.R. McMaster is out with a scathing new book, incidentally, which seems to couple nicely with Donald using the 3-year mark of the deadly suicide bombing in Afghanistan as political fodder and a photo-op at Arlington, no? The man's repulsive.

Just ask his ex-wives. Speaking of honeymoons and divorces, his flirtation with Brian Kemp may be shorter-lived than expected if the Georgia Governor gets the go-ahead to clean house by removing any of the MAGA-licious board members.

Officially accepting the Democratic Party's nomination for the U.S. Presidency, Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a near-40 minute speech, weaving in autobiographical anecdotes and details and laying out a policy vision in a rather neatly-stitched speech.

I watched, along with Georgia WIN List members and guests and Manuel's Tavern and got feedback from several women - some of them candidates as well - worthy of sharing while reviewing Harris' remarks.

I also wanted to share a conversation I had with Audrey Shoemaker with Fulton County's Animal Shelter to spotlight the "Clear the Shelters' fee-free animal adoption period going through September 10th at Fulton & Dekalb's shelters and with Lifeline Animal Project. Even if you can't adopt, there are many ways you can still help.

If I'm being honest, Governor Tim Walz' speech was just "alright" ... in that I'd heard much of it before in prior stump speeches. Forgive me for being unimpressed; but his high school football teams' championship players and his wife and kids, Hope and Gus, made for spectacular accessories. In any event, I spent a good bit of time revisiting his and Oprah Winfrey's (eight years too late, in my opinion) speeches. Threw in a little of Republicans' Olivia Troye and former Georgia Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan, too.

Oh, and as I'm want to do, I spent a little time smacking back the right wing quips over BLS jobs data revisions by reminding them it happened when Trump was President in August of 2019, too.

Between former state senator Jason Carter (his "Paw Paw," former President Jimmy Carter waiting to vote for Kamala Harris), former First Lady Michelle Obama and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, oh and that raucous "roll call" vote featuring Lil Jon for Georgia, day three of the Democratic National Convention was a show unlike any before it. Let's review the highlights together.

Janelle King, one of the maligned and newly-seated "MAGA 3" Georgia Elections Board members, panned the idea of insisting Georgia revert to using hand-marked paper ballots, saying "we are altering how the election is being conducted" - as if it say ditching Dominion machines is an unnecessary last-minute alteration

Who says irony isn't dead?

Despite concerns from the left and right about the potential for hacks, notably after the Coffee County breach perpetrated by MAGA operatives, King and the rest of the board unanimously voted to stick with Dominion's touchscreens and QR codes unreadable by the human eye. Instead, they continued to add layers of local gear-grinding in the certification process, against the urging of even Republicans.

They also got stiff-armed by state attorney general Chris Carr, who gave a long-winded "no " to their insistence his office (again) review Fulton County's 2020 results.

Night one of DNC 2024 was electric - from Hillary Clinton basking in a "lock him up" crowd-glow to Georgia's Rev. Senator Raphael Warnock continuing to be effective displaying the Democratic Party's moral compass in stark contrast to Donald Trump and MAGA extremism. Oh, and those three women (and a husband) stepping forward to share their reproductive horror stories. Memorable stuff.

Personal anecdote last night I was involved in a scuffle where a guest in our condo building got belligerent and unruly. He'd had a long day of drinking and was wandering the building and making some residents anxious and nervous. Some neighbors and I tried corralling him to guide him back to whatever unit he was staying in, and the guy got physical.

My 8:45pm call to 911 likely caught it all on audio recording before Atlanta PD end the call. No one from the department arrived until 12:15am.

Atlanta doesn't need "Cop City" as much as Atlanta needs more COPS in the city. What my neighbors and I dealt with last night wasn't deadly - but what if it could have become deadly?

I went to bed having given up on my city's police department to show up two hours after waiting and one hour before they arrived. Atlantans deserve better.

Okay, enough about that; Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's ⁠roaming the state testing counties' voting machines and tabulation processes⁠. Then, get this: former Fulton County Elections supervisor Cathy Woodard - frequent pundit on local TV's "The Georgia Gang" - recorded her appearance for that show Friday morning, then filed an ethics complaint against the "MAGA-3" not he Georgia Elections Board. Legislative Democrats followed with their own call for action over the weekend, as well. Woolard's action is particularly delicious in that Governor Brian Kemp is mandated to do something - and that something will anger Donald Trump.

Competing economic messages have been unleashed by the two major Presidential candidates; one a rambling off-prompter tirade of incoherence by a buffoon in front of tables of grocery items, the other a pointed list of actions the American people need relief on: grocery prices, more and attainable housing and tax breaks for families raising kids.

Seems an easy choice to make.