politics for democrat and the democratic party. we keep saying this word over and over again, but it is a staring contest, but it s a political staring contest and doesn t look like mcconnell is backing down at this point, hallie. can i just get real with you for a minute, please? please. stephanie, please feel free to jump in on this conversation, too, because most people, right, living their lives day to day probably don t care about what s happening right now with the back and forth of this. they re going to seriously care october 16 or 17 if there isn t some kind of situation worked out that avoids the default on the debt. you ll see higher interest rates on what you pay on your credit card bill, your mortgage, et cetera. the optics piece of this becomes important in the sense that how you sort of describe it and how you talk about it. we saw that from the white house press secretary today, mike, right? making the point that this is