“Bloodbath of Watergate proportions”
“President” Donald Trump has tried everything to raise his dismal polling numbers, including exposing people to coronavirus by holding events while contagious. He has made promises that he has no intention of keeping, and now, Steven Mnuchin wants to “go above” $2.2 trillion in a stimulus bill according to CNN. At the same time, Trump and his team refuse to believe the numbers and the outlook voters have on where the country is heading. Even Ted Cruz told the Guardian that he fears “a bloodbath of Watergate proportions” in November, but like all other Republicans, he thinks an improving economy will give them a shot. It is far too late for that.
Most are weary of Trump’s lies and cannot and will not believe his empty “promises.” Those feelings are reflected in polling for the 2020 election. In assessing the current numbers, CNN analyst Harry Enten provided some interesting information: “Joe Biden’s polling [is] better than any challenger since 1936.” An ABC News/Washington Post poll released Sunday shows Biden leading Trump by a margin of 55% to 43%. According to Enten, this poll is the third recent poll that put Biden ahead by at least 10% and polling above 50%. Surprisingly (or maybe not) one of those polls is from Fox News. Further, the average of all polls has Biden at 52% to 53% and up 10 to 11 points. Entens calls this “an unprecedented position for a challenger” especially with only 23 days to go before the election. Dare we believe these numbers? We know that polls can be wrong by looking back at the Clinton/ Trump contest. Enten has an answer for that.
While polls showed Clinton up by 7 points (her high), she never reached 50%. All Trump needed to do was to win the undecided vote. This year, there are not that many undecided voters. In his latest piece, CNN’s Chris Cillizza puts the undecided vote at 8%. Enten expands on that by pointing out that if all undecided or third-party votes went to Trump, he would still be down by 5 to 6 points. What about the electoral college, which gave the contest to Trump even though Clinton won more votes? These latest polls show Biden above 50% in some of the key battleground states and reviewed states that Trump won in 2016 by large margins, including Iowa. Trump won by 9 points, but the race there is now tied.
Many of these numbers stem from Trump’s mishandling of the coronavirus and have risen since he contracted the virus and seems not to care about infecting others. Historically, the candidates who bested the incumbents did so based on issues of most concern to voters, and many trusted the challengers (Carter, Reagan, and Clinton in modern times) to better handle a national crisis. In the case of Joe Biden, 59% of likely voters believe Biden will properly handle the pandemic.
So, there you have it. Things are looking good for Biden, but do not let that keep you at home on November 3rd (or earlier). We must vote in record numbers to rid our country of the dangerous charlatan in the White House.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years