Joe Biden just got some good news
Each day Donald Trump gets two hours of free TV airtime for his 2020 campaign, when he pretends to be holding a coronavirus press conference. Meanwhile, the cable news networks almost never air Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s press briefings, instead relegating him to occasional interviews. Here’s the thing. It’s not helping Trump – at all.
New national polling today from CNN has Joe Biden up by eleven points over Donald Trump. New polling from Monmouth has Biden up by four points over Trump. Most of the media will play up the four point poll, because a horse race is good for ratings. But the only number to ever look at is the average of polls, which now has Biden up by about eight points nationwide. Why is this important?
We already know that Trump and the GOP will try to use tactics in November like voter suppression and Russian meddling. Each of these tactics could potentially move the needle a point or two in Trump’s favor. So if you want to play it safe, Biden needs a sizable lead. Eight points is arguably a cheat-proof lead. If Biden were only up by one or two points in the polling averages, that would be cause for concern.
The other potential good news for Joe Biden is that these new polls were all conducted before Bernie Sanders dropped out. So if Biden is going to get a bounce from that, it’ll be in the next round of number’s not today’s numbers. The bottom line is that Joe Biden has become the Democratic nominee with about an eight point general election lead, and that’s a great place to be in for now. Of course it only matters if we put in the work that’s required in any election: volunteering, phone banking, and changing minds.
