Every day until Tuesday, November 3, millions of Americans will focus gimlet eyes on the polls like auguries in ancient Rome who would examine animal entrails to predict the future and come to just as useless conclusions.
Mostly, all we can say with certitude is that Joe Biden would win if the election was held in July.
We can also say that one overarching vision will conquer come Election Day.
Will it be Trump dumped because of his role as the coronavirus denier pied piper, leading tens of thousands to death, or Trump the protector, saving the suburbs and cities from rioting mobs?
That’s the clashing scenario that takes place every day on CNN vs. Fox News, the proxy warriors in this debate. Watch Fox and you’d hardly know the coronavirus exists.
It is also clear that Trump would likely have beaten Biden if there had been no coronavirus, or if he had handled it differently.
If he had stood aside for Dr. Anthony Fauci when the virus arrived, and let the health professionals dictate the strategy, Trump would have reaped the benefits and slowed the virus, and likely marched back to the White House in triumph.
Presidential candidate Joe Biden.
But he didn’t do that, and Biden has spurted ahead fueled by a growing dread, among the elderly especially, that Trump cares less about them than the ballot box.
There are great hurdles for Biden too if he is to win. The three debates where Biden gets to prove he’s not suffering from some sort of cognitive decline are critical.
The Trump campaign believes it can impact the race by claiming that Biden is mentally impaired despite their own candidate who sounds more unhinged and in need of meds every day.
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Recently the president proclaimed he had done as much for African Americans as Abraham Lincoln, equating freeing the slaves to defending Confederate statues.
When it comes to Black Lives Matter Trump is hoping to continue his phony war against protestors and scare suburban moms out of their wits at the scenario of blacks (and anarchist whites) robbing, raping and ruining in an effort to scare the bejaysus out of white educated women who have deserted him in droves.
Will it work? I’d scoff, except Trump’s vision of carnage in the Obama era was a winning tactic for him in 2016. Maybe it is the American people who are not right in the head.
Did we ever think we’d have a president call the military on to the streets knowing their presence is purely for propaganda and TV ad purposes?
In response to this outrageous behavior, Biden must deny vehemently and often that he is not seeking to defund the police, but rather is in favor of using extra funds to improve training. He must peg any federal soldiers’ intrusion to agreement with state governors that they are needed.
This has been a year like none other, and as we enter the final months it may get even crazier. Scenarios such as both candidates claiming victory results delayed for days if not weeks, refusal to give up power are no sick fantasies. They could happen.
Let us hope our better angels prevail and we reach harbor safe. Nothing less than American democracy is on the line.
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