It shouldn’t be even this close.
A week out from the US election and it’s incredible that there’s still a remote chance that Donald Trump could squeak back in.
After four years wreaking havoc on the White House, the United States and the rest of the world, you would think that at this point there would be absolutely no discussion of any possible pathway to victory.
And yet.
In an interview last week Democratic Congressman Joe Courtney described the mood of his party as hopeful but still with “high anxiety”.
Not surprisingly, the Democrats don’t want to count their votes before they’re cast, despite widespread signs of a huge advantage to Joe Biden.
They were presumably concerned by a story in The New York Times last week about polls that showed Trump neck and neck with Biden in seven out of 10 battleground states.
It was noted that Trump won last time thanks to a carefully plotted path to electoral college victory targeting those same states.
Then came last week’s presidential debate. It was meant to be the third, but the second got skipped in all the excitement of the Trump COVID-19 health crisis.
Remember it was a mere two weeks ago Trump announced he and most of the people around him had contracted the virus. It was meant to be the killer blow to his re-election hopes, taking him off the campaign trail in the crucial final weeks.
Unbelievable, then, that the final debate actually went ahead and in relatively normal circumstances. Biden presumably didn’t want to look like he was dodging a fight, given the whole attack line from the Trump camp that he’s cowering in a basement somewhere.
But all it managed to do was give Trump a do-over for his disastrous first performance. While he continued to lie blatantly, especially about COVID-19 statistics, he did it in a less unhinged way, and was not directly challenged on some of his more outrageous falsehoods.
It makes you wonder why Biden took himself off the campaign trail for days to do debate prep at all.
Meanwhile Trump continues his frenzied rallies, crisscrossing the country to key states right up until election day. And some polls show his plummeting figures might have plateaued.
The stories about Trump haemorrhaging women and older voters might be correct. Yet as Texas showed overnight, Biden is still not inspiring the crucial Latino vote in many states.
In fact the key issue will be how much Biden inspires the wider vote (though the Democrats are taking comfort in the record early voting turnout).
Despite being a (relatively) young woman of colour, Biden’s running mate Kamala Harris has also failed to inspire huge excitement in her own right.
Yesterday Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirmed she would stay on in the job if the Dems retain the House as expected — but it should be noted that, at 80 years old, she serves to make the 77-year-old Biden look young. Or younger, anyway. And they are both positively youthful compared to the senior California Senator Dianne Feinstein, who is 87.
As the senior Democrat on the crucial Senate Judiciary Committee, Feinstein has been criticised by her own party for her embarrassing performance in the recent confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
The Senate will confirm Cohen today, giving the conservatives a 6-3 majority. That will be the real legacy of the Trump presidency for generations to come, no matter who wins next weeks.
Can Donald Trump win re-election? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication in Crikey‘s Your Say column.
I only know what I have seen on ABC and SBS and some info in Crikey and Conversation, but I suspect many US voters know less than me, and seem to think the orange fruit bat is the best thing since we crawled out of a cave and sliced bread. They seem to either not know or don’t care about US diminished standing in the world, the havoc of Corona, the plight of the less well off, health care or people who aren’t white. And yea he might just get “4 more years”. I wonder what the end of that might look like?????
Just guess but, .. horrible?
ABC, SBS, and Crikey. Such a shame you rely on these supposedly independant “media” outlets for your information. None of these organisations have prepared any serious stories about Biden corruption.
There is plenty of info out there so go and look and decide for yourself. It is as though the ABC, SBS and Crikey and others are actively promoting one side of politics and engaging in activism. The question is why are so called journalists, and so called independent media, behaving like this?
Jimbo, the corruption allegation you make has been discredited. His son Hunter has leveraged his name from time to time but is yet to be found to have acted corruptly. Joe has had nothing to do with it. Trump on the other hand…. well why do you and his supporters completely ignore he and his family’s decades of dodgy deals – business and personal.
You are misinformed. Their ex business partner has confirmed that Joe Biden not only knew, but was directly involved in decision making, and was to receive a cut. This ex business partner has also verified that the emails with his name on them, that have been released from Hunters Laptop, are real, as are the text messages. And he handed in three phones to authorities a couple of days ago, after a press conference, that contain correspondence between him and the Bidens and the other business partners including members of CCP. The emails show that Joe Biden gets a cut. Do a search for Tony Bobulinski.
yes of course, all that Biden corruption! Lucky Honest Don is there to save us from that!
Lets all pray for a trump win, the U.S deserves 4 more years of this raving lunatic, the simple fact he`s there is enough proof the average U.S voter deserves him and at least 4 more years of hard labor and diminishing life styles under his is what they deserve.
Agree.
The same applies in UK – they chose Bozo in full knowledge, like Trump. No subterfuge, no disguise.
What scares the bejazuz out of me is the same ‘fluence affecting us.
Sign Krudd’s RC petition, closes Nov 4th.
It has now reached 400K, the highest Parliamentary petition ever.
https://www.aph.gov.au/petition_list?id=EN1938
I reckon Bronwyn Bishop must look at Feinstein and Pelosi with a lot of envy.
I cannot fathom the circumstances that make Trump look electable. Last time made sense, this time it’s pure insanity.
I would think that the High Court, even with its strong right leaning bias, will be cautious if Biden wins. If the Court reverses Roe vs Wade or undermines Obamacare, this will be an open invitation to an outraged Democratic Party to rebalance the Court. This would then undermine its current ability to put a conservative gloss on less controversial matters.
I fear you are missing the point. If the Supreme Court (this is about the US, so it’s not High, that’s AU) decides Biden has lost that’s the end of it. The phrase “if Biden wins” means nothing if a challenge goes to the Supreme Court, until there is a decision from that court. It’s fair enough to say “if Biden receives more votes” or “if Biden gets a majority in the Electoral College” but neither of these things means Biden wins. It’s also quite possible the election will stop when only some votes are counted so it will be impossible to say with any confidence who received the most votes. Once the Supreme Court is involved the winner will be the one chosen by the Supreme Court. As things are today, it is even less likely than it was in 2000 that the Supreme Court would permit a Democrat to be president. That’s the bottom line.