TWO WEEKS OUT: WHERE THE 2020 BIDEN-TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL RACE STANDS

 

                                   WEEKS

Let’s start with three basic truths about the 2020 presidential election two weeks from the day the vote counting starts (millions are voting early and have been for some time):

1.                        Democratic nominee Joe Biden enjoys a solid lead in the polls;

2.                        incumbent Republican President Donald Trump could win, but his path seemingly narrows every day; and

3.                        the factors that swung the 2016 election to Trump have not surfaced so far.

This is the universe in which both nervous Democrats and hopeful Republicans live as the race comes down the home stretch.

Biden’s Lead

As of October 20, two weeks before election day:

*Biden leads in fivethirtyeight.com’s national polling average by more than ten points and just under nine in the Real Clear Politics polling average.

*In the three decisive battleground states Trump won in 2016 by a total of 77,000 votes, Biden leads by five points or more in the 538 and RCP polling averages for Pennsylvania, by six in Wisconsin, and by seven in Michigan.

*Biden holds narrower leads in other battleground states Trump won in 2016 including Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and Arizona.

*Three states – Iowa, Texas, and Ohio – are essentially tied. Trump won them all last time and he likely has no path to a second term without at least two of them.

Should Biden hold his leads in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin and win the states Hillary Clinton carried four years ago, he need not win any of the toss up states (Iowa, Texas, Ohio) or other battleground states. Right now, Trump doesn’t lead in any state Clinton won four years ago.

 

Trump Could Still Win

Nate Silver’s 538 forecast, based on computer modeling  using polls, gives Trump a 12%

chance of winning. On the eve of the election in 2016, with Clinton leading in the polls, that forecast gave Trump a 35% chance of winning. Trump still enjoys a structural advantage in the electoral college because of small western and southern states he seemingly can’t lose. If he could flip a few states where Biden now leads narrowly, he possibly could pair those with states like Arkansas, Wyoming, and the Dakotas where he’s likely to win by more than 15 points and perhaps cobble together an electoral college majority.

Trump also draws encouragement from the idea of the so-called hidden Trump vote. Supposedly a sizeable number of Trump supporters don’t reveal themselves to pollsters, but will turn out on election day and put him back in the White House.

Evidence that a hidden Trump vote exists is tenuous at best and results from myths that have sprung up about the 2016 election, especially the idea that the polls got  

everything wrong. In truth, the 2016 national polls forecast the popular vote accurately. Clinton held a three-point lead going into election day and won by about 2.3 points, well within the margin of error for any poll.

As Clinton pointed out in her book What Happened, not  many polls were in the field in

the final days of the campaign in states like Wisconsin. They didn’t measure there the drop in her support, seen elsewhere and likely caused by FBI Director James Comey’s reopening of the e-mail investigation.   

Biden’s lead has remained stable. It has endured since the spring and has grown, in part, because of Trump’s abysmal handling of the pandemic. Relying on a hidden vote seems like a fantasy now, but only counting the ballots can tell us if such a thing exists.

Maybe the Calvary Isn’t Coming

Whatever Clinton’s complicity in her loss, and we’ve been unsparing in our criticism of her,

the things that did her in haven’t happened to Biden to this point. First, there’s no Comey on the horizon. Trump’s efforts at creating an “October surprise” through investigations into Biden and his son Hunter, Clinton, and former President Barack Obama have, so far, fallen flat.

More important, demographic factors increasingly work against Trump. Take senior

voters. Trump won them, 52-45 in 2016, but some recent polling shows Biden leading among that group. Trump’s gender gap has only gotten bigger. He lost women, 54-41 2016, and is losing them now, 55-39. He’s not winning men by as much as he did last time. In 2016, Trump carried the male vote, 52-41, but right now leads only 49-45.

Turnout among people of color could decide the election. A decrease in black turnout for Democrats, when compared to 2008 and 2012, hurt Clinton in those critical upper mid-western states. She won almost 90% of the African American vote, 66% of Hispanics, and 65% of the Asian-American vote. Biden seems headed in the same direction, but turnout remains the issue. Early indications suggest a bigger turnout among people of color, though only the counting will tell us for sure.

Long line of African American voters during days of early voting Oct2020

All of this occurs with Republican voter suppression efforts as a backdrop. Trump’s railings about non-existent fraud with mail-in voting also complicate the picture. The country may have to work through all that after election day.

 We should keep in mind the admonition of the great American philosopher Yogi Berra that the game “ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” Fair enough, but Trump has only a few outs left, the game isn’t tied, and he doesn’t have runners on base.            

THE VIRTUAL 2020 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION: A RULE OF THREES

                               

Between August 17 and 20, Democrats improvised the nation’s first virtual national political convention. One journalist likened

it to building an airplane in flight. With the convention hall empty, no delegates in funny hats, and balloon drops unavailable, the party grabbed the nation’s attention with four nights of videos, speeches without live audiences, and innovations on time-honored traditions, like a roll call that nominated former Vice President Joe Biden from 57 locations. We don’t know yet if Biden got the “bounce” in the polls convention planners covet, but they set the bar high for Republicans who take their turn starting August 24.

The three of us sat on the sidelines and watched intently. We saw some other threes worth noting.

                                  

Three Messages

First, Democrats offered a big tent. In executing their presentation, the party defined its mission as making democracy available to all, from the most privileged to the most marginalized, and everyone in between. Establishment figures, including Republicans, played their part, as did union members, front-line health workers, and ordinary people with compelling stories of personal tragedy. The objective, admittedly not easily accomplished, was moving the nation forward as one.

                          

Second, we’ve known for a while whoever won the 2020 Democratic nomination would have restoring America’s place in the world as one of his or her most important jobs. Tuesday night, two former Secretaries of State vouched for Biden on that front.

Democrat John Kerry and Republican Colin Powell assured the nation Biden will stand up to America’s adversaries and stand with its allies. Cindy McCain narrated a film celebrating Biden’s long friendship with her late husband, John McCain, a Vietnam war hero and national security icon.

Third, through technology and the speeches, Democrats made clear the threat posed by another four years of President Donald Trump. No matter how much inclusion or how many progressive ideas the party promotes, none of it matters unless Americans vote and remove the clear and present danger continuation of the Trump presidency represents.

The Wednesday night contrast of Kamala Harris’s vice presidential acceptance speech and former President Barack Obama’s grave warning about Trump drove home that point. Her history-making moment as the first woman of color on a national ticket won’t mean much unless voters exorcise the Trump cancer.

          

Three Speeches

Political conventions are about nothing if not speeches. We saw plenty of them from our sideline perch - some really good, some ordinary, some mediocre. We saw three that potentially merited the label GREAT:

Michelle Obama showed Monday night why she is so impactful. Admitting she “hates politics,” the former First Lady of the United States delivered a masterful expose’ on what Americans must do in the face of Trump’s voter suppression campaign. Voting in this election may mean standing in line “all night if you have to,” so pack a lunch and breakfast too, she urged.

Barack Obama on Wednesday night framed the electoral choice in the starkest, gravest terms imaginable. No former president had ever expressed publicly such a dire view of a successor. But, in our view, the speech met the moment. We can’t say we haven’t been warned.

                                                                 

Joe Biden gave an acceptance speech for the ages. He promised he’d run as a “proud Democrat” but govern as an “American president.” Robbed of the cheering crowd, he seriously and soberly laid out his plans for the country and drew the starkest contrast possible with Trump. Any suggestion he’s not up to the task mentally melted away in a flurry of direct, succinct sentences, well-organized thoughts, and powerfully delivered phrases. 

Three Ordinary People; Three Special Moments

The virtual format made it easier showcasing ordinary people intersecting with national politics. Consider Kristin Urquiza, Jacquelyn Brittany, and Brayden Harrington. They’re famous now because of this convention.

*Kristin Urquiza of Arizona Monday night told of her father’s death from COVID -19. She boldly declared the 65-year old man’s “only pre-existing condition was  trusting Donald Trump.” He took the word of Trump and Arizona’s Republican governor that going to a bar in June was safe. He contracted the virus and died. His daughter now crusades against the president’s reckless, inept handling of the pandemic.

*Jacquelyn Asbie operates the elevator in

the building where The New York  Times editorial board meets with candidates. When Biden arrived in January for his interview, the candidate befriended her. He asked that she place his name in nomination for President of the United States, relegating high-powered members of Congress to seconding speeches. 

*Brayden Harrington is a teenager from Concord, New Hampshire. He stutters. Biden did too as a child. When they met, Biden

schooled him on things that helped him overcome his speech impediment. Before a national television audience, Brayden helped introduce Biden’s acceptance speech and went viral in the process.

Many of the talking heads on cable networks asked if political conventions will ever revert to what they were, even after the pandemic. It’s a fair question only time can answer. Whatever the answer, the 2020 Democratic convention will always stand as a first – a monument to innovation, an airplane built in mid-air, a seminal moment in the sea of

political history. Which metaphor proves best partly depends on what happens between now and November 3.  Regardless, it was quite a show, even if we did have to watch from the sidelines.