Corazon de Leon wrote:Problem is, Corona has seen Trump hit record approval levels - I think he broke 50% a couple of weeks ago, which he's only rarely even come close to. I don't really understand how either, his handling of the situation has been an unmitigated disaster almost to the point of criminality.
In fact there's no almost about it, his handling of the Coronavirus situation has been nothing short of criminal.
Approval rating doesn’t necessarily directly translate into votes though, and Biden is still currently comfortably ahead of Trump nationally and in some key states.
One of the problems is going to be the campaign itself. Biden is the most underwhelming Democratic candidate for 20 years and doesn’t have any kind of easily processable inspirational aura like Obama and Clinton did. He’s not going to have a good, coherent campaign and his stance on healthcare isn’t going to do him any favours if a quarter of the workforce lose their insurance during a pandemic. While that and the sexual assault allegations may not direct voters to Trump, it may still keep them away from voting altogether, especially if coronavirus is still a threat in November.
The other main issue is the Republican Party doing its usual thing of suppressing voting rights and basically not making this a fair election, something you sometimes wonder if the DNC honestly gives as gooseberry fool about anymore. We already saw it in Milwaukee this week and there’s little to suggest it won’t be a similar scene in other areas of the country.
The good news is the Democrats only need to win Florida and one other key state, with Biden potentially winning Arizona, North Carolina, and Michigan anyway. What’s interesting is that Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, both seen as loses in 2016 that a Biden run for the presidency may have mitigated might stay Trump states.