US Election 2020

[Tero]

Trump will win. Simple. In a land that is so corrupt, easy peasy.

Strange old man. Trump. Wants to win election. Then he doesn't want to lead. After another year of Trump avoiding blame...

[Brian Peacock]

I think he likes the White House, being called "Mr President", having a small army of bodygaurds, and travelling on Airforce I, but he doesn't seem that interested in the boring stuff, like daily security briefings, the separation of powers, the constitution, government or governing. I think he'd be happy to lose in November, but his narcisism will still make him call it rigged and a fraud. If he does step away he's still going to be a mighty big security risk every time he opens his mouth in public. Could he be the first former president to be shot by his own security detail?

[Scot Dutchy]

He would love to be Mr. Dictator.

[Svartalf]

well, I'll just call him mister pederast, he deserves no less after all the time he has spent sodomizing the country

[Brian Peacock]

President Paedo perhaps?

[Tero]

[Joe]

It's not been in my local newspaper, but a group of "law professors, retired military officers, former senior U.S. officials, political strategists and attorneys" conducted war games for this election. That's a new one for me.

Experts held 'war games' on the Trump vs. Biden election. Their finding? Brace for a mess

WASHINGTON – They met virtually on Zoom, four days over two weeks in June, to hold simulations known in the military and intelligence communities as "war games."

There were 67 players – many of them high-profile critics of President Donald Trump – including law professors, retired military officers, former senior U.S. officials, political strategists and attorneys.

Instead of mapping out a geopolitical conflict, the group peered ahead to the Nov. 3 election, now less than 90 days away, and explored how the race between Trump and Joe Biden could turn into a post-election crisis.

John Podesta, a former top aide to President Barack Obama and President Bill Clinton's former chief of staff, played Biden. Two outspoken Republican critics of Trump, David Frum and Bill Kristol, portrayed the president.

After gaming out various scenarios, the group said its conclusions were "alarming:" In an election taking place amid a pandemic, a recession and rising political polarization, the group found a substantial risk of legal battles, a contested outcome, violent street clashes and even a constitutional impasse.

"We assess with a high degree of likelihood that November's elections will be marked by a chaotic legal and political landscape," the Transition Integrity Project, which organized the "war games," said in a report this week

"The winner may not, and we assess likely will not, be known on 'election night' as officials count mail-in ballots," the report said. "This period of uncertainty provides opportunities for an unscrupulous candidate to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the process and to set up an unprecedented assault on the outcome."

Talk about living in interesting times.

[L'Emmerdeur]

The new Trump campaign speech is getting a try-out. Many people are saying these are the best words. Nobody has heard words so good before on the campaign trail.

[laklak]

I'm ready. Plenty of ammo and Spam.

[Tero]

It will be a tight election. Trump will get Iowa. Michigan still 50/50
CNN
Yet, while Biden has maintained advantage, Trump has one thing going for him: His position is no longer deteriorating. A look at the polls shows that even as coronavirus cases and deaths rise, Trump remains within striking distancing of Biden.

An Iowa poll out Wednesday from Monmouth University makes the point well. Trump comes in with 48% to Biden's 45%, a 3-point margin and a result within the poll's margin of error. Trump won Iowa by more than 9 points in 2016. That equates to a 6-point swing toward Biden from the 2016 result, which is good for the Democrat. However, that's not better (and perhaps a touch worse) than you would have seen earlier this summer.

[Tero]

[Tero]

WP
Deep in the heart of Delaware, Joe Biden sits in the heart of his basement. Alone. Hiding. Diminished. … Biden has no answers. And after five decades of failure, he never will.”
—Voice-over of Trump campaign ad “Delaware,” released Aug. 5

The ad tightly crops the photo so that many of the participants in the conversation cannot be seen. Then it deletes people who were immediately behind Biden, including a woman in a coat and a cameraman.


The next still image appears to show a grimacing Biden in an interior setting. But it’s actually a photo of Biden speaking at a nature preserve in Cedar Rapids in September 2019.


The final image in the ad has relatively minor Photoshopping but is out of context. By now, the viewer is primed to believe Biden is in a basement; the photo is dark and he appears to be isolated, as much of the background is fuzzed out.

[JimC]

Goebels would be proud

[Sean Hayden]

Who are these people that don't know who they're voting for yet?

You'd think that right now you could call the election with straightforward polling.

[Brian Peacock]

Last time the polls were flummoxed by respondents who didn't want to say they were voting for Trump. I wonder if there's more or fewer similarly shy Trump voters this time.