Donald Trump’s campaign insists that they’re pursuing multiple strategies against Kamala Harris, but the true picture that is emerging is that the Trump senior advisers’ grand plan, for now, is to pray that the former US president has a good night at the presidential debate next month.
The game plan, in other words, has become one of hoping that Trump wins the debate so they can regain momentum – a stunning approach that shows the serious predicament for Trump and his campaign as he struggles to find ways to land effective attacks against the vice-president just months before the election.
What has happened internally in the Trump campaign in recent weeks is the realization that nothing they do in the period up to the debate is likely to cut through in a significant way that blunts Harris’s gains that have her level in key swing state polls, according to people close to the matter.
And because they don’t think the messaging will cut through, senior advisers are left hoping that Trump can energize voters with his performance on stage, the people said.
As the article says, she is only level in key swing states. While 538 does give her good chances overall, they also gave Clinton a 70% chance of winning. It is closer than it should be so make sure to get it and vote and make sure that your friends do too.
Nate Silver notes that while her projected popular vote share has increased over the last ten days, her odds of winning the electoral college has actually gone down slightly, to about 47%. This indicates that a lot of the support she has gained has disproportionately come from states she was already likely to win.
Basically, until we get more data, we can see a small convention bounce in the polling, which typically fades. If her battleground-state numbers reflect that temporary bounce, then she’s even with Trump right now and may potentially fade back to slightly behind in the coming weeks.
The general message is this: Harris has momentum, but that doesn’t change the fact that even with momentum, it’s basically a dead heat. Despite all the celebratory gusto recently, at best she’s one mistake away from losing. At worst, she’s on track to execute a flawless campaign that still ends with her winning the popular vote and losing the electoral college. No one should be breathing easily.
And that’s without factoring in all the voter suppression/purges and other state-level activities of the Republicans to win battleground states, which the Democrats have done basically fuck-all about.
Hoping the Republicans don’t do illegal and/or unethical things to win is a losing strategy. This is a candidate that tried to have his VP hanged for not subverting the entire democratic process.
All true. I feel like the Arlington scandal has legs, though.
To decent people, maybe. These are trump supporters.
I’m going with professor Alan Lictman. He is batting 1,000 in presidential elections.