Trump Can Still Win

Donald Trump has done a lot to screw up his chances for re-lection in the 2020 fall campaign.  He's insulted Dr. Anthony Fauci, blown up on Lesley Stahl during a planned "60 Minutes" interview, and ridiculed Joe Biden without offering any substantive reasons for why should vote or him.  Yet many people will vote for him, and it might be enough in swing states to get him to 270. 

Trump is behind Biden by only a few points in polls in Florida and North Carolina, two states he won in 2016.  In Rust Belt states that Biden has actively been campaigning in to win them back for the Democrats after Trump bested Hillary Clinton in them, the Republicans have aggressively registered new voters.  They've particularly registered two new voters in Pennsylvania for every single new voter Democrats have registered in that state.   And despite the rush of early voters from Democrats in many states, there's always the chance that Republicans, with a superior ground game - it's superior primarily because they're campaigning on the ground in the middle of the pandemic and the Democrats are not - will vote in big numbers on November 3 and overwhelm those Biden-leaning voters who voted early in person or by mail.

The pandemic?  Yeah about that . . ..  Although the United States still has more COVID-19 cases and deaths than any other country, Trump no longer looks like a buffoon in how he's handled it - because cases are surging again in countries such as Germany, France, and Italy, countries that supposedly either had their act together and avoided mass infections or got their act together after an unspeakable surge of infections. Trump?  He's tired of the pandemic, and a large plurality of the 327 million Americans who haven't been infected with COVID-19 likely are tired of it too.  I am not saying that people who haven't been infected have a right to put the pandemic behind them before it is over; I am merely suggesting that those who do will likely vote for Trump no matter how much he screws up.

The one thing getting me through these final two weeks of the 2020 presidential campaign  is that Joe Biden, having run an effective campaign of his own, hasn't screwed up like Trump; he's been as steady as a rock even as Trump has been sinking like one. But anyone who counts Trump out entirely is making a grave mistake.  He's one of these celebrities who can commit egregious, outrageous acts that would end the careers of lesser individuals.  As he once said, he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.

Sometimes, I think he's so evil that he could have shot someone at the corner of West 72nd Street and Central Park West and gotten away with it.   

I wonder if you know what I'm talking about?  😠