Memorial Day, which was celebrated on Monday, was the unofficial start of the summer (the official start is June 21, also known as the summer solstice.) I thought this would be a good time to review the state-of-play of the upcoming presidential election. So here goes.
Originally there was great fanfare for the Democratic nomination for president. The longtime front runner, until he wasn’t, Joe Biden, stumbled through the first couple states, and was thought to be a dead man walking. Then Congressman James Clyburn bailed the Biden campaign out in South Carolina. Then the Democrat powers-that-be pressured virtually all the other candidates out of the race. They all eventually endorsed Biden, and he had the nomination in the bag.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, had a few disgruntled opponents in the Republican primary, but they were going nowhere fast. President Trump’s strategy for reelection was to run principally on the strong economy he’d created, resulting in record low unemployment numbers. His principal means of campaigning would be continuing to pack arenas and stadiums with wall-to-wall enthusiastic supporters.
Now all that’s changed. President Trump is battling the coronavirus pandemic with nearly 100,000 American deaths, so far. And Joe Biden, is hunkered down in his basement.
President Trump has pulled together a very strong team to fight the menace, led by Vice President Mike Pence, and including such heavyweights as Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx . This team has coordinated the effort to contain the spread of the virus and save as many lives as possible. Of course much of the mainstream press act like mouthpieces for the Democratic Party, and in their opinion, Trump can do no right. And Joe Biden, remains hunkered down in his basement.
The virus, and its accompanying shutdown of much of the American economy, has resulted in unemployment rates approaching those of the Great Depression. The President is determined to reopen America, get Americans back to work, and get the economy humming again. And Joe Biden, is hunkered down in his basement.
The upcoming election looks very different today than it did prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Today it’s likely to be principally a referendum on how well the American people believe President Trump handled the greatest pandemic to ever visit the shores of this nation. Democrats will claim that Trump didn’t act quickly enough to stop the spread of the virus. Republicans will say that not only is that not true, but that Democrats have a lot of nerve criticizing Trump, when Joe Biden called President Trump’s decisive early action to stop immigration from China “xenophobic.”
It’s going to be an ugly, bitter, and close race in my opinion. I know the President would like to get back to his signature way of campaigning – the packed-to-the-rafters rally. However, it’s going to be tough to do that with social distancing and all.
And Joe Biden? Well, he’s hunkered down in his basement.
(P. S. My prediction – Trump wins in a close race.)