The 2020 Presidential race

[Rewind]

Donald Trump's punitive tariffs – which he assured us would be paid for by China and not by Americans – are not only being paid for by Americans, they are leading to thousands of job losses and a huge drop in Trump's voter support.

Trump steel tariffs bring job losses to swing state Michigan
Reuters, Oct 9 2020 4:07 AM

President Donald Trump promised a new dawn for the struggling US steel industry in 2016 and the lure of new jobs in Midwestern states including Michigan helped him eke out a surprise election win.Four years later, Great Lakes Works - once among the state’s largest steel plants - has shut down steelmaking operations and put 1,250 workers out of a job. A year before the June layoffs, plant owner United States Steel Corp called off a plan to invest $600 million in upgrades amid deteriorating market conditions.

Trump's strategy centered on shielding steel mills from foreign competition with a 25% tariff imposed in March 2018. He also promised to boost steel demand through major investments in roads, bridges and other infrastructure. But higher steel prices resulting from the tariffs dented demand from the Michigan-based US auto industry and other steel consumers. And the Trump administration has never followed through on an infrastructure plan. Biden leads Trump in Michigan by 8 percentage points, according to a Reuters/Ipsos state opinion poll of likely voters conducted from September 29 to October 6.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN26U161

[Rewind]

Joe Biden campaigned this evening in Pennsylvania, a state which the latest Quinnipiac University poll shows him winning by a double-digit margin. (In the 2016 Presidential election in Pennsylvania, Trump defeated Clinton by 44,292 votes.) Biden now has the endorsement of former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, a Republican who served as Homeland Security secretary under President George W. Bush.

'A moment to put country above party': Biden makes appeal to disaffected Republican and independent voters

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/10/polit...nts/index.html

[Rewind]

Donald Trump and his campaign have lost another battle in their efforts to rig the election in Trump's favor.

Pennsylvania judge tosses Trump lawsuit over mail-in voting
Reuters, Oct 10 2020 9:32 AM

J. Nicholas Ranjan, US district judge for western Pennsylvania, today dismissed a lawsuit by President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign that sought to block drop boxes for Pennsylvania's vote-by-mail system, a victory for Democrats in a key swing state ahead of November's election. The November 3 election promises to be the nation’s largest test of voting by mail due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and Democrats and Republicans are locked in numerous lawsuits that will shape how millions of Americans vote this autumn.

In Pennsylvania, a battleground state Republican Trump won by less than 1 percentage point in 2016 and considered essential to his re-election effort, his campaign had sought to ban the use of ballot drop boxes, arguing without foundation that the containers encourage fraud. The drop boxes, which look like mail boxes, are used by voters who prefer to drop their mail-in ballots off in person, rather than send them through the mail. Trump has repeatedly and without evidence said that an increase in mail-in ballots would lead to a surge in fraud, although Americans have long voted by mail.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...KBN26V0RT?il=0

[Rewind]

CNN's Michael Smerconish yesterday compared the October 2020 Presidential polls with the 2016 October Presidential polls. In 2016, polls showed huge leads for Hillary Clinton, who was predicted to win in a landslide. She did indeed win the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College. Polls now show Biden with similar huge leads. He is predicted to win in a landslide. Smerconish implied that Biden could likewise win the popular vote but lose in the Electoral College. Of course Smerconish did not point out that Clinton was not very popular in 2016 – and Trump in 2020 is even less popular.

Joe Biden's polling better than any challenger since 1936

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/11/polit...ger/index.html

[Rewind]

In May, Donald Trump tweeted, "There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent." Well, more than seven million Americans have already voted – and, lo and behold, there has been no fraud!

Judges across the country cast doubt on voter fraud
claims pushed by Republicans and Trump campaign

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/12/polit...ims/index.html

[Rewind]

CNN's Poll Of Polls, an average of national Presidential polls of registered voters or likely voters, now shows Biden leading Trump 52% to 43%.

Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Biden lead over Trump growing in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN26X2I8

[Rewind]

Not only has Donald Trump learned absolutely nothing after contracting COVID-19, he now wants to kiss everyone? Yuk!

Trump mocks virus as he launches potential superspreader sprint to win reelection
CNN, Oct 13 2020 12:39 AM ET

Donald Trump on Monday launched a three-week quest to save his Presidency, behaving as though the pandemic that has killed 215,000 Americans was already a memory in front of a packed-in crowd – even amid chilling new warnings about the resurgent virus. In his first rally since his own bout with Covid-19, Trump painted a deeply dishonest picture of the nation's battle with the disease, mocked Biden over social distancing and vowed victory on November 3 as he began a frantic push to Election Day, marked by multiple rallies a day that could act as superspreader events. "I feel so powerful, I'll walk into that audience. I'll walk in there, I'll kiss everyone in that audience," Trump said in Sanford, Florida, showing his illness did not teach him to respect his own government's pandemic guidelines. "I'll kiss the guys and the beautiful women. I'll just give everybody a big fat kiss."

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/13/polit...ign/index.html

[Rewind]

I can not understand how so many millions of Christians and evangelicals can continue to support someone who is so overtly racist, sexist, bigoted, amoral, dishonest, crooked, corrupt and self-serving. Because Trump says he is opposed to abortion, they are apparently willing to overlook all else. How sad.

Bipartisan Christian group forms super PAC to oppose Trump
The Associated Press, Oct 13 2020 8:59 AM

A group of prominent Christians from both sides of the aisle, including a past faith adviser to former President Barack Obama, is forming a political action committee designed to chip away at Christian support for President Donald Trump in the final weeks of the 2020 campaign. Dubbed Not Our Faith, the new super PAC plans to roll out six-figure TV and digital ads focused on Christian voters, particularly the evangelical and Catholic voters who helped power Trump to victory in 2016. Its first digital ad, set to run in Michigan and Pennsylvania, takes sharp aim at Trump's claim to a foothold with Christians.

The ad says Trump "has used Christianity for his own purposes," invoking imagery of the President's photo op outside a historic Washington church amid this summer's racial justice demonstrations. Urging Christians to break from Trump, the ad states that they "don't need Trump to save them. The truth is that Trump needs Christians to save his flailing campaign."

https://www.aol.com/article/news/202...rump/24649221/

[Rewind]

CNN's Chris Cillizza believes Trump's refusal to take part in a virtual debate was carefully calculated to give Trump another piece of "evidence" he can use to explain his defeat if he loses the election: The election was rigged! Millions of fraudulent votes were cast! The deep state is against me! The liberals wouldn't let me debate Biden because they knew he would lose the debate to me!

Analysis: The real reason Donald Trump skipped the 2nd debate

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/...-the-point.cnn

[Rewind]

Biden needs to pick up more support from black voters and Latino voters. Having a former President campaigning for him should help.

Obama to hit the campaign trail for Biden in final stretch

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/13/polit...ign/index.html