Here we are in the midst of the second wave of a once-in-a-half-century pandemic, with the economy flattened and millions of Americans unemployed and race riots in the streets of our major cities. And Joe Biden says that one of his highest priorities as president will be to ... reenter the Paris Climate Accord.
Dismissing President Donald Trump's claim that the 2020 election remains undecided, Joe Biden has begun to name his national security team.
Why, Democrats have been asking, do so many poor white people vote for a Republican Party that doesn't care about or do anything for them? The most common reply is: Democrats are snobby coastal elites who talk down to them. Classic example courtesy of former President Barack Obama, who said of voters in the Rust Belt: "They get bitter. They cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment, as a way to explain their frustrations."
With the Pentagon's announcement that U.S. forces in Afghanistan will be cut in half -- to 2,500 -- by inauguration day, after 19 years, it appears the end to America's longest war may be in sight.
Among the most surprising of the multiple surprising results in this election was California's rejection of Proposition 16. The ballot measure was supported by the Democratic supermajorities in the state legislature; by long-established corporations and Silicon Valley tech firms; by leaders of mainline churches and nonprofit organizations. Some $20 million was spent on its behalf and only $1 million in opposition.
Democrats may ultimately have a better shot to win the Senate than the House in two years, although winning either will be challenging.
— Democrats may have a better chance of winning the Senate in 2022 than holding the House, even if Democrats lose both Georgia special elections in January.
— The president’s party often struggles in midterms, which gives the GOP a generic advantage in the battle for Congress.
— The Republicans’ three most vulnerable Senate seats may all be open in 2022.
"Truly striking." "Tremendous." "Extraordinary." "Miraculous." "A great day for science and humanity." Those are just a few of the hyperbolic responses from government health officials and Big Pharma cheerleaders to preliminary COVID vaccine trial data released by Pfizer and Moderna this past week.
I hear that climate change will destroy much of the world.
Let's be honest: The Democrats and the media want the economy to crash before Joe Biden enters the White House in January. They have been rooting against the economy for four years now.
Because of Donald Trump, Vice President Joe Biden thundered during the campaign, the U.S. "is more isolated in the world than we've ever been ... America First has made America alone."
"I like a good contrarian argument as much as the next guy," tweets mild-mannered RealClearPolitics senior elections analyst Sean Trende, "but there's really no getting around the fact that the 2020 polling was a pile of steaming garbage."
For Republicans, the returns were mixed on Nov. 3.
Though he carried burdens unrivaled by a president since Herbert Hoover -- a plague that has killed 230,000 Americans in eight months and crashed the economy to depths not seen since the '30s - Donald J. Trump amassed 72 million votes, the largest total in Republican Party history.
Biden’s thin margins in the decisive states; third party vote declines; Senate aligns more closely with presidential partisanship; Republicans demonstrate down-ballot crossover appeal.
— Joe Biden is on track to exceed Barack Obama’s 2012 popular vote margin, but his victory in the key states is even narrower than Donald Trump’s in 2016.
— Less than 2% of the national vote went to candidates other than Biden and Trump, a significant change from 2016.
— Assuming nothing changes, as many as 94 of 100 senators in the next Congress will share the same party as the state’s presidential winner.
— The ability to generate crossover support helped Republicans perform surprisingly well in both Senate and House races.
We, the 71 million Americans who voted to reelect Donald J. Trump, do not forgive.
Yale University has fancy dining halls. They pay no property tax.
Local restaurants struggle to compete, but their tax burden makes that hard.
Think back to one year ago this month. America was at peace. American troops were coming home from the hotspots around the world. Incomes and jobs were skyrocketing, and Americans had made more wage and salary gains in three years under President Donald Trump than in the previous 16 years under Presidents George Bush and Barack Obama. The swamp was being drained.
"In victory, magnanimity... in defeat, defiance."
At this writing, two days after the election, Joe Biden appears to be six electoral votes away from winning the presidency.
1. This was not a good night for conventional polling. My review in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal of a book on the history of "polling failures" took perhaps too positive a view of contemporary polling. I find it remarkable that polling has been as accurate as it has been in a country where the completion rate for pollsters' contacts is below 10% -- but it got worse this week. The Real Clear Politics average of recent polls showed Joe Biden with more than 51% of the popular vote and Donald Trump with 44%. As this is written, Biden has 50% of the tabulated national popular vote, which will probably rise as California's data comes dribbling in, but Donald Trump has 48%. So, the current 1.9% Biden plurality is far lower than the polls' 7.2% Biden plurality.
Donald Trump may end up losing the 2020 election in the Electoral College, but he won the campaign that ended on Nov. 3.
