An almost invisible Joe Biden is GAINING in polls across the country a particularly in battle ground and swing states….
These are the states that Donald Trump, a New York Real Estate guy converted from Obama wins to his from Hillary Clinton …
Under the weight of a virus he can’t go head to head with in the media and a resulting economic drop into a recession ALREADY…
Donald Trump , 6 months or so out from his try for a second term IS stuck….
He may have an above 90% support number among his base….
But he is losing support on the places that goy him job….The Electoral Collage vote…
No one thinks he’ll out get Joe Biden in the popular vote…That he lost to Hillary Clinton by about 3 million…
So?
Republicans and Trump & Co. ARE getting anxious ….
Desperate pushes to end the virus….
Emptying out the US Treasury to everyone right now?
Isn’t working for the big guy…
And it would almost seem like the more he talks everyday?
The worst things get for him….
And for fellow Republicans…
Polling points to Democratic gains in House seats for next year…
And something unthinkable before the virus ?
The US Senate seems in play for Democrats….
Senior Republicans and President Donald Trump’s campaign are wrestling with how to best position him for November as the coronavirus poses a grave threat to his reelection.
With Trump’s poll figures sagging in key battleground states six months out from the election, the Republican National Committee has launched a massive effort to reach some 20 million swing voters to make an affirmative case for his performance. But Trump campaign officials are taking a different approach: Rather than devoting resources to boost Trump’s numbers, which haven’t moved materially since he was elected, they want to go scorched earth against Joe Biden.
Over the past few weeks, the Trump campaign has unveiled a digital ad savaging Biden over his relationship with China. It also launched a weekly online program dubbed “War Room” in which presidential advisers take aim at the former vice president on an array of issues. The campaign has also weighed a major TV offensive going after Biden.
The deliberations illustrate how the highest ranks of the Republican Party are grappling with the uncertainty the coronavirus crisis has injected into the race — and how best to prepare for a general election that looks nothing like what they’d been anticipating.
There are indications that Trump’s response to the crisis is taking a toll. His campaign’s internal polling shows that the president’s initial bump in managing the virus has dissipated, according to a person familiar with the results. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released over the weekend revealed that voters thought Biden would do a better job than Trump in managing the virus by a 9-point margin, and new surveys show Trump trailing Biden in Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Alarm about Trump’s standing is trickling to down-ballot races….
image…Drew Angerer/Getty
New Open Thread is HERE….
Good. They should worry every Republican.
I’m for them being scared enough to abadon his sorry ass…
Apparently telling white Republican protesters to “get a job” is offensive to the snowflakes at the right wing Washington Times.
https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/22/andrew-cuomo-to-protesters-struggling-to-pay-bills/
Good Morning All…
Things must be a little better
Political reports back to politics in the last few days…
Interesting quote on Political wire about what has become of the Republican Party–Barry Goldwater got in a fight with Nelson Rockefeller and George Wallace won.
Lots of truth in that!
I’ve related how I attended aWallace campaign rally in 1968 with my father(he was a big Wallace supporter) .Very similiar to a Trump rally.
There actually was a difference between Wallace and Trump though.
Wallace was smarter.
Wallace was smarter and unlike Trump and his Republican Party never supported Tax cuts for the rich.
Wallace was more of a real populist than Trump who,except for the demagoguery,exhibits few traits of a populist ,at least in the historical sense.
A populist supporting tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations?Thats like a liberal opposing Social Security!
Of late ,the term seems to be used only to denote a trash talking demagogue and certainly Trump fits that bill.
Yeah “conservative populism” is a canard.
Election Projection still has Biden winning the November election…..
So does Rachel Bitcofer…
And so does the polls….
Right now…
6 months out…
Morning People….
Morning people….
Two days after pouting that the daily briefings weren’t “worth it” and after his own press office said Trump would be cutting back–he was out there again today.
I’m fine with it. It seems to be tanking Republicans all across the board.
No surprise…
The guy resist the spotlight…
I hoping the MORE he bull shits?
The higher Biden’s number’s rise😆
Morning People….
You can tell things have shifted about the virus because the media has begun to shift their emphasis back to more and more stories away from the constant virus….
Amen!
What we are seeing is the early transition to the “new normal.”
A developing attitude, subtle now ,but increasing weekly ,that more deaths are regrettable but “ acceptable “ as the country “reopens.”
Not surprising really.
The economic problem now is that despite “reopening “ what will consumers do?Locally the much ballyhooed reopening has so far been a bust.
Stores have reopened this week.So far?Few customers .Is this just natural wariness in the still “lockdown” type environment?Or is it the harbinger of a”new” attitude among the general citizenry whereby “going out” to shop,eat, etc will become more an event than a normal day in the life?
Lots of questions.
One things for certain.the so called “testing” that the experts say is needed before large scale reopenings doesn’t presently exist and there is no indication it will anytime soon.Accordingly, we are flying blind .
Yet, that won’t stop the reopening .Many of those hankering to get back to work are going to find there is no work to get back to.Many all distraught over their “rights” being violated are going to have less time to worry about such matters as putting food on the table, paying rent or mortgages etc. take precedence over such philosophical things.
Pessimistic be I?Maybe ,and I hope I’m wrong, but all I can say with some degree of certainty,
Lots more people are going to get sick
Lots more people are going to die.
Like I said,
The new normal.
Yes and this will piss off Trumpublicans whose only hope at keeping power is to have the economy rebound significantly by November.
Expect conservative media to pitch going out to restaurants, the mall, etc as your patriotic duty and those who are wary to do so as being somehow un-American, or wusses or something
Never doubt how low they will go.
The US economy is NOT gonna be back’ by November….
MSNBC….
Joe Biden leads against President Trump in a general election matchup, according to a USA Today / Suffolk University poll.
Justin Amash is running for President
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/justin-amash-running-2020-president_n_5d801af0e4b077dcbd62fc1e?section=politics&utm_source=main_fb&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=hp_fb_pages&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063&fbclid=IwAR03U27w3UnHznI-xjM0gFGXlpFoimhyKndqHtbyx-bUCiI1rET_9_9YyNE&fbclid=IwAR0LkuHT66ErSDyUlK_lxplrwvyOMVgFTyPtc9lBihBSM1CtkGdfrChFs-Q
additionally, Jesse Ventura is now officially “testing the waters” for a Presidential campaign as a Green Party candidate
Sidebar polling numbers updated…
Trump down in approval and vs Biden…
Morning People…..
Mitt Romney has blasted the federal government’s response to the pandemic.
While not mentioning Trump by name ,he implicitly criticized his management style,noting the “we didn’t look real strong and that’s an understatement.”
I would expect Trump to tweet or even pronounce at his next briefing a reply to his least favorite Republican.
New PPP poll of Texas–Biden 47%–Trump 46%
Biden ahead in TEXAS !
Granted it is within the MOE but
if he is even competitive there in October it is game over for Republicans.
6 months out and who’s gonna tell Trump this?
Good Morning People…
Nice to see good news on the virus front…
Nice to have more of the media focus begin to come back to politics…
BREAKING….
Rob Gill
Multiple armed gunmen storm Michigan’s State House, State police are protecting @GovWhitmer and blocking the gunmen from gaining access to the house floor.
This is America in the age of Trump.
It has gotten serious….
Trump’s storm troopers are going after the Governors for their ‘rights’?
Fake news
Apparently, he is making a comment on a protest demonstration. What he described is not being covered anywhere else.
There is no indication that the protest is violent. They will not be allowed on the House Floor, of course, and Governors always have protection around the clock.
Criticize them for social distancing recklessness. Completely fair game. But to suggest that the Governor is at risk of being shot or that anyone there is intending to shoot anyone is an insult to the First Amendment.
Why are they carrying guns? What does brandishing your penis extender have to do with ending social distancing and opening businesses in the state?
I’m surprising that Michigan allows this.
In deep red S.C., you are not allowed to carry weapons at the State House
I agree though.Whats the purpose of the guys carrying guns slung over their shoulders?Whom do they need “protection” from?The legislators?The Police?
If armed Black Lives Matter protesters did this the conservative Republicans–led by their hero Donald Trump-would be calling for them to be mowed down. But yeah race has nothing to do with it.
Wait Scott….
Crazy Shit!
Reports are….It is NOT against the law there to be in the building with a loaded firearm!!!
Yeah CG defended their right to do so. Once a Republican
I did not defend anything but the law is the law. Nobody stormed anything by force or with weapons.
The “Tweet” referenced by james as news was drastically dramatized to reference instances which should not be joked about or minimized.
and I yield to nobody in anti-Trumpism, but the use of the term “Trump’s storm troopers”, something that would have an historical context, especially related to the actual facts of this instance is very misguided and only serves to make anti-Trump people look rhetorically unhinged.
Should it be illegal for armed protesters to do this?as Jack indicated it is in South Carolina.
If I were the Emperor I would restrict weapons from a state capital building but the law is the law and people can’t be violated for breaking a law that does not exist. They violated social distancing regulations.
Nonetheless, the offensive thing is the snarky Tweet that compared it to a terrorist attack or a mass shooting or an attempted political assassination in progress. It was definitely none of those things, but james seemed to take the Tweet literally and many others probably did as well.
The law needs to be and probably WILL be changed….
There is NO reason to have armed people having access to a states capital grounds…
I agree James. CG thinks your commentary is more offensive than these menacing armed thugs. Anazing.
He seems torn?
Loyal Republican that that got skunked by a NYC Real Estate entertainer…
I agree it should be.
I’m still quite surprised that Michigan allows this.
Will it?
I don’t know.Never underestimate the mania that grips Republicans when the subject of Guns comes up.
The Right wingers have for awhile now seized upon this as one of those “we’ll show them libruls” issues.
In my view,anyone who believes that this is some “right” to carry a gun into a legislative body is a damn idiot plain and simple.
Me torn? Ridiculous.
What I take issue with is that activist’s Tweet. I did not even know the full story of the dumb protest in Lansing, where only a few people apparently had guns but the Tweet, presented here as “Breaking News” was simply a an exercise in trolling.
Terrorist attacks are not funny. Neither are Mass Shootings or someone firing a gun at a politician. We have seen all those things happen in America in recent years. We should not “cry wolf” over it or in anyway minimize those things.
So?
You would agree that guns should NOT be allowed in state’s capital building?
That should be up to the state. I believe in the concept of concealed carry for those who meet the qualifications.
So it’s ok if the lawmakers tell the governor tough shit?
You’re a Democrat and we’re Republicans?
The lawmakers opposing a Governor’s position on a legislative matter?
Yes, that’s called Checks and Balances. It’s what differentiates us from totalitarian governments.
That’s call politics that could endanger the chief executive’s life and others….
Other lawmakers where scarred for their safety..
It’s irresponsible and dangerous…
You are talking about completely different things, No sense to your logic here.
The Governor was never in any danger. People protest at capitols all the time. Sometimes, things get heated. Look at what Scott Walker had to faee in Wisconsin.
If anybody was threatening a legislator, they should have been arrested on the spot. The legislature should vote to change its laws on what is allowed in the Capitol Building based on this then.
CG?
You can’t get on a airplane with a weapon
WTF would want someone with one in a state house?
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense made its mark on the press and public consciousness when their leaders and members entered the California State Assembly (the Legislature’s lower house) in 1967 while the Assembly was in session. They were protesting a bill by the reactionary Berkeley-Oakland-Piedmont Assemblyman Don Mulford (R) to forbid carrying a loaded gun within an incorporated area (such as Berkeley, Oakland, Piedmont or Sacramento). As in Michigan this year, they were not arrested in the absence of a relevant law, although they were later temporarily disarmed and held.
¶ The Sacramento Bee is celebrating its 160th anniversary this year. This story is part of our ongoing coverage.
May 2, 1967: Two dozen armed Negroes entered the state Capitol at noon today and 10 made their way to the back of the Assembly Chamber before they were disarmed and marched away by the state police.
The Assembly was in session at the time and Speaker Pro Tem Carlos Bee ordered the men removed from the chamber.
Outside the chamber, the police took away the weapons. The men argued they could carry the weapons as long as they were not concealed.
Apparently the fact the weapons were not concealed was the reason the men were able to get as far as the Assembly Chamber before they were disarmed.
After the state police questioned the men, they returned the weapons to them because the intruders had broken no law.
Following their release by the state police, the men left the Capitol and rejoined some companions who remained outside during the incident. They then drove off.
Four or five carloads of the Black Panther group later drove into a service station at 15th and L Streets. Several police officers took the demonstrators to the city jail.
An officer said they had not been charged with any offense, but added: “We’re going to take them all down and check them all out and we’re going to check out all these weapons.”
Outside of the police office … one man who identified himself as Bobby Seale of Oakland read a page-long statement of the Black Panther Party. It declared: “The Black Panther party for self-defense calls upon the American people in general and the black people in particular to take careful note of the racist California Legislature which is considering legislation aimed at keeping the black people disarmed and powerless at the very same time that racist police agencies throughout the country are intensifying the terror, brutality, murder and repression of black people.”
He apparently was referring to a bill by Assemblyman Don Mulford, R-Piedmont, which forbids carrying a loaded weapon within an incorporated area.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/history/article148667224.html
New poll out of Pennsylvania has Biden leading Trump 49-43%
Of those polled who have been negatively affected financially by Covid-19 Biden’s margin is 54-39 over Trump. That group will only grow larger in time.
I haven’t seen any polls with Justin Amash included but it’s worth noting that in battleground states where “third party” is an option the response has been 3-5% saying they intend to vote for neither of the 2 major candidates.
In 2016 at this time Gary Johnson was polling 12% in some polls–he got 3.5%. That’s the way it goes with 3rd parties. They almost always fade–sometimes getting a fraction of what they were polling earlier. If 3rd parties are only getting 3-5% now it’s likely they will be at 1-2% by Electiin Day.
Trump overtook Clinton in the polls in September…
I’m hoping Biden CAN KEEP his lead coming out of the summer …
Clinton had a substantial and seemingly overwhelming lead in October right after the Access Hollywood story. She was helped politically by each debate. Then the debates stopped and she sat on a lead she thought was secure. The other issue was that the polls showed the race was close at the end and almost nobody believed it.
Her slide started in Sept.
Check RCP….
She was warned by her pollster
She didn’t react as Trump went to the swing states she thought she owed…
She was never a good campaigner though people say she’s ok in personal one on ones…
Trump is already trying to repeat his character knocks on Biden who he seems to have instinctively known was gonna his opponent from the day he got the job….
Comey and her ineptness in handling the email
situation helped her mess things up….
She had carried high negative’s on her shoulders that no male Democrat has ….
Morning…
Ole Lindsey smell a Trump loss coming?
Bryan Taylor Cohen
Wow. Lindsey Graham defends Biden on Fox News: “I’ve known Joe Biden for 20 years. I’ve traveled the world with him. I’ve never seen him do anything untoward toward a woman, I’ve never heard anything about him being inappropriate.”
This might be a signal gr8 Graham to the Trumo campaign that this story is a dead end. Stop pursuing it. Especially when even the President’s allies can’t say the same about him being respectful to so em with a straight face.
I agree Scott….
Certainly Trump has unconsciously signaled the same
Morning All
How Greenwich Republicans Learned to Love Trump
Evan Osnos reports from Greenwich, Connecticut, where he grew up, on how America’s country-club Republicans learned to love Donald Trump — and the quiet compromises that a person makes in the privacy of a voting booth.
“The story of Trump’s rise is often told as a hostile takeover. In truth, it is something closer to a joint venture, in which members of America’s élite accepted the terms of Trumpism as the price of power.”
Politicalwire…
The direct link is to this interesting but very long piece in The New Yorker (metered access):
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/11/how-greenwich-republicans-learned-to-love-trump
Morning People…
AG Barr apparently is attempting to get Trump to back off his insistence that the Obamacare legislation be struck down.
Barr, playing politician instead of Chief law enforcement officer, has concluded that if the law is struck down such would be politically hazardous heading into an election.
Good Morning everyone….
Barr post coming also…
Thanks Jack…
Coming later…
Another disgruntled person fired by Trump that has filed a whistleblower compliant..
Trump saying the obvious GOP point off view…
Trump Says Washington, D.C. Will Never Be a State
President Trump told the New York Post that Washington, DC, won’t ever be a state because Republicans aren’t “stupid” enough to add guaranteed Democratic seats in Congress.
Said Trump: “DC will never be a state. You mean District of Columbia, a state? Why? So we can have two more Democratic — Democrat senators and five more congressmen? No thank you. That’ll never happen.”
Politicalwire…
Name me a Republican that does want DC to be a state.
I’ll wait.
For a LONG assed time, eh?
Morning….
Morning….
Chris Christie just got the finger from ALL the Supreme’s
The court continues to rise the bar for convictions of politicians
Post coming…
Exactly how does Dismissing the charges against two former aides “give the finger” to Chris Christie?
Christie hinted like Trump for action..
They had the GWB BRIDGE shit down…
The two got convicted
He had the his people take the rap..
The Supreme’s didn’t go for it ….
That’s an uh “creative” way to look at it.
I doubt ,however, that many people will look at the fact that two of his aides got off as some kind of repudiation of Christie.
Then again , regular readers here are well aware of the “uniqueness”:of your “interpretations “of various matters.
Looking like history is gonna repeat itself with another Kennedy Senator from Mass…
new Emerson College/7 News poll finds Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) at risk of losing reelection, as he trails Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-MA), 58% to 42%, for the Democratic primary.
A new UMass-Lowell poll has Kennedy ahead 44% to 42%.
Politicalwire
james, are you still watching “The Last Dance?”
The local cable sports station is playing Game 7 of the 1998 Eastern Conferenec Finals now. It’s late in the 4th quarter and the game is close. I remember watching it live of course. (It’s hard to remember what pre HD tv looked like, but that’s what it was broadcast in) Everyone knew it could be Michael Jordan’s last game if they lost, but we really had no doubt they would pull it off.
They never even had to go a Game 7 in the Finals.
The ESPN Jordan series is great…
Morning people…
Bad unemployment numbers
Virus happen’s to those close to throne also…
President Trump just confirmed that Katie Miller is the staffer to Vice President Mike Pence who was confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus, CBS News reports.
She is the wife of senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller….
Politcalwire…
Morning People…
Getting Trump as President?
Virus
Economy drop
Crazy Weather
What else?
Lie upon lie upon lie, well I could go on but you get the idea.
I sure DO…
Unemployment rate 14.7%
Highest since the Great Depression
Doubt if it drops below double digits for several years.
Trump seems to believe that these “reopenings” will have a great effect.
Probably ,at best around ,the margins ,but certainly not in any major way.
Post will be forthcoming…
Yea….
Recovery is gonna take a while…
This is HUGE hit for Trump for November
There will be people going back
But slowly and a lot of jobs will have evaporated
Iconic rock n roller Little Richard has died at the age of 87.
RIP
Tuttie Fruitie
This is comment no. 99 to this open thread. Might be time for a new one,
Mourning in America, the recent ad from the Lincoln Project of Never-Trumpers (e.g. the better half of the Conways).
https://secure.anedot.com/the-lincoln-project/c833d3a46f041180b1321
Cancel my first remark above.
I’ll transfer my comment to the May 9th Open Thread.
He, he, he…..
I know how ya feel DSD