US Presidential Election 2020 Thread II - Judgement Day(s)

Nody

Well for nothing else this is honestly amazing:
https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/1323897443398942726

I'm very curious what the numbers will look like in 2024 and if the negative energy (get rid of Trump at all costs / stick it to the liberals) will still drive people to vote.

Canice Picklington

Faugheen wrote: »

The Trump supporters have been fairly quiet for the last couple of hours, haven’t they?

I'd say a lot of them are furiously deleting a lot of posts

The Raging Bile Duct

Inquitus wrote: »

All the vote left to be counted favour Trump, he's going to win Michigan and Wisconsin, its just a question of if he ca close the gap in PA which he can get away with losing now, potentially.

I presume you mean Biden here.

Faugheen

Inquitus wrote: »

All the vote left to be counted favour Trump, he's going to win Michigan and Wisconsin, its just a question of if he ca close the gap in PA which he can get away with losing now, potentially.

What are you talking about?

A large chunk of the remaining votes in Michigan are mail-ins from Wayne County, which is a Democratic stronghold.

This is it

Inquitus wrote: »

All the vote left to be counted favour Trump, he's going to win Michigan and Wisconsin, its just a question of if he ca close the gap in PA which he can get away with losing now, potentially.

You have it backwards

Inquitus

The Raging Bile Duct wrote: »

I presume you mean Biden here.

Aye, been a long night!

deathbomber

Inquitus wrote: »

All the vote left to be counted favour Trump, he's going to win Michigan and Wisconsin, its just a question of if he ca close the gap in PA which he can get away with losing now, potentially.

any chance of tonights lotto numbers mate?

dixiefly

Hopefully Trump will have time to think long and hard about his own behaviour toward people like John McCain.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/trumps-reaction-to-mccain-as-microcosm/568696/

You can tell a lot about a person, and a presidential administration, by the way they handle small, symbolic things. The White House’s handling of the American flag in the aftermath of Senator John McCain’s death is providing a good test of the Trump team.

The episode has managed to combine most of the worst aspects of Donald Trump’s presidency: pettiness as a major motivating force for administration policy, a preference for sowing division over unity, disdain for tradition and norms, chaotic decision making, and an ultimate tendency to surrender.

As my colleague Russell Berman has written, McCain and Trump had a contentious relationship, and that spilled into the president’s reaction to the Arizona senator’s death. After McCain, a fellow Republican, died on Saturday, the president tweeted a terse condolence to his family, with nothing about the man himself. The Washington Post then reported that Trump had nixed an official White House statement about McCain.

The Trump-McCain feud never ended.

On Monday, matters reached peak pettiness, as the White House raised its American flag to full-staff, while other flags around Washington remained at half-staff. This follows strict protocol—which mandates the flag be lowered the day of a senator’s death and the day after—but was widely viewed as a snub, since a president can, and often does, override rules in moments like this. During a brief White House appearance, Trump folded his arms, glowered, and remained silent as reporters asked him about McCain.


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Finally, late Monday afternoon, the White House’s flag was lowered back to half-staff. Trump also issued a proclamation calling for flags to remain lowered until the day McCain is buried. He said in a statement that he had asked Vice President Mike Pence to speak at a Capitol ceremony honoring McCain, and would dispatch his chief of staff, John Kelly; defense secretary, James Mattis; and national-security adviser, John Bolton, to attend McCain’s funeral at the Washington National Cathedral. (Left unsaid was the fact that the president was conspicuously not invited to the funeral.)

Yet even there, Trump couldn’t resist a dig at McCain. His statement began, “Despite our differences on policy and politics, I respect Senator John McCain’s service to our country.” This kind of thing is so typical for Trump that it’s becoming difficult to remember that such injections of raw partisanship into solemn occasions used to be unthinkable. Consider the statements that Barack Obama made after two prominent Republican senators, Ted Stevens and Howard Baker, died while he was in office; neither mentioned political disagreements. Now consider that those men were each of a different party than Obama—unlike McCain and Trump, who nominally shared a GOP affiliation.

The impulse to foreground division is typical of Trump. So is the chaotic path that led to Monday’s long-awaited statement. The discarded White House comment, the icy tweet, the yo-yoing of the flag—these all suggest an administration that is proceeding without a clear vision, and that is caught in a tug-of-war between the president’s bad attitude and his advisers’ better judgment. And, of course, the impulse to snub McCain, even at the moment of his death and in the face of presidential tradition, speaks to Trump’s vast pettiness; this is the rare occasion when nearly all of the political world is united in mourning.

The lionization of McCain is a little much for some observers, especially on the left. Trump would not be wrong to believe that the praise for McCain is, at least in part, targeted at him, meant both to draw a contrast with the president and to pour some salt into the wounds left by McCain torpedoing the Obamacare repeal. Trump craves elite approval, and so elites weeping and gnashing their teeth is designed, and succeeds, as a way to enrage him.

This is especially true for the press, which loved McCain (who was always ready with a good quote) and has a fractious relationship with Trump. Reporters who otherwise consider themselves objective, non-opinionated journalists have been willing to speak in gushingly reverent terms about McCain. Yet it appears the unremitting criticism from the press Monday on the flag issue finally forced the White House to react.

From trade deals to military deployments, the president has a consistent pattern: Talk a big game, then back down.



That Trump gave in should not come as a surprise. Although he cultivates an image of immovability, as I have written, the president nearly always folds when faced with a tough situation, whether pushing gun control or labeling China a currency manipulator. It might seem counterintuitive that it was the media that helped force Trump’s hand, given his frequent bashing of “fake news,” but the president craves the press’s approval, just like that of other elites.

While press criticism of Trump is exceedingly typical these days, it’s been rare for the media to turn the full force of its disapproval and attention on any single issue during his presidency. The two exceptions are the separations of immigrant families at the border, and the lowering of the flag for McCain. In both cases, Trump has surrendered under pressure.

Where flags fly after a senator dies is hardly the most important issue—in fact, it’s almost entirely symbolic. But just as the flag episode epitomizes so many of the Trump administration’s worst tendencies, it also offers a hint of how much power the press can marshal when united.

Timberrrrrrrr

Canice Picklington wrote: »

I'd say a lot of them are furiously deleting a lot of posts

Posts will stay, accounts will close. Expect a raft of new accounts claiming Trump was robbed.

jasonb

Retr0gamer wrote: »

9k now. But with the detroit votes I don't see it turning red.

Still, it's worrying seeing the lead dwindle, I had enough of that during the night when Biden lost leads in a few states that counted Mail votes first!

Brussels Sprout

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Washington Post reporter:

https://twitter.com/mviser/status/1323988214819000320

Going by that so we could potentially have the networks call it for Biden at some stage tonight as Michigan + Wisconsin + Pennsylvania would put him over the top.

Windmill100000

I'll be honest, I don't really understand the voting system in the US so a thank you to those on here keeping me updated on what is happening.

Inquitus

Faugheen wrote: »

What are you talking about?

A large chunk of the remaining votes in Michigan are mail-ins from Wayne County, which is a Democratic stronghold.

I am tired, I mistyped. Biden has WI and MI for sure, PA is a bit more up in the air as he has a much bigger gap to close.

Standard Toaster

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Well this is something I never thought I’d hear someone say in 2020.

Geeez, WHOOSH!
I was joking

Faugheen

Inquitus wrote: »

I am tired, I mistyped. Biden has WI and MI for sure, PA is a bit more up in the air as he has a much bigger gap to close.

Ah. My apologies.

I too blame my sleep-deprived self for my cranky response.

Windmill100000

I am taking it as a positive that Trump is laying the foundation of defeat by setting the balls in motion that he was robbed. That has given me hope.

Quin_Dub

nc6000 wrote: »

It looks likely they will win about 25 states each.

Not that it's looking like a possible scenario right now , but if that were the case who has the casting vote?

I'd guess the leader of the House (Pelosi in this case ) but given how arcane and convoluted the US system seems to be , who knows?

bennyl10

Biden with a 21k lead in Wisconsin and 10k in Michigan, and they have continued to grow

ya we're all but done here

Francie Barrett

Looks like Trump has awoken from his slumber.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
2m
Last night I was leading, often solidly, in many key States, in almost all instances Democrat run & controlled. Then, one by one, they started to magically disappear as surprise ballot dumps were counted. VERY STRANGE, and the “pollsters” got it completely & historically wrong!

This is embarrassing.

AMKC

Nody wrote: »

Well for nothing else this is honestly amazing:
https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/1323897443398942726

I'm very curious what the numbers will look like in 2024 and if the negative energy (get rid of Trump at all costs / stick it to the liberals) will still drive people to vote.

How is that negative energy? That is positive energy. Trump and his ilk are negative energy.
I would say it will really depend on how the Biden presidency goes and who will be the candidates in 2024 as to what electoral turnout will be like then.

Quin_Dub

Given how close the Senate is going to be , even under GOP control that special election in Georgia between Loeffler and Warnock is going to be a sight to behold.

Every penny left in either Presidential fund and Party Coffers is going to get emptied into Georgia over the next 8 or 9 weeks.

Hurrache

Francie Barrett wrote: »

Looks like Trump has awoken from his slumber.

This is embarrassing.

He doesn't even understand the American electoral system, or any system for that matter, and how the number come through.

droidus

I don't see Biden winning GA and PA based on current projections.

That would leave us with 270 for Biden.

Shelga

If Biden wins WI, MI and NV he's on 270 right?

But if he loses any one of those, and Trump wins PA, GA and NC, Trump wins the election?

It still seems all to play for?

breezy1985

Hurrache wrote: »

He doesn't even understand the American electoral system, or any system for that matter, and how the number come through.

He knows full well how it works

Faugheen

droidus wrote: »

I don't see Biden winning GA and PA based on current projections.

That would leave us with 270 for Biden.

Nearly everything left is vote-by-mail.

There is simply no way you can make that call. Nearly everything left in Georgia is in Atlanta.

Hurrache

breezy1985 wrote: »

He knows full well how it works

I dunno, anyone else you'd put it down to mischief, with him you just can't credit him that.

Christy42

So was anything actually presented to the supreme Court about stopping the vote or was that all the usual bluster.

I would say the afters could be similar bluster. A lot of threats without a real lawyer needing to lift a pen.

jasonb

I imagine he knows exactly how it works, he just wants to preach the conspiracy theory to his followers...

0gac3yjefb5sv7

If Trump doesn't win, it's fraud. If he wins, it's totally fine.