If these are the polls he's using, no wonder Trump thinks 2020 is going well

[brooklynite]

Washington Post

As far as ledes go — the anecdotes journalists use to compel readers at the outset of the story — few I’ve encountered in my life have been better tailored to my interests than one that Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen used this week.

Thiessen got a chance to interview President Trump in the Oval Office, and began his description of that conversation by explaining what the president was doing when Thiessen entered.

“ … President Trump was going over new polls — some internal, some not — showing him tied or leading Joe Biden in key swing states. ‘Pennsylvania tied. Florida, up one. Wisconsin, up one. Texas, up five. Arizona, Trump 49, Biden 45; North Carolina, Trump up three. And then Montana: Trump up a lot — 52-38,’ he said.”

Over and over, we’ve heard Trump wave away the idea that he’s in trouble in November, citing unspecified polls showing him doing well. And here some are — a couple without attribution and presumably internal, but a number with links helpfully included by Thiessen. The Wisconsin poll is from the Trafalgar Group; the Arizona and North Carolina ones from Gravis Marketing. The Montana poll is from the University of Montana.

Actual polls, allowing us at last to evaluate whether Trump is right to feel confident about November.

He is not.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Here's the thing:

Trump will rely on those polls favorable to his re-election as "evidence" that the election was rigged when Biden wins.

[Ferrets are Cool]

2. OR, will point to these polls when he "wins" by

STEALING the election. It will not be the first time the repugs have stolen an election. In fact, IMO, they have stolen every one that they have "won" since 2000.

[MFM008]

3. I was polled

By Quinnipiac last night on a land line.
Very thorough poll.
Maggot did not get a good review from me.

[EarlG]

4. There's a WWII series on Netflix at the moment

The second episode is about the Battle of Britain and how Hitler repeatedly tried to invade the British Isles in 1940. His plan, "Operation Sea Lion," would be a seaborne invasion to take place after the Luftwaffe crushed the Royal Air Force and gained air superiority over the English Channel.

But Operation Sea Lion never took place, and one pretty significant reason was that Hermann Göring's subordinates were lying to him about the strength of the RAF and the Luftwaffe's chances of success, and Göring was in turn lying to Hitler about the incredible superiority of the Luftwaffe.

So they plowed ahead with tactics that ended up repeatedly failing, when if they'd been honest about their chances and planned appropriately, they could have done much better. It was a close run thing for a while, but eventually the Luftwaffe's weaknesses were exposed and the whole enterprise ended in Nazi disaster.

It all sounded vaguely familiar...