Slate's The Surge analysis- Trump is an asshole

[underpants]

The Surge on Slate. I wasn’t familiar with it until I’ve been reading Slate’s “Goodbye _____” memos to all the Trump crew. Very good and funny stuff.

I found their “What Biden got right” very interesting. I hadn’t seen much mention of the disaster that was the Dem ban on in-person canvassing.

Anyway here is the last part of the article

7. Decency won
Really though, that was the margin.
We know, what a cheeseball phrase. But we mean that it quite literally decided the race! Republicans did well across the country on Tuesday. Trumpism isn’t as unpopular as Democrats had hoped. But most presidents get reelected, and most in-parties have good down-ballot performances when their president gets reelected. Why Donald Trump lost, when the rest of his party did well, is because he is an all-time, world-class, singular asshole. He has used the power of the United States presidency as a means of ensuring you cannot go an hour without being reminded that he is an asshole, because being an asshole is the most efficient way to get attention. Joe Biden was a strong match against Donald Trump because, whatever you think of his policy views, he is straightforwardly not an asshole. People like him. COVID, the economy, policing, immigration, Ukraine, impeachment, fracking, Hunter’s laptop—put these things aside. Joe Biden matched up well against Trump in 2015 when he decided against running, he matched up well against Trump during the primaries, and he matched up well against Trump during the pandemic. The choice was between a person known for being decent and a person known for being an asshole. The majority spoke.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/11/biden-democrats-polling-georgia-senate.html

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. I find Slate to be well worth reading - some really brilliant writing there, and even if there are

things that those of us here may disagree with, they do provide food for thought.

[spooky3]

2. I don't agree that the rest of his party did "well." All of the House seats were up for grabs, and

the Democrats won well over the majority of them--and we should bear in mind that gerrymandering is still alive and well in many states. They lost only a few they held before, including two to Cuban-American Republicans in Florida. The Dems picked up a net gain of a Senate seat, and are competitive in the two Georgia seats in the runoff. Why do we judge Dems more harshly when they WIN but not by as big a margin as we hoped, but a win is a win if you are a Republican?

[underpants]

4. They really rip into pollsters too

I think the consensus of expectations was a much bigger night for the Dems. We got he big prize and yes we held on to the House. I didn’t think we’d get as close as we did in the Senate but a lot of people did.


2. Polls suck
Congrats to every pollster on your new F-minus rating.
After four years of reworking their models to correct a major polling error concentrated in the Midwest states, and to make sure they’re capturing Trump voters in that region, well, some news: Our gold-star pollsters ate it again! Relative to the FiveThirtyEight forecasts—and this isn’t really the forecasters’ issue, it’s that of the pollsters who input the data—the margin was well off in Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Florida. (Georgia pollsters did a good job!) Senate and House polling was a catastrophe. Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who never led a public poll all year, won comfortably, while House Republicans are poised to pick up about the same number of seats that House Democrats were projected to pick up. There was never any indication of this happening in district polling, generic congressional ballot polling, Republican polling, or Democratic polling. The polling industry cannot figure out how to account for Trump surge voters. If Trump runs again in 2024 (ha-ha, but also… why not?) and the Esteemed University Institute of Polling Sciences and Maths says, Hmm, yes, Wisconsin, Trump is down exactly 24 points, please know that it will be within a point either way.

[Blue Owl]

3. A raging asshole of the most vulgar sort

Thank God we are rid of him

[2naSalit]

5. Not quite yet but soon!