Four years later
Take a deep breath, it’s almost over. After four years of Donald Trump, democrats finally get a “do over” and can right what they clearly see as a huge wrong. The problemis, with President Trump, you can’t count on him losing. Despite the tweets, tantrums and attacks, a large number of people do find something about him appealing so you cannot count on what people will do when they close the curtain on Election Day and vote.
If you believe the polls and everyone on CNN, then he’s in deep trouble.
Nomatter how you look at it, he’s going down on Tuesday. The problemis that’s exactly what they said four yeas ago. I’ll tell you a secret, I have a knack for covering the losing candidates on election night. I’ve been a journalist for 35 years and I think I was with the winning candidate maybe twice. Back at my previous TV station they sent me to Nashville to cover Al Gore’s certain victory in 2000.
I remember going to what they call the “watch party” with his fellow democrats and then being told to go back tomy hotel because we wouldn’t have a winner that night. The next morning I was in the taxi cab on theway to the airport to fly back to Albany when my phone rang and I was told to get back to Nashville because this might take a day or two to sort out.
We all know what happened next with Florida and hanging chads and eventually the Supreme Court making a bizarre ruling that prettymuch said, “Yeah, Gore kind of got screwed but it’s too late to do anything about it so we have to just move on. Congratulation Mr. Bush.”
So yeah, I don’t have a clue what’s going to happen on Tuesday.
The pollsters got it so wrong four years ago, I don’t know if I’ll ever fully believe them again. I do knowit has been long horrific four years getting to this point. Impeachment, Russia, protests, violence and now this damned virus. There’s little question had the virus not come along, Trump would have been a shoe-in. After all the bluster, people often vote their pocketbooks and wallets, and the economy was humming along.
We can debate whether that was all Trump or Mr. Obama loaded the bases for himand all he needed was a hit to bring the runners home, but no one can debate our economy was strong and unemployment anemic before COVID showed up.
If the president loses it will be the virus and the death toll and how he handled it that did him in. I’mnot saying he entirely mishandled it but certainly all of our leaders would do some things differently if we could go back eightmonths, including Governor Cuomo. Nobody in the media wants to say this but the president knew in January that he couldn’t lose this election on Tuesday if the economy kept going strong.
The reason he didn’t say more about the virus wasn’t just to avoid panic, he also wanted to avoid doing anything to shut down the economy. He had to know, there are people who can’t stand the tweeting and his manners, but they looked passed all of it if the 401k is soaring. Take that advantage out of the equation and it’s easy to see people willing to try something new.
If you’re a democrat, you have to be feeling pretty good about this upcoming election. And if you’re a republican worried that it’s the end of the line for Mr. Trump, you have to be happy with howhe has transformed the courts. I know I sound like a broken record, but I always thought 2016was about the Supreme Court and the next forty years. The left bet everything on a Hillary win and the pollsters told them she could not lose.
When she did, it put every chip they had on the table with an unpredictable former reality show host billionaire dealing the cards. Again, nobody wants to say this, but Ruth Bader Ginsburg probably should have stepped down while President Obama was still in office and they could have locked that seat up for a liberal lion. Instead, here we are. I mentioned at the beginning I have a knack for covering the losing candidates in these elections. Four years ago, this Tuesday, I was sent to New York City to be with Donald Trump when he lost. I’ll never forget the looks on the faces of the national media when the results started coming in. Even the secret service team I was standing near seemed astonished. My fervent hope for all of us is whatever happens this week, we have an answer and winner within a day or two.
If this drags into December and the courts get involved again, well, I don’t know if this country can take it. So, you want to know who I want towin on Tuesday? Here’s my honest answerone of them. Yes, I have a favorite, but that’s between me, God and the lady at the fire house who processes my ballot.
I just pray we have a winner and can start to heal as a nation.