What next?

Even if he pulls out a win, “Biden looks screwed,” said Ryan Lizza in Politico.com. Without a “crushing rejection of Trump,” Democrats will not get the political realignment they had hoped for, akin to what Ronald Reagan achieved when he beat one-termer Jimmy Carter and “ushered in the era of modern conservatism.” Nor are there any signs Biden has “assembled a new coalition the way Obama did.” And if Republicans hold the Senate, they’ll “hamstring a President Biden from day one.” Trumpism will remain alive and well even if Trump narrowly loses, said Jennifer Rubin in The Washington Post. Republicans will “have very little reason to jettison their anti-government venom or their aversion to fact-based politics.” And “the parallel universe of right-wing media is not evaporating any time soon.” That will pose an “immense challenge” for a president who ran as a conciliator. “Years more of dysfunction and gridlock, rather than an era of progressive reform, could be in the offing.”