RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/trump-s-winning-voter-registration-battle-against-biden-key-states-n1241674

In the last few weeks, Joe Biden has led President Donald Trump by a fairly consistent 8-point average in national polls and has maintained leads in more than enough battleground states to win the Electoral College, including Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — all states Trump won in 2016.

But there are signs Trump’s ground operation is paying off when it comes to registering new voters in key states, an advantage that could become important if the race tightens before Nov. 3.

The Trump campaign has boasted that it knocks on more than a million doors a week, a claim that’s impossible to independently verify. In sharp contrast, the Biden campaign had ditched a ground game for virtual outreach, citing Covid-19 concerns — even though academic research has routinely concluded door-to-door canvassing is the “most consistently effective and efficient method of voter mobilization.” Only just now has the Biden campaign decided to restart its in-person voter contacts in some battleground states.

As deadlines approach, new data from the past few months shows Republicans have swamped Democrats in adding new voters to the rolls, a dramatic GOP improvement over 2016, even if new registrations have lagged 2016 rates across the board. It’s a sign that in a pandemic, Democrats are struggling to seize traditional opportunities to pad their margins, such as the return of students to college campuses.

Of the six states Trump won by less than 5 points in 2016, four — Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania — permit voters to register by party. In all four states, voter registration trends are more robust for the GOP than four years ago.

http://www.swtotd.blogspot.com

Issues remain: COVID-19, the economy; riots in blue-run cities versus law and order, the Supreme Court, climate and the Green New Deal, illegal immigration, China, Russia and the Middle East. While voters know where Mr. Trump stands on these issues and what he has done, they received little insight as to what Mr. Biden would do. Mr. Trump was accused for not condemning far-right, white supremacists. That is not precisely true if one reads the transcript. Interestingly, Chris Wallace did not ask Mr. Biden to condemn left-wing extremists like Antifa, which is an “idea, not an organization,” according to Mr. Biden.

When I awoke on Wednesday morning, I received the following from a friend, a former British jurist now retired and living in Switzerland: “There can be no greater symbol of American decline than the sight of those two elderly gentlemen slugging it out without dignity or sell-restraint.”

It is hard to disagree with my friend’s assessment, and it is remarkable how far removed from Margaret Thatcher we have come. While it is likely that Mr. Trump did not pick up undecided voters, I suspect more damage was done to Mr. Biden. Mr. Trump played the role he has played for the past four and a half years – a crude, unabashed disruptor of political norms. On the other hand, Joe Biden, who has been largely invisible for the last few months, confirmed concerns of those who worry about his mental acuity. While most of his comments and answers were lucid, he stumbled over words and phrases, and his eyes, especially as time went on, took on a glazed, empty look. Mr. Trump is rude, while Mr. Biden is not well. The first we have known for years; the second we are just realizing.

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2020/10/01/crazy-moderator-of-second-presidential-debate-served-as-an-intern-for-joe-biden-n992980

C-SPAN’s Steve Scully, who will moderate the second presidential debate, got his start as a staff assistant in Sen. Ted Kennedy’s communication office, and prior to that worked as in intern in the office of then-senator Joe Biden.

The second presidential debate is scheduled for October 15, just two weeks from now.

Scully’s complete work and education records — both impressive — can be found here on his page at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs.

You might know Scully as the guy who handles C-SPAN’s open phone lines, a job he handles affably and with grace.

Scully is generally well-regarded in Washington and in the media, but out here where I am in flyover country, he may at least be seen as too chummy with Democrats to serve as an honest broker for the second presidential debate.

Tweets like this one from 2016, and currently making the retweet rounds, don’t help.

“Love,” really?

Whatever else you might say — and I nearly bit right through my tongue — that is not a good look for the supposedly non-partisan moderator of a presidential debate.