Trump should have won

[sharksrog]

I have long maintained that even as horrid as his handling of COVID was, Donald could have won the election had he merely shown empathy and taken a modicum of responsibility for what happened. His former campaign manager Brad Parscale agreed, saying "We lost suburban families. I think that goes to one thing: the decision on COVID to go for opening the economy versus public empathy. I think if he had been publicly empathetic, he would have won."

One could argue that Trump didn't lose to Joe Biden as much as he lost to his own mistakes. Kind of like he pleaded with the Georgia Republican Secretary of State to find him "11,780 votes, one more than we need," when as the Secretary of State later pointed out, had merely half of the 28,000 Georgia voters who voted down ballot but abstained from voting for president, quite possibly because they couldn't bring themselves to vote for Trump, he would have won the state.

Let's not forget though that had Trump won Georgia, he would have needed at least two MORE states to win the election. And he would have needed more than 7 million more votes to win the popular election. There were indeed some close swing states, but by either the popular tally or the electoral vote, Trump lost in a landslide.

Whereas he lost the popular vote in 2016 as well as in 2020 (although by about 5 million fewer votes), Trump won the electoral vote by about the same as he lost it in 2020. Remember how he claimed he won 2016 in a landslide?

If he won 2016 in a landslide, by the popular vote, he was totally wiped out in 2020. By the electoral vote, he lost in a landslide. By his own definitions.

I find it ironic that because he appeals so strongly to his base, Trump would very likely have won despite his horrible COVID performance if only he had reacted to his failure in a more human manner.

[Islandboagie]

"Thanks to the prior administration and our scientific community, America is one of the first countries to get the vaccine," Biden said from the White House, referring to the Trump administration's vaccine effort referred to as Operation Warp Speed.

Biden is clearly not following the narrative of the leftist media and their sheep like Rog.

[sharksrog]

The quote from Biden was an excellent beginning to your post, Matt, although you then proceeded to diminish it by stating another of your foolish opinions with your usual lack of backup. But let's look at the many points you brought out or at least brought up in the thinking man.

. Operation Warp Speed was a nice accomplishment by Trump. It was one of the very few good things he did to help stem the pandemic. He did it not so much to save the American people as to win the election, but the effect was the same.

. Despite Operation Warp Speed's fine success, the first American vaccine approved for use came from Pfizer, which wasn't part of Operation Warp Speed. This isn't meant to diminish Operation Warp Speed, which was a smart and successful effort. It is merely to point out that the vaccine's speed in development wasn't exclusively because of Operation Warp Speed.

. The true political hero in the fast development of the vaccine is the second George Bush, who a decade and a half ago read a book about the horrific 1918 flu and realized that type of pandemic could come back at any time. He got over $5 billion approved for pandemic research, which along with China's (for all their other flaws with the virus) quickly mapping out the virus, allowed the vaccine to be developed in 48 hours. The appropriate testing took much longer, of course, even though Trump continually attempted to shortcut the required scientific tests so the vaccine could be approved prior to November 3rd (wonder how he chose that date?). Bush probably hasn't gotten nearly the credit he deserved.

. We'll see how successful he is fighting all the opposition (a bit of it in his own party), but Joe Biden's biggest strength has been his ability to conciliate. After four years of huge divisiveness, that is precisely what is most needed. It would be hard to imagine former president Trump giving a compliment to Biden, whereas Joe went out of his way to include the prior administration even though it constantly fought with the scientific community, which Joe also included in his compliments. Many scientists felt completely devaluated by the Trump administration and remained at their positions mostly so that he wouldn't be able to completely overrun the scientific community.

. Trump's biggest failure with the virus was in not getting on top of it as soon as possible. He had been successful in bullying his opponents throughout his life, but he couldn't bully the virus, which was spreading at exponential speed and became very difficult to contain once it was allowed to get out of control in only a matter of weeks. South Korea stayed ahead of the virus, and their death rate has been miniscule compared to the US. They also avoided shutting down their economy, avoiding one of history's biggest economic collapses.

. Trump's second biggest failure with the virus was in politicizing common sensical approaches to containing the virus such as mask-wearing, testing, social distancing, avoiding large group events, particularly those held inside, and until he himself suffered the disease, getting vaccinated.

Anyway, good to have at least some type of reply, Matt. Maybe with time off for Christmas, you'll find time to answer some of the many questions you've been asked. You might find time to study your answers rather than merely giving them by rote.

[sharksrog]

Matt, your calling me a sheep is just your attempt to pull the wool over our eyes.

[Islandboagie]

I don't need to pull the wool over Rog's eyes, he does that himself. Democrats will speak of job creation knowing that 2021 was the back end of a pandemic and once unemployment and government covid bonuses ran out people would be going back to work. But yet, now that 6 million people have returned to work they will focus on that number alone to try to convince themselves that Biden and Harris are doing a good job. In reality, businesses that are struggling with supply chain issues are still trying to find help. Cost of living is skyrocketing, gas prices are through the roof, and the economy is on the verge of hyper-inflation. All this while the mainstream media tries to pull the wool over our eyes.