While monitoring the latest on Fox News this morning, I heard an interesting interview with Sunday show anchor Chris Wallace. I was surprised to hear him admit that if public opinion holds as it is now with Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and when the economic recovery begins that he doesn’t see Biden beating Trump in November.
Why did Wallace, no fan of Trump, make this admission now? A new Fox News poll shows Trump and Biden tied at 42 – 42 percent after Biden consistently showing a lead over Trump of 8 to 9 points in past polls. Biden’s lead, at the very time that he is clearly the Democrat Party’s nominee, has vanished. Wallace rightly says that the election will not be a standard contest between the Republican and Democrat nominees but a referendum of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus.
“It seems to me as this virus goes on, that instead of this being a choice between the president and Joe Biden, as a lot of elections are, I think that this election is going to end up being a referendum on President Trump and the handling of the coronavirus,” he continued.
“As we get into September and October after Labor Day, I think people are going to make a judgment, and they’ll understand, the president didn’t create the virus, so I think they’re going to be fair-minded about it,” Wallace added before asking, “Do they think he handled the health crisis well? Do they think he handled the economic crisis well?”
“If they do, I don’t see how he gets beat,” he concluded. “If they don’t, I don’t see how he could win.”
The biggest disadvantage that Biden has now that the nation is hunkered down is that he isn’t able to hold campaign events where people can come out and see him, to rally enthusiasm with supporters. There is no campaign rally coverage in television news reports or pictures of crowds in newspaper reports. Biden’s in a position where it is clear he is irrelevant. He has to wait for the Democrat convention to make him the official nominee. There is nothing he can do now that will give his campaign the bounce he needs. The 2020 presidential campaign isn’t a normal one and we know that Sleepy Joe is having difficulty capturing any positive attention at all. The attention he has been garnering in social media mostly shows his epic failure to work within the confines of virtual reality.
President Trump, on the other hand, is a natural marketer, especially of himself. The daily coronavirus task force briefings give him a platform for millions of Americans to tune in and hear what he has to say. The viewers see him sparring with the press when he feels attacked on his response to the pandemic. So, his numbers are rising, not falling during the crisis. Why would voters switch leaders if they think Trump is doing the best job he can be doing to respond to a crisis, not of his own making? This likely will hold true when the economic recovery begins. While the national economy has been ravaged like nothing we’ve seen in our lifetimes, including the crash of 2008, it wasn’t brought on by Trump or Republicans in Congress or anyone else, except the Communist Chinese who lied from the beginning of the pandemic. The deaths since and the economic destruction in countries across the globe can be laid at the feet of President Xi Jinping and no one else. China lied and people died – economies, too. The world must hold President Xi accountable.
There are a time and a place for quibbling about the speed of each nation’s reactions (except China’s) but the fact remains that the timeline shows that Trump closed air travel from China at the end of January and that was the single biggest factor of heading off what could have been a much more devastating outbreak in America. Trump put into place all of the recommendations from experts, as well as putting together a coronavirus task force, headed up by Vice-President Pence. The task force, as a matter of fact, was formed on January 29, just a couple of days before the air travel ban began on January 31. Joe Biden has offered up nothing different or innovative that he would put in place if he were in charge. As a matter of fact, he’s already been proven wrong in his approach.
If Trump botches the economic recovery, then that’s another matter. He will lose in November. The biggest reason to vote for Trump’s re-election has been the booming economy that rose during his time in office. One thing Trump has going for him in the recovery is the strength of the economy before the crash. All the economic factors in place before the pandemic give hope that the economy will bounce back once Americans can re-open businesses and get back to work.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Thursday said he thinks the economy can snap back once the coronavirus pandemic eases and Americans get back to work.
“There is every reason to believe that the economic rebound, when it comes, can be robust,” Powell said, in a webcast speech to the Brookings Institution.
“We entered this turbulent period on a strong economic footing and that should help support the recovery,” he added.
The RNC is launching an ad blitz Monday to counter the ads being run by Democrats that criticize Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic in order to bolster Joe Biden. It’s about time. Rapid response during this election cycle is key to getting the message out to voters. The RNC will spend more than $1 million on the digital ad campaign, targeting independent voters and moderate Democrats in over a dozen battleground states. In other words, the push is on to get the support of swing voters.
The RNC’s ad campaign will seek to push back against that narrative. One spot features audio clips of California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newson and New York’s Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo talking up Trump’s handling of the pandemic.
Richard Walters, the RNC chief of staff, said the digital ad blitz is intended to reach voters at home at a time when a majority of Americans are under stay-at-home orders.
It’s up to the voters in November but so far, it’s still looking pretty good for Trump’s re-election. Even Chris Wallace admits it.