Before we go any further, just a word about the mess pro-abortion President Joe Biden made for pro-abortion Vice President Kamala Harris. After the White House and most Legacy Media tried to clean up what he said Wednesday night (at the same time Harris was giving her “closing message” on the Ellipse), most reporters who have any self-respect agreed that Biden did say “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” referring to Trump voters.
The escapades of these incredibly incompetent nitwits remind me of the late journalist and author Jimmy Breslin’s novel, “The Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight.”
By the time you read these remarks, there will be changes but presumably minor one in the battle between former President Donald Trump and Harris. Trump is gradually pulling slightly ahead in the national polls while his paper-thin advantage in the seven battleground states ebbs and flows but mostly flows.
Enthusiasm and get-out-the-vote are always vitally important. The Republicans have shifted from 2020 and are encouraging early voting. How that affects the final totals is one of the great mysteries of this election cycle.
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The famous “October Surprise” will likely prove to be Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who has thrown his considerable lot into electing Donald Trump. By opening up Twitter/X, Musk had given free speech a massive shot in the arm. His fortunes have also helped the Trump campaign in the nuts-and-bolts activities that any candidate must master.
A few thoughts on this Thursday. Quinnipiac University poll, by no means a poll that leans Trump, reported on Wednesday that “In the final days leading up to the 2024 presidential election in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, with 19 electoral votes, former President Donald Trump for the first time is on the upside of a race with Vice President Kamala Harris that is too close to call.”
What counts at this late date, of course, are the trend lines.
In Quinnipiac University’s October 9 poll, Harris received 49 percent support, Trump received 46 percent support.
In their latest poll,
Trump receives 47 percent support among likely voters, Harris receives 46 percent support.
In their most recent survey, “Men back Trump 57 – 37 percent, while women back Harris 55 – 39 percent. In Quinnipiac University’s October 9 poll, men backed Trump 52 – 41 percent, while women backed Harris 55 – 40 percent.”
Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy said, “The gender gap widens with Trump increasing his lead among men, as what remains a very tight race heads into the final stretch.”
Another mystery to unpack will be the impact of the relentless negative media coverage of Trump. Allysia Finley, writing for the Wall Street Journal, argues “Press Bias Bolsters Trump, Again: Unhinged attacks on the candidate and his voters helped him win in 2016. They may do so again.”
She writes about Trump’s gradual improvement (“Gallup found that his positive rating has hit 50% for the first time in his three campaigns”), concluding, “All of this comes despite, and perhaps because of, unhinged Democratic attacks on him and a partisan press that doesn’t attempt to disguise its bias. Mr. Trump is suddenly becoming a sympathetic antihero.”
In a very astute observation, Finley writes
Such left-wing bias has caused many Americans to tune out the press. A Gallup survey this month showed trust in the media has hit a record low (31%), principally owing to a decline among independents and Republicans. The media can shout that Mr. Trump is a threat to democracy until the cows come home, but how many Americans are listening? Former New York Times editorial page editor James Bennet summed up the media’s credibility problem in an essay last year for the Economist magazine: “The reality is that the Times is becoming the publication through which America’s progressive elite talks to itself about an America that does not really exist.”
I could list a dozen other authors who touch on various important facets, but I stop with Mene Ukueberuwa whose Wall Street Journal opinion piece is titled, “Older White Voters Are Ditching Harris: She started strong with this usually Republican bloc. But they’re switching back to Trump.”
He writes, “The late swing among older and white voters jumps out in the Emerson College poll. On Aug. 15, less than a month after she became the Democratic nominee, Ms. Harris trailed Mr. Trump by 12 points among white voters and was tied with him among all voters 60 or older. Since then, these voters have fled from Ms. Harris. By Oct. 26, Mr. Trump led by 22 points among whites and 8 points among seniors.”
Why?
Well, of course the New York Times sniffs a sense of racism and sexism. Mr. Ukueberuwa points out the absurdity of this “explanation”:
“But prejudice can’t explain older whites’ recent flight from Ms. Harris, since she was already a black woman in August, when many more of them supported her. In fact, it’s likely that Ms. Harris’s race and sex were among the only things many voters knew about her at the start of her candidacy other than that she was vice president, and perhaps that she’s from California. Nonetheless, she initially held more support from older and white voters than President Biden did in the last polls before he left the race.
“A better explanation,” he writes, “is that many older whites originally welcomed Ms. Harris as an alternative to both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, then changed their minds once they got to know her better. That may have to do with the issues more than her image.”
His conclusion is a stunner and something to watch for on November 5: “Losing older whites is politically painful, since they tend to turn out at a high rate. They’re also overrepresented in key states like Wisconsin and Michigan. Expect the press to hold its focus on young and minority voters all the way through Election Day. This year more than ever, that might miss the biggest story.”
More than ever, it’s important that you vote. Vote as if the fate of millions on unborn babies depends on it.
It does!
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
