FDR template

… I think this is a critically important election, because just think if Franklin Roosevelt had not been reelected in 1936, the whole definition of the presidency, the leader as this optimistic, rallying figure, inspiring figure, would never have come really to being into American life.

Roosevelt became the standard.

If Donald Trump is reelected in 2020, it will redefine the presidency and what Americans expect of the president and of each other. I don’t think he will be. I think Joe Biden will be elected next Tuesday, and for a whole host of reasons, that America, and especially at a time of this coronavirus, are — we are looking for a we president, and Donald Trump has been a me president.

He’s been quite incapable of addressing that, stepping up to it. He’s been on the river denial as far as the crisis itself is concerned, telling us, sort of in Pollyannish tones, that it’s going to be better, or it’s already better. We just don’t see that it’s better.

And I really think that Americans are looking for a different kind of leadership, decidedly different leadership. And I think Joe Biden represents that to them, and to a majority of them. — Mark Shields, NewsHour, October 30, 2020

Carnival presidency

“If you vote for Biden, it means no kids in school, no graduations, no weddings, no Thanksgiving, no Christmas and no Fourth of July together,” Trump said Wednesday in Goodyear, Ariz. “Other than that, you have a wonderful life.”

The Trump supporters in these crowds don’t care about the gaping holes in his arguments. They don’t mind his coarse behavior. They revel as he toggles between full-throated rage and offhanded sarcasm, exhorting and chuckling, taking selfies and videos, the consummate performer.

Trump’s glib flattery — his campaign sets up big video monitors only at important rallies, he fibs at every stop — is as authentic as professional wrestling. But crowds roar with approval at his jibes and insults, ready to deliver their lines on cue: “Four more years!” “Lock her up!” “CNN sucks!”

. . .

Trump’s final, frantic surge of rallies underscore how little the former reality TV star has changed in the White House. These carnivals of passion sustain him emotionally, but may not be enough to sustain his presidency. The narcissism could be self-defeating.

After five years of following Trump, I can hear the frustration in his words, thinly veiled by his anger and professions of confidence, the fear that he may soon become what he hates most of all — a loser. — Eli Stokols, Los Angeles Times, November 1, 2020

Not normal

… I have to agree with Larry Sabato: “Never in my 60 years around politics have I encountered this many people so tense, so full of dread and foreboding about an election — and what comes afterward. Of course, we’ve never before had a president undermining confidence and predicting fraud & mayhem — if he doesn’t win.”

That was before President Donald Trump applauded a group of supporters who attacked one of Joe Biden’s campaign buses; before it was reported that Trump plans to claim victory well before the votes are counted; before Trump’s staffers went on the Sunday shows and talked about their plans to stop states from counting legitimate ballots after Election Day; before the president talked about unleashing a blizzard of lawsuits as soon as the polls close; before he started fantasizing in public about assaulting Biden; and before Trump supporters shut down highways as part of … a protest? A threat? It wasn’t quite clear.

In other words: Before Sunday. — Jonathan Bernstein, Bloomberg Opinion, November 2, 2020

Likeable candidate

From the start of the Democratic primary, many Democratic voters prioritized electability, with plenty believing that Joe Biden was the most electable Democratic candidate in a general election against President Trump. Not everyone bought that argument …

. . .

But it is increasingly looking like Democractic primary voters might have been right about Biden’s electability argument. In the face of relentless attacks from the Trump campaign, Biden hasn’t dipped in the polls; in fact, he’s actually become better liked, and has built a formidable favorability advantage over Trump.

. . .

Sometimes the conventional wisdom, even among voters, is right. — Matt Grossman, Five Thirty Eight, October 30, 2020

Too close to call

(Image: Donald Trump accepting the GOP nomination on the South Lawn of the White House via CNBC.)