As of this writing at 2:00pm CST it looks as though Joe Biden will be elected president, carrying both the Electoral College and the popular vote by razor-thin margins. It’s still too early to tell yet but that’s how it looks. There will be court challenges, recounts, and who knows what stretching out for weeks, maybe even months.
It also looks quite likely that the Republicans will retain their control of the Senate while reducing Democrats lead in the House. Historically, this is a very unusual outcome.
What falls short of my optimal outcome is that I’m already hearing Democratic operatives taking to the airwaves saying yes, the Biden campaign did something wrong, darn it. They didn’t go far enough left. That is cognitive dissonance. Whomever is ultimately elected it’s going to be a long four years.
And, as the late Mayor Daley once put it, no matter what it looks like now somebody will be elected.
At this point in time (3:00 CST), if the election were called based upon the votes reported by AP, Biden wins with 270 EVs. (That is, Biden wins Nevada and Michigan, Trump wins Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Alaska) I think these are all the states AP hasn’t called yet.
I’m guessing later mail-in votes favor Biden, but it doesn’t appear that late vote issues are his problem. He may need more votes to shade up the existing trajectory.
At 4:30 CST Trump requires winning Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia.
That’s the equivalent of a royal flush.
If there is any consolation to the eventual loser; winning the Presidency maybe a pyrrhic victory. It is a really a bet on an effective coronavirus vaccine because if the vaccine does not work out; the next Presidential term won’t be much more than careening from one crisis to another.
Some “irregularities†that manifested during and after the polls closed and counting ballots had begun:
NC, with 94% of the votes counted and Trump ahead by over 76,700, people stopped counting and went home. The same happened in GA, with Trump having over a 100,000 lead and 94% counted, everyone stopped the counting process. Why? Some are noting this had never happened before.
In the early morning hours, when everyone went to sleep, MI had a large ballot drop of 138,339 ballots. Every one of them was a vote for Biden. What are the chances of that happening?
Two batches of ballots were dropped in PA, during the wee hours, totaling 23,277 ballots. 100% of these mysterious ballots were also for Biden. Amazing, isn’t it!
Arizona was called for Biden with people still standing in line voting, and presumably 600k ballots remained uncounted. In the meantime FL dragged on forever, while Alaska (with a big Trump lead) is still uncalled, as is GA & NC.
Finally, multiple instances of poll watchers denied access during voting, and later on when votes were being counted. Where does no transparency produce trustworthiness in the voting process?
“It is a really a bet on an effective coronavirus vaccine because if the vaccine does not work out; the next Presidential term won’t be much more than careening from one crisis to another.”
Even if we don’t have a vaccine it would be nice to have some effort from the White House that was both coordinated and not misleading. One that does not try to peddle personal theory as fact. Just a couple of examples. Planning ahead on PPE supplies we are projecting a shortage of gloves due to projected national shortages. This will be a year into this. We should not be seeing shortages anymore.
Next, we are losing money on Covid pts. While POTUS has been claiming that doctors and hospitals are making money we were pretty much just breaking even. However, the supplies of remdesivir given out for free to everyone have run out. A course of therapy costs about $3000, so we are losing money*. (We are seeing an increase in admissions, but our length of stay (LOS) is now much shorter. We treat right away with remdesivir, convalescent plasma and a couple of other therapies. So we are seeing shorter admissions and our ratio of total patients in the ICU to patients in the entire hospital network has decreased bu nth aggressive care is costly.
*We pretty consistently rank in the top 10% in the country in cost efficiencies.
Steve
It would be preferable if the overall government response was as efficient as Germany.
But Germany is in a 2nd lockdown. From the terrorism and protests occurring in Europe in a 2nd lockdown; the ability for society to soldier on as a whole in the face of the virus is wearing out.
That’s what I mean by careening from crisis to crisis.
Federal government paralysis is always the preferred situation. The Articles of Confederation were the ideal form of government for a continental confederation. The Founding Fathers really screwed that up.