Last Week in the Presidential Election - Again [2020]
October 18, 2020
In the previous week, the national polls continue to favor Biden, as do many of the state polls, notable in the battleground states. It is reasonable to say that the polls are expect to narrow by Election Day. However, we have not yet seen any noticeable narrowing nationally. Additionally, if anything Biden is gaining in the polls, which is counter intuitive to how polls behaved in previous elections.
When it come to the debate, it was better than the first debate, if only because the candidates were not in the same room to interrupt each other. While the Biden campaign was willing to hold a virtual town hall debate, the Trump campaign refused. As such we ended up with two separate town halls. I watched the Biden town hall on ABC in its entirety, while I have only seen clips of the Trump town hall on NBC. Based on online reactions, it seems that Biden's town hall was more informative for voters than Trump's town hall. The Neilson rating also seem to support this, with Biden's town hall being better received. And on YouTube, NBC had 4 of their channels streaming Trump's town hall, compared to ABC which had it one channel which had more views than any single of the NBC's, but NBC's combined are higher. However watch time and audience retention stats are not available publicly on the YouTube watch page.
And while SNL is known to exaggerate during their parodies of debates, their parody was clearly designed to exaggerate the difference between the two candidates and paint them in the light they portray themselves. Biden as caring, calm, and thoughtful which they did with their impersonator of Biden impersonating Biden impersonating both Mr. Rodgers and Bob Ross. Trump as wanting to attract attention, which they did excellently. Also, I think this most recent parody present their best caricatures of both candidates yet. (Also if Trump loses as the experts predict and polls indicate, I think I will miss Alex Baldwin playing Trump on SNL)
After devoting a full paragraph to just the parody of the two town halls, I have some additional thoughts about the election so far. It seems to me Trump has become his own worst enemy in the election. Back in 2016, many people found Trump funny and humorous. And for some people they were entertained by Trump even though they opposed him. But as more people found faults in Trump's ability to serve as President and especially after his diagnosis with COVID-19, Trump does not seem to entertain crowds like he use to. I have seen people effectively state they use to watch Trump's speeches and rallies as if they were "its so bad, its good" stand up comedy, but now they are not feeling entertained. To undecided voters in this election, if Trump is not entertaining to them, or worse making them nervous, then that does not seem well for Trump. This however is pure observation and I may be wrong in my assumptions.