Last Week in the Presidential Election (2020)

Originally Written: October 05, 2020

This past week was an interesting one for the Presidential Election. We had what many are considering the worst Presidential Debate ever. The general consensus online seems to be that Biden narrowly won the debate and that Trump lost the debate. But as a part of that, most say that Biden had more to loose than Trump and he did not loose and that Trump was his own enemy coming off too aggressive. Biden seemed to be better prepared for Trump, than Trump was for Biden. Additionally, most people agree that the debate was difficult to watch and a mess.

But that is not all that came out last week. The October Surprise came out as soon as the month started with two days after the debates, President Trump, along with his wife, tested positive for COVID-19 and he was latter flown to Walter Reed Medical Center for observation and as a precautionary measure. While I and many others do not wish for harm to come to Trump, it does seem a bit of karma after his blundering of the response to the pandemic. It has also been reported that Trump before heading to Walter Reed needed some Oxygen. Trump also exposed Secret Service Agents when he had a motorcade drive by his supporters, something many have been critical of.

And you would think that would be all, but there was also a Pre-October October Surprise when the New York Times released information regarding Trump's Federal Taxes. Such as how in 2016 and 2017 he only paid $750 in Federal Taxes and that many other years he paid nothing in Federal Income Taxes. I saw one person online when they saw the 750 they initially though Seven Hundred Fifty Thousand dollars, but as they read the story they realized that the amount was only Seven Hundred Fifty dollars. Not to mentioned the reports indicate that Trump has millions of dollars in debt that would normally deny someone a security clearance., due to how someone could use that debt as leverage. And for any other candidate, this would have destroyed their candidacy.

Getting away from the scandals, FiveThirtyEight.com predicts that not only will Biden win the election, but that Ohio will go to Biden, however given how close the polls are, it could be a tossup. However, given Ohio's track record in correctly casting its vote for the winning candidate for decades, it is understandable in a toss-up Ohio race in an election predicted to go to Biden, that Biden would win Ohio. Another thing regarding the polls, where Biden is a month out from the election is where Hillary was multiple months out from the election, which is a strong indicator of a Biden victory.

There is still a month to go and there are likely to be more October Surprises. I am also sure I forgot something from last week, but in this coming week we have the Vice Presidential debate, which I think will be even more important to pay attention to this year than in previous years, given the advanced ages of the Presidential Candidates during a pandemic when both are in the at-risk populations.