History may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Economic news today has a familiar rhyme, at least for those of old enough to remember the 1970s. I am not referring to John Travolta strutting down Brooklyn sidewalks to the tune of “Stayin’ Alive” or big hair and leisure suits, but instead the Jimmy Carter presidency.
One important lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic, perhaps not realized now but in the future, is to keep politics out of medicine and public health.
Ahead of a presidential election, opinion polls are a major news item. Most of these polls are not designed to reflect public opinion but instead to shape it. As most big media leans left, such shaping is always to the benefit of the Democrat party.
The FDA and CDC this week recommended a pause in COVID vaccinations of the Johnson & Johnson single shot vaccine due to a small number of reports of blood clots in individuals receiving the vaccine.
Masks are now a seemingly permanent staple of American life with no end in sight. Mask recommendations change like spring weather, from none to one to two or more, all based on flimsy evidence from the “follow the science” crowd.
What a difference an election makes, one president leaves and a new one takes over, with COVID rules changing on a dime.
Elected Republicans, taking their voters and current events for granted, reading only the Washington Post and watching CNN, have squandered their political relevancy, perhaps permanently. Through their foolish attempts to “reach across the aisle” or act in a more “dignified” manner than their party leader, President Trump, they have now lost the platform Trump gave them, acting dazed and confused as to what happened.
Many establishment Republicans, particular of the NeverTrump variety, are telling us it’s time to move on from the 2020 presidential election. They promise future electoral reform and holding the cheaters accountable, with a better outcome in 2024.
Several weeks ago, presidential opinion polls showed Joe Biden with a double-digit lead over Donald Trump, like the supposed lead Hillary Clinton enjoyed four years ago. Despite prognostications of an almost certain Clinton victory, reality provided a different story ending.
Will the big media be right this election cycle, or are they repeating their folly from the last election?
As the 2020 presidential election nears, polls portend a landslide victory for the Biden/Harris ticket.
Biden had a 16-point lead over Trump in an early October CNN poll. The Opinium and Guardian poll from days ago gave Biden a 17-point lead. Even Rasmussen Reports, one of the most accurate pollsters in 2016, showed Biden still leading Trump by five points this week, admittedly a drop from 12 points the week before.
With the 2020 presidential election only weeks away, increasing attention is focused on opinion polls to pick the winner. In 2016, most pollsters were wildly wrong, predicting a Hillary Clinton landslide victory over Donald Trump.
Presidential debate number one was a slugfest, with President Trump coming out swinging. Poor Joe Biden didn’t know what hit him. He has granted few interviews during the campaign season, with scripted questions and answers on a teleprompter but no body slams from the likes of Trump the Barbarian.
Labor Day is in the rear-view mirror meaning that the presidential campaign is in full swing. With less than two months until the big day, the electoral winds appear to be blowing in President Trump’s direction.
Watch what people do, not what they say. Politicians who say one thing and do another are called hypocrites, but perhaps they have inside knowledge that the average person does not possess.
Conventional wisdom suggests that presidential election polls will tighten as the election approaches. In the summer ahead of an election, most voters are not paying close attention to the campaign, and opinion polls many months ahead of the election are designed more to influence rather than reflect public opinion.
If you listen to the mainstream media, the election is over. Joe Biden has an insurmountable and growing double-digit lead over President Trump for an election that is still over three months away.
The so-called NeverTrumpers opposed Donald Trump’s Republican Party nomination in 2016 because they believed he was unfit for the presidency. He had not paid his dues as a senator or governor. He wasn’t part of the Republican in-crowd. He was Caddyshack character Al Czervik, played by Rodney Dangerfield, a skunk at the GOP’s country club garden party.
For months leading up to the 2016 presidential election, the media was confidently predicting Hillary Clinton would beat Donald Trump in a landslide. They clung to this narrative even when the election was all but over.
Polls are designed to reflect the opinions of a group of people at a moment in time. A small sample of individuals is asked for its opinion regarding a particular issue, and hopefully this small sample is representative of the larger population.
Some say adversity creates character, but in reality adversity reveals character. At the highest levels of leadership, today’s challenges are massive with economies and lives riding on every decision. These are not the times that make great leaders but instead reveal them.
