Trump and Biden Big Losers, DeSantis Big Winner in 2022 By Michael Barone
One way to look at this election is as a repudiation of Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
One way to look at this election is as a repudiation of Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
The Good: We have divided government. Since Democrats no longer control Congress, they can't bankrupt America quite so fast!
Imagine someone close to you has a drinking problem....
"Make no mistake -- democracy is on the ballot for us all."
When you look around at the political scene, less than a week from the 2022 midterm elections, what do you see?
— In our final pre-election handicapping of key down-ballot contests this year, we see 11 secretary of state races and 12 state attorney general races as competitive.
— The races attracting the most attention nationally, understandably, are those that involve Republican nominees who have questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election. Whether such candidates can win this year in such presidential battleground states as Arizona and Nevada could have a big impact on the 2024 presidential race.
— It remains to be seen whether these Trump-aligned candidates can ride the Republican midterm tailwind to victory, or whether GOP voters and GOP-leaning independents decide to pick and choose which Republicans they vote for this year.
A big issue that has emerged in the final days of the midterm election campaigns is the lockdowns of our schools and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At this point, it would save everyone time if Democrats could simply point to a policy agenda item that isn't going to save democracy -- if such a thing exists.
If you get your news from Twitter, the New York Times or the Washington Post, or virtually any cable or TV news network...
What issues are the candidates and the parties not talking about? It's worth asking, because sometimes these issues turn out to be important.
Some pundits say that Democrats will win the midterms.
Everywhere I go, people are mystified about President Joe Biden's economic agenda. So few of the policies comport with basic common sense that I'm asked the same question over and over: Is Biden intentionally trying to take a wrecking ball to the economy?
If Democrats take a drubbing in the off-year elections -- and it seems increasingly likely, but not certain, that they will -- it will be because they lost their moorings when the country seemed to go crazy with excessive COVID closedowns and irrational obsessions about systemic racism.
— In what we expect to be our final pre-election look at the nation’s legislatures, we are shifting our ratings for 7 chambers. We are moving 5 chambers in the Democrats’ direction, while 2 move in the Republicans’ direction.
— It’s important not to read too much into the imbalance in these shifts favoring the Democrats. The shifts reflect 2 major changes in the political environment since our last handicapping, which was published in May: the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, and GOP primaries that anointed polarizing candidates aligned with former President Donald Trump for key top-of-the-ballot contests.
— Overall, the landscape for competitive state legislative chambers this year is fairly neutral, with Republicans playing defense in 7 of the 15 chambers we see as competitive and Democrats playing defense in 8. The Toss-up category includes 7 chambers, 3 currently held by Republicans and 4 held by Democrats.
— Several of the key battleground states with high-profile statewide races also have competitive legislative chambers, such as Arizona, Michigan, and Nevada.
Netflix is paying Barack and Michelle Obama millions of dollars to produce shows for them.
It was about eight to 10 years ago that the Left made a unilateral decision to shut down all opposition and any skepticism about climate change by pronouncing that the debate was over.
To President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine, Crimea and the Donbas are national territories whose retrieval justifies all-out war to expel the invading armies of Vladimir Putin's Russia.
Human beings differ in how much risk they will accept. Thus, as an analyst I quoted in a recent column concluded, Russian President Vladimir Putin "was too risk-acceptant" in invading Ukraine and Chinese leader Xi Jinping "has been too risk-averse" in imposing "zero-COVID" lockdowns.
— As happens every 2 years, voters across the country find a variety of ballot measures to vote on in 2022.
— The most closely watched issues will include abortion, with 3 states voting on protecting abortion rights and 2 others considering whether to impose limitations on abortion; election administration, including efforts to both expand and tighten voting rules; policy toward immigrants; and further expansion of legalized recreational marijuana.