Viewpoint: Fifty Days till the Presidential Election

?? I guess it’s fifty days until we vote for the president of the United States. Are you having a little trouble figuring out how Kamala and Donald are doing? Me too.

?? ?In preparation for this Viewpoint, I read about two dozen articles, mostly on Google, about the presidential election. Here are some of the things I’ve decided.

?? Using all of the scientific methods at their disposal, six of the articles have data proving that Trump will win by a landslide. Six other articles have picked Harris to win by a landslide. Ten of the articles lean slightly to one candidate or the other but have decided it was too close to call – yet. The other two I threw out. One was obviously written by a die-hard politician who wasn’t tracking very well at all and the other was a blog written by some guy who claimed to be waiting at a golf course, minding his own business, when a secret service officer shot at him.

?? ?I believe this is the only presidential election in history where entire families of one candidate are voting for the other party. If not family members, longtime party faithful have all of a sudden decided to vote for the other candidate.

?? ?One article, which was a pre-April Fool’s Day post, said that the two ABC moderators of the Harris-Trump debate had been fired. I fact checked it. It wasn’t true. A similar article indicated they had been promoted and would be running the Democratic National Committee. I couldn’t find anyone who would go out on a limb and say that was true or false. I think they’d do a great job in that position.

?? ?Of course, each candidate has paraded well-known endorsements. I guess part of the thinking behind that is for the fans of these well-known celebrities. I guess that will work for some, although I have in mind the girl friend of a Kansas City Chief tight end and I’m pretty sure the average age of her fans isn’t old enough to vote.

?? ?I read a related article while I was figuring out who was going to win and learned that Donald Trump has all kinds of judges in his pockets. I sent a copy of that story to ABC News to get it fact checked.

?? ?I’ve always felt the Rasmusson Poll gets things pretty close. Their most recent poll came out on September 12, and they gave the election to Trump 49% to Harris 47%. Just one percent (1%) say they’d vote for some other candidate and another two percent (2%) are undecided. That’s pretty close.

?? One article was touted as getting information from six pollsters who hadn’t missed the winner of an election since forever. Three predicted Trump and three predicted Harris.

?? ?Do you think it’s safe to assume the majority of the Republicans will vote for Trump? The majority of Democrats will vote for Harris? That leaves the election up to the Independents. So, if you want a strong economy, the majority would seem inclined to lean one way, wouldn’t they?

?? If you want the right to federalize fetal elimination you would tend to lean another way, would you not? If you sing Kum-By-Yah with Iranians and people who hate Israel, you might have a sense of which direction you’d go? If you believe in man-made climate change and unicorns, you might tend to vote with one party.

?? ?If you think there are more good policemen than bad ones, you’ll mark your ballot one way; and if you think that dad-gum fossil fuel is a bad, bad thing, you’ll have a preference as well.

?? ?Thirty-two percent of Americans identify themselves as Republicans. Thirty-three percent of the country identify themselves as Democrats, and thirty-four percent identify themselves as Independents. I’m worried about that remaining one percent.

?? I hope they don’t count the votes. Fifty days can seem like an eternity.