Harris and Trump brace for final sprint in 'snap election'

[Dulcinea]

(Politico) At a moment when presidential campaigns traditionally formulate their closing arguments, Kamala Harris is still making her introductions.

The vice president has flipped the enthusiasm gap, the money gap and the polling gap in her favor in the six weeks since she replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee. But the race between Harris and Donald Trump remains not only tight nationally, but in a broader range of states than before.

The resulting two-month sprint to come is what Donna Brazile, the Harris confidante who managed Al Gore’s 2000 campaign, described as America’s first “snap election.” The challenge Harris’ campaign is now confronting is how to extend its late-summer surge through the fall.
-snip-

Polls do show all the swing states within the margin of error. But the momentum, for now, appears to be with Harris. The clearest evidence of that was a Gallup poll last week that showed Democrats with a 14-point edge on which party’s voters were more enthusiastic about voting — a major shift from the organization’s March survey showing Republicans with a 4-point advantage in what was then a contest between two unpopular candidates in Biden and Trump.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/harris-trump-brace-final-sprint-090000052.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&segment_id=DY_VTO&ncid=crm_19908-1202929-20240903-0&bt_user_id=Yid61QG43KMr6%2FTUS6T9j6EC2%2FGGum59B%2FnUx1PafqeGdKbDTEa8pZ5D09eaNEdX&bt_ts=1725362010073

[DownriverDem]

1. i just don't

get how the election is even close.

[Frank D. Lincoln]

6. In terms of visceral impressions, it's hard to understand how a...

...convicted felon who engaged in a coup against the U.S. government and who'd implement Project 2025 to the hilt and become a dictator on Day 1 if he regains power, could be neck-and-neck with a law-abiding vice president and former prosecutor who genuinely wants to protect democracy and make the lives of Americans better.

Then you realize that Trump is backed by huge voting blocs that only care about advancing their respective agendas and couldn't care less about Trump's character, incompetence, stupidity, the rule of law, our democracy, or anything else. They just want what they want and will be steadfast in their support for Trump as long as they think he'll deliver for them if he regains the White House.

Here are the main voting blocs that are making this race competitive (some groups overlap with others):

Evangelical Christians/Christian nationalists/Christian dominionists.
White nationalists.
Pro-lifers.
MAGA fascists.

Those are the groups we're going to defeat at the ballot box in November.

[msfiddlestix]

2. I wish we had "Snap" elections. Politico pretending that this is the same is a stupid attempt to be clever.

[Farmer-Rick]

3. How to say Harris is winning

While pretending she's losing.

She should be closing with her messaging but is still doing introductions.

What the hell does that even mean?

She's ahead in the polls. She's polling well in swing states. She's getting lots of contributions. She's ahead in enthusiastic supporters.

But she should be making closing arguments???????

[LiberalLovinLug]

4. The "final sprint" is longer than most western democracies total election campaigns

Its six weeks up here in Canada. The amount of money and time Americans use just to re-elect or elect representatives is gob-smackingly obscene. You basically never stop campaigning. Seems exhausting, never a time just to enjoy your democracy and relax, in between administrations.

[Dulcinea]

5. It's become an industry unto itself.

There's way too much money tied up in it. Thanks, Citizens United.