Politico: “Donald Trump is scrambling his defenses in states like Ohio and Iowa, where he was once expected to win easily. Yet he’s also competing hard in others, such as Minnesota and Nevada, that were once viewed as far out of his reach.”
ANNOTATION 1: FiveThirtyEight has Biden leading by an average of 9 in Minnesota. The morning this story was published the A+ rated ABC News/Washington Post poll showed Biden leading by 16 points among likely voters in Minnesota [1].
ANNOTATION 2: Admittedly Nevada may be tighter, uncertainty existing thanks to a paucity of polls this cycle. The only surveys conducted since May were this month, with NY Times/Siena (A+ rated) and UNLV (not rated) polls finding Biden ahead +4 and +5 respectively [2].
The article continues “It’s an unconventional strategic approach to the electoral map this late in the campaign, but it’s a reflection of his unique predicament. Trump’s stubborn floor of support is keeping him within range of Joe Biden in a number of states where past Republicans have failed, yet his ceiling is so low that it threatens his hold in a number of other places that he should have locked down by now and blah blah blah… But because of Trump’s relatively unshakable level of support with his base, he remains in the hunt in several blue states that were not widely thought to be within his grasp this year, including New Hampshire, Minnesota and Nevada.”
ANNOTATION 3: Fucking New Hampshire? Corey Lewandowski wouldn’t run for Senate there this year, how the hell is Trump supposed to have a chance? Yes it is the only state that Trump lost by less than 1% in 2016, and yes the NYT/Siena poll has Biden’s lead there at only 3%, but that is just horseshit. The average is 6.7% [3].
“…Republicans view their imperative as holding as many of those states open for as long as possible, creating as many paths to 270 Electoral College votes as they can in the event Trump loses any states he won in 2016. Rory McShane, a Nevada-based Republican strategist, said Trump still ‘puts a lot of states on the map that previous presidents haven’t,’ including New Mexico, which Trump lost by 8 percentage points four years ago.”
ANNOTATION 4: Get the fuck out of here, Politico. I know you’re just quoting some MAGA dipshit, but New Mexico is not on the map for Trump, not now, not ever again [4].
Then the rest of the article sinks back to the grim actual reality Trump faces, and it is good, comforting schadenfreude for the hearts of the weary.