**Polls are bullshit. Polls have always been bullshit.**Polls only real impact is to allow people to manipulate statistics to lull voters in a false sense of confidence or security in order to stop them from voting.
Ignore the polls, especially the polls that say your side is winning or the other side is losing. Polls are a very, very effective way to convince voters to stay home without ever asking them or telling them to stay home.
I’ve never been so happy to be wrong in my life. I thought this would have been the ultimate booster for him, virtually guaranteeing him a huge victory. I’m so relieved people aren’t quite as cattle-like as I feared.
I’m actually shocked. I dispise trump but I still thought that image of him holding up his fist and shouting “fight!” was p badass. I thought for sure that, plus sympathy, would give him a big push. I’m relieved it didn’t.
Sometimes when we know there will be a Trump argument with family Trumpers. My wife will yell out at some point of the conversation “He’s a racist!” they then spend a bunch of time loading up their talking points. Only for me to go “Honey, didn’t you mean rapist” and then she will chime in “Oh yeah, he raped his wife and that 13 year old girl… But he is also racist”.
Teddy Roosevelt was shot point blank in the chest at a campaign stop. The bullet penetrated his chest after passing through a steal eyeglass case and his 50 page speech. Teddy noted he wasn’t coughing blood and knew he would survive. He calmed the lynch mod down that were going to murder the assassin and then did his speech.
He lost the election despite being a total badass.
Later, Teddy reluctantly ran as VP with McKinley who won the election and was quickly assassinated. Teddy became president and won a second term.
Anyway, attempted assassination isn’t the boost people think it is - even for awesome badasses like Teddy Roosevelt.
He famously started that speech with the line “I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose!”
One theory is that the incumbent benefits more from uncertainty like an assassination attempt because they’re more of a known quantity. That might be offsetting the increased support for Trump.
Yeah, the dude does so much stupid stuff that it’s hard to maintain a level of giving a shit.
Yesterday, I saw a clip of Stephen Colbert’s monologue from Monday night where he was doing his monologue sitting down at his desk, which is his custom when there’s a major tragedy. It made me realize how desensitized I’ve become, because I was thinking, “wtf is he still going on about this for, that happened on Saturday, aren’t we all passed it already?”
I don’t even think it’s that. I think it’s that no one really cares since it changed nothing. His supporters don’t care because he survived and it’s the same reason why the people who are against him don’t care.