President Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Reuters/AFP
Dan Balz, The Washington Post: Brutal campaign shaping up over pandemic, race and the economy
With just over 10 weeks until Election Day, the campaign for president turns from a pair of scripted conventions to the trench warfare of mobilizing voters and the unpredictability of September and October, with the campaign playing out against a backdrop unlike anything seen in modern times.
In a month, the first of three presidential debates will be held, scheduled for Sept. 29 in Cleveland. Some strategists see that evening as a pivotal and potentially decisive confrontation, particularly if President Donald Trump has a bad night and Joe Biden looks strong. Still, the 2016 campaign moved late and, ultimately, decisively in Trump's direction. Democrats worry about a repeat of that playbook and warn now against complacency.
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WNU Editor: The 2016 campaign was vicious, and the reaction to President Trump's victory doubly so. So will 2020 be worse? I do not think so. The media coverage of President Trump was over 90% negative when he ran in 2016. That has not changed in 2020. Many in the Republican party in 2016 were hostile to President Trump. Today, with the exception of a few former Republican politicians and national security officials in previous administrations, the Republican party is solidly behind President Trump. And while the media likes to focus their attention on people like Colin Powell and former Republican Senator Flake, men who have no influence in the party and/or influencing people to vote against Trump, the media is ignoring these Democrat politicians who are flocking to support President Trump and who do have an influence on the electorate .... Trump Lands Major Endorsements From Democrat Mayors in Minnesota (Townhall). Nothing brutal about that. People are seeing how the wind is blowing. Speaking of Minnesota you can take this to the bank. Minnesota went Blue in 2016. It is going to go solid red for Trump this year. As for the unrest that is happening in many major cities across America today. Many are forgetting that the same was happening in 2016, including this horrific incident in July, 2016, when during a protest against the police a gunman killed 5 officers and wounded scores of others .... 2016 shooting of Dallas police officers (Wikipedia). The difference between now and then is that unlike 2016, many of today's Democrat politicians have embraced BLM and other groups that are causing this carnage while pushing for policies like de-funding the police. I do not call this brutal campaigning. I call this a disastrous campaign that has already turned-off a lot of voters . Last .... but not least .... are the candidates themselves. President Trump today is the same President Trump in 2016. No surprises there. His base has not left him, and he has been successful through his polices on law/prison reform in attracting voters from the Black and Hispanic communities. Nothing brutal about that. As for Joe Biden. I do not see him running a "brutal" campaign. As a campaigner he is not at his prime. In fact he is very weak, and it is getting worse. Case in point was his carefully scripted interview this week with CNN's Anderson Cooper where he failed to even read properly the notes that were given to him .... Joe Biden Answers CNN's Anderson Cooper To The Shooting Of Jacob Blake With An Entirely Different Incident. How can you run a "brutal" Presidential campaign when your own candidate appears and acts this feeble. In the end it will be the media that will try its best to portray this election as a brutal campaign. It is how they sell news papers and get clicks online.