Apprehensions among the Democrats – Trump’s support among populist leaders – A day of relative calm – Evening statistics
Despite Biden’s lead in the polls, the Democrats are jittery about the election. The defeat of Hillary Clinton in 2016 has left not a few psychic scars: Hillary Clinton was also well ahead of her rival in the polls at this time before the election (by a smaller margin, it is true, but still a substantial one), and she and most of her supporters assumed that she would have no difficulty in defeating him. For my part, I’d rather find the Democrats overly nervous rather than overly complacent. My attitude is similar to that of Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think-tank, who says that Trump being re-elected would be a “cataclysmic disaster,” in which sentiment I thoroughly concur. In four short years he has brought down our level of national government to that of a Latin-American country with a caudillo at its head – the only difference being that Trump, who in his youth obtained a draft deferment on account of bone spurs, has no pretensions whatever to military prowess.
“If I told you there was just a 25% chance your house would be bombed tomorrow,” Tanden added, “that wouldn’t be reassuring to you.”
Various national leaders who are dignified with the adjective “populist” – which does not, however, mean even for a moment that they are popular among their countrymen – are, on the other hand, worried about the prospect of Trump being defeated. Isn’t it reassuring to know that Trump’s administration provides so much sympathy and support to worthies such as Matteo Salvini (Italy), Narendra Modi (India), Viktor Orban (Hungary), and of course everyone’s favorite commissar, Vladimir Putin?
Other than that, today was similar to yesterday: not very eventful, and not a great deal that was newsworthy. But the weather has moderated a bit, drizzling more than raining and the skies were somewhat less gloomy to look at – pale and blanched, indeed, but that is preferable to the dark, dingy color of the clouds on the preceding day.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 38,028,430; # of deaths worldwide: 1,085,091; # of cases U.S.: 8,037,193; # of deaths U.S.: 220,010. We have surpassed the 8,000,000 milestone in our case count today. It took a mere three weeks for our case count to increase by 1,000,000.