I’ve been pondering the “battleground states” and how they might go depending on the various reports I’m hearing.
Apparently Joe Biden has been doing the same thing. His response however looks like one of desperation. It sounds like the word on the ground must not be very good for him.
Why do I say this?
Previously, Biden’s team had downplayed the fact that Biden wasn’t doing door to door canvassing like the Trump team. Joe Biden’s campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, told reporters in the middle of September, “While you might hear our opponents spend a lot of time talking about the millions of door knocks or attempts that they’re making week to week, those metrics actually don’t have any impact on reaching voters.” The Biden team hadn’t knocked on any doors since March while the Trump team has been doing millions a week for months. The Biden team had just been doing phone outreach.
Even Joe Scarborough reported that the Trump people were “all over the place” while the Biden people “are nowhere.”
Well, check this report today from the AP.
Suddenly, the Biden team is launching canvassing operations across multiple battleground states.
NEWS: After months of avoiding direct contact with voters because of the pandemic, Joe Biden’s campaign is about to launch in-person canvassing efforts across several battleground states.https://t.co/hpP0Wrv64W
— Steve Peoples (@sppeoples) October 1, 2020
The decision comes amid growing concern from Democratic officials on the ground in key states who fear that Biden has been giving a significant advantage to President Donald Trump and his Republican allies, who have been aggressively courting voters at their doorsteps for months. The reversal also reflects a sense of rising urgency as polls tighten just a month before Election Day.
So what happened, Biden team? Did the virus disappear?
Or did you just look at the numbers and see you might be in trouble?
They’re actually trying to “urgently hire” canvassers.
‘Urgently hiring’ per this ad for paid door-knockers … https://t.co/q9tDGqlTrB pic.twitter.com/hfbeqt7JXw
— David Siders (@davidsiders) October 1, 2020
Don’t they have even have enough volunteers? They’re only starting to talk to people this weekend.
“We wish them the best of luck considering they’re only about 19 million doors behind us,” RNC’s @Rick_Gorka, who’s helping lead the on the ground effort for team Trump, tells me in response to Biden resuming canvassing https://t.co/Tom64LeHKw
— Will Steakin (@wsteaks) October 1, 2020
Whoops.
Yeah, so Joe Biden’s campaign needs to explain how the “science” changed to allow for this. https://t.co/GlvL3Sf1XU
— Abigail Marone 🇺🇸 (@abigailmarone) October 1, 2020
Biden campaign spent months insisting knocking on doors didn’t matter and was unsafe.
What changed? Did the science of door-knocking change? Or the science on coronavirus?
Or is the Biden campaign realizing they’re getting their ass-kicked by the @TeamTrump ground game? https://t.co/1I9LSjalhy
— Andrew Clark (@AndrewHClark) October 1, 2020
Nobody does this huge switch in the last month unless they know they are in trouble.
One more important note. They’re sending people to battleground states. But let’s check where they’re sending the people, according to the AP – Nevada, Michigan, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, with more battleground states to come later. Michigan and Pennsylvania are completely understandable. But the other two are interesting. That means that they’re worried that Nevada and New Hampshire, two previously Democratic states, are in play. That’s another indication that this is a desperation play.
And other states are going to come later? Later than what? How can you get much later at this point? Where are the folks in Arizona, Florida or Wisconsin? There are even questions about Minnesota too which has always been solidly Democratic.
This sounds very positive for the president. And it’s nice to know that the virus can disappear for Biden when it’s necessary for his political career just like it disappears for BLM ‘protesters’ conveniently.
