Not a good week, but not by any stretch the worst week of his campaign by any means, nonetheless of any candidate in history. The whole month of June was far worse for him politically than this.
Late October-Early November 1980 was a disaster for Jimmy Carter. But this week may take the cake.
I'm now convinced that 2020 is a redux of 1980. As we move into October, it is looking increasingly likely that Biden will win by a margin comparable to that of Ronald Reagan's that year-and Trump's litany of disasters parallel those which engulfed Carter. His poor debate performance is similar to that of Carter's-Reagan's "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" was the death knell for the Carter campaign, and so will Trump's rambling prove to be for his.
Carter's approval was well below 40% in 1980, Trump's is at 45-46% and roughly -7. There is no comparison. Furthermore, people continue to believe they personally are better off than four years ago even though they believe the country was better off four years ago. There is no comparison on the economy either. To believe this is 1980 redux is wishful thinking (and I mean than respectfully). Large chance Trump loses but this doesn't look AT ALL like 1980 objectively.
As has been said on here, this election is
not similar to 1980 in every respect-you are correct when you say that Trump's approval ratings are higher, but I credit that to polarization more than anything else. And polarization is the reason why Trump will not lose as badly in the Electoral College as Jimmy Carter did in 1980, although the polls indicate that he could very well lose by a Carter-like margin in the popular vote. Otherwise, this election is similar to 1980 for reasons that have been outlined elsewhere:
1. Outsider President who narrowly won his first election, promising to "shake up" the system.
2. Outsider President who proves unable to work effectively in Washington and has few or no significant accomplishments.
3. Outsider President who is confronted with a series of crises (Carter: stagflation and the Iranian Hostage Crisis; Trump: coronavirus and racial tensions) that they are unable to effectively deal with, and which ultimately drags down their chances at reelection.
4. Outsider President is defeated by a challenger who has extensive political experience and is well known-and also older than the outsider President (Reagan and Biden).
5. Said election brings about realigning changes to the political map to the
same geographic region (Reagan continued the transformation of the South into a Republican bastion; Biden looks poised to end Democratic losing streaks in Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas).
